Category: Uncategorized

Around the World in Ten Photos (4)

Yesterday‘s image was a difficult one to crack. But Agnes did it! It was taken in one of the most peaceful places I know, l’Albufera Natural Park, an area of freshwater lagoons near Valencia, Spain. Today, we’ll stick with a watery theme. Can you see the heron here, enjoying urban life? Maybe identifying the town is a stretch too far. But which country are we in?

Andrew of Have Bag, Will Travel invited me to join him and other bloggers to post one favourite travel picture a day for ten days without explanation, then each day, nominate someone new to join in on the same terms. Judith, of Beyond the Window Box – any chance you’d like to join in? No pressure if it’s not for you, but you do take the most evocative photos. Link back to this post if you decide to have a go.

Around the World in Ten Photos (2)

Today I’m sending a postcard, as I’ve been doing every Tuesday for a while. But because it’s part of my Around the World collection, I shan’t tell you where it’s from until tomorrow. As part of Jude’s 2020 Photo Challenge, I’m choosing a subject that has mass and volume, and where you will be in no doubt what’s centre stage.

Yesterday‘s photo was a tough one. But Peter got it! Well done, Peter of Peter’s Pondering. You’re quite right. It’s the World War II Museum in Gdansk, Poland. We spent much of the day here when we visited. It’s an absorbing, unsettling collection, showing all too graphically the hardships endured by the citizens of Easter Europe before, during and after the conflict. Here’s my account. Highly recommended, as is Gdansk itself.

Andrew of Have Bag, Will Travel invited me to join him and other bloggers to post one favourite travel picture a day for ten days without explanation, then each day, nominate someone new to join in on the same terms. Elke, of Pictures Imperfect , I’m inviting you today. No pressure if it’s not for you though.

2020 Photo Challenge #50

Two of a kind?

My grandchildren look nothing like me, or anyone in my past. One looks like his dad. The next one looks like his uncle. The next one’s the spitting image of his granddad. And then along came Zoë. A few weeks back, my son found this photo of me at about the age Zoë is now, and thought he detected a resemblance. Two of a kind? You decide.

Slide between the two pictures to compare me with my granddaughter
  • Me.
    Me.
  • Zoë
    Zoë

#Kinda Square

The Devil is Not Kind

Blackberries this year have been wonderful. From early August until a few days ago, I’d come home from every country walk with stained lips and fingers, and a bag full of purple fruits. But it’s all over now, because on 29th September, Michaelmas Day, the Devil came along, as he does every year, and spat on every remaining berry. If you favour the old Church calendar, you’ve got till 10th October, but whichever one you follow, blackberrying’s pretty much over for another year. The Devil is not kind.

#Kinda Square

My First Hedgehog

I haven’t seen a live hedgehog all year. Last summer, for almost a month, we had one who came every afternoon and fossicked for grubs and worms somewhere near the study window. She (he?) kept it up for about a month, then, suddenly … nothing. No more hedgehog.

This year, I’ve seen only road kill. Yesterday though, on volunteer duty at Fountains Abbey, I noticed something very un-pheasant like among all the pheasants cruising on a lawn near the Banqueting House. It was a hedgehog. She (he?) delighted me . Like most people, I take very kindly to these charming – and now endangered – creatures.

#Kinda Square

Shadow

For fun, let’s enter a world of shadows, and while we’re about it, complete Jude’s photo challenge this week, where she invites us to do just that.

A street light in Vic, Catalonia.
A bike in Barcelona.
Passers by – or their legs anyway – at Masham Sheep Fair.
Shadows on the sitting room wall.
Woodland at Kiplin Hall, North Yorkshire.
A woodland path on the Ripon Rowel walk.
A path on a riverside walk, West Tanfield, North Yorkshire.
My son and daughter-in-law looking out at the Atlantic. I like the not-a-tree hanging over them.
Overlooking the beach at Filey, North Yorkshire.

2020 Photo Challenge #37

‘Green is the prime colour of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises’*

… so that’s why I chose it for Jude’s Photo Challenge this week, which is to focus on one colour, and one colour alone.  But green of course, isn’t simply green…

This wood was planted by the Victorians on the site of a Neolithic henge in nearby Nosterfield. I’ll tell the story one day.

Spring crops.
A very rainy day on Harrogate Ringway.
William in a light box at the Horniman Museum. Also available in blue, red, purple, yellow …
A view in La Rioja, Spain.
Evening i the garden.
A meadow in Swaledale.
A dilapidated shed on a farm near North Stainley.
A young chestnut leaf.
A tempestuous gale in June.
The ill-named White Pond, Mickley.
Trees near Fountains Abbey.
The Leeds-Liverpool Canal.

Crops growing near West Tanfield, North Yorkshire

A view across the Yorkshire Dales.

*Pedro Calderon de la Barca (Spanish Dramatist 1600 – 1681)

2020 Photo Challenge #33