Andrew Trundlewagon's photos

Looking up the Cuckmere river from the beach, Sussex, UK. The river separates the cliffs of Seaford Head on the west from those of the Seven Sisters to the east. This is at low tide, when the river can be crossed by wading. At high tide it becomes an impassable barrier and the only way forward is a walk upriver to the nearest bridge, a detour that adds at least a mile and a half to the hike.

The view of the Seven Sisters cliffs looking across from the fisherman's cottages above the river Cuckmere. Sussex, UK.

A European Peacock butterfly a long way from home. In the last few years these have appeared in the Montreal area, thousands of kilometres from their native territories in Europe. They are now well established and seem to be here to stay.

Stained Glass Canterbury Cathedral.

A pint of Harvey's Sussex Bitter, in the Old Bell Inn, Rye in Sussex. The Old Bell dates to 1390. Harvey's is brewed across the county in Lewes.

A spotted orchid growing on Edburton Hill, South Downs, Sussex.

The ruins of Bramber castle, Sussex, UK. A castle was built on this site in 1070, shortly after the Norman Conquest, by William de Braose, first Lord of Bramber. It was probably a wooden structure replaced over the years by a stone tower and curtain wall. The last male heir of the de Braose family died in 1326, and the castle has been falling down ever since until now very little is left. Its strategic position still commands fantastic views of the surrounding countryside.

Perhaps one of the most photographed views in Canterbury cathedral, the intricate fan vaulting of the Bell Harry tower (Central tower), completed in 1498. The name “Bell Harry” refers to a bell given to the cathedral by Prior Henry of Eastry in 1288. Fan vaulting is a predominantly English architectural innovation, and for scale, the central shield (which is a trap door) is about five feet, or roughly 1.5 metres in diameter. The tower is about 75 metres (250 feet) tall. Canterbury cathedral was founded by St. Augustine in 597. It was vandalized by Danish invaders in 1011, destroyed by fire in 1067, other parts destroyed by fire in 1174, and badly damaged by an earthquake in 1382. It has been variously rebuilt, added to and improved for centuries. More remarkable given that the builders were working without the benefit of the laws of mechanics, at least in a formal mathematical sense. Although they must have understood how forces etc. work for their unsurpassed buildings to remain standing. (Cell phone, and heavily cropped so resolution could be a lot better).

They painted, he paints over.

A thick-legged flower beetle on, perhaps not surprisingly, a flower. South Downs, Sussex, near Pyecombe.

A gated pleasure pier, locked and sealed. The Palace Pier, Brighton, early in the morning.

Brighton, fish and chips on the seafront, going in style.

A tight cluster of recently hatched garden spiders.

A duskywing butterfly.

A bullfrog tadpole. Quite large but still no legs.

A bridge over the mill pond, St Bruno Park. Somewhere there is a Dalmatian dog hiding in the photo.

This is the flower of the mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) that grows mostly in shady woodland and produces an attractive white flower. The problem, though, is that the flower is so well hidden below the large umbrella-like leaves that it is not often seen. It grows in colonies that spread through rhizomes, and it has been suggested that some large colonies might be over a hundred years old. The plant is poisonous to humans, although the fruit (the May apple) can be eaten when it is ripe (but I have never tried it). Many animals consume the fruit, and the box turtle is thought to be the main seed disperser. Podophyllotoxin, which is the major toxin of the mayapples, can be used topically to remove warts and was, in turn, used as the basis for the development of an anti-cancer drug called etoposide. Found in the East Don ravine parkland, Toronto. (P.S. I only noticed when I got home that there was a lot of dust on the lens, hence the small black spots, sorry about that!)

A plant behaving badly. This is the one flowered cancer root, or one flowered broomrape (Orobanche uniflora). It is a small parasitic plant that lacks chlorophyl and obtains its nutrients entirely by parasitizing the roots of other plants, notably saxifrages, asters and sedum. This colony was growing by the side of a stream (German Mills Creek) in the East Don Mills ravine parkland in Toronto. It is a member of the Orobanchaceae, or broomrapes, and occurs widely throughout Canada and the US, but is not often seen (this is, in fact, the only time I have seen it). Despite its rather anti-social lifestyle, it made a very pleasant surprise between the early spring ephemerals that are almost finished and the summer wildflowers that have yet to arrive.