The Old Forge (Wednesday 1st February 2017)

One of the benefits of the jungle clearance that R. undertook last year was the bringing back into prominence the many trees that I planted in the nineties. I particularly like the bark of this sturdy tree, so different from the skinny sapling it was originally. I have thought of it as a copper birch but I'm not sure if there is such a thing - perhaps it has another name or is actually a kind of beech (but not a copper beech as I have one of those nearby), as they are in the same family.
It has been in the 'Blip bank' for a while, waiting for the right time and conditions to be photographed, but in the absence of decent sunlight I chose this day as it marked the first return to the garden of R. this year.
There's still plenty for her to do and yesterday morning was spent cutting back bushes, pruning trees, installing my composter into a new position, digging up brambles and self-seeded buddleias and generally tidying up. We have ordered a medlar tree so I look forward to planting that in the garden when it arrives.
I am not a daily blipper, or even often an on-the-day blipper, but I have set myself a new target for 2017. One problem is that I either have no pictures to post or too many. My challenge (or possibly discipline) will be to post exactly 365 images in the year, but including Extras. There is a cap of 100 Extras but the proportion of Blips to Extras is otherwise quite flexible, and of course the Blip is still the image of the day.

L.
2.2.2017 (1255 hr)

Blip #2020 (#2270 including 250 archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #000
2017 Blips/Extras #026
Day #2506 (497 gaps from 26 March 2010)
LOTD #1255 (#1381 including 126 on archived blips)

Old Forge series
Macro series
Trees series
Textures and Colours series
Diary Blip series

Taken with Pentax KS-1 (Blue) and D FA Macro 100mm F2.8 WR lens

Lozarhythm of the Day:
Laura Nyro And Labelle - Monkey Time/Dancing In The Street (recorded May-June 1971, Sigma Sound, Philadelphia PA)
Although primarily a singer-songwriter and piano player, Laura Nyro had a great love of the same sort of music that I grew up with - Motown, girl groups, soul and R&B - and recorded an album, Gonna Take A Miracle, with Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles (by now known as LaBelle) devoted to some of her favourite examples, transforming them in the process into her unique style. I had a couple of the songs on a compilation of her work but did not own this album until this day and played it immediately.
The title of the album is taken from a song by the Royalettes, but the album does include two songs recorded by the Miracles, You've Really Got A Hold On Me, written by Smokey Robinson, and Monkey Time, a Curtis Mayfield song that he produced on a single for Major Lance. Laura Nyro paired it with the Martha and the Vandellas Motown classic.