In The Frame

Webbed Gorse

I love this time of year for mountain walks and photography. I take photographs of plants, animals, insects and the endlessly fascinating patterns of the landscape. These images look closely at elements and form in nature and looks at them in an abstract way, magnifying the detail. Photography brings me a constant education about the environment, mountains, forests, coastlines, how we see and use our open spaces, my own relationship to the landscape and the sense of wellbeing I get from it. Mountain walking has been a wonderful and necessary escape from the low hum of the city. With the travel restrictions the current pandemic brings, many people are rediscovering their own connection to nature and the amazing spaces available to us locally and in Ireland. You have to get up very early in the morning if you want Howth Head or anywhere else to yourself these days but, perhaps, this reconnection will encourage us to be more invested in our environment and the climate challenges we face as our collective appreciation for nature grows.

The gorse mite is a tiny bright red speck no longer than a millimetre in length. It lives and eats on the gorse bush and on nothing else. The silken web they build serves as a barrier, protecting the colony from the elements and the outside world. Millions of them constantly work together to take care of the world they inhabit.