dimanche 14 août 2005

It Came in Through the Kitchen Window Common Ivy Hedera Helix Living in a small farmhouse on a hillside in mid-west Wales was, by British standards, a constant battle against the elements. The house had been built in the late 1600s nestling in the lee of steeply rising common-land, so being protected from the prevailing winds and weather. But sheltered? Either the earth's axis had shifted in the 400 or so years before we lived there or the word "inclement" had a different meaning to the local Welsh than my reading of the Oxford English Dictionary... because the shelter afforded by the neighbouring hillside was near to non-existent. The dictionary states, "Not merciful or kind; pitiless, severe, cruel. E17-M19" (the 17th century English usage being contemporary with the house) and we had all that. There were many times when exiting the front door into the sheltered lane was blustery, but on reaching the end of the building all hell was let loose... an experience I used to describe as what it must have been like when rounding Cape Horn on board a sailing ship. It was rough! I used to relate that when there was a storm the ground never got wet... because the rain swept past horizontally! Nature - animal and plant life - adapted perfectly. Animals lived in holes in the hillside or in our roof... and plants held on tight to anything within reach including the hillside and our house. And it didn't take long to see how adept certain plants were at surviving... and taking over. When we moved in to our house there were a few tell-tale signs of Common Ivy Hedera Helix seen in the garden... garden being a two acre patch of previously grazed field and woodland. Being vegetarians we didn't want animals on our patch... and turned down several offers in our first week there to keep the land neat and tidy as an almost daily procession of neighbours (from up to five miles away) including Jones the sheep and Jones the sweep to Jones the coal and Jones the rally driver offered their "animals" services. We later learnt that lowland farmers up to 60 or 70 miles away would pay our neighbouring hill farmers to take their entire flocks and herds to winter on their land... the benefit to the lowland farmers wasn't the grazing, it was the fertilising. Where there's muck there's brass! But I digress. The lack of grazing meant that vegetation took over fast.... the fastest being Common Ivy. And because of battering from the prevailing winds the Ivy held on to everything within it's grasp - from trees and stone walls to our house. At first it was visually interesting and we watched it grow... but as it rapidly spread it became too much and was then difficult to cut back. Some parts of the house looked attractive with a covering of lush, clinging, greenery... and the surrounding landscape looked attractive when looking through ivy-framed windows. But because the kitchen window was always ajar, the creeping ivy soon found it's way through the gap making it necessary to cut it back regularly It was also the centre of attention for another reason... photography. By clinging to the kitchen window the plant's leaves became translucent when the sun was shining. At a certain time of day, when the sun's elevation and angle to the house were just so, the overall pitting on the age-old glass took on a frosted effect and you could see both the leaves and their cast shadows. Sometimes I forgot which film stock I had in a particular camera... sometimes I couldn't remember whether it was colour or mono, let alone slow, medium or fast... so I brought out my filter pack of yellow, orange and red - attached them to the lens in turn and made bracketed exposures to make sure that I had at least one image that was different from the expected. These three coloured filters are recommended for monochrome photography and are utilised to enhance contrast with panchromatic films... but I often use them with colour films to exaggerate the impact or feeling of colour. This latter use doesn't often work... but when it does it's exciting and visually stimulating. From the leading illustration I think I like the orange effect best - although the unfiltered fresh, natural green image is more realistic yet still different enough to question how the image was made. Unusual approaches to familiar subjects such as these could make interesting submissions for publications such as Outdoor Photographer Magazine and Nature Photographer Magazine whose editors are always looking for colourful and graphic images with a difference. Although Ivy is generally thought of as a nuisance - it can kill off trees and harm building structures - it does flower late in the year providing bees with pollen in the late autumn. And the resulting berries then provide much needed food in the winter for blackbirds and thrushes. For ivy lovers and loathers there's a lively forum on "Dave's Garden" site as well as excellent information on Poison Ivy here and on the U.S. Food & Drug Administration site. 11:51:40 PM    comment []