I was on a walk through the grounds at work, I turned a corner and stopped in my tracks. The perfect moment presented itself reminding me to always be ready, as you never know what might happen next or what might be round the corner.
Expect the unexpected and find joy in the perfect moment.
Sometimes I come across a site where I think my photography could be so much better, sometimes I come across a site and think wow I'm never going to be this good. On very rare occasions I come across a site which makes me want to cry and throw away my camera because any photograph I ever take will only be one millionth as good as this.
Of course the rarest gem of all is a photo site with good picture descriptions. Yes, there are sites with good technical or factual descriptions. Yes, there are sites with OK poetic descriptions which complement the picture nicely but none where the link is seemless or where you cant separate the text from the picture.
A picture says a thousand words but a picture with a thousand words says a million words.
'Stray matter' is a photoblog that does all the above and more, it blows my mind far out the other side, how can a photoblog be this good.
Evocative is one word I could use, often haunting, combining the photo with the text puts you right into the picture making it a living breathing landscape.
Utter genius.
Thank you to Scotty for permission to use a thumbnail image.
There is a beautiful avenue of trees that leads up from the River Thames to the door of Christchurch College. I popped round one morning before I went to work, it was a lovely autumn day.
I took a few photos on the way home from a friends on a clear summer Sunday morning.
A typical English country church.
A pastel brick wall.
A curving brick wall down a lane.
New bricks, old bricks, all the same.
A soaring cloud bird.
The stone face.
This is another kind of social bookmarking site that I have discovered and I have to say it is cool I might even say it is the best thing since sliced bread.
Basically you sign up for an account specific some interests, download the firefox / IE toolbar and then stumble through the web. This means basically click on the stumble icon and it will take you to a random page. However the neat thing is it takes you to a popular page which has been rated by other users.
It takes you to some really great stuff that you would just not discover otherwise, already with in about five clicks I have found a awesome photo site 'young gallery' and a page of haiku error messages.
Plus if you don't like the page you just hit the stumble button again.
Of course when you look at a site you can give it the thumbs up or thumbs down to adjust the rating. This simple interface has the simplicity of the google search page. Of course it has plenty of other options to explore as well.
This is just what the web has been crying out for, it is such a great idea it will probably be snapped up by the big companies and be renamed 'google stumble upon'.
"Next time you want to wander the Web, forget about Googling it. Stumble it."- The Wall Street Journal
On one of the recent sunny days I went for a walk along the canal with my camera. It was a lovely day and a very peaceful walk. Just what I needed.
The Path Ahead
Canal bridge in sunlight
Post apocalyptic Oxfordshire
Summer on the river
The Dish
River meadow
If you wish to see more of my photographs I have an online gallery.
Each week the BBC weather service chooses a photo of the week and shows the five runners up. There are some fantastic landscape shots submitted by members of the public.
It makes a small but perfectly formed 'interesting link', well worth a visit once a week.
The government is undertaking a consultation to see what the public think of a UK coast path. According to the proposal it would give access to an additional 30% of land currently out of bounds.
"We are an island - being close to the sea, being part of the coast is actually part of who we are."I did not know the UK had such a post, not exactly a high profile one. Still the man has a point for almost everyone in the UK the sea and the coast is a part of our soul. Although if you live in the middle of Oxfordshire it is the stuff of myth and legend.- Barry Gardiner, UK Biodiversity Minister.
"I think the important thing is that the introduction of a coast corridor will actually help safeguard those wildlife habitats, perhaps more importantly guard against development and protect our beautiful coast."Although from a media point of view saying "I think..." would suggest you are not sure or have no supporting evidence or that it is your own personal opinion.
"Our concerns have been taken on board and we are confident coastal access will be increased without harming important sites for wild birds. It is important that people visit and enjoy the coast and part of that is the appreciation of the wildlife that thrives there."I think Gwyn Williams beats the biodiversity minister with his job title, a much more appropriate, credible title for the debate.-Gwyn Williams, RSPB head of reserves and protected areas
The recent weather in the UK has had a lot of dark stormy clouds crossing the sky resulting in some really beautiful sky-scapes. These are just from the hip shots but I though they were worth sharing.
Storm clouds over fields.
One sunset last week
Well this week saw the local elections in the UK, the first of the May three day freakin weekends and tornadoes in the mid US.
Just what was I looking at on the interweb this week:
Spacecraft returns Jupiter images (BBC)
I like stories that look to the stars. This article shows the latest pictures of Jupiter by the NASA New Horizons spacecraft (what is the difference between a spacecraft and a probe?). There are some really fantastic photographs. According to the NASA home page for New Horizons some of the pictures taken are for artistic rather than scientific value.
I quite like this one entitled Two moons over Jupiter (artistic photograph). You can find out more on the picture by clicking on it to go to the NASA page.
Bush honours Queen at White House (BBC)
Two notable parts to this story, one is the customary bit where Bush puts his size 12's straight in it. Apparently the Queen was not amused although from what was said not surprisingly.
The other bit of note is the Queen is now doing her bit for the environment. With each of these state visits the carbon emissions of the air miles will now be offset as a cash donation to an environmental charity.
That is it for this week, obviously all the news this week was rather mundane and not worth clipping because that is the end of the file for Zephyrist's Sunday night briefs.
This week saw the start of the serious campaigning for the local elections. Not quite as exciting as the general election but it is everyone's democratic duty to vote or if there is no one you like, to spoil your ballot paper.
So what else has been occupying my mind in the last week?
Green electricity target in doubt (BBC)
Regen SW, a electricity industry pressure group is trying to put pressure on local councils in the South West to deal with planning applications for Wind Farms. As I have previously reported one of the major blocks to new wind farms is the long complicated planning approval process. Therefore the more pressure the industry can bring to bear the quicker schemes can get approved.
Of course are these companies really caring about the environment or merely about the profit that is being lost whilst the farms are stuck in the planning stage?
Gloom lifts for riding schools (BBC)
In today's blame culture there is no such thing as an accident, someone is to blame. Hence the minute anything happens people look round for someone to sue.
This story about the horse riding industry reports on recent cases where judges have ruled that some accidents are simply that, the instructors are not to blame and individuals must accept that horse riding has a risk attached.
A clear result in favour of common sense that will hopefully mean that people can still enjoy horse riding and other sports without having to worry about spiralling insurance costs.
Wave farm passes funding hurdle (BBC)
The wave power snakes have finally arrived in Cornwall. Funding has now been secured to build a wave farm complete with connection to the national grid off the coast of Cornwall. The wave farm will be able to supply power to 7,500 homes which is 3% of Cornwall's total power consumption.
Train leasing market investigated (BBC)
Another story that has been reported before on this blog. The Competition Commission is now going to investigate the train leasing industry. There is a belief that prices may be too high and train operating companies are not getting the service they deserve.
The Department of Transport suggests that the leasing companies may be making upwards of £175 million in excess profits every year.
Watch this space.
World rallies for Darfur action (BBC) 
Today was a global day of action for Darfur demanding intervention to stop the fighting in Darfur.
I have said a lot about Darfur but I think this quote tells you what you need to know:
"In certain parts of Darfur, blood is running like water."
In my haste to post things last night, I forgot to introduce the eclipse. A lunar eclipse is when the earth is between the sun and the moon. The moon moves into the earth shadow and then out again. When fully in shadow the only sunlight that reaches the moon is refracted through Earth's atmosphere and this is what gives it the reddish colour during total eclipse.
21:35
First shot, shooting with the low light was difficult and I think there is a bit of camera movement but you can just see the shadow starting on the bottom left.
22:07
Bit more of the shadow across the moon, Not sure about the square shadow on the left side of the moon, probably camera movement
22:26
Three quarters of the way to total eclipse, just a bit of camera movement
22:45
According to the BBC article this was the first minute of the eclipse, the moon has just moved into full shadow.
23:03
Sadly my camera could not pick up the moon in shadow in all its red glory, the top of the moon remained lighter at this point in the eclipse and if you really strain your eyes you might be able to make out the lighter semi-circle of the top of the moon.
There you have it a total eclipse of the moon in 5 blurry shots. For better pictures taken by members of the public check out the BBC's "In Pictures" feature for the eclipse.
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