Photography Archives • The Prodigal Stranger

29th July 2020

Summer Photography 2020

The year that keeps on giving. But in between the pandemic and my own illness, I did manage to occasionally whip that camera out, and not everything turned out hopeless.

The Eurasian Jay is a rare guest in gardens but don't tell him that. — The Eurasian jay is a rare guest in gardens but don’t tell him that.

27th January 2020

Best Pictures of 2019

My health has not allowed for a lot of opportunities to go out and take beautiful pictures lately. Nonetheless, I did manage a few in 2019 that I am particularly proud of. These are it.

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I have a thing for cobalt blue glassware. The way that it captures the sun, causing patterns of blue to dance and flicker across my living room floor, the intensity of the shades. There is something deep and mysterious about these lights and patterns, and I can sit and look at them for hours. Fortunately, these bottles and vases are pretty hefty, too, because the cats regularly push them off the sill. Because cats.

I snapped this one last spring while I was still surprised at just how much water the Spang Å river system detains when the sluices get closed in winter. The entire valley floods. That line of fence poles? That’s the river. Everything else—is not. Supposedly.

Low key photography is a skill I have yet to master. On this one occasion, though, the Sun and Piv conspired to create a tableau of flame and darkness and all I had to do was click the button.

Another river valley picture, also from spring. The colours and sharpness of this one amazed me; I had only owned that camera for a day and I was so very fascinated with what it could do.

Here is to hoping that 2020 will be a little kinder health-wise. I mean, I have a camera, I want to go out there and use it.

9th July 20199th July 2019

June’s garden pictures

This summer continues to be colder and windier than average, but nonetheless, the sun came out enough in June for me to get at least a number of good flower pictures.

I also managed to acquire a bone bruise on my left shin (at least I didn’t break it, so there’s that!), so horse pictures are in short supply this month as I sit quite still and quietly swear to myself about the pain.

Bee garden. Feed them! — We turned a patch of the lawn into bee paradise, planting wild flowers native to hedgerows and meadows and doing absolutely nothing to them but let them grow in peace. The result is beautiful and the bees love it.

Clematis flowers — Our pink clematis is singing on its last verse and will likely be replaced next year. It did manage two beautiful flowers all the same.

yellow columbine — Columbine is one of my favourite flowers, wild or domesticated. The plant as a whole is not much to look at, but the flowers are little pieces of intricate art.

Of course, blue is my favourite colour so blue columbine is even better.

June is also the month of the first hay harvest. When I was a kid we’d all help out and it still works that way today. Of course, all I’m capable of doing is sitting on the first bale and shouting encouraging things to the workers, but it all counts, right?

The bee garden quietly turned itself into an ocean of cornflowers.

cornflower — Blue is my favourite colour. Guess my favourite flower?

black kitten — In the barn, Blacky’s kittens are growing up and will be leaving home soon. This one’s still up for grabs, incidentally. She’s adorbs and playful, and loves people.

stripy kitten — This little girl is also still unspoken for. She’s a bit more cautious but loves licking faces.

grey kitten — This girl was the first to be claimed. She was only a few days old when one of the barn girls adopted her.

blue kitten, stripy kitten — The two blue boys are spoken for as well. They’re going to be barn cats!

bright night clouds — June gave us the curious nightly phenomenon of glowing skies. This photo was taken at 1 am. The sky was really that bright.

For those bees of a more sophisticated taste we have roses in bright orange and bright yellow. Sitting outside is like being steeped in rose perfume at this time.

Morning glories — These are wild morning glories that we brought the seeds home from Malta for, years ago. They don’t look much like the morning glories we’re used to, but they’re pretty!

27th May 201915th June 2019

May sucked but look at those poppies

Let me be honest here: May sucked.

Not Theresa (though my British friends tell me she sucked too). Just the weather. May in Denmark usually has two or three weeks of gloriously hot sunshine during which everything explodes out of the ground in a cornucupia of scent and colour.

Not so this year. It’s been mostly cloudy and rainy. But in between the rain there’s been a few days where the sun came out (and even two that had summer-like temperatures). I managed to grab a few good shots in the garden and elsewhere, without getting drenched.

Without further ado, the pictures of May (such as May was).