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RickGaehl

@RickGaehl@mstdn.social

I'm based in Devon UK, and I try to post a new photo every day.

"Intelligent people are more likely to swear, a study has found" - and small bloody wonder considering the state of things...

Find me also here:
https://twitter.com/RickGaehl
https://bsky.app/profile/rickgaehl.

All photos by me, unless I credit otherwise - except for RTs, of course.
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licensed.

Please "boost" my postings if you like them.

I tend not to follow accounts with no posts or bio.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

RickGaehl , to random
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A view, with seasonal foxgloves.

RickGaehl , to random
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A , and not a soul to be seen...

Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away...
('Antigonish' by William Hughes Mearns)

RickGaehl , to random
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Here's the view from a forgotten trig point near me.

RickGaehl , to random
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The weekend before last, I was in Oxford. Whilst there, I went to visit the Botanic Garden. I try to look in most times I visit the city.
They have some very fine hothouses there, and one of them contains a pond, with waterlilies. Who doesn't like waterlilies?

#Photography #Bloomscrolling #Flowers #Gardening #Oxford #Botany

RickGaehl , to random
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Our tomato plants are all coming into flower this week. I love the smell of a greenhouse full of tomatoes.
It's chastening to think how grim the European diet must have been before the introduction of all the exotic fruits and vegetables from the Americas - things like potatoes, maize, and peppers, as well as tomatoes...

#Photography #Gardening #Closeup #Bloomscrolling #Psychogeography

RickGaehl , to random
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Sometimes I find myself casting around in my files for interesting window shots for a post. When I do, it's amazing how often I end up selecting something from France. The French really seem to have a way with such things...

RickGaehl , to random
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The biggest tree in our garden is this copper beech, although it isn't really quite as big as it looks in the photo. At this time of the year, its canopy is just coming into leaf, and the young leaves are this wonderful red-green colour. They are an especially impressive sight when the sun is shining through them.

RickGaehl , to random
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It's Monday. And it's raining hard. ☹️
But the irises are out and are looking magnificent.
I think they are one of my favourite flowers af all. Just look at the intricate veins and patterns. And the gorgeous colours on those perfectly-arranged petals...

#Photography #Gardening #Flowers #Closeup #Bloomscrolling #Spring #Iris #Nature #Purple

RickGaehl , to random
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A on the Brecon Canal.

RickGaehl , to random
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Just come in from the garden, where I've been entranced by the Aurora Borealis. In Devon ffs! I've waited a long lifetime to see this...

RickGaehl , to random
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It's Friday, so here is a window for #FensterFreitag - complete with a nosey cockatoo...

#Photography #Nature #Wildlife #Birds

RickGaehl , to random
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Here is a nice picture of some restful apple blossom for

This one is a Cox's Orange Pippin, in case you were wondering.

RickGaehl , to random
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'Zaun'

RickGaehl , to random
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The internet seems to be awash with pictures of apple blossom this week, but I don't see any reason why that should stop me posting mine.
This fine crabapple is doing its thing in our garden right this minute. One small tree has no business carrying so much blossom.

#Photography #Gardening #Bloomscrolling #Blossom #Trees #Spring #Nature #Pink

RickGaehl , to random
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Here's a peaceful clump of forget-me-not for some contemplation.

RickGaehl , to random
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This is one of my favourite times of the year. All the trees are finally coming into leaf, there is the odd, warm, dry day, and the promise of summer stretches out before us. All summers seem to be filled with potential delight in my imagination - before they actually happen...

pluralistic , to random
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Combine Angelou's "When someone shows you who they are, believe them" with the truism that in politics, "every accusation is a confession" and you get: "Every time someone accuses you of a vice, they're showing you who they are and you should believe them."

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/19/make-them-afraid/#fear-is-their-mind-killer

1/

RickGaehl ,
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@pluralistic
That's just so true in politics...
If only there was some way of getting people to become politicians who weren't cut from the wrong sort of cloth to do the job honestly...

RickGaehl , to random
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Here is a very large window for you, with a stupendously ornate clock as a bonus.

RickGaehl , to random
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It's a with spring blossom.

RickGaehl , to random
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A tall, slender magnolia tree, with blossoms the size of dinner plates.
I came across this specimen at the weekend, in Cornwall, and I don't think I've ever seen such large flowers on a tree, anywhere.

RickGaehl , to random
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Here's a nice, quiet picture of the dawn for you on this

I'm not one of nature's early risers, so I don't often get to see the dawn...

RickGaehl , to random
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This is an interior view of Wells Cathedral - showing one of the three famous 'scissor' arches, which support the weight of the central tower.
The arches were retro-fitted in around 1340 to stabilise a new tower that had been built about 15 years earlier, and was already showing signs of instability and potential collapse.
The arches were designed by the delightfully-named William Joy, and are an elegant solution to a common Medieval construction problem.

#Photography #History #Architecture

RickGaehl , to random
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A view from yesterday's walk for

pluralistic , to random
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If you've ever read about design, you've probably encountered the idea of #PavingTheDesirePath. A #DesirePath is an erosion path created by people departing from the official walkway and taking their own route. The story goes that smart campus planners don't fight the desire paths laid down by students; they pave them, formalizing the route that their constituents have voted for with their feet.

1/

A photo of a 'desire path' - a path worn through the turf in a park where people have left the paved path and worn away the grass. The image crossfades so that the grassy lawn of the park is replaced by a 'code waterfall' as seen in the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies. Image: Belem (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desire_path_%2819811581366%29.jpg CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

RickGaehl ,
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@pluralistic
You really can't defeat desire lines, you have to learn to work with them. If they go places you don't want them, it's because you didn't consider the relative location of two objects of desire in the first place.

RickGaehl , to random
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Here's another shot from our walk last Friday. It's the River Bovey, as it passes through Lustleigh Cleave.
It's a beautiful and tranquil spot for #silentsunday
We saw only two other groups of walkers in our four-hour expedition.

#Photography #Woodland #Trees #Landscape #River #Winter #Sunshine

RickGaehl , to random
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This is the northern rose window from Notre-Dame de Paris. I was there not that long before the fire. Amazingly, it seems as though all the stained glass in this photo actually survived the conflagration. This window was first made in about 1250, and most of the original glass is still in place.

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