Birdsong

Aside from the above title being a most excellent war novel by Sebastian Faulks, it is also a truism of the current times we are living through . . . I know, it's really bizarre isn't it!

I don't know about you, so I can only speak for myself - I live in a City next to a busy road. Even at the back of the house, in our garden, the traffic noise is there most of the time, from the low drone, to the boy racer, buses trucks and lorries, to the upper, always there thrum.
Noise is something we never truly get away from unless we hit the wild spaces.
It can be incredibly silent on a mountain top; and especially when the wind dies down. it's an all encompassing quiet, tinted with the movement of air, and the thundering of your heart and the coarse old engines of your lungs; but it is something else too - it's a physical presence.
It's like, with nothing moving around, the air has stilled to its natural state - no thermals to lift it, no massed patterns of weather squashing and twisting.
None of that.
Silence becomes a state of being, and to be alone in that, far from the modern world, well, it's beyond my ken, and I can only say that everyone should be given the opportunity to experience it.

I guess that's why traffic noise gets me.
You really can't escape it - even in quiet, sleepy villages, there's always something whizzing along, cutting up the quiet and disappearing off into the distance.

And yet now, with the enforced shutdown of nearly every aspect of society due to CV, suddenly the traffic has stilled and it is bliss.

The birds have commandered the silence again, re-taking what had been theirs and filling it with a sweet song that says, no matter what, life in all it multifarious forms will go on, with or without us.

I find that wonderful.

So go on, go out on your Govenment-Approved Once A Day Exercise and see if I'm not right. Listen to those little chirpers, going for it like there's no tomorrow and relish it, because the world will revert back to its noisy old self and the silence and trills will seem like a distant memory.

OK, this is FB, so there's some photography going on, like it or not!

I couldn't find any pictures of birds, so instead went for the next best thing - places in the world that I have found peaceful!
Not that we've travelled much, but all the same, I think that, if you are open to it, peace can find you at all times.
Here's some of them:

Petit Sablon Afternoon

OK, this was taken with the Nikon F3 and f2.8 28mm CRC Nikkor - it's a great lens, and takes a lovely photograph. 

It's a detail of a fountain in the Petit Sablon Square in Brussels. 

A small but beautiful area of peace - yes there's traffice noise, but there's also birdsong and the rilling of water - highly recommended if you are ever there.

Petit Sablon Fence

Another detail from Petit Sablon, this time with the Sony A6000 sporting the 35mm f2 Nikkor 'O'. 

It's done a fab job I think, the colours are quite subtle.

De Kattenkabinet   - Spot The Cat

Same camera and lens, but a different place.

Amsterdam is nuts and even more-so these days, well, it was . . . . bet the locals, like those in Venice are relishing every moment just now.

Well, in amongst the bong-hunting, beer-swilling, neighbourhood-annoying youthful hordes, there is this - De Kattenkabinet. 

Basically a museum dedicated to all things feline and quite a delight actually (even if you don't like cats!). 

This is the garden at the back, inhabited by lots of sleepy cats and, incredibly, chickens. The songbirds are pretty fly there too - they keep themselves well above the cats and taunt them with song and flitting.

Hell of a place!

Abandoned Nets

Off the coast of Croatia there is a small archepeligo called the Elaphiti Islands. They're sleepy places, and really rather quaint and peaceful.

The above abandoned fishing net, was taken on Suđurađ, the quietest and sleepiest of the lot. Sony and 35mm Nikkor again . . . .

It is a wonderful island with groves and sleepy farmhouses and strange bits of junk lying about, and, of course, birds. There are some cars there, but mostly, it's the occasional whizz of a scooter that cuts the peace.
I'd love to go back one day.

When In Rome

They Really Do Follow You

When in Rome, do as the Romans do . . . stay off the streets at midday! It can get bloomin' hot, unbearably so actually, and of course, everyone wants to maximise their holiday so they're out and about in extreme temperatures.

So, what to do, when your (under)pants resemble kinked and knotted, skin-chaffing bits of soggy sandpaper? 

Yes, that's right - head to The Cimitero Acattolico, or The Non-Catholic Cemetery for Foreigners in Testaccio, Rome (to give it its full name).

It is the single greatest city space I have ever encountered.

Choc-full of incredible gravestones, some quite recent, it really is an oasis in the busiest City I have ever been in.

Lots of birds, and lots of graves like the above, which scared the bejeesus out of me - it's just there, lurking and staring directly at you no matter the angle you're at. 

Very weird.

The camera was The Ship's Anchor! The Nikon D300S and the 18-70mm f3.5-4.5 G AF-S DX.

Jings it was heavy, however (and despite no longer owning it) it rendered colours pretty well.

Gentrified Glen

When the Nikon went back, I got the Fuji X2-ES and 27mm f2.8. A fine get-up, but for someone raised on Nikon F's and Mamiya C330S's, as light as a gnat's fart. It developed a fault too, so went back and I hung up my digital improvements.

Anyway, this wonderful little place is besides Cambo house just south of St Andrews. It's a small Victorian 'improved' dell, with this wonderful burn running through it and a couple of small ironwork bridges. 

Dead peaceful and lots of birds.

Tribute To Eliot Porter

This was taken besides the Adriatic and is a Pie-Phone (Mk V, meat and potato) pic. There's flare, but somehow it reminds me of early LF colour photographs by a hero of mine Eliot Porter - think it is the format actually. Anyway, this wee walk was beautiful with birds, wild figs and the soft lapping of waves, mixed in with the gentle twanging of mankinis from the German tourists who liked to bathe there. 

Ah the sound of a twanging mankini . . . I'll say no more!

The Pool At The Centre Of The World

I think I've shown you this before - it's a loud little pool at the head of a Glen where you can go no further. 

Not much in the way of birds at such an elevation save the odd grouse and a few eagles, but peace ran out of the rocks and enfolded me. 

Again a heck of a place - and if the government don't restrict all outdoor activities I'll try and get back there whilst there's still some snow on the ground . . .

Camera was a 500C/M and a 150mm Sonnar - bliss.

Loch Tideline

Ah, this is a secret place of mine in the South Of Scotland - every time I have been there, it has felt like my own private playground and as such I intend to preserve its identity!
This was taken after a night of heavy rain and the loch level was starting to drop leaving this line of leaves.
The camera was my favourite 35mm camera  - a plain old Nikon F Photomic, made between August and October 1970. Heavy, clunky, but hand-holdable down to ridiculous speeds because of the weight.
Lens was a '71 or '72, 24mm Pre-Ai Nikkor - just an incredibly good lens.

Rocks, Pre-Rainstorm

Normally I wouildn't show my pants in public, but this is a scan off a contact print and I intend to print it soon. Again, a small walk in the mountains that is a bit off the beaten track.
The light was extraordinary as the heavyweight clouds muscled in from the left.
Camera was a 500 C/M and the lens was my 60mm Distagon.

Keeping The Magic In

Remember that secret place I mentioned with the Nikon? - this is close by. 

It is a (I believe un-noted by archaeologists) small hill fort. It has a spring on the top of the hill, and to my mind, any pre-historical era person would love to have somewhere easily defendable with a nice water-source too.

Not sure why I like this pic, but I do.

It's square and that holds it all together - 500C/M and 150mm Sonnar.

Oh and there's birds, normal small songbirds, and red kites, billions of them. Peace oozes from the ground and it has a real uncanny feel to it. 

The funniest thing to me, is that others must have felt it too - maybe it was a sacred grove? 

There's plenty of ancient trees (which had significant magical interest) all over the place. 

Curiously there's a Motte nearby too - the Norman's really liked to seize the local places of power . . more of that at the bottom.

Oh and it is surrounded by stone dykes and fields, yet has remained un-farmed . . are the walls keeping the magic in?

Fort Imperial Defences

Back to Dubrovnik. You are literally at the top of the City here as this is a section of the defences of Fort Imperial atop the hill of Srđ.

The Fort itself was built by Napoleon, and centuries later it became part of the resistance during the Battle For Dubrovnik.

I took a wee shifty here - don't think you were supposed to climb so high, but the fort was claustrophobic.

Plenty of birds here, their song taken away on the wind. peace was here too (strangely).

Camera: Sony A6000 and 35mm Nikkor. 

Aged Oak

Ah, another Norman-commandered site! 

I played here when I was young. 

It is a named SSI and is chocca with oaks that must be around or over 1000 years old. It is an extraordinary place with an extraordinary feel.

Lots of birds and a disquieted peace. as a family we always felt there was something weird and uncanny about the oaks, and I still can't place it. 

We tried to avoid it at night too.

This is another scan off a contact print   - needs to be properly printed.

Camera: 500 C/M and 150mm Sonnar.

Sunday Morning

I rediscovered this - it was taken with a Nikon F3 and a pre-Ai 28mm f3.5, which, the knowledgable amongst you will know was the lens that McCullin shot Vietnam with.

It is widely ignored these days (everyone want's the f2.8 CRC version because a load of net influencers say that is the one to go for) and as such is a total bargain. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, in fact I would say it takes a great photograph.
The above was morning sun through a hotel bathroom window. it was sunny (for a change) and the birds were out in tough little tweety gangs!
Peace suffused the air and me and the wee one had a wonderful weekend.

And that's it folks.
The end is nigh (if you believe everything you read) and whilst the privations might seem tough, I'll draw your attention to a little known shipwreck of a ship made in Dundee, the RV Strathmore.
You can read extracts from a passengers diary here on this link
Now that was tough.

TTFN, keep taking the pease-pudding and remember to add some carrots in too.