Seasons 8: San Francisco Bay Area

I was in the Bay Area for two months, which might seem like too little time for the kind of dramatic variation that makes for a good Seasons post. 'Precocious' plants, which flower before leaves appear, offer a way out.

I often used to sit and work under this wisteria. Sometimes I would go inside to make myself a cup of coffee, and when I came back there would be wisteria petals on my laptop. Move your cursor over the image (or touch on mobile) to see how it changed in little over a month.

Base photo:	27 April 2018
Mouseover photo:	31 May 2018
Approx. coordinates:	37.90°N, 122.29°W

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Shunbun no Hi/Seasons 7: Mudchute Farm, London

This post combines the Shunbun no Hi series (named after the Japanese spring equinox holiday celebrating nature and living things) with the Seasons series (juxtaposed images of the same scene in different seasons).

Move your cursor over the image below (or touch on mobile), and it should change to another image of the same scene.

Base photo:	17 March 2015
Mouseover photo:	28 February 2018
Approx. coordinates:	51.49°N, 0.01°W

Unusually for the Seasons series, the images above were taken around the same time of the year (only 17 days apart). The base photo doesn't look very vernal, but this has been a weird year; the mouseover photo from March 2015 is more representative. It snowed again yesterday, but today it feels like Spring is finally here.

Happy equinox, everyone.

Seasons 6: Millwall Park, London

Move your cursor over the image below, and it should change to another image of the same scene in a different season. (If it doesn't work, check that your browser has JavaScript enabled.)

Base photo:	3 December 2014
Mouseover photo:	20 April 2015
Approx. coordinates:	51.49°N, 0.01°W

August 2015 has not been a good month for this blog: it is the first time in its seven-year history that a whole month has gone by without a single post (unless you count August 2008 when I briefly deleted the blog).

One of the things which kept me busy last month was moving from London to Histon and Impington in Cambridgeshire. So before I start posting photos of village life, here's a photo I took in London: the disused railway viaduct at Millwall Park.

The viaduct was built in 1872 as part of the Millwall Extension Railway. The railway closed down in the 1920s, but six decades later, trains returned to the viaduct when it was reused for the Docklands Light Railway. In 1999 the DLR was rerouted, leaving its original line to duck underground at Millwall and pass underneath the Thames and on to Greenwich. So now the viaduct lies in disuse once again, festooned by ivies which grow green in summer and rust-red in autumn.

Seasons 5: Isle of Dogs, London

Move your cursor over the image below, and it should change to another image of the same scene in a different season. (If it doesn't work, check that your browser has JavaScript enabled.)

Base photo:	3 December 2014
Mouseover photo:	20 April 2015
Approx. coordinates:	51.49°N, 0.01°W

The cherry tree outside Saha's flat is decked out in Spring finery.

Seasons 4: Canary Wharf, London

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Base photo:	23 July 2014
Mouseover photo:	27 February 2015
Approx. coordinates:	51.50°N, 0.02°W

The trees in the foreground are dawn redwoods in Jubilee Park – an island of greenery amidst the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf. The dawn redwood is a fascinating tree. It was believed to be extinct and known only from ancient fossils, until a small stand was "discovered" in 1944 in the forests of Central China. (I put "discovered" because the tree was well-known to local villagers, without whose the help the botanists may never have discovered it.) The tree's morphology has not changed for 65 million years, which means that the trees in Jubilee Park are essentially identical to those in Cretaceous-period forests, when Tyrannosaurus roamed the earth.

The dawn redwood is also one of a very few conifers which shed their leaves in autumn. If it were evergreen, as most conifers are, the two photos above would have looked very similar.

The building in the background belongs to a law firm where I worked for four years.

Seasons 3: Isle of Dogs, London

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Base photo:	30 May 2014
Mouseover photo:	3 December 2014
Approx. coordinates:	51.49°N, 0.01°W

The boundary fence of our housing development is fringed with what I suspect is meadowsweet. The flowers are fluffy white in summer, but now that it's winter, they are dry and black.

Seasons 2: Island Gardens, London

Move your cursor over the image below, and it should change to another image of the same scene in a different season. (If it doesn't work, check that your browser has JavaScript enabled.)

Base photo:	31 May 2014
Mouseover photo:	13 November 2011
Approx. coordinates:	51.487°N, 0.008°W

One day in the autumn of 2011, I mentioned to my cousin that lots of people walk their dogs in my neighbourhood park. She likes dogs, so she asked for photos. The mouseover photo in this post is one of the few photos I took that day which does not have a dog in it. Summer is my favourite season in London, but there's no denying that the sugar maple trees in the park are at their best in autumn.

The base photo was taken last month, but I thought summer solstice is as good a day as any for a Seasons post.

Happy solstice, everyone!

Seasons 1: Parade Gardens, Bath

Move your cursor over the image below, and it should change to another image of the same scene in a different season. (If it doesn't work, check that your browser has JavaScript enabled.)

Base photo:	20 January 2013
Mouseover photo:	26 May 2014
Approx. coordinates:	51.382°N, 2.357°W

I am hoping to make Seasons an occasional series, so keep a weather eye on this blog.