I’ve been invited to take part in the “Five Photos, Five Stories” challenge by Alison of Scene by Minerva. The challenge is quite simply to “post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph and each day nominate another blogger for the challenge”.
My five photos are going to depict what I love about Cornwall. The light, the colours, the coast, the history.
Godrevy Lighthouse on the eastern side of St Ives Bay, west Cornwall. Facing the Atlantic Ocean it is popular with both the surfing community and walkers, photographers and even writers. It was the inspiration for Virginia Woolf’s novel “To the Lighthouse“. (please click image to enlarge)
My nomination today is Lynne Ayers of Beyond the Brush Photography – who is an excellent art photographer. Absolutely no requirement to join in, only if you want to.
A narrow lane lined with hedgerows of a ghostly white mist (the delicate blossom of the blackthorn) leads from the ferry point into the village. Finches flit from one side of the lane to the other, others sing merrily in the bushes and all the while the warmth of the sun intensifies the coconut fragrance of the deep yellow gorse flowers.
A pretty white-washed, thatched cottages, cute welcoming pub, type of Cornish village greets you, with even a General Stores! If only all Cornwall’s villages were this pretty.
Walking around the village only takes a few minutes – it isn’t big. But you can stroll through woodland, at this time of year delightfully sunny, wild primroses, violets, wild angelica and early ransomes with their light garlic fragrance, line the banks. Periwinkle in shades from white through palest lavender to deepest purple clamber over the dry stone walls, and red and white campion, yellow celandine and the common daisy are raising their heads to the sun.
Periwinkle
Wild Angelica
Primroses
Best wear good walking boots…
A circular walk takes you to Kestle Barton which has a cultural centre (closed on a Monday) and on towards Frenchman’s Creek. Now anyone who is a fan of Daphne du Maurier will have heard of this place and I had to have a closer look, despite it involving a steep walk down (and naturally back up) a rather steep track.
Steps and a gate
Countryside views
Blackthorn hedge
A pretty house
Cornish walls
Frenchmans Creek
Aqua
Almost there…
Wild violets
Fresh eggs?
Finding the creek though was magic. Especially as there were several white egrets feeding there. Of course as soon as I appeared with camera in hand, they flew away. But I enjoyed a short walk alongside the water with its tantalisingly flashes of blue and green appearing to me between the trees. I could have continued around the headland back to Helford, but as I had left the OH on a particularly lovely granite bench at the top of the track I had to head back the way I had come.
Returning to the village on a higher level
Back to the other side of the river we spent a pleasant hour or two at the Ferryboat Inn, supping ginger beer with ice and lime slices and watching hardy children play in the water and the fog rolling in from the south. An agreeable way to spend the afternoon.
If you enjoy a walk, long or short, then have a look at Jo’s site where you are welcome to join in. And I am sure she will forgive me using a boat on part of this walk as I know Jo is extremely partial to boats and water 🙂
Four months into the year already and I’m on the hunt for some colour! I am a little early this month as I shall be away in Cornwall when I normally post this walk. So let’s see what has changed since March.
Well, those trees are still dormant. But there is some colour around the castle grounds although not as much as there was at this time last year when the blossom and magnolia were already in full flower.
There are more people now, wandering around the town and castle. Even sitting on the benches! The one below is my favourite as you have an amazing view across to Whitcliffe and also it is in the sun.
Sitting on a bench outer castle walls
I thought that for a change I would nip through the outer wall of the castle and wander down to the river from there, to see if there is any sign of life. It is a glorious day and the sun is warm. Birds, especially robins, are singing their hearts out and the ducks are pairing up. I’m happy to find wild violets, blue anemones, daisies and a small tortoiseshell butterfly. There were several sulphur yellow male brimstones too, but they flitted about so fast in the sunshine never coming to rest.
Walk around the castle walls
Mortimers Tower
Anemone Blanda (blue)
Small Tortoisehell
Wild violets (April)
Common daisy
Whenever I walk around the castle I think of Catherine of Aragon looking out of those windows. It’s strange to think that she once lived here.
[In 1501, at the age of 16, Catherine arrived in England after a treacherous three-month sea voyage. She was married to Prince Arthur – now 15 – in old St Paul’s Cathedral. They moved to Ludlow Castle on the Welsh border. Unfortunately their marriage was to be short-lived as Arthur contracted what may have been “sweating sickness” and died shortly afterwards.]
Millennium Green looking greener
People are out an about on the Millennium Green and even playing in the water, though not yet in swimsuits. The water level is low, but the river is running fast.
Continuing along the Breadwalk it is noticeably greener, though the trees are still bare. I hadn’t realised how late it is before they get new leaves. Recent rain has caused the path to be quite muddy and I see that I missed the egg rolling.
The Teme
Easter Notice
Touches of green
The waterfall
Spotting forsythia in the old town (April)
The daffodils are in flower now
I searched for my swans, but to no avail. Maybe they have headed further downstream to breed. I hope that they are still around. Heading back up the Lower Broad Street I notice that there are more spring bulbs flowering in the pots and the cherry tree has new leaves.
Hyacinths
New leaves
Skimmia flowering (April)
Spring is later this year, but as one gardener said to me this should be better for the late spring and summer flowers as they will avoid the threat of a late frost.
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?
The beginning of spring. March. Came in like a lion, roaring winds and sharp bursts of rain punctuated with an odd day of almost summer warmth. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do my walk on that day and ever since it has been grey and gloomy although I did grab a few shots last Monday when it was sunshine and clouds.
Not a lot happening here on Dinham, except the skip has been moved. Bet you never even noticed that last month! One thing about Ludlow is that there are so many old houses the tradesmen always have work – new roofs, window repairs, renovation projects etc.
Date: March 15 2015 Weather: Cloudy Temperature: Cold (7°C but feels like 4º) Time: 2 – 3 pm
But there is life in the Castle gardens – lovely golden daffodils dancing in the chilly wind. And soon there will be blossom appearing too. And although people are walking around today on Mother’s Day, no-one is yet sitting on any of the benches.
Signs of spring
St John’s Chapel
Budding Magnolia Tree
Chimney Pots
Daffodils replace snowdrops
A cottage garden on Dinham
The thing I notice most on this walk, apart from all the dog-walkers, is the sound of birds singing. I wish I could capture that. A pair of courting ducks sit on the wall of Dinham bridge and watch over their friends swimming far below. The view is not so great today in the grey. The water looks cold.
Winter tree
Dinham Bridge (March)
Signs of greenery
Buds appearing
I search for signs of new life, but there is very little difference between now and last month. I was hoping there would be more greenery. And I can’t see my swans today. I hope they are safe. The trees on the top of Whitcliff are just the same as last month, only the sky is different.
A bench on the corner at Ludham catches my eye as it is surrounded by late flowering daffodils still in bud. I wonder if they will be open next month when I pass by this way.
Lower Broad Street is empty, though one elderly gentleman did a sweet dance for me in front of the camera. I was too embarrassed to photograph him then, but caught a shot from behind. He did at least make me smile in the cold. A few pots of early daffs, some vibrant primulas and a winter-flowering erica added some colour to the drabness of the day. The crocuses and blossom I found last week on a sunnier day.
Crocuses (March)
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?
Hopefully there will be more dramatic changes next month, I’m certainly hoping so!
First there is Hadrian: milecastles, hill forts and temples and bucket loads of history from its turbulent English – Scottish conflicts. Where man and beast walk on the wall.
Then there are the green fells and bubbling rivers stained tea brown from all the tannin, and the heather-clad Pennine landscape where sheep abound and rare alpine plants can be found.
Mile after mile of roller coaster roads with their blind summits and hidden dips, twisting hairpin bends and narrow single lane bridges arching over wee burns. And long forgotten viaducts striding over a river many vertiginous feet below.
Invigorating walks lead past houses built in a golden stone with pots full of bright red geraniums and purple petunias cascade and where inviting tea-rooms with a friendly welcome are set amidst old rail tracks. Stop at a traditional pub, some dating back to the 12th century, others used as a meeting place in the Jacobite Rebellion, where smiling bar-staff greet you with their warm northern accent and make you reluctant to leave.
Explore villages and small towns where houses are crammed together supporting one another, wander down hidden snickets and narrow cobbled lanes with secret gardens. Where churches with ancient churchyards are open at all times welcoming strangers to view their beautiful stained glass windows, bell towers, carved pulpits and unusual altars or simply to admire the craftsmanship of the home-made pew cushions, lovingly stitched by the congregation.
Finally there’s the coast and the castles. Wide, sandy beaches, river mouths and harbours and huge dunes with wild flowers. Tide timetables to consult, micro breweries and Craster kippers to taste, seals and summer sea-bird colonies to see and a walk to a castle last occupied during the Wars of the Roses. A church cut off from its village by the river changing its course in a violent storm over two centuries ago. History is around every corner.
Derwent reservoir
Herons and cormorants and twenty-five white swans on the River Coquet at Warkworth, swifts and finches flying in and out of the barns, stopping to briefly rest on the top of a stone wall beside you, but not long enough for a photo. The call of an owl, the sighting of a hawk. Dozens of rabbits scurrying around a churchyard at dusk. Grouse strutting nonchalantly along the lanes as if they know it’s not the shooting season.
And the sky – the big open sky – cumulus clouds, a rainbow over the fells, the zillion stars and the Milky Way. You want to gaze at it all the time. Your eyes are drawn upwards. And driving home in the dusk after a very long day you round a final bend and slam on the brakes as a young deer glides across the road in front of you. It stops, hesitates, eyes shining in the headlights before turning around to disappear back into the gloom of the woodland from whence it has come. Serendipity.
Godrevy Lighthouse on the eastern side of St Ives Bay, west Cornwall. Facing the Atlantic Ocean it is popular with both the surfing community and walkers, photographers and even writers. It was the inspiration for Virginia Woolf’s novel “To the Lighthouse“. (please click image to enlarge)
TRAVEL WORDS 