doing without

[OT from cottage renovations]

having house guests two weekends in a row has been a treat.  last weekend earthyshadow came up from GA and this weekend The Professor was here from FL after a conference. 

yesterday's image posting was incomplete and I might as well admit that a couple of images didn't make it because I accidentally deleted them after having pulled them from the camera.  so after seeing The Professor off I headed over to the field to reshoot.  the penalty was: no light.  the compositions had been all about outline and shadow anyway but yesterday's blue skies were a very different background from today's moody grey overcast. 

(for best results, click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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hedgerow gap between upper and lower field

bittersweet

no leaves, no berries, no colour, no texture:  nothing but shape and form. 

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lower field

teasel

it's hard to miss teasel, the way it pokes up into the sky.  under normal conditions the most prominent features are the texture of its honeycomb tufts and the play of light between structure and shadow. 

take all that away and it's still worth a second and third look. 

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the fields are part of a tract that includes some woods, within which can be found the ruins of an abandoned house.  clumps of daffodils have come up along the creek at the bottom of the slope, vestiges perhaps of a former garden. 

on its grounds this small drama is playing out: a vine has snapped this twig from a tree, but on it pods have opened and seeds have scattered. 

upper field

paths runs along the N side of the hedgerow and around the perimeter of the lower field. 

this part of the upper field is not included in the portion we're trying to have preserved as legacy open space.