I'm In His Sights

Most times that I cycle home through Highfields, I see this swan all on their lonesome. There are other swans on the lake, but he never seems to want to play with them in the water. Preferring to be alone, or just sitting with the odd duck or moorhen.

I don't know why he prefers his own company, and recently I have started to feel sorry for him, as I know what it is like to be alone.  So I have been buying some bags of wild bird seed for his tea.

He seems to enjoy it, and soon gobbles up the pile that I pour out of the bag. I know not to feed him bread, as it isn't very good for them, so I have been popping to the pound shop, and buying the largest bag that I could find, which usually lasts for two or three visits.

I think he has got used to my visits now, as tonight he started to waddle up to me as I was getting off my bike. He also gets quite eager to sample the goodies that I bring, as sometimes he tries to peck at the open bag as I'm pouring the contents out.

I took this photo with a vintage lens. A Hanimex 35mm f2.8, which I bought from a charity shop at the weekend. As it was sunny today, I thought I would give it a go. I wanted to get a different angle, so tried one pointing upwards. I had to guess whether I had the shot fully in focus, as I couldn't use the viewfinder. Instead I had to make do with the EM-1's back screen.

Not a bad effort, if I say so myself. There's also some interesting shaped bokeh, which makes for something different.

Are You Redy?

From the classic elegance of yesterday's white Rolls Royce, we now see a modern Ferrari sports car, in the traditional sporting red.

I'm not really into modern cars that much, but one thing that does interest me about this car, is why it doesn't have a number plate?

Where's George?

St George's Day and there was a big parade in the Old Market Square. As usual, the procession started at the Forest Recreation Ground and made it's way down to the city centre, led of course by St George and our very own Robin Hood.

I noticed that there seemed to be an awful lot of men in the parade, and while they were marching and singing, I thought I was at a football match.

It was lovely and warm today, and I think that everyone had a good time.

Lunchtime Shooting

When I stepped out of the office at lunchtime today,  I thought that I had been transported to Dubai, it was that hot and sunny.

Alas I wasn't in Arabia, but the centre of Nottingham, and on the lookout for my next blog photo.

Unfortunately nothing really caught my eye, so I wandered back to work 'empty handed'. But then as I was walking through the grounds, I saw a butterfly, fluttering around one of the lavender bushes.

So I quickly whipped out my OMD, switched the lens to macro, and took a few photos. He certainly didn't stay very long on each of the flower heads, so I was actually lucky to get a fairly in focus shot. As the photo below clearly shows, they can certainly shift when they want to.

A Welcome Visitor

Well, what a difference today has been from yesterday. No wind, and sunshine all day long. In fact a musician friend of mine got a bit sunburnt whilst she was busking in Beeston.

Here's a group of buttercups in our garden that were enjoying the warmth. In fact I think they are as golden as the sun.  Many gardeners view them as weeds, but I think they are lovely little flowers. Not sure if I will be able to keep them though, when I come to do some gardening.