Andy Rodker's photos

My sister's shot in my Mums garden this week

I know she likes rock pools, especially Cornish ones! I hope this won't disappoint. I know it's hard to see any water here but in fact everything you see is covered by seawater; the light was so perfect and the air so still that you wouldn't know it was there! www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5jOJc851hQ I know the shot is Cornwall and the music vid is Spanish but what the hey!

Back in my sister's garden while, a tad ironically, she is in my parent's house in St Day where I have spent the last 7.5 months.

A colourful corner in Miranda de Castañar, Salamanca Province. Fond memories of an enjoyable holiday in La Sierra de Francia in 2016, full of the most delightful villages and scenery. Sight and sound; more Janis: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1043Jjb_JlA

It's such a striking plant that I don't feel three uploads is overkill!

A walk between medical appointments and I suddenly realised it was Thursday and time to think about finding an HFF shot! This walkway is sited on an old tramway, the tracks still appear here and there.

I had to leave before fully in flower.

Apricots are a few weeks behind this year but it's looking good for a bumper crop of the sweetest fruit imaginable! Go large for Spanish plain scenery.

These cover a long fence by the side of the road on my way into the town centre and the fragrence is heavenly (and not too cloying which sometimes occurs).

My Mum's garden again!

Proof that I'm back. The weather has been horrible apparently. No rain at all for months (and no snow at all last winter so no snow melt either). If you look at my shots from last May, it was green and lush. Now it's grey and drear. It doesn't augur well for water supplies, for agriculture, for cold showers at will on a scorching hot day, and for people's state of mind. Now Summer approaches and it never rains in Spain in Summer! As my brother-in-law said, as long as they prioritise the supply of water to the beer industry he's not bothered. Watched some but not all but made sure I heard Zadok the Priest. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm_PNbQebdA

Waiting for my train back to Bristol Airport. I should have saved this for a Friday but never mind! www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJtBWJS0v7s This just amused me. Sight and Sound.

Possibly I posted this a while back but this is a different angle and weather. Note how these stones are a mismatch of styles, Modern-ish at the top and industial tin and copper mining era (with the notches) below and the rest probably placed there long before. There are records of this path in the 13th century but it's likely to be far older than that. The stiles collapse from time to time (perhaps once every 300 years!) and you see local repairs making good as required!

I'll leave this one for you for now; I return to Spain first thing tomorrow morning. I have some more shots of this fave path of mine and will post them on and off together with new Spanish material. Felt like a bit of David Bowie; www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JahAw8IpNE&list=RD6JahAw8IpNE&start_radio=1 Sight and Sound

Uploaded at 23:59!!! Here it is at the very last second on Friday! It's a name I always forget but some luminaries are buried here. I'll add the appropriate info in a day or so; tomorrow I return to Madrid. Here we are, 3 days later: Panteon des Hombres Illustres. (Near Atocha). Jan 2020. Different times. We hadn't really heard of Covid 19 back then although now it's known that the laboratory leakage had already occured at the Wuhan institute back in August 2019 (and apparently another strain also leaked from there a few weeks later - and nothing whatsoever to do with a wet-fish market).

'My' path to the pub again. Every time I pass here, it presents a different face. But Spring is at its peak now, so it's to be expected. Bluebells smothering the old retaining granite wall. A definite candidate for 'plants versus structures'?! And a composition I'm particularly pleased with.

Portreath outer harbour on a benign day (just for a change!) And, yes, the Monkey Hut survived another storm (please see previous photos from about 6 weeks ago.) but a lot of repair work still needs doing!

It's granite scenery with evidence of very ancient fields and their walls, and more recent tin mining activity (although not so recent, really; the tin mine never really paid its way and closed down in the 1860s). Best on large and then large again for detail.