All Too Much

It was all too much!
Not for me - I was enjoying every sun-drenched-Saturday-morning-moment of it.
No, sadly it was too much for my trusty photographer's assistant. Approaching thirteen years old now, she has noticeably slowed down, and particularly so since October when she started to tell us when she had had enough, rather than us calling time on the walks.
It is sad, as having such a wonderful companion for both indoors and particularly outdoors, has provided opportunities to explore our locality in depth and to develop a love and appreciation of the nature and wildlife in special places.

No more so than this particular corner of North Essex, where the gentle undulations of this cosy countryside meet the flat fens of Cambridgeshire. From this part of the Icknield Way, it is possible to see as far as Ely on a clear day.
Despite the sunshine on Saturday, the light was only good enough to pick out features in Cambridge and thereabouts, with the dishes of the Mullard Observatory highlighted in the distant landscape.

Many hours have I sat on the edges of the fields, surrounded by deer-filled woodland, and many times have I blogged and more recently, tweeted about the seasonal changes which I observe here. For me the place and the natural progress of the year are always magical.
As I sat quietly on Saturday, I listened to a whole range of bird song - blue tits, great tits, long-tailed tits - I even thought I heard the 'little bit of bread' of the yellow hammer but the 'no cheese' seemed to be absent. Woodpeckers drummed and crows cawed - this wonderful symphony of birdsong broken only by the unwelcome roar of the big metal birds moving in and out of the nearby busy airport.
These roaring interludes though, were the perfect time to look more closely around me, spotting the first tiny flashes of glorious blue beaming up from the speedwell.

Despite the sunshine, it was still very much a 'wellie-walk' with mutt up to her usual bubble-patting in the puddles, the swirling patterns of disturbed silt highlighted in her wake.

Upon reaching the old farm bath houses (and boy, could mutt have done with the use of one by this stage!), the sun had reached its apex. The carpet of ageing snowdrops still adding a glorious intensity to the light around the derelict buildings. Rare of late, the shafts of sunlight reached in through the broken windows, the frames casting crisp dark shadows on the walls.

On the window sill, the relics of a once useful facility had morphed into a snail-like reminder of the change of pace in this wooded corner of the farm yard.

Who knows what tales the peeling walls could tell if only they could speak?

And as for my favourite resident farm yard ladies, well, a hello had to be made to them too before we set off on the return leg of this gentle three-hour stroll in the sunny countryside, arriving back home just in time for our lunch.

Mutt took to her bed as soon as we arrived home, and slept for hours. Not unusual, except when she did emerge from her sunny sleeping place, it was clear that her front right leg was giving her trouble again. I say again, as a similar action was made after a long walk during our visit to the Cotswolds a couple of weeks back. On that occasion though, she was up and bouncy by the next morning. Sadly, we are now into day three of hop-along-mutt and clearly recovery is going to take much longer now that she is mature in years - and at nearly 90 years old in our terms, it is hardly surprising!

I would like my assistant to be able to come along with me for a good while yet as we have shared many happy hours together, exploring the the nooks and crannies of this, very definitely not TOWIE corner of the county.
For now though it will have to be just a small amble around the block for the fresh air, and it certainly isn't too much for us to give her lots of rest and TLC.


Post script 28.2.14

After a few days of her making no fuss, we eventually got to the reason for mutts lameness...

This thorn had gone straight in, leaving no obvious mark.
Despite checking her pads on several occasions it was only the swelling and weeping that eventually alerted us to the problem.

Fingers crossed now that she is on the mend.

Documenting Work in Progress III

During

Before

So, work is almost completed on the building that I have been documenting for a client. Although I chose a sunny day to visit the site, the sun didn't perform at the right moment. Also the contractors had still to do their last bits of site tidying, so this image probably won't be selected as a brochure image. However the progress and transformation is clearly evident which is what the brief had been.

I will return one more time when the new stable set-up is up and running and include the real life interest in the image.

Documenting Work in Progress II

Before

Yesterday I returned to take progress photographs of the farm building you may recall, that I featured five weeks ago.

With work now under way, they have stripped away the old cladding and replaced the old timber-framed lean-to with a new steel framed single span frame. The gang, ready to start fixing the new cladding, were doing this with great caution. Starting with the sheltered sides, as the current high winds would make roof work highly dangerous.

Winds can also cause an issue with photograph-taking, mostly with things staying still long enough to keep them in focus, but on this occasion, wind worked to my advantage. The recent spell had cleared the air, to give a beautiful crisp light, and so on a sunny May afternoon, the next record picture was taken.

The light lifts the mood from the first shot and raises the anticipation for the completed building.

Documenting Work in Progress

I have, on occasions, been commissioned by a building company, to photograph completed contracts for their own publicity or as a record. (As seen in my previous posting from January; Unexciting to Interesting) Sadly, when it comes to refurbishment work, they have usually forgotten to capture a series of before and during images as well as the after images.

This week, I was brought in by them to record an old farm building that will very shortly begin having a transformation, and capture those so far unseen, before shots. I will be returning on a regular basis throughout the contract to record the progress so that this information can also be used for their publicity.

Whilst this subject-matter may not produce prize-winning gallery images, this bread-and-butter documenting is as important to this type of business as photographs of the Spring collection for a fashion house. It is therefore my brief and aim, to produce images that will ultimately help attract the eye of, and inform future customers.

The overcast sky puts over a feeling of impending change and I hope to be able to capture the finished building in an altogether different light. The image of the underside of the rusting courrugated tin roof on old timber purlins provides an interesting artisitic view as well as documenting the current small span that is to be replaced with a single span lean-to.

Over the coming weeks, I hope to bring you, the work in progress images.

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