This image is not particularly good, and is a heavy crop to show something I did not even see. Yesterday we went to Coventry Cathedral. The old cathedral was heavily damaged in a bombing raid in 1940, but a lot of the remains are in place next to the new cathedral. This window arch is part of that old cathedral, and you can still see what is left of the stained glass – 86 years later!
Mind blown.
Nope, my mistake, I meant Watchett. Watchett is a small harbour town on the Somerset coast, on the edge of Exmoor. It has a lighthouse, so that is good enough for me. Compositionally I guess this photo is inverted to the rules, with the lighthouse being a minor player in the scene, but I am defending the decision by saying the two mooring points create a leading line. Well, that is my excuse.
When I saw these back steps at Windsor Castle, I wondered how many princes over the years had made their way up and down on the way between home and Eton College, which is just down the road. How the other half live. I say that, but of course I have no idea how you live. Let me know if you live in a castle, and when I can come round for tea.
Bringing back a memory from Madeira. If you look closely (click on the image to expand it) you can see the trail that follows the crest of these mountains in Madeira, and people walking said trail. A beautiful part of the island where the drifting clouds expose and hide the peaks at random, and timing is crucial.
Honestly, I would forget my head if it wasn’t screwed on! The point of my visit to Lincoln was to capture the Cathedral, although I had no idea of the surrounding evironment. And then I didn’t upload a photo of said Cathedral. So here it is. And for the benefit of any US viewers – yes the timbered houses around the Cathedral are indeed older than your country…
No, this image is not from Runnymede where the Magna Carta was sorted, but from Lincoln. As is evident, the name of the pub is the blog title, and Lincoln Castle is just hovering in the background. As it was evening I was tempted to go and eat in the pub, and the food looked good, but it was packed out. So I went home and had a mini pork pie instead. Living life on the wild side…
The weather has not been ideal for the type of photography I usually enjoy doing, but the harsh sunlight normally suits black and white making use of the contrast to emphasise textures and patterns. So I took the chance to explore the cathedral quarter in Lincoln in the early evening. Doubling down on the contrast I decided to shoot into the sun to try and get a starburst. I think the cobbles came out nicely…
This life-sized steel sculpture of a Lancaster bomber is called On Freedom Wings, and was erected in honour of the RAF crews in World War 2. I caught it in the evening light, although it is not yet fully open to the public. However, if you accidentally go up a private road because you don’t see the sign that it is private until too late because you are focused on finding the sculpture, you can get a pretty decent view. There is also a layby on the northbound A46 which provides a better view, but it was full when I went past it.
OK, so anonymous is a bit of a cop out. Truth is I am rubbish at plant identification. If it is not a rose, bluebell, or poppy I am lost. So I don’t know what it is , but it stood out in the sunlight so I snapped it. This was taken on my new long lens at a local nature reserve. There were a lot of ‘twitchers’ around looking for a night heron, which is apparently a little rare. So of course I have a camera and a long lens, and the assumption is I am also looking for this elusive bird. I tried to sound knowledgeable for the first twenty people that asked if I had seen it, but the truth is I am as knowledgeable about birds as I am about plants. Does it look like a robin, or a swan? Then no, I haven’t seen it. But neither have you, and I have a photo of a dead plant, so who is the loser?
Undeterred by the temperature, we went out yesterday to the coast. Firstly because my wife has to paddle in the sea at every opportunity, and secondly because she has a new pair of binoculars, and therefore wanted to look for birds, and I have a new lens I wanted to try out. Perhaps the midday sun at 32 Centigrade is not ideal for birdwatching but we saw a few skylarks, and heard a lot more. Most surprising was that on the walk we spotted a solitary muntjac deer. Sadly they do not have wings, so it could not be ticked off in the i-Spy book of birds, but I was happy.