You Don’t Have to Go Far to See Something

For someone who loves being outdoors as much as I do, being stuck at home for five days wasn’t quite what I’d have chosen!

Poor Rolo has been unwell and put on no-walk duty, while Jenny was away. That meant I was effectively housebound, looking after him and finding ways to keep myself occupied without heading out on my usual adventures.

But there was one thing I wasn’t going to let circumstances stop me doing.

My Daily Nature Photo Challenge.

I’ve now taken and shared a photograph every single day since July 2022, and I wasn’t about to let five days at home break that run. The question was simply what I could find to photograph without going anywhere.

As it turned out, the answer was quite a lot!

Day 1570: Something for the birds

First up was our lovely Pyracantha, covered in bright red berries.

It’s a plant that earns its keep at this time of year, providing a splash of colour in the garden and a valuable food source for birds as the seasons change.

I didn’t need to venture into the countryside or visit a nature reserve. I just needed to look at what was growing around me.

Day 1571: A little bit of summer

The following day brought a surprise.

Despite the time of year, our borage was still flowering, its brilliant blue petals looking as though they’d been transported straight from the middle of summer.

For a moment, I could almost forget that autumn was well underway.

It’s a good reminder that nature doesn’t always follow the calendar quite as we’d expect. Sometimes, if we look closely enough, we can find little reminders of another season hiding in plain sight.

Day 1572: A familiar face

Next came a patch of duckweed covering the water.

Now, regular followers will know that I occasionally struggle to resist a terrible pun. In this case, the photograph immediately brought Coronation Street to mind.

Say hello to Vera Duck(weed)worth!

I should probably confess that I’d used this gag before, way back on Day 39. Clearly, some jokes are worth bringing out of retirement.

There’s a serious point hiding somewhere in all this silliness, though. Enjoying nature doesn’t have to be a solemn business. We can appreciate what’s around us, have a laugh and share that enjoyment with other people.

Day 1573: A mythical encounter?

By Day 1573, I was still confined to the garden.

I’d apparently missed the opportunity to photograph a rather unusual creature that had run up the road earlier. Half horse, half man, apparently.

So, instead of capturing a centaur, I photographed a Centaurea.

I’ll leave you to decide which was the more impressive sight!

The flower was certainly worth a closer look, with its wonderful purple petals spreading out in all directions. Another reminder that even a familiar garden can offer something interesting when we take the time to look.

Day 1574: Five days done!

The final day of my enforced stay at home brought another lovely sight: our winter-flowering honeysuckle coming into bloom.

There’s something particularly welcome about flowers appearing as the days grow shorter and the garden starts to look a little less colourful.

And with that, I’d completed five days of photographs without leaving home for my usual walks.

Five days. Five photographs. Challenge still going strong.

It’s about looking, not travelling

I’m not pretending that being at home is the same as getting out into the countryside. I love my walks, discovering new places and never quite knowing what might be around the next corner.

But this little spell at home has reminded me of something important.

You don’t always need to travel somewhere special to find something worth seeing.

It might be a flower in the garden, berries on a familiar shrub, something floating on a pond or a bird visiting the space outside your window. It could even be something so ordinary that you’ve walked past it hundreds of times without really noticing it.

And if you can’t get outside at all, you can still listen to the birdsong through an open window, watch the clouds passing overhead or simply take a moment to notice the changing light.

You don’t need to know the name of every bird or plant, either. You don’t need expensive equipment or a particular level of knowledge. Sometimes, it’s enough to stop, look and listen.

My daily photographs have taught me that there’s always something to see. I never know what it will be when I start looking.

Circumstances change. Our plans sometimes have to change with them. We can’t always do the things we’d normally choose to do.

But perhaps we can adapt, think a little differently and discover that there’s still plenty to enjoy right where we are.

For me, these five days were about keeping my daily challenge going. But they’ve also been a useful reminder of why I started it in the first place: to notice the world around me and share a little of that enjoyment with others.

So, wherever you are today, why not take a moment to look around?

You might be surprised by what you find.

And if you don’t find anything straight away, that’s fine too. There’s no test to pass and no photograph you have to take.

Just look. Just listen. Just enjoy being there.

Sometimes, that’s more than enough.

And now, an Almost Photos bonus!

   

You didn’t think I’d get through five days stuck at home without finding something else to share, did you?

As a little gift to you all, I’ve got two more photos that nearly made the cut.

Unbelievably, I’ve made a new scientific discovery in the garden!

Not just one specimen, but a whole colony of what can only be described as literally treefrogs.

I’ve decided to name them Treemendus hoppyii.

The scientific community may take some convincing, but I’m prepared to stand by my findings.

All right, they’re actually raindrops hanging from the branches, but look at them closely and you can almost see the little creatures hiding there!

And that’s another thing about looking at the world around us. Sometimes you spot something unexpected, sometimes you have to look twice, and sometimes your imagination takes over completely.

The photographs might not be award winners, but they made me smile. Hopefully they’ve done the same for you.

After all, not every photograph needs to be perfect. Sometimes the ones that nearly make it are worth sharing for entirely different reasons.

I’ll get my coat.

And remember, you don’t have to go far to see something. Sometimes you don’t have to go anywhere at all.