Hose

Went to the allotment after work today and spent about 2 hours there the first time, weeding and digging manure into a bed to prepare it for some Borlotti and Dwarf Purple Queen.

It was very strange the first time I went there as I was alone apart from the the blackbirds for the first hour and a half, very peaceful but slightly creepy, felt like the only person in the world for a moment.

Went back after Shanna came home from work. This time we got the bean poles up and the beans planted around them, all the seeds Shanna planted had germinated so we had tons of seedlings

Now there is only a small part of the allotment uncultivated and we shall be piling manure on there soon so that we can cover the whole allotment in the autumn as it hasn’t been fed for quite a while and that is showing in slow performance for some of the veg and the state of the soil when worked.

[View with PicLens]

Church Wall

This church is supposedly got the original inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat, I’ve not seen it yet but haven’t gone inside yet. Though I initially thought it would be one of the outside grotesques or gargoyles, the downspouts.

I went for a walk alongside the Tees to try and clear some of the cobwebs from my poor wee head and walked for twice as long as I intended to as it was so nice.

Very peaceful, nobody else there at the time of day I went so might do this more often and for further each time.

What was really amazing was the amount of salmon fry in the shallows near the bridge crossing the Tees, as I approached the shallows the fry took off in a mass that made it look like a single organism and a large one at that with the amount of water that was displaced.

Off to work now…

[View with PicLens]

Alium

Another lazy, sunny day doing nothing much.

I made banana bread, which is always such a pleasant way to use up over-ripe bananas. Shanna made some lovely salads for dinner. As I said, lazy, but relaxed.

I had been meaning to take some photos of the back yard/garden for some time and today seemed just right for it, cats were soaking up the sun, slight breeze.

The two black and white shots were just done to explore shapes and contrasts of textures in the furniture and stone, but the rest were taken to show the profusion of loveliness we have in the back yard.

[View with PicLens]

Carnival

It was Darlington Community Carnival today, and the theme was Alice in Wonderland.

It was the perfect day for the carnival but not for me as I’ve had a cold for the last couple of days and have been feeling very under the weather. Luckily though I had gotten out of the house and into town. We were in a mexican cafe when the carnival passed and these are a few of the shots I got, I had forgotten to take some exposure compensation off before shooting but luckily shoot everything in RAW now so was able to get most of the detail back.

The fair in the park seemed well attended and as though there was a lot going on, just felt too poorly to participate though

[View with PicLens]

Pat

We attended Pat and Julian’s wedding at Kinnersley Castle today, spending the weekend in Herefordshire though the Friday and Sunday were mainly driving.

Julian is a good friend of Shanna and her family and I’ve known him now for about 24 years and he is a wonderful man, with a great deal of love about him and a great deal of humour and quirkyness and we were really pleased to be able to get down there for this.

It was a Buddhist ceremony, and it was the first Buddhist ceremony of any type I’ve attended, very simple and touching.

Kinnersley Castle was an amazing old fortified house with lots of add ons and grounds that were cared for but not manicured which was great.

There was lots of music and food, both created by Julian and Pat’s guests/friend, both were of extremely good quality. It was a shame we were both so tired as it would have been great to have stayed later than we did on the Saturday but it was great to be there and see everybody and be part of such a special day.

[View with PicLens]

1234►

David Nash - Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The current large exhibition is by David Nash and it is really wonderful, it ranges from a small retrospective of his work in the Garden Gallery, which explains how he’s developed over the years and how he works, to three large pieces of eucalyptus tree which are a work in progress. Each piece is extremely organic and tactile.

We also saw a collection of pieces by Barbara Hepworth called “Family of Man” and the Henry Moore sculptures.

I think one of my favourites of the day has to be Deer Shelter Skyspace by James Turrell, a simple space that left space for contemplation, it was also great acoustically – bass notes really worked there.

Then a quiet drive back through the power stations of Yorkshire…

[View with PicLens]

12►

WAll

This was the day that I got the Panasonic 45-200mm lens for my GF1 and I thought it might be nice to go for a drive up on the Dales to test it out.

It was another sweltering day so I went to Leyburn to get some walking shoes and shorts so that at least I was comfortable in the heat rather than in jeans.

As I got up into the hills between Leyburn and Reeth I pulled across to try and take a picture of a grouse, but as I stopped the curlew just dropped and landed six feet in front of the car so I was well pleased. By the time I got to where I saw the grouse it was gone though.

All the while I was walking around looking for photographs I could hear this strange noise, I only realised that it was machine gun fire when I saw the red flag, very disconcerting…

The Japanese Maple was taken in our back yard.

Most of these

[View with PicLens]

Swing

The chains are from the swings we have in the grounds and the hula in the tree I had never noticed before. The grounds are starting to look nice again after the bleakness of winter, snowdrops are out in force and the other flowers should be coming up soon.

Some of these photos will be going up on the school’s website later tomorrow night, with some of the photos I’ve not used on here.

[View with PicLens]

Fence

[View with PicLens]

APOY Entry Feb 2010

Today I went to South Gare near Redcar, behind Corus Steelworks that’s being mothballed (i.e. shut down). This is a place called Paddy’s Hole, with a smal harbour leading out to the mouth of the Tees. I went there a year or so ago on Christmas Eve for a walk and it was a really cold, windy day and we decided to go home. I’ve been meaning to return for ages.

One of my personal (not New Year) resolutions was to get out and take more photographs, and this was the first day of this resolution. I was also looking to take a photograph for this months Amateur Photographer of the Year competition which is ‘Islands in the Stream’, where land and water meet, and I thought I would get a few photographs from here to illustrate this.

The gallery below holds some of my favourites from the couple of hours I had there – I’m pretty certain that the main photograph is going to be the entry but I do like the one with the telly, which is similar to one I took over a year ago at the same place.

[View with PicLens]