Category: Summer

Norfolk in summer

By cpadmin

Norfolk in the summer brings lots of photographic opportunities. Our visit was in July 2021, with facemasks, distancing and limits of the number of people allowed in shops.

Weeting

Summer in Norfolk
The row at Weeting, built before 1777

Weeting was one of the first places we stopped. It is an old village with the remains of a castle nearby. “The Row” on the village green is a row of thatched cottages build before 1777. No one is sure exactly when, the records have been lost! The compass photography website has a page with 14 images of Norfolk in the summer including Thetford Priory and Wells-next-the-sea, which is a great base for travelling around the county.

Gooderstone Water Gardens

Norfolk in summer
Weeping Willows overhang one of the ponds at Gooderstone Water Gardens, Norfolk

The image above is of the still waters at Gooderstone Watergardens. Here the willows weep over the water and the empty rowing boat. They reflect in the water making a gentle, very English scene.

Norfolk has some wonderful village names. The page includes images of Great Snoring and secondly Little Snoring. Both villages have remarkable village signs. Great Snoring’s sign is shown, reflecting agriculture and the village’s position in the Stiffkey valley, whereas Little Snoring’s sign is dilapidated.

Great Snoring
The village sign at Great Snoring, Norfolk

The image from Little Snoring shows its church with the separate round tower. One opportunity not to be missed, was capturing images from the top of Blakeney Church. Despite of the long climb up the tower the view was marvellous. Here an image of the windmill at Cley-next-the-sea is shown along with the sea in the background.

Beeston Bump is a hill just east of Sheringham. The views from the top undoubtedly make the climb worthwhile. Besides the sea views you can see Sheringham to the west and Cromer to the east.

Five star trip Godmanchester

By cpadmin

Five star trip Godmanchester. Had a five star trip this week. I went to five places en-route to and around Huntingdon. This post shows three of the images captured at one of the ports of call, Godmanchester. Click here to see the page on our website with ten images from that day.

  • Godmanchester
  • Godmanchester
  • Godmanchester
Three images of Godmanchester

First up was the United States Eighth Army Airforce Cemetery near Cambridge. It’s a very moving place, with rows and rows of white crosses. There is also a wall of remembrance and a visitor centre chronicling the events from 1942 to 1945

Next up was Paxton Pits near St Ives (Cambs). This old quarry is now a Nature Reserve with “a rich mosaic of wildlife habitats, with beautiful lakes, riverside, meadow, reed bed, scrub and woodland”. There are lots of places to wander and look at the bird life. Check out Paxton Pits

Moving on, Godmanchester was a place I had not been to before. The waterside and river Great Ouse are extremely photogenic. There is a white latticework bridge and boathouses along the side of the river. The causeway seems to be an area where people congregate. One of the images catches the white bridge (known as the Chinese Bridge) and the spire of the church hiding behind. A panoramic image shows the causeway. A shot of the two storey boathouse also manages to catch the church in the background.

Brampton Mill was the fourth port of call on the tour and I finally ended up at the National Trust property Houghton Mill, also on the Great Ouse. All in all a great day out with four of the five places visited on the Great Ouse.

Poppies after the rain

By cpadmin

Poppies after the rain

Poppies after the rain shows three images of a group of ten large deep red poppies has broken bud in the garden. The poppies flowered a few days ago. Yesterday was showery and between the showers I nipped out to collect images of the poppies. Just after a rain shower water droplets are still visible on the petals. The black veins are visible on some of the petals.

  • Poppies in the rain
    Seven flowers after the rain shower
  • Poppy after the rain
    Close up poppy after the rain
  • Poppy after the rain
    After the rain

Our website includes nine image of the clump of ten poppies. These include close ups, images with the sun shining through the petals and a macro of the spider like centre of the largest poppy. View more of the poppy images captured recently by visiting the page “Poppies and poppies” on our website.

Todays Floral display

By cpadmin

Todays floral display shows three of the six images on our website page “Six of the best”. All of these images were captured in the garden over the last 24 hours. Fortunately the lockdown has been accompanied by good weather. It has been possible to capture images of the flowers that are daily coming into bloom.

  • Three red roses
    Three red roses
  • Six of the best
    White rose petals and yellow stamen
  • Rock rose - cistus
    Purple petals of the rock rose
Three of the six images captured

Three red roses growing at head height on the trellis. They form a nice pattern and have been cut into a square image to make the most of the natural positioning of the roses.

The white rose has grown out from below the graft of the red trailing rose. It’s growing amongst the red rose on the trellis and makes a nice contrast. Additionally, I like the clarity of the yellow stamen in this image. and the random fly in this image.

The rock rose (cistus) was pruned earlier this year and the flowers seem to be a much deeper purple. The image shown has a red mason bee working on the flower.

Click here to go to the website page and see all of the images included in the “six of the best” of todays floral display

Not for hay fever sufferers

By cpadmin

This post is not for hay fever sufferers. The white May blossom is lovely to look at from a distance as the trees and bushes become covered in delicate white and creamy coloured flowers. It’s even better to get close up and see the shape of the flowers that make up the blossom. If you suffer from hay fever you will disagree with me. Some flowers, particularly the hawthorn have a strong smell. The smell also gets through to the back of your throat and makes you want to sneeze and cough!

Blossom from three different plants, trees and bushes are shown below. Firstly the Hawthorn Bush which produces some very delicate clusters of white flowers. The flowers will eventually turn into red berries.

  • Hawthorn blossom
    Delicate flowers of the Hawthorn
  • prunus padus watereri AGM Bird Cherry Tree
    Horizontal cylinders (prunus padus watereri AGM Bird Cherry Tree)
  • Cow Parsley blossoming
    Cow Parsley blossoming
May Blossom

Secondly there are images of the cylinder shaped blossom of a cherry tree with a very long name. It’s called “prunus padus watereri AGM Bird Cherry Tree”. These flowers are creamy rather than pure white.

Lastly there is the “common as muck” Cow Parsley, Latin name Anthriscus sylvestris. The umbrella like clusters appear all over our fields in May and June. They are summer itself, but not for hay fever sufferers! They can’t wait for the early summer to pass.

See more of these images on our May Blossom page

Just to confirm all of these images were captured on my daily walks during lockdown!

Passion flower, sunflower and a birds nest

By cpadmin

It was delightful to see the sunflower, passion flower and spot the birds nest hidden in the undergrowth.

Sunflower
Sunflower with a bee

Out in the garden on a sunny Sunday afternoon the sunflower and the passionfruit flower attracted me. The sunflower is about four feet tall, it should have been higher, but I didn’t encourage it to grow enough. Still, it is a lovely gold colour in the teatime sun.

Passion flower and a birds nest
Passion flower, passion fruit and a birds nest

Over by the fence the passion flowers are still growing and opening up. Behind them is the orange fruit of the plant and just visible is a birds nest too.

Look at more of the garden images in our garden galleries

2020 Essex Landscapes Calendar

2020 Essex Landscapes Calendar

By cpadmin
  • 2020 Essex Landscapes Calendar
    Buttercup field at Papermill Lock

The 2020 Essex Landscapes calendar from Compass Photography is now available. Attached to this post is a copy of the front page of the calendar. Below the main image for each month is an appointments matrix . Normally, this matrix would have blank squares. This calendar has placed more images in those blank squares in each month’s appointments grid.

To have a look at the images included in the calendar access the Compass Photography website by using this link. Our website includes a slideshow of the pages.

Calendars cost £7.00 each. Postage and packing within the UK costs £1.50 each. Postage beyond the UK is charged at cost. You can pay by PayPal or bank transfer, cash or cheque (UK only)

Please contact Mike by email (compassmike@btinternet.com) or phone on 07973-294820 to get your copy of the 2020 Essex Landscapes Calendar

Golden sunflowers

By cpadmin

Golden sunflowers, purple petunias and flaming red impatiens. Delightful summer gardens. “Little Dorrit” is the variety of the dwarf sunflowers, grown from seed and placed in pots. What is unique with one of the sunflowers is the additional flowers growing through the centre of the head!

Both the petunias and impatiens (busy lizzies) were bought as tiny “plug” plants from a local nursery and grown on in flower pouches. The impatiens have done better than the petunias this year.

See more of our images at www.compassphotography.co.uk

  • Purple petunias
    Flower pouches with impatiens and petunias
  • Golden Dunflowers
    Variety Little Dorrit
  • Golden sunflowers
    Little Dorrit

Smallest of dwarf sunflowers

By cpadmin

Smallest of dwarf sunflowers

This is the smallest of dwarf sunflowers. This variety of sunflower should grow to three feet high. All of the others from the packet are now that high. The bright yellow flowers are coming out in the garden making a nice show

Smallest of dwarf sunflowers

Accidental small dwarf sunflower

By Accident

I didn’t notice this one when I was potting the rest of them on. So it stayed in the greenhouse in its small pot and has grown even up even smaller. As the flower bloomed I brought it inside and it is sitting happily making a nice contrast with the plum coloured carpet. Next year I think that I will do this again with three or four dwarf sunflowers to have some spectacular colour inside our house! I will try and organise a better pot though!

Have a look at more of our sunflower images from previous years in our garden galleries by using this link.

Our website has many other great images. Go to www.compassphotography.co.uk

Equipment: Sony SLT-A65, Tamron 16-300 lens, f6.3 1/125 ISO 100

Images of the Kent seaside

By cpadmin

Images of the Kent seaside

On one of the hottest days of the year I captured some great images of the Kent seaside. The sun shone without a break as I travelled from Cape le Ferne in the east to Dungeness.

Capel le Ferne is white cliffs of Dover country. It has a great café on the top of the cliffs. The Lees at Folkestone looked almost tropical in the images captured from there. Sandygate roasted in the sun. Behind Waitrose at Hythe I found some welcome shade along the calmness of the Royal Military Canal. Dymchurch was busy and it was extremely hot driving the steam engines at the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway so I was told!).

The beach at Greatstone had lots of people on it and pebbles reflected in the sunlight. Dungeness looked as special as it always does, perhaps more so in the sun. A yacht passed by near to the shore and provided a nice opportunity to photograph it in the blue sea against the yellow pebbles.

View more of the images from this day by going to the Compass Photography Website

  • Images of the Kent seaside
    Sailing by at the tip of Dungeness
  • Images of the Kent seaside
    Patterns in the sand – Folkstone
  • Images of the Kent seaside
    Dungeness – The boardwalk looking back to the road
  • Images of the Kent seaside
    Welcome shade – Royal Military Canal at Hythe
  • Images of the Kent seaside
    Pulling out at RHDR