Station Road with Christmas lights still on

Went out early 6.30 a.m. for my usual Christmas day pix.

No-one around and easy to take sweep shots.

The lights had been switched off in the triangle but were still on in Queens Square and Station Road.

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Only problem in Queens Square was it was dark looking towards the supermarket.

No lights on in the Triangle but the street lights gave ample show. I reckon my Tamron 11-18 lens gives me around 210 degrees cover on a sweep. Might even be more but I have no way of actually reckoning it.

No Christmas lights in Hill Road but the street lights again were ample.

By 7.15 cars were getting active - or rather the drivers were - so I packed it up.

Orb spider repairing web

Amongst the Sony 350 JPG's was a set I had forgotten about. A Green Orb Spider Araniella cucurbitina  repairing its web that was suspended between fronds of the Honeysuckle.

I muast admit that I hate or at least dislike spiders but when they are little like this one I don't mind them so much. 

Hoverfly Sryphini taeniata ? 
No been corrected it is
a female Sphaerophoria scripta.

Making steady progress in editing and naming most of the DSLR 350 Hoverflies can be hard though. There are very good drawings in the book by Stubbs & Falk but some flies are so similar to others it is hard to be certain. Even though the drawings are as much as 3-4 times lide size some flies are so little that is still small on the page.This one for example is only 8.5 millimeters in life Luckily Barbol on Flickr ID Please was able to help with the correct latin name.

What is it?

I have at last started on a long delayed job of editing - deleting - and saving - a series of pix taken with my Sony A 350 back in 2008.

Just under 2,000 JPG's in 108 folders. Procrastination is a thief of time, as I have just realised. 

What I am doing is to whittle down the remnant of pix taken for use left in the files after the selection of pix required had been made. I have found several already that could have been edited and saved at the time.
However this one had been underexposed and was very dark. In order to see just what if was - I thought at first a piece of wood or dead leaf - I "Lightened shadows" with Elements 3 and saw that it is an insect of some sort.
I have put a request on ID Please in Flickr but wonder if it could be a Gatekeep or Meadow brown butterfly that had been caught by cow manure splash.
Answer from two people in ID Please, including Backeye. It is a Peacock butterfly Inachis io. I must try to find out why it is so splattered looking.

Clevedon early morning from Dial Hill Road

Went out early to see if the wind was enough to splash the tide. Nothing doing so I went on up to Dial Hill and got a pic across the beach to Wains Hill with the town spread across the pic.

M5 Early morning Mid December

Nice sky so after getting my paper I carried on out to the moor. M5 showed well but not against a background because I was taking North Easterly.

The house lights on Tickenham Batch came up OK and I tried experimenting with manual exposure. worked fairly well but better when I got down to the Blind Yeo.

Blind Yeo showing the morning sky.

The sky had reddened and reflected well. Wish I had got there earlier, but then I couldn't have taken any on the M5 bridge.

The usual Mallard drakes

Took a look down at the Blind Yeo in Stroud Road.

The mallards thought I was there to throw bread etc and lazily swam up to the water just below the bridge

The Little Gulls were not so sure and just stayed where they were on then bank until they could actually SEE food being thrown. 

I am sorry to say that both lots were disappointed. My scraps get thrown out onto the grass at the back of the flats for resident birds in my area.

Little Gulls waiting

Palm Sunday gallery

Struck lucky Tuesday when I went up through Nortons Wood Lane and across the moor.
I decided I would go on to Weston-in-Gordano and take some pix from the churchyard.
The wall at the back gives a lovely view across the valley.
I couldn't get into the porch so went back to the gate and took a view of the road.
Someone came along with the key and allowed me into the church.
They switched on the lights and showed me how to turn them off when i was done. I took a couple of shots and the battery was exhausted. I put the porch door on open and went to the car and got batteries and also my tripod.
Managed to get a pic of the percival monument and also the unusual pulpit built into the church wall. Then the gallery in the porch. I reckon there are not many left in existence and this one is fine, although I notice that "Health and Safety" have made them install a bar to it as well.
In medieval days it was customary to wed folk at the church door with the choir on the gallery and then after they were married to admit them to the body of the church.
This gallery is in excellent condition and sound enough to still be used, which it is every Palm Sunday.

The last bit of scaffolding

The last of the scaffolding has now been removed and all can be peace and quiet once more.

The only wooden bits left to paint were the roof edges and gable ends. All the rest is plastic. Walls were painted over and everything is neat and tidy again.