Swan on a lake with green algae
England,  The Changing Seasons

Gallery: an August selection

September 4, 2022 / 33 Comments

When summer opens, I see how fast it matures and fear it will be short; but after the heats of July and August, I am reconciled, like one who has had his swing, to the cool of autumn.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Although August has been hot, mostly sunny and very dry, I can already sense that summer is closer to its end than its beginning. The lights are going on earlier each evening. The warmth of the sun is tempered by a cooling breeze. And a few showers, and one day of steady rain, have started to re-green the weary grass in our parks.

August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.

Sylvia Plath

Our August

We’ve had an up-and-down sort of month. While July was bookended by happy gatherings of family and friends, August has been similarly bookended with funerals. Both the relatives who died were well into their eighties and in poor health, so neither came as a shock. But it meant two last-minute unplanned trips up to Newcastle. Although it was good to see the family, these occasions are naturally always tinged with sadness.

Between those we spent a few nights in Ripon, as we did last August, in order to keep a regular ‘appointment’. It’s our tradition to meet up for a pub lunch in Grinton in Swaledale each August with the daughters of the family with whom my father-in-law was evacuated. His ashes were scattered on his beloved Grinton Moor. So this annual get-together is a sort of memorial to him as well as a reason to visit this beautiful part of the country. There was time for some sightseeing in the area, visiting Knaresborough and beautiful Fountains Abbey. And on the way back we spent a night in Derbyshire so we could visit Eyam and the Radical Horizons sculptures at Chatsworth. I’ve already posted about most of those places but I’ve included a few as-yet unshared images from them in this month’s slideshow.

And of course there were the usual local pleasures and trips up to London. We had a walk one Sunday morning in my favourite park, St James’s. I met Virtual Tourist friends for a delightful evening in a Vauxhall pub. And on the Bank Holiday Monday at the end of the month we headed to Soho to visit the Photographers Gallery and enjoy an open-air lunch. There won’t be many more of those this year I guess!

Technical notes

I’ve spent some time this month getting used to my new Panasonic Lumix FZ330, so quite a few of these shots were taken on that. But for others I continued to appreciate the convenience of my compact point and shoot Lumix, and a handful were taken on my phone. See if you can work out which!

I’ve done less editing/fiddling than usual. But most shots have been tweaked with Photoshop Elements or Nik Color Efex, and in the case of the rhino, a Silver Efex conversion to monochrome. And as always I am linking my photography highlights to Ju-Lyn and Brian’s Changing Seasons challenge.

  • Close up of a yellow moon
    Moon waxing, Ealing 2022-08-06
  • Giant fly on a sculpted ice cream cone
    Fly on an ice cream cone: the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square 2022-08-07
  • Adult black duck with fluffy duckling
    Mother and baby moorhens, Walpole Park 2022-08-07
  • Large grey bird by water
    Heron, St James’s Park, London 2022-08-07
  • Wide river sparkling in sunlight
    Looking towards Battersea from Vauxhall 2022-08-10
  • Blue framed window and door
    House in Ripon 2022-08-17
  • Purple daisy
    In a Knaresborough garden 2022-08-18
  • Two black birds on a wooden ledge
    Young crows looking for leftovers at the Studley Royal café 2022-08-19
  • Green fields in a valley between heather covered hills
    The view of Swaledale from Grinton Moor 2022-08-20
  • Yellow rose with small insect
    Rose in an Eyam garden 2022-08-21
  • Black and white cat on grass in front of building with broken windows
    Cat in Eyam, Derbyshire 2022-08-21
  • Tree silhouetted against a pale orange sky with dramatic cloud
    Evening view from the Derwentwater Arms, Derbyshire 2022-08-21
  • Landscape with trees, rock escarpment and blue sky
    Morning view from our room at the Derwentwater Arms, Derbyshire 2022-08-22
  • Yellow stone bridge over a river
    Paine’s stone bridge at Chatsworth 2022-08-22
  • Large grey bird in a river
    Heron at Chatsworth 2022-08-22
  • Black and white photo of a sculpture of a rhino
    ‘Rise Up Rhino’ by Gillie & Marc at the Westfield Shopping Centre 2022-08-25
  • Relief carving of a grasshopper covered in gold and surrounded by a wreath
    Grasshopper on the Atkinson’s Building, Old Bond St., London 2022-08-29

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