The mid-winter solstice is almost upon us.
Pied shag looking miserable on an old pile
Logic suggests that as the days get longer after that, the weather should improve and summer is on its way. Experience, however, dictates that there is an elasticity to the season. The weather will continue to get worse for a month or so and will reluctantly reverse its antisocial behaviour long after the geometry of the seasons would suggest. And for now there is persistent rain, strong winds, flooding and other kinds of unpleasantness. Some of us, like the shag on the post above, just hunch our shoulders and stay as warm and dry as we can manage.
Almost monochrome
The season has its fleeting compensations. Except on very rare occasions, Wellington is too far North to experience snow, so wet grey days are the norm. But if you look, there is beauty to be found even in such conditions. The shot above is from Motukaraka Point, looking Eastward in the same area as the beautiful mirror conditions I photographed just three or four days ago. I love the shades of grey (no reference to soft-porn novelists intended) . No kingfishers are visible.
Overdose of sugar
At the end of the day, conscious of my largely empty basket for the day, I experimented with my new macro lens. The subject matter would horrify some of my athletic and ascetic younger relatives, but at least it was colourful. A packet of Liquorice Allsorts ooze sugar, but they helped me to learn the weird focusing mechanisms of this lens.
That’s all for now.
