Red Prompt (April 2023)

A few months ago I started to identify prompts to kick start some extra creativity for the photography. This included ‘changing the camera settings’, ‘clouds’ and the ‘colour red’. 

Finding the colour red, particularly in the landscape, turned out to be quite challenging but once it was in the mind, I started to see reds in different places. My definition of ‘red’ also became wider to include pinks, violets, and some oranges. 

These are the results including a canvas covering, brick reds, red dead-nettles, some garden reds, late sun on the landscape, apple blossom, carpet of campion flowers in a local field and some which are harder to spot (e.g. red box on the back of a tractor!).

Cockett Barn Farm (April 2019)

I last photographed the fields around Cockett Barn Farm on the upper part of Hexgreave Estate in January and like many of my local walks and photographic locations the changing season refreshes the landscape and provides new interest for the photography.

This year’s crop on the far side of the hill was oilseed and I timed my visit to coincide with blooming and vibrant yellow flowers. I had also seen from a distance a pinkness on a couple of trees that stand on the brow of the hill which suggested apple blossom on trees that I had previously assumed to be hawthorn. It was definitely worth the walk to see and capture the tree’s spring display - a simple pleasure that might have passed me by in years gone by and something that an interest in photography has gratefully provided....

These are the views of the oilseed crop looking in the direction of Bilsthorpe:

And then some looking up and across to the Cockett Plantation:

Finally a selection of photographs on the walk up to Cockett Barn Farm including the imposing pylons that cross the landscape: 

Spring on the Southwell Trail - Part 8 (April 2018)

At this time of year I tend to include all white/pink flowers on trees into the broad category of blossom. This avoids the need to distinguish between the various types of tree and reduces the possibility of making identification errors.

This year I decided to be more precise and had a go at putting names to the different types of flowers. Initially this was not easy as I tended to treat each tree in isolation which caused some confusion. Eventually, I started to recognise the difference and similarities identifying several types of flowers*:

Blackthorn Blossom

There are many blackthorn trees along the trail although some do not appear to have the characteristic thorns. This made me wonder whether there were Damson (wild plum) trees mixed in with the blackthorn. I am not totally sure but I am happy that the following photographs are blackthorn flowers:

Cherry Blossom

There are several varieties of cherry tree including: wild cherry; sour cherry; bird cherry; and plum cherry. The flowers look very similar but I am reasonably certain that the trees on the Southwell Trail are wild cherries particularly now I have seen the early stages of the fruit forming:

This group of flowers looked slightly different and might be cherry plum blossom:

Pear Blossom

The following flowers are wild pear. The leaves are different shape to the cherry tree leaves:

Apple Blossom

I am fairly sure these flowers are apple blossom, possibly crab apple:

*As always I try to be as accurate as possible with my identifications but mistakes are possible. I am happy to receive any corrections via the comments section.