A Walk in the Woods (Part 1)

I took a quiet walk with the dog through Wemyss Firs on Saturday. Apart from the Scouts and a few joyriding motorbike scramblers there is rarely anyone else around. I saw two huge Buzzards in the fields beyond the woods, and a deer (a photo of which I will post soon). Chestnuts were falling from huge trees along by the river, and the remains of many open, half-eaten ones lay on the ground. I had taken quite a few pictures of the sun coming through big, old, gnarled trees - Oak, Chestnut, Beech - but none of them seemed to work out. All a bit cliched and poor quality (note to self - make more use of tripod) but I like the effect of the layers in this 'puddle picture'.

Hear The Wind Sing

We took the boys out on a red squirrel hunt on Saturday. The weather was foul, but the afternoon was great and they just loved it. There were no guns involved - when I say 'hunt' I really mean more of an educational expedition to look at red squirrel habitats and learn more about their behaviour. It was run by http://www.fifecoastandcountrysidetrust.co.uk/ - we were the only 4 people on it which seemed a bit sad but it meant we had the countryside rangers all to ourselves. Anyway, as I was wandering through the forest I noticed the way that the wind was blowing certain trees around - Norwegian Spruces, Rowans - so I put the camera on the ground and pointed it up. Using a slow shutter speed I hoped to capture the feeling of the wind. I'll be pursuing this in more detail but thought I'd kick off this year's winterlens with a couple of images on this theme. Coinidentally, a colleague lent me What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami so I took the liberty of using the title of one of his other books as a title. Sensibly, the red squirrels kept themselves indoors.

man walks into shade

autumn leaves

also one of my favourite jazz songs