Category: Life

Image of the day – 29

Tree roots probe small cracks and as they grow, heave even heavy structures aside.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

Silver birch

Today’s image shows a piece of ground lightly covered with silver birch; but the history of this area is interesting. During the war it was an RAF airfield (RAF Riccall) with runways, brick and concrete buildings, bomb stores and more. The airfield was in used from 1944 to 1958, and today the brick structures are collapsing, the runways have cracked and are mostly covered by layers of moss, grass and other low vegetation, and the other areas have become scrubland and lightly wooded areas as shown in the photo.

This clearly illustrates how much time and maintenance effort is required to hold back the natural world from recolonising our built infrastructure. What begins with the typical grass and weeds of cultivated ground soon becomes an impenetrable mass of brambles and young trees. As they grow larger, the trees shade out the brambles, and fallen leaves cover the concrete and tarmac and accumulate as fresh soil. Tree roots probe small cracks and, as they grow, heave even heavy structures aside. It’s a fascinating process. Skipwith Common, with the old airfield on its north-western edge, is representative of Yorkshire’s lowland heath ecology.

We think our built environment is solid and secure – not so! It’s easily overwhelmed once we stop maintaining it. Look at the land around the site of Chornobyl in Ukraine for another example of the speed of wildlife return to an area substantially left alone by humans.

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Image of the day – 27

In the natural way of things, each Aloe will produce an average of one new plant, and the population will remain in balance.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

Aloe aristata

Today’s picture is a close up of an Aloe aristata plant with a developing flower bud. All plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and even viruses have ways of reproducing themselves. That’s one of the defining characters of life of any kind. We can be absolutely confident that the same will be true of any life forms anywhere in the universe.

The Aloe flower bud will develop on a tall stalk and if the flowers that form are pollinated they will produce and release seeds that stand a chance of germinating and growing into new, similar, Aloe plants. In the natural way of things, each Aloe will produce an average of one new plant, and the population will remain in balance.

The only choices available to life are to survive for ever with no reproduction, or to live for a limited time and leave behind new versions to carry on the process. What life cannot do is live forever and reproduce: that would lead to overpopulation and catastrophic failure of resources. Even with reduced family sizes, the planet is no longer capable of supporting the billions of people on our planet. We face catastrophic population collapse due to lack of resources at some point unless we can reduce our population size in some other way first. That’s a matter of simple arithmetic, not a political statement or some kind of guesswork. If we don’t face and fix the issue, something else will sooner or later.

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Image of the day – 23

By cooperation and coordination they manage all the behaviours and activities that we see on the larger scale. 

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

The fresh green of spring

There are few things as amazing as life. Perhaps there’s literally nothing as amazing as life in the entire universe! The photo shows the young, expanding leaves of a small-leaved lime tree (Tilia cordata).

Like all deciduous, temperate trees, leaf buds are formed the previous summer and over-winter after the old, mature leaves fall in late autumn. As temperatures increase in springtime, these buds swell and grow and the young leaves appear and expand. At first they’re a beautiful, pale green (lime green) but become a darker and duller shade as the days lengthen and they mature.

These processes all take place naturally in ways that are more complex than most of us might expect. Both plants and animal bodies are composed of countless tiny cells in much the same way that a large building might be made of bricks. Each cell is alive, contains a full copy of the organism’s DNA, and many of them have specialised roles to play. By cooperation and coordination they manage all the behaviours and activities that we see on the larger scale. So in some respects an expanding leaf is a lot like a growing community of people working together as a village or business. Having specialists makes it possible to do so much more, but cooperation becomes essential, not merely optional.

The rioting we’ve seen in some British cities in recent days has been disruptive and damaging to society as a whole. When the cells of an organism behave in uncoordinated and uncontrolled ways we call it a cancer. Rioting is a kind of cancer in a human society. We all know what happens when cancer becomes so widespread that the organism can no longer function. But organisms have ways of dealing with errant cells before they become overwhelming, and so do societies. Both police action and peaceful counter-demonstrations have been effective in controlling the UK riots in recent days.

Themed image collections

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Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Image of the day – 22

Actions are driven by temperament and thought. Habits are formed by actions frequently repeated.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

The pretty village of Chalford

Chalford is a pretty Cotswold village set in a beautiful valley east of Stroud, Gloucestershire. The valley carries a road, a river, a canal and a railway along its length at this point. It’s simply the most obvious route.

The village accommodates these four features with complete ease. The road is quite high up one side and is not visible from the bottom of the valley. The river is, of course, a natural feature; it belongs here in a way that the other three don’t. It’s a delight to see and hear, in some sections constrained by walls and crossed by foot bridges, in other places with natural banks full of plant and animal life. The canal is derelict, but due to be repaired again one day, the railway is barely visible because, like the road, it’s well above the bottom of the valley.

It strikes me that people are rather like the valley in the sense that they carry channels of temperament, thought, action and habit. A person’s temperament is natural, like the river, already present if you will. Thought is a linear process that begins before birth and continues until death, so like a river it has a beginning and an end. Actions are driven by temperament and thought. Habits are formed by actions frequently repeated.

Looking at the news stories in recent days, with wars and riots causing so much pain, anxiety and death in so many places around the world, differing opinions being expressed and denounced, so much trouble everywhere, my hopes and prayers are that the channels of temperament, thought, action and habit in the great majority of people will remain predominantly peaceful and kind, and that life might be as beautiful as the prettiest of valleys, and the places where we all live return to the peaceful life of a village like Chalford.

Themed image collections

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Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Image of the day – 21

The plant, on the other hand, is a living organism. Nobody designed or manufactured it – life is much more wonderful than that!

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

It’s quite amazing how life clings on, even in the most adverse circumstances. This plant was growing in my front drive, somehow finding a way to get its roots into a narrow gap in the block paving. The blocks were designed by a garden landscaping company and manufactured to particular standards of hardness and resistance to my car rolling over them. They were designed to last.

The plant, on the other hand, is a living organism. Nobody designed or manufactured it – life is much more wonderful than that! The universe we live in is tailored to build ever more complex things from very simple beginnings. A handful of quantum fields is all it takes, and these are exquisitely able to give rise to fundamental subatomic particles. These group together, eventually settling into simple atomic nuclei. As the universe expanded and cooled, atoms of simple elements appeared, almost entirely hydrogen and helium. Stars condensed and formed heavier elements up to iron. I could go on, but it’s a long story! Maybe some other time?

For now, just consider the battle between order (my paving blocks and the urge I have to remove weeds that neither I nor my wife want to see growing there) and disorder (weeds thriving wherever they can, despite my best efforts). Life always wins in the end, it seems!

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Image of the day – 19

Agreement and mutual benefit are essential and beneficial in human societies, and are recognised as such worldwide.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

The junction of two canals in Stroud

This wooden carving marks the point where two canals meet in Stroud. The Stroudwater Canal to the right allowed Severn river boats (trows) to carry Welsh coal to Stroud to power the steam engines taking over from the less efficient water power in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The Thames and Severn Canal, opening a few years later, enabled the smaller London barges to make their way to and from Oxford and London to the east.

Cargoes would need to be unloaded from barges and reloaded on trows or vice versa to make the entire journey. But London barges were not suitable for the waves, winds and currents of the River Severn, while trows were too large for the locks and other facilities of the upper Thames.

Shaking hands is an interesting choice in a sculpture to signal agreement and mutual benefit. Agreement and mutual benefit are essential and helpful in human societies, and are recognised as such worldwide. When agreement and mutual benefit break down we have arguments, murders, violent demonstrations, and even wars. These are all social on some scale or other. How much better it would be to stop those behaviours and shake hands. But that’s not always possible, sadly.

There’s a saying that it takes two to have an argument. That’s true – but it also takes two to stop arguing and shake hands.

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Image of the day – 14

Any creative work seems quite magical, as what was only in the creator’s mind appears in actuality and can be seen and touched.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

Here’s another view of the gardens at Hidcote. Lawrence Johnston designed Hidcote with the concept of ‘garden rooms’, one of which is the focus of this photo. Walking through the Hidcote garden you pass from one room to another, to another repeatedly. There are constant surprises every time you turn a corner or pass through an opening in a hedge. It’s delightful.

I love this kind of garden and I think you might too, if you ever have a chance to visit Hidcote – take it!

This, to me, says something about the nature of creation in general. There’s a design stage during which the idea of ‘rooms’ is a foundational step, and even some of the layout, or even most of it, take shape in the designer’s imagination. And almost always there’s a second stage after things start to be laid out on the ground (for a garden). In this second stage, it may become clear that improvements are possible once you see the ‘lay of the land’. Little tweaks and changes can improve the design significantly.

But always, in any creative work, something comes into existence that was simply not there before. Any creative work seems quite magical, as what was only in the creator’s mind appears in actuality and can be seen and touched, or in the case of a garden – walked in and admired.

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Image of the day – 11

Hidcote is managed by the National Trust to very high standards, and National Trust food is also very good.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

A waterlily at Hidcote

Hidcote is a wonderful garden near Chipping Camden, north of Cirencester where we live, and I took this photo in June 2024. Donna and I spent a while casually strolling around, enjoying the sunshine and the gardens and stopping for lunch. Hidcote is managed by the National Trust to very high standards, and National Trust food is also very good. We are National Trust members so we don’t pay an entry fee and can come here as often as we like, we know the place really well.

Most of us would agree that a water lily flower is a thing of beauty, yet it is also ephemeral; it’s here today, gone tomorrow. Living things are all like that, from the tiniest bacteria to the largest blue whale. Life makes up for temporary fragility by it’s abundant reproduction and ability to adapt to new opportunities. Life is amazing!

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Image of the day – 2

Come on mate, get preening! How do you expect to find an attractive female robin with scruffy, untidy feathers like that?

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image each day, or as often as I can; a photo I took, an image from Wikipedia, NASA, or some other open source, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy. This is the second in the series.

The robin at Pretty and Pip

Pretty & Pip is one of my favourite coffee shops in Cirencester. I wrote ‘the robin‘ because he’s always there, in their lovely courtyard. If I didn’t know the guy that owns and manages this place I might even think the robin ran it! He certainly thinks he belongs there, and he does a pretty good job of picking up cake crumbs and generally keeping the place spick and span.

But come on mate, get preening! How do you expect to find an attractive female robin with scruffy, untidy feathers like that?

Favourites

For convenience, here’s a list of my favourite images:

Anemone, Cloud, Honeybee, Hydrangea, Kiftsgate1, Kiftsgate2, Large White, Mugshot, Nelson, Robin, Rose, Spilhaus, Sunset1, Weston beach

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Image of the day – 1

The demolition of a famous old landmark, the ‘Air Balloon’ pub.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m going to post an image each day, or as often as I can; a photo I took, an image from Wikipedia, NASA, or some other open source, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy. This is the first in what may become a long series.

Roadworks on the A417, at the Air Balloon Roundabout

The scarp slope of the Cotswolds is steep, and roads usually have to twist and turn to reduce the slope to acceptable levels. A new section of dual carriagway is being built near the village of Birdlip, to complete the link from the M4 near Swindon to the M5 near Gloucester.

It’s involved the demolition of a famous old landmark, the ‘Air Balloon’ pub, and the amount of rock being moved is astronomical. All of this to smooth out a course for the new road that will let it make the 300 m climb in one, long, sweeping bend. The completion date is estimated to be Spring 2027.

Cirencester

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Cirencester area images:

A417 roadworks, Advent Market, Bishops Walk, Baunton, Canal 1, 2, Castle Street, Christmas lights 1, 2, Church 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Churn flood, Countryside, Fallen tree, Fleece, Gasworks, Gloucester Street, Hare 1, 2, Hospital, Market Place 1, Phoenix Fest, Riverside Walk, Stone plaque, Stratton Meadow, Tank traps, View, Wonky 1, 2, Yellow Iris

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!