The silver birch trees shown in my photograph within a designated Local Nature Reserve, above, represent an increase in intensity of natural blues and greens. Reparation of our natural world. The culmination of popular human effort to manage our resources ethically and environmentally advantageously.

These neatly arranged trees are, currently, a sound barrier to an adjacent transportational highway. Nature blocking man-made activity. Suffering quietly without a voice. Drying to its sinew the veins of our gracious planet Earth.

Happily, the grass is cultivated for hay stacks.

Through summer of 2019, in the UK, I saw a remarkable increase in butterflies and other insects across this very field. Having noticed a startling lack from past summer seasons.

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” – Andy Warhol quote.

You see, these fields remind me of the ‘common land‘ sodden with crudely made shoes from yesteryear. The pre-Industrial age ala mid 19th century, with its burgeoning mass of innovative technological machinery.

Steam trains; cotton, silk or linen canvas built biplanes; cruiseliners; skyscrapers and tractors pulling the plough.

Straw holds multiple meanings to me. Usually I think of the ancient harvesting process for thrashing grain.

A steel sword, droves of horses, hay bales, pyramidic structures, straw bricks and agriculture.

I think of the gentle breeze too.

Olive springs the colour green to mind, juicy olive fruits, healthful oils and good cultivated produce. I envisage fields of olives in symmetrical rows, Azure skies basking in a bright yellowy ripened Sun.

What do you think surrounded in nature?

Please note the difference between the two photographs ‘Straw, Olive and the Azure’ / ‘Olive and the Azure’ shown above over a short distance of time.  The field has ripened with green foliage.