Photo Challenge – Page 165

Bench series #28

For the month of July I’m looking for a bench with ‘Unusual Details’

(This month I want to see photos of a bench which is different to the norm. It may be the shape, style, length, height, colour, material or even location that attracts your attention)

This unusual bench is found in Abbotsbury Sub-tropical Garden in Dorset. Carved from a fallen oak tree the seating part is probably the least interesting. Just look at those hounds chasing the fox! (click on an image to enlarge and scroll through the gallery)

If you would like to join in with the Bench photo challenge then please take a look at my Bench Series page. No complicated rules, just a bench and a camera required 🙂

Create your own post and title it Bench Series: July
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 August.

My Picks of the Week:

Pauline got in early with her wonderful surfboard seats. Join her for a winter stroll along the Gold Coast. You’ll be filled with envy!
Another stroll with a lovely bench at the end from VioletSky so if you get tired you can have a rest. And Jo throws in a very industrial looking bench that she found on her walk. Debbie is back with a delicately engraved bench on the Fens and another engraved bench is provided by Anabel, this time with a lovely inscription. Julia has a techno bench and Isobel was drawn into the challenge when she found a poignant bench in Winchester.

There is a toss-up for the most unusual though, between another one from Pauline and one from Tgeriatrix. What do you think?

The Wars of the Roses

As a child growing up in West Yorkshire I knew that a friendly rivalry existed between Yorkshire and Lancashire, our neighbours on the other side of the Pennines. Later on at grammar school I learnt a little about the Wars of the Roses and was astonished to discover that it wasn’t a war between the two counties as I had believed, but a series of battles fought in medieval England from 1455 to 1485 between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

The name of the battles derives from the symbols used by the two sides:

comtesse d'Oxford — Red Rose – House of Lancaster

On moving to Ludlow a few years ago I found out that one of the major battles of these wars took place only a few hundred yards from where I now live. The Battle of Ludford Bridge 12 October 1459. The Yorkist factions gathered here to make a push into Worcestershire, but fell back when they encountered a large group of Lancastrians led by Henry VI. The two sides took up positions on the opposite banks of the River Teme, but many of the Yorkists deserted during the night and the rest retreated the next day. So a victory for the Lancastrians. It is such a picturesque spot now that it is hard to imagine a battle taking place here.

A walk in the past

West Penwith. The furthest west you can go on British mainland and where you will find Land’s End. An area which was once rich in mineral wealth and is therefore riddled with mine shafts and abandoned engine houses. It is also an area rich in megalithic and archaeological sites. Fields of standing stones, stone circles, rocks with holes in the middle and a quoit or two.

Staying near the former mining village of Pendeen which lies between the sea and moorland gave me a chance to explore this wild and rugged region. The sun shone brightly every day, although the accompanying wind from the north reduced the temperature to a mere 14°C and made walks on the exposed coastline ‘~~interesting~~‘ difficult to stand up in.

A rather more pleasant walk was inland to find Chûn Quoit and Chûn Castle (though the castle is reduced to a heap of stones as most of it was used to pave the streets of Penzance) as much of the route was along a sheltered lane with high Cornish hedges at either side.

Finding the start of the public bridleway was the first hurdle as it isn’t marked from the road, but consulting the Ordnance Survey map we had with us it appeared to start at the back of a group of houses/farm in Higher Bojewyan just around the corner from our cottage.

Continue reading A walk in the past

Bench series #27

For the month of July I’m looking for a bench with ‘Unusual Details’

(This month I want to see photos of a bench which is different to the norm. It may be the shape, style, length, height, colour, material or even location that attracts your attention)

Promenade de la Treille in the old town of Geneva overlooks the Bastions park. This is the most ancient walk of Geneva, created at the beginning of the 16th century. The square is lined by the longest bench of the world which is more than 120 metres long. It was built in 1767. It is made of 180 wooden boards. The Treille Walk is planted with many old chestnut trees. One of them (on the east side of the square) is the official “Spring tree:” when it gets its first leaf, the spring season is officially declared in Geneva.

If you would like to join in with the Bench photo challenge then please take a look at my Bench Series page. No complicated rules, just a bench and a camera required 🙂

Create your own post and title it Bench Series: July
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 August.

My Picks of the Week:

The last ones in the post-editing theme come from Tgeriatrix who has been playing around with different effects on picnic benches that look like toadstools.
Polianthus (a newcomer so please make her welcome) introduces us to an old-fashioned double exposure effect.
Warning: Sunglasses required if you pop over to Lisa (Daily Musings) who takes a whimsical approach to the challenge this week. (Or she’s been listening to Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band too many times)
And another newcomer joins us this week with her Spanish bench in a tranquil courtyard. I hope you’ll say “Hi” to Swagata.
My final choice comes from Pauline who has taken a lot of pleasure over her ‘painting’ of Silver Birches

Thanks to everyone who contributed during the ‘arty’ month of June. Nice to see all those different effects 😀

Let the sun shine in…

The Weekly Photo Challenge is about Doors. Those of you who are regulars to my blog will know that I am quite partial to a door or two. My last post explained about the importance of having the correct colour for your front door so that everything was good in Feng Shui terms. One colour escaped me though. A yellow door. Lo and behold on a house hunting trip to Penzance I spied one across the road. And naturally had to take a photograph.