Image 1:

Witches Knickers

OED definition: Discarded plastic bags or shreds of plastic bags or wrappers that have become snagged in trees, hedges, fences etc. (now known colloquially as ‘witches knickers’).

I was expecting a snowy silence on this road below Shutlingsloe south of Macclesfield…. But the wind was having none of it, seemingly hell bent on creating a dreadful racket as strong gusts of wind ripped through the “witches knickers”.

Image 2:

The Wind that Shakes the Barley

In this image taken on a breezy day in Wormhill, Derbyshire, I was mesmerised by the small field of barley dancing this way & that in the wind. It’s always a challenge to try to capture the sensation of a turbulent wind in a single image but I think I managed to catch some of the drama on this occasion.

Credit: “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” is the title of an Irish ballad written by Robert Dwyer Joyce in 1861 [& also a 2006 film by Ken Loach].

And ’round her grave I wander drear,

Noon, night, and morning early,

With breaking heart whene’er I hear

The wind that shakes the barley!

Image 3:

Here for a Moment and then Gone

A mild February in Ollerton, a breeze picks up, temporarily pushing the rhododendron foliage aside, exposing the paler underside of the leaves as it barges through. The wind is always on its way somewhere, here for a moment & then gone.

by Vincent Stanley