TRAVEL WORDS

Bench series #10

For the month of March I’m looking for Wooden benches

Oak Leaf Bench – Aberglasney Garden, Wales

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: March
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 April

My Picks of the Week:

Pauline takes us for a stroll around Tyalgum where she found a bench or two (and how can you resist visiting a place-name like that?)
Daily Musings has a wintry river view
Klara is in a garden with an unusual bench
and Ladysighs links to a hand-restored bench by Eddy in Poland together with one of her poems
The Lucid Gypsy found a beautiful little bench in Kuala Lumpur
whilst Debbie finds a typical English wooded bench up in the Malvern Hills
and This Melbourne Life joins us this month with a bench in… Melbourne!

Punchy Pops of Orange

orange seems to be a very popular choice for a photographic challenge and here it comes again. Not wanting to repeat my previous choices I thought I’d stick with a floral scheme this time around.

“There is no blue without yellow and without orange.”

~ Vincent Van Gogh

a terracotta pot contrasts beautifully with the blue-green hues of succulents.
From the palest of peaches and apricots through to copper, rust, salmon-pink and terracotta, the range of orange shades in the natural world is phenomenal.

Rudbeckia

Lilium martagon with rust coloured stamens

Autumn Oranges

Red Admiral, vivid orange-red bands

Californian Poppy

Copper Pumpkins

Lily with yellow-orange stamens

Tulip

and some plants can display many different shades of orange simultaneously as in the largish, double-formed flowers of apricot-orange with shades of rose-pink borne in medium-sized clusters on the fragrant Ann Aberconway rose.

“Orange is red brought nearer to humanity by yellow.”

~ Wassily Kandinsky

If you like flowers as much as I do then head over to The Earth Laughs with Flowers where you will find these and many more…

Abandoned Architecture

Dawn of “The Day After” runs a monthly architecture challenge as well as her windows, I haven’t joined in for a while, but thought it would be a good opportunity to share some photos of Tintern Abbey. Long since abandoned.

the Cistercian abbey of Tintern is one of the greatest monastic ruins of Wales. It was only the second Cistercian foundation in Britain, and the first in Wales, and was founded on 9 May 1131 by Walter de Clare, lord of Chepstow.

In the 1500s monastic life in England and Wales was brought to an abrupt end by the political actions of King Henry VIII. The Dissolution of the Monasteries was part of the king’s policy to establish total control over the church in his realm.

Tintern Abbey was surrendered to the king’s visitors on 3 September 1536. With the roofs gone and windows smashed it was destined to fall into decay, but was rediscovered in the late 18th century and became a fashionable place to visit by many people wanting to discover a wild and romantic place including the artist JMW Turner and the poet William Wordsworth.

north transept

monk’s refectory windows

ornate windows – sexfoil tracery

Since the early twentieth century the abandoned ruin has been cared for and restored so that it will remain the perfect ruined abbey for many years to come. If you would like to read more about the abbey then please visit Castle Wales.

Travel Theme: Environment

nature 2 - wind farm wales — A wind farm in Wales

Compared to the environmental impact of traditional energy sources, the environmental impact of wind power is relatively minor. Wind power consumes no fuel, and emits no air pollution, unlike fossil fuel power sources. The energy consumed to manufacture and transport the materials used to build a wind power plant is equal to the new energy produced by the plant within a few months. While a wind farm may cover a large area of land, many land uses such as agriculture are compatible, with only small areas of turbine foundations and infrastructure made unavailable for use. Wikipedia

What are your thoughts about wind turbines? Do you think they spoil the environment?

Bench series #9

For the month of March I’m looking for Wooden benches

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: March
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 April

My Picks of the Week:

Cathy has a selection in Victoria, I quite fancy sitting in the rotunda
or perhaps on this small bench (made for skinny people?) under the shade of the tree found by Aletta.
Klara has got an interesting perspective of a bench this week.
Pauline has discovered a bench she had forgotten about, whilst Sylvia takes us to the beach in Sanibel
and Debbie is on Broadway.

Thanks all for joining in with the black and white theme.