After many months of being out of bounds, glasshouses around the UK reopened on 17th May. In my book this is cause for celebration, I really missed spending time under glass, especially over winter when everything else was grey, cold and miserable. Ed and I made the trip down to London on Friday to visit Kew Gardens for the first time in two years, as he had the week off school for half term. It rained, all day, but nothing could dampen our spirits.
On Friday Ed afternoon and I visited Sutton Park for the first time this year. Sutton Park is a little bit too far out of the city to be considered ‘local’ and so we hadn’t been since December when Birmingham was put in Tier 4 and then a national lockdown. I took my long lens with me, hoping I might see the ponies, and when we arrived at Little Bracebridge Pool found two of them bathing in the water. It has been a dream of mine to see the horses bathing in the lake, but I didn’t think it’d be something I witnessed as the times of day I am there are usually quite busy, and to access the lake the ponies need to cross the main footpath from the heathland. I was surprised to see that they still have their winter coats, but then again it’s been quite a cold start to spring this year.
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Every year I take the same photos in the same places. Blossom season is my favourite time of year, and after a childhood of moving every eighteen months to four years with my dad’s job, as an adult I have come to really appreciate the beauty of living in a place for many consecutive seasons and knowing the way the light will fall on my favourite haunts. I love that I have years and years of blossom photos taken in this same square, charting my progress from absolute beginner to where I am now. I love that I know the square’s best angles, and the best times of day to photograph it. It doesn’t make it boring for me, but rather it’s a great source of comfort. I know this city, it is my city, and it looks so beautiful in spring.
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On my walk yesterday afternoon I spotted this moss which I think I’ve identified as swan’s neck thyme moss (Mnium Hornum) illuminated by the late afternoon sun. I didn’t have my camera on me, so I went back today with a 50mm lens fitted with a macro close up filter and provided some entertainment for two men in a van who couldn’t work out why I was crouched down on the side of the street taking photos of an otherwise unremarkable stone wall.
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