It’s All Wet

I’ve been hunting through the archive for pictures that are All Wet.  It’s easy enough to find souvenirs of days out in the rain: this is England after all; and of riverside and seaside shots.  But my eye kept being drawn to these photos, ones taken when I was reluctantly imprisoned inside during a rainstorm, or otherwise messing about in the wet.  What do you think?

The Yorkshire Dales in a rainstorm.
A soggy weekend in Cumbria.
The car had to tackle some seriously deep puddles as we came home from our Cumbrian weekend.
Cherry blossom drifting onto a sunlit pond.
The carwash.
Edinburgh in the rain, as seen from the National Museum of Scotland.
Busan, South Korea after a heavy rain storm.

Lens-Artists Challenge #95 – All Wet

Look for Shadows

‘Look for shadows’, says Jude.  So I have.  William did too, and he was sure he could catch his shadow if he tried just a little bit harder.

I went out catching shadows too: on roadways, in fields, on the bedroom wall.  Sometimes they were crisp silhouettes of the objects themselves, and at other times bafflingly indistinct, or satisfyingly abstract.

Last year, in Northumberland: our intrepid band of hikers pinned against a drystone wall.
A selection of legs – human, probably – at Masham Sheep Fair.
Self-portrait as shadow.
Climbers growing outside the window reflected on the wall and ceiling.
Plant life on the roadside.
A pretty accurate portrait of an oak tree painted by the sun on a recently harrowed field last week.

# 2020 Photo Challenge 18

 

 

Walking Every Single Day During Lockdown

I’ve made discoveries on my doorstep:

Woodland

Greensitt Batts, West Tanfield.

Farmland

North Lees, near Ripon.

River bank

River Ure at Sleningford.

Lakeside

The White Pond, near Musterfield.

Pasture

Hall Farm near Tanfield

Wildlife

A new walk, every single day.

Six Word Saturday

A composite walk for Jo’s Monday Walk

I’m Behind the Curve

I woke up this morning to realise it’s already May: though without the accompanying balmy weather.  And I hadn’t yet done Jude’s April Photo Challenge.  I wonder if she’ll notice if I squeeze it in today?

She wants us to explore curved lines.  I’ve found this the most difficult of her challenges, so let’s see what I’ve come up with.

I’ve begun on one of my daily walks near the house:  An oak tree providing a natural arching frame over a field of rape, horizontal as the horizon.

 

Let’s go on a virtual journey to the Yorkshire Dales where in normal times, we love to walk: streams, rolling hills, drystone walls, snaking ahead of us on our path.

Angram Reservoir, leading the eye to the viaduct at the back of the picture
A drystone wall near Grassington picks out our route.
More scenery on the moors above Grassington.

And at our nearby nature reserve, Nosterfield, brambles frame the local landscape in the autumn.

Lastly, let’s make a trip to Gateshead, and look at the Millennium Bridge framing the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

2020 Photo Challenge #17

 

 

Life on the Top Floor

Yesterday you had a peek at our sitting room window, from the outside.  Come on in.  We’ll go upstairs, into the kitchen.  This is our view from the breakfast table.  And it’s lilac time – almost.  White, mauve and purple, all in bud, all on the cusp of bursting into flower for one glorious week.   Our Top Time of year for breakfast beauty. Aren’t we lucky?

 

# Squaretops 30

Becky: thank you.  This month has been fun.  I’m not a natural daily blogger, but it’s been a challenge I’ve enjoyed to find a daily response, almost entirely from photos taken specially for ‘Top Squares’, and  I’ve ‘met’ bloggers I wouldn’t otherwise have come across.  I can’t resist ending as I began: with a Top Sheep-and a lamb or two.

A Toadflax Top-knot

Look at the charming old bridge at West Tanfield.  Keep looking.  You’ll spot it eventually.  A close-up shot is not an option.

It’s been around since 1734.  JMW Turner sketched it in 1816.  Tour de France riders hurtled over it in 2014.  It’s a fine place to stand and look at a Proper English Village View.

But today, I had a surprise.  I saw a small clump of toadflax had chosen to grow on the very top, just where I was leaning over.  A fine addition, I thought.

#Squaretops 28

Serendipitous Topiary?

Shadow puppetry by happenstance? Perhaps I’ve taken leave of my senses, but on a walk the other day, looking at the shadows cast across my path, all I could see in my mind’s eye was that scene in Little Red Riding Hood where she comes upon the wolf in Grandma’s bed.  ‘What big ears you have, Grandmama.’

I thought it was Top Topiary anyway, even if no garden shears were involved.

# Squaretops 26

Top Spot on a Tip-top Pot

We were due to walk part of the coastal section of the Cleveland Way this week.  We looked forward to taking over from where we’d left off last year, and to having a windswept, scenic and invigorating walk along the cliffs edging the North Sea.  Covid-19 put a stop to that. So – you can either read here about last year’s walk, or – as we did – admire these herring gulls on their lofty look-out posts in Staithes.  Maybe, just maybe, you’ll be able to read about the postponed walk later this year.

# Squaretops 25

Six Word Saturday