Whilst out on our morning walk today, we heard and spotted our first skylark of 2023 which for me is a very early sign of Spring, one that brings a smile to my face. However I worry for their future on this particular patch of land. The stretch of meadow is quite vast and there are plans to construct a series of sports fields here, which has caused a bit of a stir, as you may imagine. The people around here, much like us, love the open space as it is, could it just be kept as is albeit managed a little more?
I often shrug off taking photos of things close to home, no matter how interesting or even mundane they may appear to be because I see them all of the time. I've decided to forget about all of that and plan to take more photos, of everything, including phone masts and other seemingly normal things. I think it's important to capture images as a documentary exercise, things come and go, nothing is permanent but photos can be.
I try to keep a journal but often fail, which is another thing I want to improve upon. I see and learn interesting things day to day, so why not share them as a daily post? I keep notes in Obsidian which is markdown based, I then copy and past these notes into PeakD and go from there.
Over the past few days I've been thinking about gear, cameras for stills and video. I'm seriously tempted by the Ricoh GR IIIx, which is a compact camera with a 40mm equiv lens, ideal for street and travel photography. It's lightweight, fits in your pocket and has a stunning image quality. It's quite expensive but is a good alternative to a Leica (my dream but out of price range camera).
Talking of travel, this week we booked a trip to Funchal, Madeira for June. Soooooooo excited! Then 8 weeks after that we are going to Cyprus and have plenty of other national trips planned too. So upping my photography output this year, especially if I get the new camera.
So on to today's collection of images....
They are everywhere these days, keeping us connected and this one is about 100 yards from our house, so we have a very good signal here, despite being in a rural location. Reading isn't far but as soon as you cross the M4, its very rural!!!!
I get annoyed by people who litter ponds. You may recall, if you follow me here on Hive that we live in Spencers Wood, where I lived 40 years ago as a child and this pond was much tidier back then. We used to cycle here on our bikes to study the tadpoles and newts. I'm sure many of those creatures still live in it but it could do with a good tidy up!!!
One of my favourite spots in the area is "the Ridge" which links Three Mile Cross, Spencers Wood and Shinfield together. It's a high point from which we can see Reading, the Madjelski stadium and the famous Green Park wind turbine from. On the horizon you can see as far as the Chilterns, Wessex Downs maybe even the Cotswolds (though that might be a slight exaggeration).
Now this is the spot where we heard and saw our first Skylark of the year just behind the fenced off area. It was a marvellous moment and for me marks the start of the new year, Spring isn't all that far away! We always see some great skies from this position too.
The sky was looking good here and this area later in the year will have changed, which is why it's good to take pictures to record how things look at any moment in timer. This is the location where a forthcoming brand new cricket green is going to be constructed with a new pavilion. I think this will be really good, but we want the fields on the other side of the road (behind me at this point) to be left alone. There used to be an arable field here which up until recently they grew Maize, which has since been moved to a neighbouring field.
The University of Reading own a lot of the land around here but sold a lot off, upon which our own house is now built. So some of the remaining spaces are up for changes. It's not all bad because some spaces will be turned into community gardens and allotments which we think is a brilliant idea. I'll certainly document these with any one of my cameras!
