Hambledon: Life in Black and White

Hambledon: Life in Black and White
5 June 2003

Location	Hambledon, Surrey, OS Explorer 133 I parked by the church in Hambledon and walked to Hydon's Heath before turning towards Hascombe. Then I returned on the Greensand Way through Hurtwood and back to Hambledon. I've been here before: Greensleeves - 28 May 2001

Weather	Partly cloudy but clearing up towards evening.

Click on the images to see larger versions.


	When I set out, the sky looked vaguely threatening but it cleared up later.

An oak tree stood by the path at the field boundary. Oak trees are notoriously hard to photograph because they're foliage tends to come out as a big, black mass. Not so here where the light hits the leaves from the front. The fact that they are relatively new and therefore lighter in colour also helps.

	I found a foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, in bud at the edge of the forest. There are a lot more foxglove pictures further down on this page.

This rusty shed sparked my imagination. What's inside? Is it still in use? For what?

	There had been a lot of rain the day before so the moss in the woodland was a lovely saturated green.

This red campion, Silene dioica, also seemed to like the recent rain fall. I like the soft, pink colour of the petals against the saturated green of the foliage in the background.

	It was too early for blackberries but there were a lot of blackberry flowers about. Blackberry flowers are quite variable. This one had petals so large it looks almost like it's cousin, the rose.

I passed a field where some horses where enjoying the sunshine.

	The boundary path has hedges on either side of it. With the tree growing on the left, it was very romantic, almost like something out of a children's book about fairies.

The black and white version looks even more like something out of a Victorian book about fairies at the bottom of the garden.

	In the sunshine on the bridleway to Little Burgate farm, I found some flowering foxgloves.

The spotted insides of the bright pink flowers.

	And a foxglove with a guest.

The bridleway leads straight through the farm yard. Here is a pedestrian gate that probably isn't used much.

	Ferns unfurl in the most interesting and often bizarre ways.

For some reason this one makes me think of moose antlers.

	Elder flowers. They don't smell very good but they light up the landscape.

As mentioned, blackberry flowers are very variable. This one has more petals than they usually do.

	Stitchwort, Stellaria graminea, is a very common native wildflower.

And last but not least, an oak tree by the bridleway with the sun behind it. You can see the sandy soil on the bridleway.

	I liked the structure and composition of the tree and path so much, I took the same picture in black and white. The landscape in these parts has an old-fashioned feel to it that I think looks very good in monochrome.

To prove it, I also tried it in sepia.