Heyjude

Monthly Photo Challenge: The Changing Seasons #1

The Cardinal has decided to have a photo project going throughout 2015 – a blogging event, a monthly photo challenge. Find a location near your home, take somewhere between 5-20 photos and post them in a gallery in your blog. Continue to do this every month. The idea is to capture all the changes: the seasons, the weather, different times of the day, some night photography perhaps?

Sounds right up my street and I shall be interested to record the changes in my neighbourhood. Some of these locations have been posted before, but this is a circular route from my front door around the River Teme, taking in the castle, some interesting houses, trees on Whitcliffe Common and some of the floral offerings on Ludlow’s streets.

Date: January 19 2015
Weather: sunshine and cloud
Temperature: Cold (2°C)
Time: 2 – 3 pm

After taking some photos around the castle garden on Dinham with the pollarded lime trees, it’s time to walk down to Dinham Bridge and capture a few shots of the castle and the river which is in full spate after the rain in Wales.

Dinham Brick Cottages

St John’s Chapel

Stone Cottages

Catkins (Jan)

View from Dinham Brisge

View from along the Breadwalk

Continue along the Breadwalk, taking great care as the path is frozen at this point and notice the Donkey Steps to the left. Swans feed at the edges and naked trees are reflected in the water.

The Donkey Steps

Waterfall

New Growth

Ludlow Bone Bed

Swans swimming

Copper leaves (Jan)

The Mill Weir

The Teme at Ludham Bridge

Leaving the river behind, my final stretch is along Lower Broad Street where the lack of outside space does not prevent the owners of the ancient cottages from displaying one of the towns best ‘gardens’.

Plenty of pots

Rosy Colour (Jan)

Lower Broad Streets ‘Garden’

Wintery Blues

Following a thread posted on my visit to Stonehenge I noticed that I had commented on my Avebury post that I still had to have a look at a local stone circle in Shropshire: Mitchell’s Fold Stones. That comment was made in March 2014.

So on Saturday, in bright sunshine I decided to take the shortish drive (25 miles) to find these stones. As we turned off the road and approached White Grit (Powys) the covering of snow on the lane alerted me to the fact that maybe this was not such a good idea.

Continuing up the lane to the car park with the ice/skid light illuminating on my dashboard I hoped that I would be able to turn around at the end. Reversing down this track was not really an option. The sun was still shining, though there was an ominous black cloud in my rear mirror.

As with many prehistoric sites Mitchell’s Fold is subject of legend. It is said that a fairy gave a magic cow in times of famine which produced an endless supply of milk. An evil witch tried to milk her into a sieve, and realising the trick the cow disappeared. The witch was turned into a stone and a circle of stones was built to ensure she could not escape.

The stone circle is not too far from the parking area, but the temperature was somewhere around 2°C and the wind was raw. The landscape (that which was still visible) looked amazing. Wrapping up in scarves and gloves and hiking boots we headed up towards the stones, which were sadly hidden in the blizzard that then hit us!

I tried – honest I did, but I can’t say that this was my best photographic venture despite risking frostbite.

Oh, well, I will try again in the summer – this vista is well-worth exploring, stones or no stones! And there are barrows and cairns in the area too.

(This stone circle was constructed in the Bronze Age, over 3,000 years ago, using dolerite stones from Stapeley Hill. Today there are 15 stones arranged in a rough circle, but there may have been as many as 30).

If you enjoy a walk, long or short, then have a look at Jo’s site where you are welcome to join in.

Bench series #3

Still on the Garden theme:

If you would like to join in with the Bench photo challenge then take a look at my Bench Series page where you will find everything you want to know (haha if only…)

Create your own post and title it Bench Series: January
Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
Add the tag ‘bench series’ so everyone can find the benches easily in the WP Reader
Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new bench theme comes out on the first Sunday in February

I look forward to resting my feet all around the world!

Have a look at Sydney’s Botanic Garden with Elizabeth
Debbie takes us to Kew Gardens in London
Pauline shows us all the benches in her beautiful rainforest garden.
Gilly is relaxing in Penshurst Place on a beautiful summers day.
Ailsa shows us a very unusual bench in the green of a lawn in Charlston
and Meg shows us one complete with a cow!

Thanks folks for joining in so I don’t feel like “Billy no-mates”

Serenity on the Norfolk Broads

Grey sky blushes pink

All is calm on the water

Crested Grebes head home

Just Back From…Stonehenge

A quick weekend visit to Wiltshire to visit family gave me the opportunity to finally revisit Stonehenge after many, many years. I was one of the fortunate people who was able to run around the stones back in the 1960s. Since 1978 the stones have been fenced off and the experience of viewing them through wire did not appeal to me, even though I have passed the site often on my way to the South-West.

The whole site has been much improved by the removal of the old A344, a major road that ran up the north edge of the stones. You now approach from the west, either on foot or using the shuttle bus, and make your way clockwise around the monument which allows you to see all the stones above ground.

What you see probably originates from around 2500 BC and took 800 years to build. Obviously the site has changed over the centuries, but it seems that the larger sarsen stones were constructed then and do not appear to have been moved, whereas the smaller bluestones may have been rearranged several times.

Stonehenge has an ‘axis’ – an alignment that runs north-east to south-west up the final straight line of the Avenue. This alignment works for the summer and winter solstices and there is growing evidence that the winter solstice was the most important.

It was a cold, raw windy winter’s day, but at least the sun shone casting black shadows over the bright-green grass and providing a striking contrast to the darkening clouds forming overhead.

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves and if you are ever in the area I do recommend a visit to this extraordinary site. Barrows and monuments in the landscape can be explored on foot over the uneven grass.

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