Summer in Willeskop Nature Reserve

Hollandse IJselpad Sign

A little bit of watery delight in the Green Heart of the Netherlands Willeskop Nature Reserve invites one in.

We gazed across the lake at the hundreds of water birds while a pair of hen harriers wheel overhead.

The path leads us through trees and dozens of red admiral butterflies most hiding in plain sight as they merge with the tree bark.

Past wild flowers the bright light of high summer making a large white butterfly almost transparent.

Greylag Goose

The lake comes into view again

If you live in a land flat as a pancake then build your own viewpoint. A tower to take in the polder landscape

Irresistible to visit

Yes you can see for miles and miles

Wave to the dog walkers.

Return to earth and cross over to the other side of the lake

We were fascinated by the integrated step stile on the gates.

Enjoy the shade of the trees

Try to pass by a pair of swans taking their ease on the path with their lone chick, one swan hisses a scary warning. I would guess they have lost all their other offspring so of course highly protective of their only child. Eventually they take to the water and we continue on our way.

Go over a bridge

and yes another one

This is a one way bridge for the farmer to gain access to his fields.

These cows were mooing to their compatriots two lines of water away

Who were calling back, probably wishing there were cow bridges.

The polder windmill at rest no raging torrents to move.

Our enjoyable nature walk now comes to an end.

Blue Tailed Damselfly

A blissful time in the polder landscape.

Willeskop Nature Reserve footpaths 

Tour of Britain Stage 6 Roll Out in Barrow

Tour of Britain Posters

Sweeping the streets on Thursday getting ready for the Tour of Britain.

The statue in Schneider Square has been decorated in readiness.

Henry Schneider dressed in green. Is he impressed?

Friday arrives and this police man was kept busy directing three lanes of traffic,  his piercing whistle was almost as loud as his shout at dozing motorists to get them moving.  Nearly time for him to move off as the helicopter appears overhead and the other bike marshals power down Roose Road.

  Here comes the main event.

Katusha Alpecin, Dimension Data and Direct Energie

This was the point I realised I hadn't put a sports mode on my camera - so slow, ergh, unlike the whizz of racing bikes heading for the coast road and the racing.

Direct Energie and the other team cars roll on past and we move off the windy corner. 

Spring Butterfly

The first butterfly of the year one sees is supposed to tell what type of summer is in store for us all.  A yellow butterfly will forecast a long hot summer but alas it seems as though it might not be what we will experience as my first sighting was of this Small Tortoiseshell taking sustenance from the catkin nectar of a Goat Willow.  It is a pretty sight and deserves its Latin name of Aglais urticae (urticae meaning 'nettle' as the stinging nettles is where it will usually be seen) but Aglais, meaning splendor, was one of the Three Graces, admired for her beauty and is the personification of grace and beauty.  I can just imagine our Small Tortoiseshell flitting around this Spring garden 

By Sandro Botticelli - http://www.googleartproject.com/collection/uffizi-gallery/artwork/la-primavera-spring-botticelli-filipepi/331460/, Public Domain, Link

which shows the Three Graces on the left as imagined by Sandro Botticelli in his painting 'Primavera' or Spring with Flora the goddess of flowers in the floral dress sowing her magic.

Zebra Art

A zebra glistens under the arches and is the creation of the Michael Joo which he called "Stubbs (Absorbed)" which is a reference to George Stubb's portrait of a zebra , an animal which was kept in the British royal family's menagerie after it was gifted to Queen Charlotte.  Joo was struck by the zebra's incongruous English countryside setting in the painting.

It may not be obvious in my photographs but Joo's zebra has a highly reflective surface which is meant to absorb the external environment of the sculpture and he says he would love to exhibit it in a forest.  Stubb's 1763 portrait was so detailed that zoologists from a later century could identity it as a Cape Mountain Zebra, the smallest of the species.

The mountain zebra was the choice of another artist so it must have been why Jonathan Kingdon's "Hartmann's Mountain Zebra" was placed nearby. There is a bit of a scientific dispute as to whether the Cape and Hartmann are two similar distinct species or the same one. The person to ask would definitely be Jonathan Kingdon for not only is he an artist and sculptor but also a zoologist and science author. It was while putting together his 'An Atlas of Evolution in Africa' that he asked himself the question - what are zebra stripes for? He continues "After months and years of observation in many parts of East Africa and quantitative experiments with painted stripe panels I concluded that stripes, for zebras, had become a sort of bonding device... served to make any zebra attractive. An important quality in the progressive socialisation of a famous curmudgeonly mammal"

I like the sweeping mane on the sculpture and whatever the zebra stripes are for they are always mesmerising so here is the real thing - Hartmann's Mountain Zebra. 

By Yathin S Krishnappa - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at Z here

 

Xmas Star

I had nothing for this week's ABC Wednesday's Letter X until this shone into view on Saturday evening, an Xmas star. 

Well it must be said I could hardly miss as star standing 25ft high with 19,000 twinkling lights.

Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas and Winter Solstice 

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at X here

 

Water of Life

For the 900th Anniversary of the foundation of the Benedictine Abbey of St Werburgh in 1092 in Chester a sculpture was placed in the Cloister Garden of  what is now a cathedral but is where once monks walked and drew their water supply at the centre of the abbey.

The inspiration is the story of Jesus and the woman of Samaria  and a quote from the Gospel of John is inscribed around the outside of the plinth - Jesus said "the water I shall give will be an inner spring always welling up for eternal life"

The cathedral cloister passage windows can be seen in the background.

and the garden is as popular place to sit and walk as I imagine it was all those hundred of years ago for the monks. 

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at W here

 

 

Unknown

 Here is Ellis O'Connell's "Capsule for destinies unknown" (2017) and a little girl with a balloon is starting her own journey.  This object was in the grounds of Chester Cathedral as part of their ARK exhibition and O'Connell made a sculpture for the event that she thought was relevant to the idea of shelter and refuge in these uncertain times.  It references the refugee crisis and also the sale of arms to repressive regimes.  So it could be a torpedo or escape pod take your pick.  The start of the apocalypse or the escape from it.  The material is corrugated galvanised steel and polycarbonate sheeting and as she says "humble everyday materials often used to make temporary living spaces".

Or perhaps this object has brought visitors from another dimension for nearby

are two of Lynn Chadwick's steel Beasts. In the foreground, Rising Beast (1989) and Duttan's Beast (1990) named after one of Chadwick's friends.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at the letter U here