2020 Favourites

This week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is about our favourite images from 2020. I’ve already posted about the photos/posts that were most popular among my readers, but now it’s my turn to look back at the year and think about my own personal favourites.

Way back in January 2020, the light was just gorgeous on these beautiful droplets on newly emerged Honeysuckle leaves. I had gone out to take photos of frozen droplets on the grass, but the sun had already hit the Honeysuckle droplets so they were no longer frozen, and caught the light beautifully.

Droplets on Honeysuckle

Droplets on Honeysuckle

In February, before Covid-19 lockdown, my daughter and I had a lovely visit to Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo. I got lots of photos and these are my favourites from that visit.

A pile of Meerkats

Giraffe

Tortoise

Red Panda

Emu

When lock-down begun, we were not able to go to some of our favourite places, so the focus was closer to home. This photo of one of my Snake’s Head Fritillaries in the garden was taken just after I started working from home.

Snake’s Head Fritillary

By April my favourite spring flowers (Cuckooflowers) had started popping up around the village. I was lucky to be able to go for walks and see spring emerging despite the lockdown.

Cuckooflower

Cuckooflower season also signified Orange-tip Butterfly season, and although this guy was looking a bit tattered, I was grateful for him stopping for a moment as they are notoriously hard to photograph as they barely stay still for a second!

Orange-tip Butterfly on Cuckooflower

I captured these shots of the celandines lining the path through the woods in April too. This is part of my regular walking route.

Celandine-lined path

Celandine-lined path

At the Easter break I took part in a photo marathon, and this was my favourite entry for it. A Snake’s Head Fritillary flower with a background of bokeh created by the fountain in my pond.

Snake’s Head Fritillary with fountain bokeh

In May, spring was really getting going with flowers and insects emerging everywhere. I love this photo I took of some apple blossom buds. It kind of says ‘hope’ to me. A promise of better times to come.

Apple blossom buds

The climbing rose which has lived in my hedge as long as I can remember flowered prolifically in May, so of course I took photos. This is one of my favourites.

Climbing Rose

This post wouldn’t be complete without some photos of my favourite creatures, and it was in May that I got my first dragonfly shots of the year. Here we have a Four-spotted Chaser and a Broad-bodied Chaser at the village pond.

Four-spotted Chaser

Broad-bodied Chaser

I was lucky to have many insects making themselves at home in my garden too during the summer. No dragons sadly, but plenty of other creatures.

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly

Thick-legged Flower Beetle

Lacewing

Hoverfly on Hemp Agrimony

By the end of July, we were once again able to travel a bit further for walks, so we went to Cors Caron and were delighted to not only see dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies, but also lizards! It was the first time my daughter had actually seen them for real, after only having seen them in my photos before.

Black Darter (female)

Common Lizard

Black Darter (male)

Emerald Damselfly

Small White butterfly

Back in the village, in August, I got a shot of a Common Darter dragonfly with some lovely bokeh at the village pond.

Common Darter

Also this slightly menacing-looking grasshopper!

Grasshopper

Towards the end of the year, my photos become fewer. Not sure if it was lack of photography mojo, or more to do with the weather.

I’ll finish with this recent photo, taken on 21st December, of my Orchid flowering again!

Moth Orchid

Hope you’ve enjoyed this wander through my 2020 as much as I have enjoyed gathering together these images. Happy New Year, really hoping for better days ahead for all of us.