Monthly Photo Challenge: The Changing Seasons #2

Time for month two – February. I have been waiting for over a week for a sunny day and today arrived with a blue sky. At least until I got out there and then the clouds returned.

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Not much has changed around the castle grounds. Trees still bare. And no sign of life from the pollarded limes.

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Date: February 17 2015
Weather: sunshine and cloud
Temperature: Cold (4°C)
Time: 10 – 11 am

I did spot something different on the way down to Dinham bridge; snowdrops on the lawn outside St John’s Chapel. And the catkins are shrinking and turning brown.

Walking over Dinham bridge I spotted a buzzard overhead, but I didn’t manage a photo as I was asked for directions by a couple of walkers. Back on to the Breadwalk and the path is muddy today, although there was an early frost. No sign of my swans yet, but the birds are singing loudly and the path is busy with dog-walkers and families on this Shrove Tuesday. A dead tree/branch has been swept downstream and is stuck on the Mill Weir.

Winter tree
Winter tree

Can you see the swans?

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Trees on Whitcliffe Common

I caught up with ‘my’ swans at the Ludham bridge where the water level looks lower than this time last month. And where I lost the sun.

Not much is happening along Lower Broad Street. A few bulbs are popping up in the pots, the ‘cherries’ are shrinking and wrinkling and a beautiful kitty posed for a photo.

Hello Kitty
Hello Kitty

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?

I’m hoping that next month we might see some more greenery. See you then!

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?

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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.

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

DSCF0375After 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.

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.

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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’.

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.

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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.

north view

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.

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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.

west view

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.

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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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