Martin's Mag.

I remember when 1984 seemed like an impossible time in the future. 2023! Where will it all end?

We are now through the looking glass that is Christmas and New Year, and, although we had a nice time with family, friends, and our new granddaughter, there was not a lot of news, or photos. All the family, including Rosie home from Madrid, came to us on Christmas Eve, MF&E staying ’till Christmas Day. Other than that we’ve been keeping warm, going for walks (and a jog or two in my case) and eating (and drinking) the leftovers. Someone has to do it.

The Brean Bird Screen was build to prevent disturbance to an important high tide waterbird roost on the Severn Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which is just beyond the screen. It is located at Brean Cross sluices, in Somerset, which were built in the 1970s at the tidal limit of the River Axe and which protect 15,000 acres of agricultural land as well as farms and residential properties.

A Victorian masterpiece, illuminated in the evening in the run-up to Christmas (what we used to call Advent). Even better after sharing a drink with Fi and Paul in Mary’s Bar.

We visited this year’s “Pink Lady” food-related photography exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society. I was surprised to see, in and exhibition of classic old film cameras, a rather battered Kodak Cresta II, a plastic (bakalite?) superior version of the popular Kodak Brownie 127, seen here on the left of the picture. I was bought a Cresta (the bigger one on the right) by my parents when I was eleven. Perhaps I should have kept it, if it was a classic? Not really, there are no end of them on ebay for about £20! Although they took “medium-format” square negatives (like Hasselblads) they were fairly primitive, despite the sophistications of “slideable” filters for emphasising clouds on monochrome film, and for close-ups.

The exhibition itself had some brilliant pictures, in various categories. Difficult to photograph close-up due to lighting reflection in the glass frames. Plus, there were signs asking us not to.

At the M-Shed museum, Bristol. Some heart-breaking and heart-warming pictures. Copyright of photos and text is acknowledged.

The bonobo and the mongoose.
Christian Ziegler (Germany) records this unusual sight of a young male bonobo gently holding a mongoose pup, deep in the rainforest.
Highly Commended Behaviour: Mammals Location Lulkotale, near Salonga National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo Technical details Canon EOS RS+
100-500mm 14.5-71 lens at 200mm 1/200 at 15, 150 25600 Follow @christianziegler
Christian tracked a group of bonobos that were being studied by Barbara Fruth of the Max Planck Society. He recalls setting out ‘before light, wading ‘chest-deep through flooded forest, and frequently walking 20 kilometres (12 miles) a day. The bonobo. held and stroked the little mongoose for more than an hour.”
The situation probably had a darker beginning. Bonobos are mainly herbivores but occasionally they hunt. The mongoose pup- eventually released unharmed may have been taken when its mother was killed.

Seaweed symmetry
Alex Mustard (UK) finds the
perfect conditions to showcase
the beauty of seaweed.
Confined to the UK coast during the Covid-19 pandemic, Alex developed a love of seaweeds.
This Image, showing colourful fronds of bootlace seaweed reaching for the light, took planning and precise conditions: a high tide, clear water. calm weather and sunshine.
Highly Commended Plants and Fungi
Location Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset, UK Technical detalls Nikon D850+ 28-70mm lens: 1/40 sec at f16; ISO 160: Subal housing + Nauticam WACP-1 lens: 2x Retra Pro strobes. Follow @alexmustard!
Bootlace seaweed is hollow, allowing gas to accumulate towards its tip and keep it afloat. Seaweeds forming underwater kelp forests play important roles as foundations for coastal. habitats, feeding and sheltering hundreds of marine animals.

This sculpture, in the Floating Harbour, by eco-artist Wren Miller highlights the scale of littering in central Bristol. The contents of the wave represents, I’m sorry to say, the litter dropped in one street on a typical Friday – about 90kg.

Back in September we first saw Weston Super Mare’s See Monster. As conversion problems have now been resolved it is open to visitors. It seems popular, but will close in the next week or so. The first picture was taken by friends in a local running group.

Hawkridge reservoir in the Quantock Hills:

Kilve Bay near East Quantock on the west Somerset coast:

…and the last few tomatoes. And a couple of aubergines. The greenhouse has done well this year.