Dramatis persona*

helenhead Helen Chick

I've always wanted a bumper sticker that said "I'm a female, LDS/Mormon, Scout leading, geocaching, piano-playing, bicycling, mathematics educator with a PhD in maths ... and I VOTE"!

I think this makes me a minority group of cardinality 1!

* Since there's only one of me and "personae" is plural (I think), I've gone with dramatis persona.
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Swanning around Ely

Sunday 13 Dec

[I don’t really have time to do this blog entry, but if not now then when? Besides, I have some photos I want to share.]

bSwansAndDucks2On Sunday John, Anne and I had a great day in and around Ely. We got up very early and went to Welney wetlands. Here there is a stretch of the fens that gets very wet in winter (despite the rivers dug to drain them), and the vast lake that results becomes home to a wide range of bird species, with a particular emphasis on swans. There is a big (heated!) bird hide right on the edge of the water, and the swans and ducks come very close (a) because there are just hundreds of them, and (b) because they know they’re going to get a feed. We were blessed with a gorgeous day, both during the morning and when we returned in the evening. Seeing birds coming in to land (which is what they do in the evening) is a completely different experience from seeing them take off (which is what they do in the morning)! And, besides, the light was different, so it was well worth going back.

I took heaps of photos, and had loads of fun playing around with time exposures in the pre-dawn light. Fortunately for you I have only included 12 of them, available here.

When we returned from our morning visit, we went to Ely Cathedral and attended the Sunday eucharist service, with the choir doing Palestrina’s Missa Brevis (or maybe only some of it, because it seemed rather too brevis). This sounded magnificent. There were also some congregational hymns which were likewise great in the wonderful acoustic (I just wish that the actual musical score was provided for those of us who don’t know the tunes (and who would like to sing harmony as well!)). Ely is a magnificent building, simultaneously huge and intricate. There are some fantastic carvings on the misericords (google it yourself!), and the soaring arches and the colours in the windows are really quite stunning. The cafeteria does a pretty good lunch too! 🙂

Photos of Ely are available here, and the two sets of photos are linked.

bElyCathedralExterior bElyCathedralInterior

4 comments to Swanning around Ely

  • I LOVE the time exposure photos of the swans! The 25 sec exposure in the evening especially!! Did you go up on the roof of the cathedral by any chance? I went up onto the roof near the octagon – I found it fascinating!

  • What a beautiful building!

    I am amused by the “think” sign.

  • Colin C

    Nice… very nice. What is it about swans that cause you to click away with the camera like a crazed Loon – er… swan?

    I went crazy at The Tasmanian Arboretum; admittedly they were black swans, but they just beg to be photographed!

  • LindaF

    Wonderful photos again – snapshots of Melbourne just aren’t going to cut it in future! I’m a point and click girl myself and proper photography just seems too complicated for this bear of little brain. But you’re slowly changing my mind…

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