Realms of Gold

“Nature” closed my usual road home with flooding today, but also gave me a nice sunset for my (extended) drive home! #DailyNature #Cheshire #UKCountryside

Thank you for the mention!

extreme close up, blurred, of a kingfisher. I didn't take this today, but I took it (a while ago) at roughly the same spot on the canal.

Afternoon walk. #DailyNature.

The lane, the stream, the bridge at the canal,
A hedge of trees, the towpath and a flooded field.
Briefly a Kingfisher
Bursts through from another world,
Is everything for a moment, then gone.

Autumn leaves (in focus) with a small brook (out of focus) in the background.

#DailyNature day 7. Sometimes in life you can choose what to focus on. Sometimes you feel you have no control over that. Sometimes everything seems to be in focus, sometimes nothing. But with a fancy phone and an understanding of your f-stops, of course, it’s all OK.

In the end
It will not be the north face of the Eiger
Or a battle with your nemesis
That finishes you off,
But emptying the kitchen bin
Or trying to pull off an awkward sock,
Or the guilt when you remember you forgot to send
A thank you letter to a now-departed friend.

#poem

Indeed... fractal Nature. I think I made a video about that, onetime, too, ha ha!

A few teaser-tasters:

YouTube video by peterknightgeography Planetary context tutorial/revision exercise

Pondering the #DailyNature challenge, with so many facets to nature at so many scales all around us, I remembered a video cartoon I once made for students about how a lot of Earth's "nature" derives from the planet's astronomical context youtu.be/i6K_N9lk3Z8?... day & night, seasons, sun's energy...

ooh hang on I'll have to go and look that up!

Ha ha yes - the opening shot of the movie!

A summertime view of hedgerows, trees and fields on the lane where I live.

This photo isn’t from today, but it’s a much more cheerful view of my local countryside than I would have captured in today’s cold, grey wind and rain so I’m cheating a bit using it for today’s #DailyNature. Will try harder tomorrow!
#Cheshire #countryside

Ha ha yes!

Thank you!

A crow on the branch of a dead tree silhouetted against the full moon.

The #FirstbirdOfMyDay was Mr Tawny Owl, as usual, but I didn’t spot him in the dark so here’s the first bird I was able to get a photo of. Only on the phone so poor quality, but here’s a Crow nicely silhouetted against the setting moon just before dawn.

#DailyNature day 4. Snapshots from an evening stroll to the mere in our village. Sunset reflected in calm water to a soundtrack of hundreds of jackdaws settling down to roost for the night in those trees on the other side of the water.

Photo: Moss growing on along the window seal of my car.

For today’s #DailyNature I’ve gone micro… this is moss growing in the groove at the bottom of the driver’s-side window of my meticulously maintained car. The moral? Perhaps that nature always wins in the end.

A somewhat eclectic driving-home playlist coming up from my favourites this afternoon. #Music. Carrie Newcomer, Avril Lavigne, Pete Atkin and Bjork.

We start early & before dawn our ears tell us as much about our surroundings as our eyes do. This Tawny Owl did try to help, though, putting himself in silhouette against the pre-dawn sky. With sound on you’ll hear him calling, too. #DailyNature
Sorry 4 quality: he was far away & I only had phone.

Because we start early, the #FirstBirdOfMyDay is usually heard but not seen. Today, however, Mr Tawny Owl put himself in clear silhouette against the pre-dawn sky where we could see him as well as (if you turn your sound on) hear him!

ha ha it's funny but I actually thought the opposite... I like the one on the left!

Along the canal before dawn.

#FirstBirdOfMyDay First it was Mr Tawny in the pre-dawn darkness: "Who Wh... Wh... Whoo?" Then a few minutes later Mrs Tawny doing a flypast along the canal "Mee Mee Mee!" She startled a Wood Pigeon from his tree, who flapped and clapped his way into the darkness, woken prematurely and disgruntled.

I can do you a first line: "We each have our own skies. And our own yesterdays." I'll let someone else punctuate it...

Thank you!

A view across fields, past some scattered village buildings, towards a low hill in the background.

For my first post to December’s #DailyNature challenge, a picture of my village to remind me that daily nature doesn’t necessarily need an expedition into the wilderness. Whether you live in town or, like me, in the countryside, nature is to be found in small corners as well as big landscapes.

Two of yesterday’s skies. Which would be a good title for a book. #sunrise #sky #GoodMorning #Cheshire

Early-morning walk along the canal in the mist. Good morning from Marbury. Llangollen Canal, #Cheshire.

Me holding a tiny piece of chalk just a millimetre or two long.

Let no one say I am not frugal… I’m still getting some life out of this now-tiny piece of chalk that I use for writing down when I have cleaned, or next need to clean the fish. #economy #frugal

“Who, who who are you?” Says the Tawny Owl, wondering what we are doing up so early! #FirstBirdOfMyDay

photo of the face of my new watch.

I posted a new short blog entry at petergknight.wordpress.com/2025/11/27/m... It's about a watch I was given more then 50 years ago, and another that I bought this week.

Another section from Titus Groan (Mervyn Peake) that I marked up as I read it. #Booksky #amreading #highlights