Lens-Artists Challenge – From Pyrenees to Pennines

The Lens-Artists Challenge, this week offered by Sofia, invites us to looks at mood. It’s been a very busy week for me, with time in short supply, so perhaps I need a spot of local walking to induce a mood of peace and calm.

… and just take a stroll down a woodland path …

Or perhaps a spot of merriment and street theatre is what’s required …

Or a seaside sunrise: even on a grey day.

Mind you, it’s as well to avoid nesting birds. They can get in a very bad mood, as this arctic tern can confirm …

He’s dive-bombing me. He thinks I’m possibly egg-collecting.

Best burn off a bit of energy and settle my mood …

… before returning home to be simultaneously awed and calmed by a local sunset …

When I was five, and shortly after Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, my family moved from the rural North Riding of Yorkshire to London, where my Polish father had found work. What a grubby, shabby place it was. The war was long over, but still streets had jagged gaps in them, with piles of rubble on which hardy buddleia plants gamely tried to put on a floral show. It was a grimy and often unlovely experience.

Many years later, long since moved away from London, my visits there revealed a city that had thoroughly re-invented itself, while leaving plenty of traces of its history behind. And there’s no better place to inspect it than from a boat on the Thames, or by walking one of the many paths alongside the river. Come and visit twenty first century London with me for Sofia’s Lens-Artists Challenge – Urban Environments. I’ve shown quite a few of these photos in the past, but for me, they bring memories with them.