31st January

What a difference a day makes,
twenty-four little hours
brought the sun and the flowers
where there used to be rain...…..

After yesterday's beautiful sunny day today we have been treated to very cold, wet rain., no snow for us (well not yet anyway). So I decided to go back and take the "gloomy" opposite to yesterdays blip, as an extra for today.

The second extra was taken by the Living Coasts and looks along Haldon Pier with waves crashing over the sea wall, it looks pretty rough out there. Only saw 1 turnstone there today the rest probably sheltering nearby. By now I was starting to get cold and the water had already soaked through my shoes to my socks and feet, knew I should've worn my walking boots.

On my way back towards the town centre I took a few shots of the bridge, some of the lights were on, so I decided to put it into mono with a bit of selective colour. It is best view in the larger format, just click on the picture to enlarge it.

I needed to get a bit of shopping on the way home so I decided to grab a couple of shots as I walked back up through town. I love the way the shops lighting and signs reflect on the wet road and footpaths.
My blip for today's "Abstract Thursday" was of a sign on the footpath denoting it was for pedestrians AND cyclists, click 31st January to see it.

30th January

What a beautiful day we've had here in Torbay today, apologies to all those who have been suffering the snow. We had a few hailstones early this morning but by midmorning the sun was out.
After yesterday's near failure to grab a blip I had told myself I was not to miss out today. Had a course appointment this morning and once that was done it was home for some lunch, coffee and a quick "plan of action" decision - wide angle lens, ND filter and tripod to grab a long exposure shot in the town centre. However it was too busy and I found no inspiration for a shot, maybe another day.
So I headed on down to the harbourside where I spotted this cormorant resting on the slipway of the inner harbour, it allowed me to take several shots getting to within about 20 feet of it, but watched me closely ready to disappear at the first sign of danger. Once I'd got my photo I left him alone to enjoy the peace.
I then carried on around to the other side of the harbour taking a few photos here and there including this one of Torquay taken from Haldon Pier. In editing I have recreated a picture I created a few years ago.

 Looking out into the bay and out to the channel I could see several ships at anchor either sheltering from recent bad weather or like these two simply waiting for orders, nearby Brixham is the last pilotage port before ships leave the English channel.
Further on back towards the D-Day slipways I spotted this Turnstone looking for food. I've started carrying a little bag of wild bird seed when I go out taking photos, mainly for the robins and other small birds, so I scattered a small handful towards him, which he appeared to enjoy. I was half expecting the lesser black-backed gull sitting atop a nearby lamppost, watching enviously, to swoop down and nick the seeds, he didn't. What I wasn't expecting was for 6 or 7 of this fellas mates to join him, so I scattered a bit more seed which they soon devoured.

 At the landward end of Haldon Pier is Living Coasts which is home to some surprising and perhaps unexpected residents of Torquay. Todays Blip was a sunset shot of Torquay Town Marina and can be view by clicking this date 30th January.

29th January

Well after attending a training course this morning, then back home to grab some lunch, out again to the launderette to do my washing, 5 o'clockish came round pretty quickly and I hadn't got a blip. Daylight was rapidly disappearing so too late to go out again, I had started getting some bits together in preparation of making some bread and butter pudding, spotted the container of mixed fruit beside the scales and grabbed the camera, click, click, click I now had a blip for 29th January. Kettle on for another quick coffee whilst I finish prepping the bread and butter pud and ohh click, click, click an extra for the blog, yeahhhhh!!!!!!!!

Lets hope for a better tomorrow, maybe some snow. Hmmmm.

28th January

When I set out this afternoon I never expected to taken over 200 photos, don't worry I'm not going to post them all here. Some shots were multiple shots bracketed for blending for HDR, and others were multiple shots in case movements.
To see todays blip click 28th January.

The first two extras are of the water wheel on the side of the old mill house at Cockington, Torquay. These are actually the same photo, one converted to mono which do you prefer? I couldn't decide (use the "comment" link at the bottom of this post to let me know). The shot below is another mono of a religious building this one is of Cockington Church, unlike yesterdays this one is still in use.

After leaving Cockington I headed towards the seafront intending to stop at a couple of locations to grab some bird shots as today was the last day of the Great British Bird Count. Todays birds are a robin, magpie with a lovely green tail and two swans. One appears to be admiring itself in it's reflection and the other seems to be a bit coy.

Not satisfied with my haul so far I greedily set off for more, the sun was starting to set on what had been a quite nice day so I went for some beach shots, loving the reflections in the wet sand. I spent quite a while here taking shots from various angles as the sun set, but as the sun went down so did the temperature and I had to pack up and head home for a hot cup of coffee to warm up.

27th January

Last Sunday I posted a blip of the abandoned chapel in Chapel Woods in Torquay intended for the "Derelict Sunday" challenge but stupid me I forgot to add the relevant tag. So today I headed back as it's only about a 10 minute walk away, passed a couple of dogwalkers on the way through the wood but otherwise it was deserted. The chapel is the "Chapel of St. Michael" and is believed to date from the 13th or 14th century.

After taking several photos of the building from different angles I packed up and set off down through the wood in the direction of the seafront to grab a few bird shots for day 2 of the Great British Bird Count, taking a few extra shots as I left, including this shot of the steps leading the way up to the chapel (fortunately I had to come down these).

I only have two bird photos for today as it was pretty windy and cold near the seafront. There was no sign of the buzzards although I think I heard one of them as I was leaving to come home. Even the robins usually by the duck pond stayed out of sight and weren't tempted by food. The two extras which I believe are a goldfinch and a great tit (or is it a blue tit) were taken on a little footpath near Torquay train station. See todays blip here 27th January.

26th January.

After a minor technical error (OK so forgetting to replace the memory card is a bit more than a minor error) whilst trying to capture a tree full of magpies, about 20 or so, and a couple of showers, during which I grabbed todays blip, click 26th January to see it, I set out to take more photos.

As it's the Great British Bird Count this weekend I've decided that most if not all the extras will be of birds. So here's todays selection. En route to the seafront and duck ponds I passed these sparrows in the first pic I think we can see the views on Brexit of these two, they're clearly......sitting on the fence. The young sparrow in the second shot is biting off a bit more than he can chew.

As I continued my wanderings I spotted a rather forlorn looking pigeon, huddled up in tree and this lovely little robin by the duckpond,  I must confess to scattering a little seed food to attract him.

Heading along the seafront I passed a couple of crows the first creating a great reflection on the wet sand. The second proving that not all vandals are juvenile delinquents, I caught him tearing up the grass around the edge of the bowling green. As the wind started increasing and the rains threatened again I turned for home, on doing so I passed this pair of lesser black-backed gulls, not even they wanted to fly today.

25th January

Well I've made it to day 25 of the Blipfoto 2019 365 challenge and surprising myself with the photos I'm taking. Birds, birds and yep more birds. Have I mention yet that I am not a twitcher (birdwatcher, feathered friend observer or ornithologist) ? I have just checked and realised that I have posted photos of about 20 different birds spotted around Torquay, and I know there are quite a few more to spot.

But there are no birds today, as it's Flower Friday. I'd set out with the intention of not taking any phots of birds and was struggling to find any flowers worth taking a photo of, then I spotted a beautiful two-toned fuchsia which become my blip for today, 25th January. Nearby was the bush in the first "extra" but I don't know what it is (I'm not green fingered either lol) and the second "extra" is of a Primula (or is it a Primrose).

Sadly only the two extras today because shortly after taking these it clouded over and started to rain, as I needed to pop into town to grab a couple of things I decided to head home.

24th January

WOW!!! What a way to be spoilt, get given an option for the days challenge that leaves so many doors open. The option for "Abstract Thursday" was "Texture", I didn't know where to point my lens first, the "bubble wrap bag" on the shelf (my eventual choice for my blip), the mushrooms or onions I was preparing to put in a sausage casserole or the tree bark (so many different types) and that's not even scratching the surface of the depth of possibilities. 

So here's the extras the first four are the afore mentioned mushrooms and onions. Below are two different types of tree bark the first is a palm tree, the second I'm not sure what tree it is the third shot below is of a rather vicious looking palm tree.

As well as the photos for the "Abstract Thursday" challenge I managed to grab a few bird shots. I had wandered down to the area where I have seen a pair of buzzards recently and sure enough there was one sitting atop a lamp post. Managed to grab a couple of shots before he flew off, I think he's a bit camera shy as I followed him around landing on various treetops, but as I pointed the camera and was about to press the shutter release, he'd fly off. The last shot is of a blackbird peeking out from the top of a hedge.

Click to go to my 24th January blip.

23rd January

Many thanks for the well wishes and messages of sympathy following my challenge to the laws of gravity yesterday. The shoulder is still a bit stiff and sore but not as bad as last night, it's a little bit of a struggle lifting my arm to shoulder height, but hey ho there are others worse of than me.

So on to the photography, as today is "wide Wednesday" I headed back to the seafront area with my 10 - 20 mm attached. My first extra is a wide angle shot of Torre Abbey Sands leading round to Torquay harbour. The steps in the foreground is where I took my tumble yesterday (the step I slipped on is the one above the top green covered one, it's dry today but wasn't yesterday).

The second shot is a HDR "fish eye" shot of Torbay taken on Corbyn Head, Torquay. The headland on the right of the centre of the shot is Berry Head, Brixham and to the left of the centre is Natural Arch just outside Torquay harbour.

On Corbyn Head there is a memorial to the "Volunteer Army 10th Battalion Home Guard, Torbay" and in particular to a group of men killed in action, I believe it was when one of the guns stationed on the headland exploded during a practice session. This is that memorial to six brave men, on the railings just visible in the background there is a collection of knitted poppies the other pic here is just a small number of them.

As I headed down onto Corbyn Sands to continue on to Torre Abbey Sands, where I took the photo of where I had my slip, I spotted this turnstone. He was so engrossed in hunting for tasty morsels among the seaweed that he didn't notice me approach and spend about 10 minutes taking photos of him. This shot was taken using my 70 - 300 mm zoom at about 235mm, I was only about 6 feet from him. Then walking along the prom on Torre Abbey I spotted this declaration of love, don't know who Ian or 'H' are or when it was done.

 Click to see 23rd January's blip.