Sunday, August 5, 2012

Wildflowers in England


If you are unable to see the slideshow, click on this post's title to bring up the post directly, or, alternatively, click here to view the photographs.

While I remain "on hiatus," I am given to understand that there are those who would like more photographs of the trip to England.  It seems I took over a thousand photographs (OK, I often bracket exposures, but just the same . . .). I will not burden anyone with even a fraction of that, but will post some as I manage to cull them.

Here, then, are wildflowers photographed in London's parks, in Shropshire, and in Norfolk.  With significant help from my Mom, I've labeled them, though there remain unnamed flowers.  Should you find mistakes, or if you can help fill in blanks, please do say so, and I'll update.

With grateful thanks to Steven Schwartzman, who teaches us, with his superlative photographs and information at Portraits of Wildflowers, to pay attention to these wonders of our natural world as I, at least, have never done before.

To accompany the post, I give you Three Studies from Couperin by English composer Thomas Adès:



Another piece by Adès, which I find utterly beautiful, is Polaris, which can be heard by clicking through the links here.  As to that, for anyone within reach of Santa Cruz, California, the final weekend of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is going to be wonderful, featuring both a world premiere by Dylan Mattingly on August 11, and  Adès' Polaris on August 12.  Here is the full programming:

August 11, 2012:

Andrew Norman: Gran Turismo
Osvaldo Golijov: Rose of the Winds [West Coast Premiere]
Dylan Mattingly: I Was a Stranger [World Premiere | Festival Commission]
Lou Harrison: Third Symphony [Anniversary Tribute | Festival Commission]

August 12, 2012:

Thomas Adès: Polaris
Behzad Ranjbaran: Seven Passages
Michael Ippolito: Nocturne [West Coast Premiere]
John Mackey: Harvest: Concerto for Trombone (Joseph Alessi, trombone)

For more information, click here.

11 comments:

Jane and Lance Hattatt said...

Hello Susan:
We are most impressed with the slideshow. What a delight. As is the very lovely piece by Adés to which you have treated us today.

The Solitary Walker said...

A delightful wildflower slideshow, Susan.

Suze said...

Sue, the images are incredible. My favorites are the shots I imagine on the macro setting for tender close-ups, the ones in which droplets of water and the serrated edges of a leaf stand out starkly.

What a beautiful way to start the morning. I could almost feel the cool mist of the isles as I viewed these, tucked in my desert abode.

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much, Susan, for your kind words. It's great that you were able to view so many wildflowers in our (linguistically) ancestral country. Let's hope we all get to keep seeing wildflowers wherever we live and travel.

John said...

Hi Susan,
Lovely shots of all the flowers! We have had a good year this year , there are an awful lot of wild flowers about, I think it has something to do with all the rain that we have had! It's just a shame that the insects haven't done as well to benefit from the abundance of pollen!
J
Follow me at HEDGELAND TALES

Scott said...

Sue- Rich colors. I liked the perspectives of the Foxglove and Queens Anne's Lace. Interesting and pretty from different angles. I still correspond from a little library so will listen to the selections at a later date. Thanks as always for sharing what you see and hear.

Dixie@dcrelief said...

So soothing and calming. Took a deep breath to continue my day. Thank you.

Elizabeth Rose Stanton said...

Exquisite photos of such beauties! Thank you for sharing them. What a pleasant interlude :)

Friko said...

Yes, it is wildflower season in England. They are very prolific this year because of all the rain we've had. It's high pollen season too, all these flowers are setting seed at the moment.

Funny that I should have chosen a wildflower post at the same time as you.

Leigh said...

You can never have too many wildflower photos. Just recently I was in alpine meadows literally bursting with colour. What a treat for the eye and a balm for the soul.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Susan .. wonderful photos - I'm ashamed of my snaps via an iphone .. and great you've managed to name nearly all of them.

I thought the elderflower one you had called embroidery ... so had to relook -then realised my eyes had a bit of a tenuous turn!

I agree I love Steven's photos and the details he gives us - highly talented and very knowledgeable ...

Cheers Hilary

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