Journeys of Heart and Mind

Old man’s beard

The seeds are not released until spring, and all winter long, these white ‘beards’ can be seen in Cotswold hedges, adding a touch of interest in an otherwise rather drab time of year.

< Previous | Index | Next >

Image 100 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

These are the seeds of Clematis vitalba or ‘Old Man’s Beard’. This plant grows abundantly in Cotswold hedgerows, tolerating the limey soils in the region. In the summertime it doesn’t stand out, but if you know what to look for you can see its characteristic leaves and its stems winding through hedgerow plants and the lower branches of trees. The flowers are quite insignificant too, unlike the Clematis in garden centres, bred for large and showy flowers.

But wild Clematis comes into its own in the autumn; the seeds are hairy, as you can see, enabling them to blow away in the wind. If they land in a suitable spot they will germinate, put out a shoot with leaves, and try to find some support to climb up. But the seeds are not released until spring, and all winter long, these white ‘beards’ can be seen in Cotswold hedges, adding a touch of interest in an otherwise rather drab time of year.

The colourful garden Clematis cultivars were once propagated by grafting onto the wild seedlings as they were not easy to root as cuttings. But these days cuttings are the norm; with modern rooting hormones and high humidity conditions they root and grow very well indeed.

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

< Previous | Index | Next >

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!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

Unlike the normal multicopter drones we’re all familiar with, this one has some mobility on the ground.

Legs and feet are important

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No – it’s RAVEN – the Robotic Avian-inspired Vehicle for multiple ENvironments.

What will they think of next? The Scientific Journal Nature published an article about this amazing contraption, a fixed wing drone with legs. Like a bird it can walk, hop, and launch itself into the air with a jump. Legs and feet are important.

Unlike the normal multicopter drones we’re all familiar with, this one has some mobility on the ground and, like all fixed wing vehicles, is more energy-efficient in the air. It can’t hover, at least not yet. Hummingbirds and kestrels can hover though, so who knows what some future development of RAVEN might manage?

Visit Nature to sign up for alerts, and watch the video in their article or below.

Useful? Interesting?

Groups and group size

As the group size grows, the dynamics change; ten to twenty people will chat together (like the group in the photo), though sometimes there will be more than one conversation going on.

< Previous | Index | Next >

Image 99 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

People like to sit in the sun and chat. Social interaction is central to human nature with group sizes anywhere between two and a hundred; more than a hundred becomes a crowd in which there are some people who don’t know one another at all. And the larger the crowd, the more anonymous the experience becomes.

Group dynamics

A group of two or three has the potential to be quite intimate; close friends who trust one another may share things they wouldn’t discuss more widely.

As the group size grows, the dynamics change; ten to twenty people will chat together (like the group in the photo), though sometimes there will be more than one conversation going on. Generally most people will have something to say; the intimacy is lost, but everyone has a chance to join in.

As group size increases beyond twenty, to say thirty or forty, it’s no longer possible for everyone to hear. If it’s an informal gathering, people will break into smaller groups to chat and often there will be a few left out, not engaging with others at all. Or if it’s a more formal gathering a chairperson may manage things and individuals will take turns to make their points.

Sharing food and drink

The people in the photo are eating and drinking together, this is helpful in getting a group to relax. Here, things are completely informal, but in more formal groups of this size or larger it may help to provide tea and coffee, or even a buffet. This relaxes everyone.

Right-sizing

If you are planning a group meeting for a specific purpose it’s beneficial to consider group size and how it affects things. Often we do this automatically, these group dynamics are so familiar that we don’t need to make any special effort to get it right. Sometimes it’s useful to break a big group up into smaller ones, sitting people at tables of six or so to make sure everyone is able to talk and interact while also being part of something bigger (perhaps with a speaker at the front from time to time). This enables a focus/discuss/focus/discuss dynamic which can be very useful.

When: 21st June 2024
Where: Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, England

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

< Previous | Index | Next >

Useful? Interesting?

Season’s Greetings 2024

Look at the world around you and you will see pain, loss, discouragement, guilt, and hard struggles for survival. But look at the world from just the right angle and you will see altogether better things.

This photo of the interior of Cirencester Parish Church reminds us of the dedication, hard work, and sheer skill put into building a church nearly 1000 years ago. That should stop us in our tracks and make us think – why go to so much effort?

Work on building Cirencester’s Parish Church of John Baptist began in the twelfth century. The chancel (where the altar stands) is the oldest part of the structure and replaced a previous Saxon Church, and perhaps a Roman one beneath that. Additions, alterations, repairs and improvements date to almost every century, the most recent change returning sculptures to two empty niches on the tower in 2019. It’s been a lot of work over a period of a thousand years.

Why? There will, of course, be many reasons. Wealthy townspeople have been willing to spend large sums of money from time to time, and masons, carpenters and other tradespeople will have worked for payment. Some people may have been motivated by their faith, others by a desire to contribute to something beautiful and special, perhaps some to say, ‘Thank you’, for answered prayer. We will never know the full detail, mostly we can only imagine.

But for me, this photo illustrates something quite different. My own understanding of Jesus’ teachings is that we have received a great treasure and should do whatever we can to share it freely with friends, family, neighbours, even enemies, with everyone who will listen. This is an altogether different kind of building work. We are raising a beautiful structure, not of stone and timber, brass and lead, stained glass, silver and bronze. We are building as Jesus builds, a structure of trust, love, grace and peace, of joy, precious thoughts, acts of kindness and caring, a work of self sacrifice, healing, truth, and acceptance. A drawing in as well as a raising up, a work that can always be extended further.

Am I good at it? No, not really. Only Jesus is truly good at this task. He came to reveal his Father, and to pour out his Spirit. And he told us (his followers, his apprentices) to carry on his work.

So, as a very small part of this task, I say to you my readers (if you are still reading at this point) whatever your faith, or religion or view of life, my wish for you, my prayer for you, is that these weeks as 2024 grows old, will be a time of growing peace in your heart. Life isn’t always easy, so my hope is that you will find something to smile about even in difficult times.

Here’s something I wrote last year, I’ll offer it up to you again now. More and more, the UK is a rich mix of people from many cultural backgrounds. That’s why the title is not ‘Christmas Greetings’. Please accept the greetings and replace the word ‘Season’ with whatever you like. If you’re Hindu you could choose Diwali as a reminder of your celebrations in October, or Jewish friends might go with Hannukah in December, if you’re Muslim you might look forward to Lailat al Miraj in February; Buddhists might consider Bodhi Day, and there are more groups of people I haven’t mentioned specifically. But whatever you celebrate, please take my greetings as a blessing for the whole of next year – spring, summer, autumn and winter.

And I apologise to my southern hemisphere friends whose new beginnings may come in June or July!

PS – If you like the photo, click the thumbnail for the full size version. Print it out, put it in a frame and hang it on the wall. Give a copy to friends if you think they’d like it; or send them a link to this message.

Other years

2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016

Forward look – Ukraine… – INDEX

(See indexes on other topics)

This is an index page, from here you can browse around all the articles in this series, or find a particular one you’d like to read.

Useful? Interesting?

Advent Market

Everything imaginable is on sale, delicious foods, jigsaws, Cotswold beers, British and French cheeses, hand-crafted items from socks to coasters, picture frames, baskets, and much, much more.

< Previous | Index | Next >

Image 97 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

This is Cirencester’s annual Advent Market, when streets in the centre of the town are closed to traffic for two days and market stalls appear in place of the traffic. Everything imaginable is on sale, delicious foods, jigsaws, Cotswold beers, British and French cheeses, hand-crafted items from socks to coasters, picture frames, baskets, and much, much more. There’s live music and it’s the time of year when the town’s Christmas lights are turned on for the first time.

Donna and I walked into town to see what was happening, we had sausage sandwiches and coffees for lunch at Hugh’s first, then walked around to check out the market stalls.

People love events like this, clearly. It was heaving with far more people than we usually see in town. All ages were represented, people came in from the local villages as well and it was so packed that it was sometimes difficult to see what was on display.

Here’s a short video clip to give you a sense of the atmosphere at the Advent Market. I had to hunt out a less crowded area on the fringe to record this!

When: 30th November 2024
Where: Cirencester Market Place

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

< Previous | Index | Next >

Useful? Interesting?

Photos in Nature

Scientific images are always informative if you are a specialist in that particular discipline, but they are often very attractive in their own right too.

Here’s a fine selection of amazing images, beautifully presented by the journal Nature.

The photos were included in their latest alerts email, you can sign up for free if you want to (link near the top-right of their home page). You won’t always receive a collection of images like these, but you will see science news stories with interesting individual photos included.

Scientific images are always informative if you are a specialist in that particular discipline, but they are often very attractive in their own right too. I’m sure you’ll agree if you look through the selection presented here.

Useful? Interesting?

A rose in the rain

Is a rose with raindrops on its petals any less beautiful than a rose with dry petals? No, in fact many would say it looks even better with a few raindrops on it.

< Previous | Index | Next >

Image 96 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet‘

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Juliet spoke these words of Romeo, his surname was a practical issue between rival families, but she loved him regardless.

Is a rose with raindrops on its petals any less beautiful than a rose with dry petals? No, in fact many would say it looks even better with a few raindrops on it. They emphasise its freshness, and they highlight its apparent fragility while revealing an unexpected robustness.

A rose in the rain is a lovely thing! I hope you like this one; I just had to take a photo. The cultivar is ‘Queen of Sweden’ and it was released in 2004 by David Austin.

When: 8th September 2024
Where: Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, England

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

< Previous | Index | Next >

Useful? Interesting?

Spilhaus projection

Quite beautiful in it’s own right, it provides a holistic view rather than focusing on one ocean at a time

< Previous | Index | Next >

Image 95 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

Sometimes, looking at things in a different way makes a world of difference (pun slightly intended).

This is a map projection much loved by oceanographers and other scientists researching related subjects such as marine life. It makes the world’s oceans the entire focus. Clever!

Athelstan Spilhaus invented this map projection; he was born in Cape Town in 1911 and worked at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, from 1936. In 1942 he began developing ways of mapping that would focus attention on the world’s oceans. This Spilhouse Projection is not the only result of his mapping work by any means, but it’s arguably the most impressive. Quite beautiful in it’s own right, it provides a holistic view rather than focusing on one ocean at a time.

When: 16th June 2023
From: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

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

< Previous | Index | Next >

Journeys of Heart and Mind

Old man’s beard

See also:

Favourites

Themed image collections

Useful? Interesting?

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

Useful? Interesting?

Groups and group size

Group dynamics

Sharing food and drink

Right-sizing

Favourites

Themed image collections

Useful? Interesting?

Season’s Greetings 2024

Other years

See also:

Forward look – Ukraine… – INDEX

Useful? Interesting?

Advent Market

See also:

Cirencester

Themed image collections

Useful? Interesting?

Photos in Nature

Useful? Interesting?

A rose in the rain

See also:

Favourites

Themed image collections

Useful? Interesting?

Spilhaus projection

See also:

Favourites

Themed image collections

Useful? Interesting?