Caen Hill (Sunday 20th May 2018)

It was ten days ago when I last visited the swans at Caen Hill and photographed them with their six new cygnets. A week later there were only three and now they are down to two. I don't know what happened to the other four but hopefully the two growing survivors are now past their most vulnerable stage. They were sunbathing on the north bank when I arrived but by the time I left they had taken to the water (see Extra).

L.
21.5.2018 (1004 hr)

Blip #2655 (#2405 + 250 archived blips taken 27.8.60-18.3.10)
Consecutive Blip #003
Blips/Extras In 2018 #098/265 + #39/100 Extras)
Day #2980 (580 gaps from 26.3.10)
LOTD #1799 (#1640 + 159 in archived blips)

Swan series
Caen Hill series
Canals series
Kennet and Avon Canal series


Caen Hill Locks, 20 May 2018 (Flickr album of 32 photos)

Taken with Pentax K-1 and Pentax HD P-D FA 28-105mm f/3.5-5.6ED DC WR lens

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Van Morrison - Cyprus Avenue (recorded 25 September 1968, Century Sound, New York NY)
Astral Weeks is all over the airwaves at the moment partly because of music festivals in Belfast and partly because the album is 50 years old this year. Wholly acoustic, it marked a musical departure for Van Morrison who had fronted the Belfast R&B band Them and made an electric solo album in America with the late Bert Berns. He'd been perfecting these songs with a touring band including John Payne (who plays flute and sax on the record) throughout 1968, mostly in the Cambridge and Boston MA area, but was brought into the studio with top flight session musicians (session leader and bassist Richard Davis, Jay Berliner, Warren Smith Jr and drummer Connie Kay among them). Locked away in a booth with his guitar, the session band improvised around him over three sessions in September and October, but the harpsichord, lead violin and string sections were arranged and overdubbed by Larry Fallon later in October without Van Morrison's knowledge or approval. He hated the results but was almost alone in that view. It is still regarded as one of the 100 best albums ever recorded to this day.

One year ago:
Poppy