Nature

Integration

Image | | andy townend

if there’s anything more important than my ego around, i want it caught and shot now
― douglas adams, the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy

i am
        all these things
                       growing
                             struggling
                                      learning

i am
  none of these things
                     (insert list here)

i am
  like you
         and you
               and you
                     and (yes),

             you

i am
  a
   work in progress
                  watch this
                           space
                               to learn


who
  i
  am

all bunched up inside

blowin’ in the wind

reach for me

what lies behind

overflowing with emotion

bursting out

call my name

phone home before it’s too late

palm me off

birthplace of hope

discarded memory

barking up the wrong tree

three energetic bodies

potted delights

*all images made with nikon d850 and nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 e ed vr lens, during a meditative walk along the (partially flooded) south bank of the thames on sunday, 30 march 2025*

poppies and other (dry) things

Image | | andy townend

People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

I have neglected my photography (and writing), and you my readers (those who may still be here) for a while.

So, on a hot (thirty degrees) late Spring day, I took off along the local track that always has a story to tell, each season offering a new and different tale.

Today that tale was of desiccated vegetation, and poppies, just past their prime.

*all images made with Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8E ED VR lens*

ribera del rio

Image | | andy townend

“What a strange thing!
to be alive
beneath cherry blossoms”
― Kobayashi Issa, Poems

A follow up to my last post featuring more photos captured during a walk along the banks of the river Tormes in Salamanca…

*All images with Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8E FL ED VR lens, and some glorious February sunshine!*

Dark Christmas

Image | | andy townend

cold earth sleeps
underneath a flaming northern sky
the snowy trees gently weep
– dark christmas, tarja

*…images made with Nikon D850 and AF Micro Nikkor 105mm f2.8 lens*

misty meanderings

Image | | andy townend

Flowers scattering –
The water we thirst for
Far off, in the mist

– Kobayashi Issa

*images made with Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikon 35mm 1.4G lens*

summer’s almost (but not quite) gone

Image | | andy townend

Give me a land of boughs in leaf
A land of trees that stand
Where trees are fallen there is grief
I love no leafless land
― A.E. Housman

At this time of year, I tend to drop my vinyl copy of The Doors’ Waiting for The Sun on the platter and listen to Summer’s Almost Gone.

It is 7 October, after all.

Except, on this specific 7 October, it was 31C, in the afternoon. Not particularly autumnal.

There are some signs, in the photos (below), of the change in season. Some.

In other news, I have signed up for NaNoWriMo, so, from 1 November, and until 30 November, I will be attempting to write 50,000 words, and hoping at least some of them will make sense we will see what we will see…

If you are interested, I have tried writing here before…

Musings, very sporadically, out in the midday sun.

Random thoughts (or poems if you stretch a point) from lockdown in Accra in April 2020, am thinking of publishing these.

My first sustained attempt to write anything, Dark Side Thursday.

WordPress Writing 101 back in April 2015.

Be seeing you…

*Images made with Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8E FL ED lens*

analogue ghosts

Image | | andy townend

Faith is sleeping
Lovers in the end
Whisper we’ll be ghosts again

– Ghosts Again, Depeche Mode

*first (experimental) set of images made with Nikon F5 loaded with (very old) Ilford XP2 400 film, digitised with Nikon D850 and ES-2*

macro meanderings

Image | | andy townend

A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in –
what more could he ask?
A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

*All images made with Nikon D700 (well hello again, old friend) and AF Micro Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 lens (an old, new friend)*

and yet, and yet…

Image | | andy townend

tsuyu no yo wa
tsuyu no yo nagara
sari nagara
– Kobayashi Issa

*All images made with Nikon D850 and AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8E FL ED lens*