I can't believe it is the fourth time I've been out to record the year in the local area. Easter Sunday seems to have come very soon after Christmas. How did that happen? But April the 5th also coincided with a very pleasant day of warm temperatures. In deed by mid afternoon it had reached 15 degrees, warm enough to make me throw caution to the wind and expel the vest.
Interestingly although the countryside is now really changing, daffodils, magnolia and camellia all in full bloom, hedges greening up, still my images fail to show much in the way of changes. What changes are noted are subtle, but that is the way of the Wheel of the Year, it takes a long time to turn. In mid summer it is hard to imagine what it is like in mid winter, and vice versa. Yet each is only 180 or so days apart. That said I am enjoying this photo project more than many over the years, and so to April images then...........
I arrived in the middle of the Easter Sunday service at the village, annoyingly there was a car right in my view, but as this project is what I see at my chosen point upon arrival, it is in vision.
The rooks are still doing well in the field
Three horsewomen can just be seen on the right hand bank. It was a glorious day and seemed to bring everyone out.
Except at the church which was as ever, silent save for birdsong and bees
Possibly with hindsight I should have chosen a different view here, not sure it will change at all in 2015
Interestingly the river has almost become weed free. Presumably the water coming off the Mendip Springs is now quite cold and so weed growth is stagnant.
Still no blossom on the orchard
As I set up to take this image a lot of cyclists passed by - ahhahh I thought this is an opportunity for some movement. Sadly once ready the place was deserted. Blackthorn blossom the only sign of change then...
Impossible to see but Thatchers cider orchard trees were just coming into bud, blossom a long way off - next month maybe?
I had to stop photographing in the morning then pop out in the evening to finish off. The bridleway was once again the wrong direction for the sun, but one thing that's obvious is the field is beginning to grow.
The barn looking moody (almost impossible to get the light levels right facing the sun)
Woodspring Priory in late sunshine
Sand Bay in late sunshine
Back to morning images, blue skies and warm at the post box
Farmer Green can be seen going into his barn here. I had a chat with him after taking this. Sadly he's coming out of dairy farming this year. there used to be 12 dairy farms around here 10 years ago, today just 2. And when he stops at Christmas, and turn over to beef, that'll leave just one left. Sadly too his pedigree dairy herd is being mated with a Limousin bull, so the pedigree line ends this year.
My record of this farm then is really a record of an end of an era. He'll retire soon and said his son will build a farm further away from the road, new bigger buildings and sell these traditional buildings for housing. Small farms just can't make a living now.
A bit of ditch clearance has happened since my last visit.
Sunshine and shadows on the Ebdon Bow bridge
