I was out yesterday taking a walk in our local wetlands with the aim of finding some birds to photograph. I took out my iPhone and snapped a wide angle view of part of the wetlands mainly to show the water level. I took the original image in colour and found because of my angle to the light the colours did not look good. I decided to convert the image to black and white and you can see the result below. I liked the black and white but I had not just tried converting to see what it might look like. When I was looking to take the shot I was thinking amongst other things what it could look like as a black and white image.

Today with the winter weather finally improving I went for a walk out to our local wetlands to see if I could find some birds to photograph. Out on a tall thin tree in the middle of the wetlands a Little Pied Cormorant was standing imperiously looking over its domain and also looking for a feed. then it flew out of my line of sight and a few minutes later it cam back onto the branch. It was wet from diving into the water and so it spread its wings to the weak winter sunshine to dry. It was lovely to see this bird especially with the ever increasing cloud of Bird Flue slowly encroaching further inland. While the rest of my local community seems to be ignoring the oncoming Bird Flue all I can do is document what birdlife I can while hoping it will not be as bad as we are being told. So good luck Little Pied Cormorant. May you continue to outrun this wretched Flue and may I see you again imperiously watching over your domain.

I posted this link mainly because this website and in the information on it are examples of the the web was like before the grotesque era of social media. it is not a pretty site but it provides a lot of useful information and it was created via a Creative Commons licence and those who built and manage it do it for free. Yes no influencers and supposed content creators but people who embodied one of the original aims of the internet being the free sharing of information and resources. It is why I have a resources page on my website with links to things I find interesting and maybe you will to. Take a look at the archives site listed below. It's very interesting and almost a time-capsule to the way websites looked in the mid 1990s

His Foe was Folly, and his Weapon Wit" this is on W.S Gilberts Monument.

" I am terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music will be put on records forever" Arthur Sullivan.

I know I posted a couple of times a link to the movie Topsy Turvy. I finally looked at it myself last night and I really understood why I enjoyed it so much all those years ago. When MMuDS was producing Gilbert & Sullivan musicals it was if in a way the two gentlemen were just curiosities and caricatures and nobody really took the time to learn or understand anything about them. In Topsy Turvy they become real with the strength of their characters and talent and of course the weaknesses and prejudices of men of their time. Those who love their operettas can probably quote lines from Gilbert's writing. As funny and satirical as it is you can't go past Sullivan's sublime music. They were literally the godfathers of the modern musical and Broadway and they influenced writer and composers well into the twentieth century. So if you are wanting to be involved in a musical production or want to go to the theatre to watch one take a moment and raise a glass to the two men who's work lead the way.