Almost Spring, Or Is It?

Catkins (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 85mm f/1.8 USM lens, 1/1,000 sec at f/4.0, ISO 400, handheld)

Well it certainly felt like spring this afternoon but one can't help feeling that there is still a little winter left to come.  The young calves and lambs are still to arrive, and while we have seen lots of young frogs out and about in the evenings recently, and bumble bees and butterflies have been active for the past few days, and even some birds appear to be singing like it is the breeding season, most of the plants remain unconvinced.  These catkins were one of the few signs of activity increasing in the plant kingdom, but the majority of stems remain bare.

Thorns (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 85mm f/1.8 USM lens, 1/250 sec at f/1.8, ISO 100, handheld)

The croft land at Drumbuie and Duirinish remains pretty bare although the grass is a bit greener than I have seen it at this time of year.  This afternoon would have been an incredibly warm time to be out and about but for a determined haze that built up into cloud cover as the afternoon moved on.  This did limit the scope for dramatic landscape shots but the shades of the distant hils can sometmes provide an interesting composition.  The following shot was taken looking across the crofts at Duirinish looking towards the road that passes Drumbuie, as it snakes up a small rise in the ground.  There is a series of lumps and bumps in the landscape that I thought might make for an interesting shot, with the wet ground in the foreground providing sharp contrast.  I opted for conversion to black & white as there was limited colour in the shot anyway and I felt it would emphasise the shades of grey and tonality better.

Duirinish Crofts and Sheep and the Drumbuie Brae (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 85mm f/1.8 USM lens, 1/640 sec at f.16, ISO 400, handheld)