ROLLING HARBOUR GALLERY

RINGLET BUTTERFLIES AT OXBURGH HALL, NORFOLK

Published on July 22, 2013 by Rolling Harbour2 Comments

RINGLET BUTTERFLIES AT OXBURGH HALL, NORFOLK

A fine medieval, moated great house, dating from 1482 with additions – mainly Victorian – and renovations. It is now a National Trust property. There are small formal gardens, some well-planted borders with many bee- and butterfly-friendly flowers, a thriving kitchen garden, and large areas of grassland and meadow all around the house. There’ll be more from this house in due course; for now, here are some ringlets, one of several plentiful butterfly species. Apologies to the ones caught in flagrante delicto, not that they noticed…

A SECOND BUNCH OF FLOWERS FROM DORSET

Published on July 19, 2013 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

DORSET BEES, WILD HONEY & A RED SUNSET

Published on July 17, 2013 by Rolling Harbour2 Comments

GETTING TO GRIPS WITH A CANTERBURY BELL

IF THE CAP FITS…

WHAT ARE THESE ‘HOVER-WASP’ GUYS CALLED? I only noticed the gleaming gold thorax after downloading the photos

WILD BEES IN A WOODPECKER NEST BOX, ABACO, BAHAMAS

This year we had West Indian Woodpeckers using 2 nest boxes under the eaves.This successfully diverts them from drilling into the woodwork of the building. They raised two families this season, with 3 chicks fledging each time. Another nest box on a tree in the drive was not to their liking, and was quickly colonised by wild bees. The nearest small apiary – there are only two I know of on an island 120 miles long – is 15 miles away. These bees will never have known the luxury of a hive. I doubt they’d need or want it…

I photographed this sunset from our garden in Dorset a couple of evenings ago. In reality it was more dark pink than red, but by simply zooming directly at it the colour was altered dramatically. The second image is a simple crop of another photo taken seconds later, as the banding became clearer as the sun sunk below the horizon. It looks more like a planet. [NB No P/shop]

MEADOW BROWN BUTTERFLY ON LAVENDER, DORSET

Published on July 13, 2013 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

TWO HISTORIC LIGHTHOUSES

Published on July 9, 2013 by Rolling Harbour2 Comments

The two lighthouses shown below are renegades from the LIGHTHOUSES section under the THEMES heading, to which they are linked if you want to know more (or to view lighthouse interiors, a bit of a specialist preference). But you may well just be content to cast a glance at these images, and move on… The sea in photo 3 really is that colour in the sun.

HOPE TOWN LIGHTHOUSE, ELBOW CAY, ABACO

For a detailed description of Abaco’s iconic striped lighthouse CLICK HERE

HOLE-IN-THE-WALL LIGHTHOUSE, ABACO, BAHAMAS

For a detailed description of this remote and near-defunct lighthouse station CLICK HERE

WHITE-TAILED BUMBLEBEES (Bombus lucorum), DORSET

Published on July 2, 2013 by Rolling Harbour2 Comments

MIDSUMMER SUNSET, DORSET (FROM THE ORIGINAL…)

Published on June 30, 2013 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

A BUNCH OF FLOWERS FROM DORSET (2)

Published on June 27, 2013 by Rolling Harbour2 Comments

Here’s a second bunch of flowers from a Dorset garden in June. Those few who kindly sniffed the first bunch may have wondered why none was labelled. That’s because, for most of them (apart from the obvious ones) I have no idea of the names. Or did once, but have forgotten them. And for familiar ones, I feel putting “Pink Rose” isn’t much help if you really want to know if it’s a Rosaflora Grandiloquens “Dame Edna Everage” or not. If I name 2 or 3 but not the rest, it still looks a bit… wrong. So it’s just ‘flars’, as Eliza Doolittle might say.