David Bennett

Photography from Winter Through to Spring

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The nearer one gets to the North and South Poles, the quicker it gets lighter, day by day, as winter turns to spring.

The furthest north I have ever lived is in the middle of Finland at 61°, and spring arrives there so quickly that the buds on the trees can burst and open fully in a day.

This accelerated growth is needed because the plants and trees have to cram everything into a short season, before the sun retreats towards the other Pole.

But in part it is because of the rapid increase in the length of the day as the sun moves further away from the equator, and heads towards the tropic of Cancer with its light galloping north around the curve of the Earth at an ever-increasing rate.

It is as though the light has climbed up the steep slope leading from the equator, and now it is speeding across the easy slope towards the top of the world.

There is something of that in every curve. In one direction it is an easy downhill ski slope, becoming steeper as it progresses. Looked at the other way, it is like a tough climb that tops out in an easy clamber over a grassy slope.

Now that the days are already becoming lighter, things look brighter. In the depths of winter here in Leeds at 52° north however, it seemed just a couple of short weeks ago that the dreary darkness would last forever.

When it snowed, it brightened up the landscape. Not that you can tell that in the following shot when the snow was still coming down in the half-light of a late afternoon in Roundhay Park.
 

Winter in Roundhay Park, Leeds, England

trees-in-winter
 
But now in later February the ducks are looking their very best with bright new feathers. They are congregating and showing off, ready for the breeding season – as is this widgeon.
 
widgeon

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The London Eye By Day And Night

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The London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel, came into service in March 2000. It is a Ferris wheel that sends more than 3 million tourists in a great circle around its circumference, each year.

By day the London Eye is not very attractive looking. It sits as a huge mechanical wheel tethered on the south bank of the Thames in the heart of London, within a short walk from Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the Houses of Parliament. It clashes with the architecture of the Tower of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Bridge.

The London Eye - Ecard

By night, illuminated with lilac floodlights, it looks altogether different.

london eye by night

And in the morning, seen over the tops of buildings from the direction of Trafalgar Square, it still looks like something from a fairy tale land of ladies in high towers waiting for knights to rescue them.

london eye

Side Note
The name ‘Ferris wheel’ takes its name from that designed by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. and erected as a landmark for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Beatrix Potter and Herdwick Sheep

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Beatrix Potter, the internationally known children’s story writer and illustrator, and creator of the character Peter Rabbit, was a keen supporter of the Herdwick breed of sheep and helped save it from extinction.

herdwick

This was part of her wider vision to preserve that part of England known as the Lake District. She wanted to preserve it from irresponsible development and ensure that so far as possible it would continue to be farmed in the way that had shaped its landscape over hundreds of years.

Part of what formed her vision is the contact she had with the founders of the National Trust, an independent charity formed in 1895 and dedicated to the preservation of the English countryside.

She and the Trust worked together, including farming some farms jointly to prevent them being broken up.

Beatrix Potter died in 1943 and at the time of her death she owned several farms in the Lake District totaling more that 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares), all of which she dedicated to be left to the National Trust following the death of her husband in 1945.

In 1951 an area of 885 square miles (2,230 square kilometres) was dedicated as the The Lake District National Park, ensuring it would be preserved from development.

National Parks in Great Britain are controlled and funded by the UK government. The farms that Beatrix Potter owned lies within the Lake District National Park and therefore have the double protection of being within the Lake District National Park and also owned by the National Trust.

Beatrix Potter’s farms comprise less than one percent of the Lake District National Park but her vision and that of the National Trust were instrumental in moulding the attitudes that resulted in the creation of the National Parks.

She bought Troutbeck Park Farm in the 1920s and built up a flock of over 1,000 Herdwick sheep, which she did in part because she felt they should be preserved as a breed because they were indigenous to the Lakeland fells with a history going back hundreds of years.

Herdwicks were under threat because they are slow growing sheep which give birth to fewer lambs than lowland sheep and therefore struggled on the balance sheets of working farmers against the advantages of other breeds.

Following her death the farms she owned and her Herdwick flocks were endowed to the National Trust with conditions attached to the continuation of the Herdwick breed.

The outbreaks of Foot and Mouth disease in England in recent years have again put strain on the viablility of the breed. This has made the conditions attaching to Beatrix Potter’s endowment to the National Trust an important factor in maintaining Herdwicks as a breed.

Herdwicks have magnificent coats with a lovely mix of gray, white, and brown wool. They are described as being hefted to the hill on which they are raised, which means that they know their home and will not stray from it.

And while Herdwicks are local to the Lake District, I took this photograph of a Herdwick sheep at a model farm in Yorkshire that specializes in maintaining a mixed flock of original English breeds.

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