Ms Marilyn's Blog

Congratulations Bob! Whilst on the subject of hares and photographs, have you seen: The Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 Exhibition, which is presently exhibiting at the Kirkleatham Museum in Redcar?

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One of the winning pictures is of a hare that the photographer wasn't too happy with, but felt it had a ghostly appearance that was quite abstract in its way. The judges obviously thought it was really very good too and it turned out to be a winner. Perhaps this is evidence of why we should think twice before giving up on something that might be considered unique. Here is the link to view the ghost of a March hare: http://tinyurl.com/dy4rds

The whole exhibition is fantastic and one of my favourite photographs features in the: Urban and Garden Wildlife category. It is a picture of fresh fern fronds growing in a derelict room with the sunlight shining on them from a window in the background. It sounds boring in comparison to the more exotic pictures, but the picture is inspiring and captured my imagination for a poem(s) of sorts. Another favourite picture is of the Polar sunrise – absolutely stunning and a poignant image of a magnificent beast. Here is a link to view a winner: http://tinyurl.com/d3g7a5

The weather conditions that some of the photographers suffered in order to get their shots were horrendous - the results though are amazing. Sometimes they had less than a couple of minutes to take the perfect photograph, in what can only be described as the most harsh and outlandish, yet most beautiful and spectacular places on Earth. I'm hoping to go again as I had my seven-year-old grandson with me at the time, he lives next door to the museum and has seen it all before, so he wasn't going to hang around while his grandma studied them all!

If anyone lives within range of the museum and is thinking of visiting, there is an Owl Centre to the right of the grounds. They have a great variety of owls taken from all over the world and they are well worth seeing. Not only owls, but many more species of birds which are fascinating such as the: hornbill, red buzzard, an African raven, kookaburras etc. The couple of pairs of kookaburras wake my daughter and her family every morning and the owls lull them to sleep in the evening. The kookaburras I’ve got to admit, always have us laughing.

Anyway, the exhibition is at the Redcar Kirkleatham Museum until the 25th April. The Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition is owned by the National History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine.

The exhibition really is ‘a must see.’ Just thought I'd mention it as the exhibition is moving around to different areas, and to find out when it is coming to your area, here is a link: http://tinyurl.com/dy4rds