The other day, after rediscovering 1600 images on the memory card in my old camera, I created a blogpost titled "Seaside" showing images of North Norfolk - especially around Hunstanton. Tonight I have picked out a further seven images to share - all from the last months of 2017.
The top picture was taken during one of my rambles in rural Derbyshire. It shows a traditional telephone box in the tiny hamlet of Dale End. I was pointing the camera towards the sun and this was the strange effect. Below Queen Victoria stands on her plinth near the main entrance to Endcliffe Park in Sheffield - half a mile from this keyboard. Though it may not look like it, the tree behind her is a copper beech in its autumn garb.
Below - a couple are walking along a snowy path in Graves Park, Sheffield. The photo was taken on December 11th, 2017:-
Above - this picture of East Wood was taken near the village of Docking in Norfolk. The wood looks like an island floating on a sea of golden wheat stubble - just after the harvest has been brought in and I like the drama of that threatening sky. Below - I love the charming name of that track in the village of Monyash - Icky Picky Lane. It sounds as though it should lead to a goblin's house. Winter sunshine was illuminating the sign quite splendidly:-
Above - a winter walk to Pike Hall in the Peak District with a view of Oddo House Farm. Below - abandoned millstones below the escarpment known as Stanage Edge. I am beguiled by such millstones and have taken many pictures of them.
Beautiful, lovely pictures, Mr. Pudding. Queen Victoria is looking at you as if to say, "How dare you, Mr. Pudding!! What....what....do you fancy yourself the royal photographer?"
ReplyDeleteMr Pudding is saying to Queen Victoria, "Cool it Vicky! I am just a guy passing by."
DeleteWhat's that Queen Victoria is holding?
ReplyDeleteShe is holding a sceptre and the orb.
DeleteA sceptre is a staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia. Figuratively, it means royal or imperial authority or sovereignty.
Her orb is a golden globe surmounted by a cross. It reminds the monarch that their power is derived from God.
Both items will be present at the coronation of King Charles III.
Excellent photos! I especially like the couple walking in the snow.
ReplyDeleteThough they appear tiny they make that picture I think.
DeleteEast Wood, Norfolk, glimpsed across a field of mown wheat, is like a colour plate from my old edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Wikipedia).
ReplyDeleteDoth the Green Knight dwell in yon floating, enchanted wood ?
Is Gawain also Cuchulainn of Celtic legend, an earlier template of Arthurian myth ?
Oddo House Farm and Stanage Edge belong in the pages of Stella Gibbon's Cold Comfort Farm.
The novel, a satire of D.H. Lawrence, was adapted for television in 1995 by John Schlesinger.
You can see an excerpt on YouTube with Stephen Fry.
The bonny girl is Kate Beckinsale.
Well, I never knew that about "Cold Comfort Farm". I have never read it and now I feel I should.
DeleteIan McKellen has an amusing role in the TV film of Cold Comfort Farm.
DeleteHe plays a potty preacher who trembles uncontrollably when he goes into an exalted religious state, like the Shakers or those charlatans who jibber in unknown tongues and roll about on the floor.
It is known as being slain in the Spirit, fraudulent and freaky.
Cold Comfort Farm is an affectionate satire on Lawrence (there is some terrible writing in Women in Love) and also on Mary Webb's Precious Bane.
My Virago edition of Precious Bane has a historic introduction by Stanley Baldwin who admired the Shropshire novelist.
That's a good discovery in the old memory card. It looks like it will keep you busy for some time.
ReplyDeleteI could make a dozen blogposts from that memory card but I won't.
DeleteQueen Vic looks even less amused in your statue than she does in our own. Icky Picky Lane...I am not going to ask.
ReplyDeleteThe statue of Victoria in our park is replicated elsewhere but in the Melbourne version she looks younger and less matronly.
DeleteI LOVE Icky Picky Lane and that first photo is just brilliant.
ReplyDeleteThank you KInd Ms River.
DeleteMillstones are a timely reminder that they are the objects that turned the human race from hunter to sedentary farmer. From those early Neolithic quern stones for grinding cereals to today's industrial mills is a measure of our development.
ReplyDeleteNorth of Sheffield there is a village called Wharncliffe - derived from Quern-cliff. There thousands of quernstones were roughly hand-carved and exported around the north of England. They were the predecessors of the stones in my picture.
DeleteOh I would love to have an address like Icky Picky Lane.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you petition the local council to change the name of your street? It can't be nice living on Slaughter House Road.
DeleteThose millstones look like they are in a sculpture park.
ReplyDeleteThat is what I frequently think. Though originally functional things, they have transitioned into Art.
DeleteDrystone walls are also functional and rather beautiful.
DeleteThey are all great and intriguing in their own way, but my favourite three are the couple in Graves Park (why is it called that? Was it a cemetery, or an ancient burial site?), the "island" and Icky Picky Lane.
ReplyDeleteBefore I opened your post and only saw the first image as a thumbnail on my dash board, at first glance I thought it was of a Sufi priest dancing himself into a trance, something you might have observed during your extensive travels.
The answer to your park question is much more mundane. Graves Park was given to the city of Sheffield by a local millionaire and philanthropist - J.G. Graves. He was not a Sufi priest. It is amazing how those fellows swirl.
DeleteAs always excellent photos YP. Love the name Icky Picky Lane , but not sure I'd want to travel along it in the snow - the surface looks rather bumpy. Queen Victoria looks overdue from a good clean - it's those pesky pigeons again!
ReplyDeleteI must say that you are a fine judge of photography Carol. Excellent taste! As for the pigeons, they are only doing what Prince Albert liked to do on a Saturday night after he had been in "The Queen's Arms".
DeleteA great collection of photos, lots of great walks to explore.
ReplyDeleteThat first photo looks like it's from a science fiction movie - the booth getting beamed up or maybe it was just beamed down from somewhere. You have certainly had lots of interesting walks! I'm am surprised you can remember so much about each one. Good memory, Neil!
ReplyDeleteThey say with photography that it is 'all about the light' - and perhaps the angle too, I'd add. You have captured the millstone beautifully - I too am fascinated by them in teh Peak District; though man made they are an integral part of the landscape and its history
ReplyDeleteThat's a splendid collection of great photographs. But . . . did I see Doctor Who up there in that first one?
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the story is behind "Icky Picky Lane"? I love the photo of the couple in the snow and the light is cool in the first one.
ReplyDelete