Hampstead High Street 1; A Walk with Jet Lag

We arrived in London early in the morning, and despite the obvious attraction of going to bed, we tried to settle into out accommodation and generally stay awake.

We rented a small flat, over a shoe shop, on Hampstead High Street, just a short walk from Hampstead Heath.  There was a pub just over the road, and book shop just up it.  There was milk in the fridge and tea in the cupboard.  Who could ask for more!

Those of you who have followed my blogs may have noticed I have a tendency to look for things small and generally unnoticed - so on my first walk I photographed doors, street signs and found new way to show that I really was in Hampstead.

I'm not sure if these will appeal to many people - only time will tell.

You can find more images from around the world at Our World Tuesday.

Green Man

This is the first in what may be a longish sequence of images from my recent month in the UK.  Wonderful weather - summers like when I was a kid - and lots of good things to see!

We spent a few days in Norfolk, a part of the UK I had never been to.  On one of the days we went to Norwich and spent some time in the Cathedral.

One of the things I wanted to see there was a roof boss carving in the cloisters. The cloisters were build between 1297 and 1430, with the Black Death causing considerable delays in its progress.

The roof boss carving shows a human face, surrounded by leaves, called "The Green Man".

Similar figures are not that uncommon in many churches in the UK (and other parts of Northern Europe), but there meaning and significance is debated.  A common line of thought suggests that the face - which is always flanked by leaves or branches - is an adaptation of a pre-christian religious symbol.  If these earlier religions were rooted in a close connection with nature, here we may have a woodland spirit, the essence of places small and green, peeking in on the rites and rituals of the religion that largely replaced it.   I have to say, its a thought that I find rather comforting.

You can find more macro images at Macro Monday 2 and I Heart Macro  SM.

A post at last!

Greetings - have some of you may have noticed I have not been replying to comments over the last month.  This was because I was in the UK for a month and put the blog on the back burner tallow for friends, family and such like - all the post were scheduled before I left, just to keep things ticking over!

So, normal service will resume, and I'll be back out and about in the world of blogs soon!

SM

Wild Bird 106 - Superb Fairy-Wren

If Black Swans were a shock to the early european settlers in Australia, I really can't image the impact that this bird would have had.

This is a male Superb Fairy Wren (Malurus cyaneus) singing its heart out to let other know who is boss.

These birds are tiny as mice, and just as fast.  They tend to gather in family groups, so it is rare to see one on its own.  While not as vocal as some wrens, these fairy wrens make up for that in colour.

This is the typical "blue wren" of South-East Australia, and one day I hope to be able to get decent images of some of these other species.

I don't have time to do much more today - so, sorry for the short post!

Over to you!

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