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As usual, we were away on holiday at New Year staying with family and family friends (about 20 of us in total). This year we were in Lincolnshire, a part of the world I had never really visited before. A very nice part of the world if a little, er... flat. Like really flat. Very odd given that I've spent nearly my whole life living in the Chilterns.
Despite the lack of undulation in the landscape, its a very down-to-earth part of the country with great people, some beautiful countryside, and nice towns. Lincoln in particular was brilliant- well worth a visit if you haven't been already. Being on the wash, there's also some fantastic nature reserves, one of which we visited whilst we were there.
I've included just a few of the photos I took during the week. The first few photos were taken at RSPB's Frampton Marsh Nature Reserve. These yellowhammers were feeding on the ground underneath the feeders at the visitor centre. Pictures taken through glass in poor light, so not very good (I'm getting too good at coming up with excuses for poor photography these days)!
We visited the reserve twice during the week. The second visit was late in the evening and we were lucky enough to see a gorgeous sunset- one of the best I've seen in years. I recorded a video just as the sun dipped below the horizon. It was a windy day so the background sound was horrible. As a result, I used one of Youtube's copyright-free tracks to add as background music. Couldn't quite find anything that fit the video, but this is the best I could do.
I also took a still image. For some reason, it seems as though Blogger has messed up the colours of this image when I uploaded it. The original picture shows the grass in the foreground as being much darker in colour than it is in the version you see below. Could be something to do with the compression of image files when they get uploaded but I'm not sure. The result is pretty horrible to be honest, but you probably noticed that the photo isn't even flat anyway, so I'm not too bothered.
And finally, here's a picture of a house sparrow which I actually took over the Christmas holidays that wouldn't really fit in any other posts.
Thanks for reading and I hope 2014 is a good one.
Once again, I've gone through one of those phases where I go from blogging nearly 10 times a month, to not posting anything in 6 months. I'm really, really bad at keeping things consistent on here.
Usually what happens is that something comes up that distracts me from blogging for a few weeks, e.g. exams, holiday, coursework deadlines, etc. After these few weeks of distractions, I become so used to not having blogging as part of my schedule, that I lose the drive and motivation to get it back in my routine.
I thought this through for a while today and started to think about motivation in general and how to keep an interest in something you enjoy. Having motivation for work or studies is totally different to maintaining motivation for a hobby such as a blog. With university work, and work in general, people are usually pretty motivated to get stuff done, because they know they have to get it done to get good marks/have a successful career. With something like a blog, there's nothing that forces me to keep up to date- it's completely down to me whether I keep up with it or not.
Its a strange one, because I enjoy blogging a lot, but the idea of getting started on a post is sometimes a daunting one. Anyone that writes a blog will know that a post can take the best part of two hours, sometimes more. And with work, social activities, cooking and other stuff thrown into the mix, the amount of time available to fit in hobbies such as blogging is often limited. But I know for a fact that I've still been able to fit blogging into my schedule if I've really wanted to- I proved that earlier this year.
One of the best things about blogging in my opinion is the sense of satisfaction when publishing a post, or taking the time to read other people's wildlife experiences from around the country. This applies to most things in life I think. The satisfaction after reading a book, watching a great film, going for a walk, etc. is all pretty similar in my opinion. It's just all about whether you have the determination to make the effort to do stuff like this often enough.
I wonder if anyone reading this has any ideas on how to motivate yourself, or how to manage your time? I'd be interested to hear what works for different people- I've still yet to work out what works best.
Anyway, enough of the Philosophy for now, I'm going to start planning a blog post for either tomorrow or Friday, depending on what the topic is. It's not likely to be anything too lengthy, just something to post to get things up and running again.
I'll leave you with this quote which I found earlier today which seems to sum things up suitably:
"When all is said and done, more is said than done"- Lou Holtz
Just another quick post to share some of the pictures I took whilst on holiday in Norfolk. This post has actually been written in April 2014, but has been published for August 2013, when the holiday actually was.
The flower below, discovered on a roadside verge on a walk is Centranthus ruber (Red valerian). I think I have the ID right here, although this particular plant must have been a young one because most of the descriptions and pictures I can find online seem to suggest that these flowers grow larger, with more flower heads than the one we found. Must thank the always useful Collins Flower Guide for help on this one.
Common blue butterfly at Cley Marshes on the north Norfolk coast (sadly the location where that US air force helicopter crashed earlier this year, killing 4 people).
And finally, a few pictures taken from the kitchen window of the cottage we were staying in. A small brown looking bird was foraging through the climbing plants on the trellis of the back garden. Wasn't convinced on the ID at first but eventually came to the conclusion that it was a juvenile whitethroat. Just strange to see one so close to the house we were staying. Probably the best view of a whitethroat I will ever get. Photos are just record shots really but you can clearly tell what the species is.
Actually quite disappointed I don't have more photos from this holiday. Norfolk's such a fantastic part of the world, and somewhere I've always enjoyed going on holiday to. Thanks for reading.
