Natural Elegance Element

On the near bank of a narrow inlet in Beaulieu River during an afternoon forest drive we noticed a pair of swans with their well grown cygnets 

basking

and preening in the warm sunshine.

Soon they rose awkwardly to their feet,

stretched their wings,

waddled to the edge,

slipped into the water, their natural elegance element,

and trailed across the river

where food and drink were to be found.

While I focussed on these birds, Jackie photographed a distant heron.

This evening we dined on baked gammon; smooth cheese and mustard sauce, creamy mashed potatoes; crunchy carrots; and tender cabbage, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Bordeaux.

69 comments

  1. A beautiful photo essay. They “slipped into the water, their natural elegance element …”

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  5. The swans are lovely, as is Jackie’s heron. On another subject entirely, I had an interesting experience this morning. When I tried to upload some photos to my WP media library, they wouldn’t upload, and I got a message that said, generally, “Your photos failed to upload. Try resizing them.” Then, it gave some dimensions in pixels far larger than anything I was trying to upload.

    Well. The first thing I did was to refresh the media library page, just as it was — notice and all. Voila! I could upload again. I don’t know exactly what your issues have been, but if you ever get that same notice and haven’t tried refreshing the page, you might give it a go.

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    1. Thanks very much, Linda. I haven’t had that message, but I have to refresh and sometimes turn everything off – sometimes several times -to post each picture.

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  11. Such beautiful photos and poetic words, Derrick! They made me SIGH contentedly and smile. 🙂 The swans always seem elegant to me…even more so when they glide through the water so regally! 🙂
    Jackie’s heron photo is lovely, too! 🙂
    (((HUGS)))
    🦢❤️🦢❤️🦢

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  12. So many signets! I’m glad they managed to avoid the predators.
    I do love the way they stay with their parents, and are often still with them when the next clutch is hatched.

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  25. Oh wow. Just wow. Incredible beauty.
    A few years back we had rented a flat near Hyde Park. My niece and i would walk over there. And there were swans! About twenty or more of them. Such beautiful Kodak moments to remember and cherish. They would fly from the opposite edge of (pond ?) the lake, and swoop down where we would be. I took some photos too.
    Thank you for sharing these elegant creatures.

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  26. It is interesting how awkward we are when we are out of our element and how graceful we become when we are in it. Beautiful Swans. … and heron.

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  28. We have swans at the golf course. They are supposed to chase away the geese which are a real nuisance. The white swans are useless at it but the black swans are very effective.

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