New image on "These we have sold on website"

I have changed the image on the website under this heading
This image was taken at Lowestoft on a cold November day. The wind was blowing and the rain had just cleared away. I liked this one.The dominant colour is blue, portraying the chill of the day. The wind is blowing hard to generate the spindthrift, the spray from the top of the incoming waves. The cloud formation echoes the waves and the breakwater points the way to the sea view. The bright winter sunshine offers hope. 
This image shows that you can sell pictures of everyday scenes from your local area. You do not need to rely on those from exotic regions! Mind you, I do prefer the warmer places. After taking this we hurried to the cafe for a hot cup of tea!

To have a look at the bigger version on the website go to Lowestoft Beach

Gone to Coventry!

We have been to the City of Coventry for a few days, based in one of the Britannia Hotels. We were there to spend a few days with friends as none of us had spent any time in Coventry. The City is well known for the Cathedral that was bombed in 1941 and the new one built alongside. It is certainly an interesting contrast in styles.

There is a very good Museum of Motor Transport giving a chance to see the development of the car down the years. It also brings a realisation of the manufacturing skills and facilities that we no longer have in this country. Although we did not visit, there is also a Motor Cycle Museum. If you do go, rejoice in the fact that entry to these Museums is now free.

Our other pleasure was to visit some National Trust properties in the area. Just a shame that photography is not permitted for commercial purposes. Kennilworth Castle is a magnificent edifice, particularly with the new Elizabethan garden.

Another nearby property is Baddesley Clinton. A very interesting house with some good gardens and an outstanding Dahlia Border containing over 140 varieties.

We enjoyed our visits especially as the long awaited summer arrived for our visit!

Our travels were completed with a visit to Dunham Massey, another NT property. This was to have lunch celebrating British Food Fortnight. I had a very good venison casserole with apricots and a bottle of local beer. I must say the deer seemed to be in hiding when we walked in the park after lunch. perhaps it was in protest!

Back to the Yorkshire Dales

We have spent a week at Scargill House in the Yorkshire Dales, just outside Kettlewell. Some of you may know of this Christian Holiday Centre. I spent 13 years there as the Accountant until 1999. It was closed in 2008, but plans are afoot to re-open in 2010. For more information, go to http://www.scargillmovement.org. We were acting as caretakers, with only a few people around the house. What a way to spend a week especially as the weather had one of its better spells. I took the opportunity to go into Kettlewell to photograph the church for a new postcard. These Dales villages are fascinating places, full of history but suffering the ravages of a modern rise in house prices. No wonder they are becoming homes for the wealthy and elderly, the younger members of our population have no chance of starting or enjoying life in such wonderful surroundings. Much of the transport has improved in the last few years, but much more could be done to create micro industries other than tourism. The villagers do much to generate interest and cash from tourism, so please do your bit to encourage rural enterprise. Go to http://www.kettlewell.info/scarecrow.cfm and enjoy!

Oxford

We spent the first week of September 2009 in Oxford. We stayed in the Travelodge at PearTree roundabout. A good place to stay, particularly if you book far enough in advance at £19 per night for the room. Travel into the city is easy with the Park and Ride just round the corner.
It is many years since I lived and worked in Oxford and it was pleasant to visit the city and visit friends. Apart from the Colleges, one place for the photographer is the Botanic Gardens. Large greenhouses house some collections of Alpine and tropical plants, with one house devoted to insectivorous plants. There were some around the house containing the pool with the large plates of lily leaves.

We are away again soon and will load some more Oxford pictures soon. In the meantime Oxford is famous for what? Colleges? - yes; Marmalade? - Yes! Traffic? - Ugh, yes! But let's not forget bicycles and the man who built them and later had the first car manufacturing plant in Oxford, Lord Nuffield, originally William Morris. In term time the cycles have their own parking problems! Have a look at Oxford on the Photolocate website

Holehird Gardens, Windermere, Lake District

The English Lake District is well known for its scenery, particularly its hills and mountains.
We recently joined other members of the Royal Photographic Society for a visit to Holehird Gardens, just outside Winderemere. Saturday July 25th turned fine after some days of windy and wet weather and we arrived to enjoy magnificent garden layouts, all maintained by volunteers.

The large walled garden contained several beds of perennials, annuals and shrubs. Down a short path there was a huge display of the National Collection of Astilbes. On the upper areas were beds showing other different growing conditions and plants.
There was a beautiful viewpoint showing some of those Cumbrian mountains which we could enjoy whilst eating our lunch.

These gardens are the home of the Lakeland Horticultural Society and certainly merit a visit. If you have doubts about maintaining a garden in this northern area, then I urge you to pay a visit. We were able to take advantage of the fine weather to make some interesting photographs. (Click here for a look on our website.)

A Visit to Aberdeenshire

In July we had a short trip to Aberdeenshire, that once fishing port, now a major industrial port servicing the oil industry. The journey from our Lancashire home was very easy, being motorway or dual carriageway for most of the journey. We spent two nights in Dunfermline, enjoying the ancient Abbey and its ruins, the burial place of Robert the Bruce.
In Aberdeen we enjoyed a special offer from Brittania Hotels. On arrival our first trip was to the local Distillery, where my wife discovered that she liked the single malt whisky! The hotel was on the outskirts of the city with a convenient bus service to the centre, where an international market was held. There were many gastronomic delights from our European neighbours to fill our lunchtime needs.

The weekend saw the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival at Portsoy attended by many thousands of people. I managed to take some interesting images which can be seen by clicking on the link. We then enjoyed a visit to the historic port of Pennan.
This was our first visit to Aberdeenshire, but is unlikely to be the last. The countryside at the height of summer was quite beautiful with much of interest to see. Mind you, we were blessed with a lovely sunny and warm weekend!

Post Boxes

For many years our means of communication has been by means of a letter and those letters form important resources for historians and novelists. This rich source of information is rapidly being discontinued as we continue to increase the telephone and email as a means of communication and information.

On my journeyings I have been fascinated to see the variety of post boxes, many of historical interest, that still stand in our streets and on or in walls around our country. Then later I discovered that other countries use different colours to the UK. Here is a short selection, which I hope can be added to as the years go on. To read about them, buy the small "Shire Album" by Martin Robinson, "Old Letter Boxes".