Frtillaria

Always guaranteed to put on a small show each Spring:



Unfortunately they don't seem to multiply very fast.
Must try to remember to order more in the Autumn.

Lone Sunspot

Sunspot activity runs in 11 year cycles.
Although it is a period of minimum Sunspot activity the occasional one appears.
It was a bit difficult trying to photograph the Sun with the amount of patchy cloud yesterday.
Sunspot AR2738 is just coming in to view.
It may not look much but is said to be larger than planet Earth.

,

Gentle reminder -
do not look directly, or point your camera, at the Sun unless you have a suitable solar filter.
I wrote about the one I use HERE.

White Hedges

At last we have reached the time of year many field hedgerows are starting to show their flowers.



Blackthorn flowers

Public Footpaths

Following my last post I had an interesting set of questions from Mick in Australia.
We (I) can tend to take for granted what surrounds us.
Most of the following applies to England and Wales as Scotland may have slightly different rules and regulations.

What is a Public Footpath? Put simply it is a legal right of way across private land.
Most will date back hundreds of years though occasionally new ones are added.
Every local authority has to keep a definitive map / record of every Public Footpath in their area.

There are several types of Public Footpath, each with different rules on who can use it.

They are marked by signs with different colours.
This explanation from Walks Around Britain:



There are hundreds of miles of Public Footpath across the country:

My local area from Footpathmap.co.uk:



The vast majority of Public Footpaths are across rough open or farm land though occasionally one will go through someone's garden. It is normally the land owners' responsibility to make sure any footpath on their land is free of obstruction. Some are jointly maintained by local authorities. Some in my village usually have vegetation trimmed twice a year.

Where a Public Footpath meets or crosses a highway there should be a sign to indicate its presence.

   

There can also be small coloured arrows to indicate the direction of the footpath:

   





There can be conflict between land owners and footpath users.
Much can be caused by irresponsible dog owners not keeping their pets under control, especially where footpaths go through fields containing livestock.

A Walk on the Full Spectrum Side

It's been quite a while since I gave the Canon 1200D an airing. That is the camera which had the internal UV filter replaced with clear optical glass. The first thing I have to do before each session is reset the white balance. That is done by photographing something green and instructing the camera to use that as the white balance level. I always take a photo of the lawn.

Today's mid-morning walkabout was in full sunshine though the breeze still had a cold edge.
Focussing is not easy as IR and UV light have slightly different focal lengths to the light wavelengths the camera was designed to use. Instead of autofocus I have to use manual focus in live view on the LCD. That can be difficult to get spot on with bright light from the Sun on the screen.

Anyway, here are a few from our walk. All have some tweaking to the RAW files in Affinity Photo.

A quick shot of Winter Pansies:



Footpath to the back of the church:



The South side of the church:



An old tree in the churchyard:



Footpath to Mill Lane:



Mill Lane:



Sheltered Housing:



Ladybirds on nettles:



Blackthorn along Old Mill Lane:



On our way back along the main street:



To finish off - orchid still in full bloom:



Some subjects work better than others.

Frosty Mornings

For the second morning running it was well and truly frosty on our early morning walkies.
Any pools of water in the lane were solid ice and most surfaces covered in frost.

Wheelie bin handle



Lawn



Growth on the garden pond waterfall





Fortunately this time of year it soon melts away as the Sun starts to shine.
I had a quick look at the tadpoles in the pond and was relieved to see them still moving, if somewhat slowly.

Hot Lips

No. I'm not referring to the M*A*S*H character Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan.

Late last year I wrote about a plant I had seen locally which had small white flowers with bright red lips. I discovered it was Salvia Hot Lips. The six plug plants I ordered have been growing in the greenhouse over the winter and are just showing their first flowers. Disappointingly the ones I have seem to be pure red but are pretty none the less. I have read that the colour can change throughout the year so they may yet develop the white later on..

Two I have planted out, the rest will be put outside soon.





I would describe this bushy plant as half hardy as it can stay evergreen if the weather doesn't get too frosty. Mine have kept their leaves right through the Winter while in the unheated greenhouse.