Why fly for the best part of a day or more and spend good money just to sit and see nothing of the country you’re visiting? Yes, the weather may be better than if you were sitting around at home, and a dip in the sea is fun, but to me it is a waste not to get to know the culture, the people, the history, the food.
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Some years April can be disappointing but this year it has been rather lovely. We have had a lot of days with blue sky and sunshine, and although not necessarily warm at the start of the month, we finished with a few days of spring heatwave with temperatures in the mid 20s, more akin to June or even August than April!
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Spring is the most colourful of seasons so how can we best capture its wonders in monochrome? The colours of spring are special to us as we transition from the muted, often monochromatic tones of winter to a vibrant explosion of life and renewal. So what happens if we remove those colours from our photos?
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I am keeping things simple today with a gallery of some of the beautiful flowers I photographed during our visit to the Philippines. I’m sharing these as a memorial for Cee, a special member of our blogging community whom we sadly lost last month.
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You can live in a city all your life and never uncover all its secrets nor learn all its history. There are always new places to discover and explore. A very recent outing of discovery took me from my home in Ealing, west London, to a park in Abbey Wood on the city’s eastern fringes.
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The Tarsier Conservation Area on Bohol Island in the Philippines is a protected area dedicated to preserving the Philippine tarsier, one of the smallest primates in the world. Known for their strikingly large eyes in a tiny body, these fascinating animals play a vital role in maintaining the island's biodiversity and ecological harmony.
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Tarsiers are one of the smallest primates in the world, not much bigger than a human fist. They are nocturnal and spend the day dozing under big leaves in the forest, making them very difficult to photograph clearly!
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The great redwoods and sequoias of California are not merely trees; they stand to remind us of the beauty and resilience of nature. They have inspired countless artists, writers and nature lovers. They epitomise strength, survival and the grandeur of the natural world.
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We had already seen and loved the coastal redwoods in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. But while those are the tallest trees to be found anywhere in the world, they are not the most massive overall. That honour belongs to their cousins, the giant sequoias (as measured by a combination of height and width).
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I am very definitely a 'cat person'. I admire the independent spirit of cats. They can be affectionate but always on their own terms, and unlike dogs, don’t constantly seek attention. Their behaviour can be quixotic, their thoughts hard to fathom, whereas most dogs are open books. And I find cats really beautiful to look at: elegant, with expressive eyes and distinctive colours and patterns on their fur.
