No seven deadly sin poems today - the other six will be added intermittently in the future. No - today I have to confess that I have become addicted to photographing ordnance survey 1x1 kilometre squares for the Geograph project. Above you can see a small section of my photographic mosaic (5x5 km) which has covered Sheffield entirely and is now reaching out like a puddle of pictures into the surrounding countryside.
Sometimes - for whatever reason, you miss squares and they appear in your mosaic as empty green spaces (see above top left) so yesterday afternoon I went out with the sole intention of "capturing" four previously "unbagged" squares. Yes - I know what you're thinking - I must be bloody mad but I guess that this addiction is preferable to crack cocaine, tobacco or pornography. I am not hurting anybody am I?
Here are the pictures I chose for the four newly "bagged" squares yesterday. They were all in the vicinity of Great Hucklow...
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| View from Nether Bretton Lane |
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| View to Abney Grange and Abney Moor |
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| Glider above Abney Moor |
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| The track from Berrystall Lodge |
This wonderful countryside is on Sheffield's doorstep. We are so lucky to live so close to it. As William Wordsworth knew so well, close communion with Nature is good for the soul. When he wrote "and then my heart with pleasure fills/ And dances with the daffodils", those Buttermere daffodils were merely Nature's representatives. His heart had been filled with pleasure because he had refreshed his relationship with Nature and been uplifted. See? More evidence of my lunacy!
As ever, nice photos.
ReplyDeleteI communed well with nature last night. I had a massive row with Marcia so not wishing it to get any worse and with STILL living in what will be the restaurant kitchen, I grabbed my small pack and hiked off into the jungle and spent the night trying to sleep on the ground while swatting away millions of mosquitoes. Pride comes before a fall, I guess mine will be malaria in about a week's time!
No, not mad, YP but I think that must really be a man thing! You are right, though, Sheffield is emminently well placed for beautiful scenery and nature.
ReplyDeleteI think it's wonderful. If I wasn't painting, I'd be doing it too.
ReplyDeleteCoincidently, were your ears burning last night? I was just discussing with someone the phenomenon of blogging and specifically mentioned (as one of the myriad reasons why people blog) your interest in 'filling in the squares.'
HIPPO I guess that Wordsworth's relationship with nature did not include swarms of mosquitoes or fluffy slippers booting his posterior. Your Marcia sounds quite different from Wordsworth's sister -Dorothy.
ReplyDeleteJENNY It is funny that although Geograph is open to anybody, 95% of the contributors are male!
KATHERINE When I think of blogging I link it with journals, scrapbooks or diaries of yore. I open up this private world to invisible onlookers from afar but any writer from the past always had secret or imagined readers sitting on their shoulders. With blogging you can literally "publish and be damned". It's (still) brilliant!
I guess even Dorothy, with sufficient provocation, could have her moments as well!
ReplyDeleteRegarding your comment to Jenny, perhaps the imbalance is due to men seeking solitude, for whatever reason...
I balanced the odds and decided a snake and mosquito infested jungle environment was suddenly healthier than my domestic one. My wife is from the Bakongo tribe of Northern Uige and you do not mess with them. It would have been a tadge disconcerting for me to have woken up the following morning with every sharp kitchen implement we possess buried in my chest.
Having been inspired by your work, I've been meaning look at Geograph for some time. Anyway I finally got round to posting my first photo!
ReplyDeleteI too regularly visit the Geograph site, I enjoy playing the geo-location games. I haven't uploaded any photos yet; my pictures of the Peak District, mainly those which are posted on my walking blog, are uploaded onto Panaramio and so appear on Google Earth and Google Maps.
ReplyDelete