Ducking stool

The ducking stool was an instrument of punishment from medieval times until the early nineteenth century. It was administered to cantankerous women, dishonest tradespeople, those who brawled in public, and others guity of minor misdemeanours for which the stocks, the pillory and the cage were deemed unsuitable. Originally the guilty party was fastened in the stool and lofted on high, but later the person was chained in the stool or chair and dipped under water in a nearby river. Leominster's example dates from the eighteenth century and was last used in 1809 on one Jenny Pipes who was guilty of using foul and abusive language. This is thought to be the last example of ducking in England. Today this ducking stool rests in Leominster's ancient church.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Stretton Grandison church

The approach to the mainly fourteenth century church of St Lawrence at Stretton Grandison, Herefordshire, is charming. The narrow west tower and spire of the church are accompanied by a tall pine, a nineteenth century lych gate and a thatched, partly timber-framed cottage. The latter was probably built in the seventeenth century though its red sandstone wall is unlikely to be later than the early nineteenth century.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Industrial lighting

Industrial lighting? Well, not quite. Christmas lights  on an industrial estate in Ross on Wye courtesy of one of the businesses located there. Mercifully traditional green and red was chosen and we were spared the very unseasonal dark blue that has proliferated in recent years. My first sighting of these lights made me wonder whether a competition between companies for the "best" Christmas lights will spring up to match the rivalry between householders that can be seen at this time of year.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Nativity

In the period of Christmas a nativity scene seems more than appropriate. I came across this one by accident as I scanned the five lancets that make the east window of the Lady Chapel at Hereford Cathedral. The stained glass dates from 1851-2 and was installed by the firm of C. A. Gibbs to the designs of Nockalls Johnson Cottingham (1823-1854). It is a very mosaic-like approach to stained glass that draws heavily on medieval precedents in terms of figures, overall composition and colours. The glass works very well in its location and is an example that was, regrettably, ignored by some of the glass designers in recent years at the cathedral.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Tiny chocolate Santas

A family Christmas beckons so, from me and the chocolate Santas a Happy Christmas and an eclectic new year to everyone who stops by.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Almshouses lights, Ledbury

St Katherine' Hospital, Ledbury, was founded in 1231 and parts dating from the C13 and C14, including the chapel, survive. The almshouses that we see today are the joint work of Robert Smirke (1822-5, the south end and central tower) and William Chick (1866, the north end). They are in the Tudor style of stone with half-timbered gables and an iron veranda at the rear. Here they are seen with Christmas decorations and trees with lights. In the centre is the cenotaph and to the right the clock tower of the Barrett Browning Institute.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Library, Wells Cathedral

Dendrochronology dates the time of the cutting of the roof timbers of the library at Wells Cathedral at about 1450, so it is likely that the building was erected shortly afterwards. Like many such libraries had, and still have, a number of chained books that cannot be removed without being unlocked. This practice dates from the time when books were rare and expensive. One of the oldest volumes in the library is Pliny's "Natural History". It was printed in Venice in 1472 five years before Caxton printed the first book in England.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Time-worn steps

The time-worn steps in the photograph above tell the story of the repeated passage of Wells Cathedral's Bishop and Chapter up and down, to and from, the chapter house for their regular, formal meetings. The wear on the stone must have been considerably increased by the tourists who visit the cathedral to experience the architecture of this beautiful building.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Looking down...

The heavy rainfall of the past month or so has left the ground in my part of the world sodden such that pools of water have formed that are reluctant to go. This is especially so in parts of the Forest of dean. Quite a few of our recent walks have involved negotiating sloppy mud and making detours around extensive puddles and pools. We came upon an elongated pool recently that gave a good refection of the trees above while also showing something of the leaf covered ground beneath the water's surface.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Looking up...

A walk through the Forest of Dean means encounters with a quite wide range and age of trees. The landscape combines what is known as "ancient woodland" with areas that are more recently planted, and the whole is managed by the Forestry Commission. Some of the newer trees are stands of larch, a deciduous pine that turns orange in autumn when it sheds its needles. My photograph shows the view above my head in a group of these trees.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Autumn becomes winter

The photograph above was taken in Penyard Park woods near Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, on the morning of the first of December, the first day of "meteorological winter". Yellow tinged winter sunlight was penetrating the woods through trees almost stripped of leaves, and still illuminating the conifers, the dying bracken and the leaves of the undergrowth. The orange remnants of autumn together with the sunlight are what elevates the picture. As winter progresses it will be interesting to see if such a photograph is possible before the spring growth appears.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Black-headed gull

When the dark chocolate brown (not black) cap of the black-headed gull disappears and is replaced by a couple of dark, scuff-like makings I know that summer is past and the colder months lie ahead. Similarly, when those disappear and the hood makes its re-appearance in stages until the striking hood is complete, by the end of March, I am reminded that sun and warmth are on their way. This young example of the species caught my eye when it was lit by the low winter sun against a dark watery background on Newent Lake in Gloucestershire.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Extinction Rebellion

On a recent visit to the Shropshire town of Ludlow we came upon an Extinction Rebellion demonstration. It seethed with people, demonstrators, shoppers, sight-seers, market stall-holders and more. So, I only got two shots of the three red and three green women with mime-like white faces and red or green, diaphanous robes. They looked like otherworldly echoes of the Three Graces of antiquity. I'm sure they weren't, but what they represented I don't know.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Bracken in morning light

Morning light has the power to make even the most prosaic of subjects something special. When the vigorous plant, bracken, starts to die off in autumn its green fronds go limp and turn brown, orange and black. It looks past it, dishevelled and slowly slumps to the ground, the strong green and symmetrical jaggedness of its maturity gone. But, when seen with a low, late autumn sun behind it the dank vegetation comes alive and it exhibits a dark, marmalade glow.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Cormorant wing drying

One of the characteristics of the cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is to perch on a tree, rock, buoy or some other place above water with its wings outspread. The purpose of this is to dry the bird's feathers which become very wet when it dives to catch its principal food, fish. Why, you may wonder do tufted ducks, dabchicks, gannet, terns and other diving birds not adopt this posture too? Apparently the cormorant's feathers are more "wettable" because they have less air trapped in them. This allows them to dive deeper and swim underwater for longer. This young cormorant was enjoying the late November sun that bathed Cannop Ponds in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Nave, Wells Cathedral

The nave of Wells cathedral in Somerset dates from the late 1100s and is an example of the Early English style of architecture. For anyone who has visited other English cathedrals of this period the main piers of the nave arcades, each with its twenty four columns and lively stiff-leaf capitals further enlivened by birds and other creatures, offer visual delight but hold few architectural surprises. What does immediately catch the eye, and instill awe as well as surprise, are the enormous scissor (or strainer) arches that brace both the tower arch facing us and the arches facing the transepts (not visible above). These were inserted shortly after the construction of the tower in 1315-22. The builders could have chosen other methods of bracing but decided on this elegant, uncompromising solution that must have impressed when it was built, and continues to do so today.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Chain mail in stone

This tomb effigy of a recumbent knight in chain mail can be found in Worcester Cathedral. A brass nameplate identifies it as Guillaume de Harcourt (d.1223 Lord of Stanton Harcourt), first son of Robert (d.1202 Sheriff of Warwick and Leicester) and Isabel Harcourt. From what I can find out, some or all of this may be wrong. Pevsner describes him as a member of the Harcourt family in the fourteenth century, and many other dates are ascribed. Multiple members of the family called Robert or William don't help. His missing nose was probably the result of a zealous puritan. The tomb seems to have been repainted in 1805, probably following the traces of original paint that survived.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Queen Square, Bath

The north side of Queen Square in Bath is the work of John Wood the Elder. It dates from the early eighteenth century and follows the Palladian style for a grand front of a large house. The innovation here is that Wood designed the facade but he sought other builders to erect the individual dwellings behind that make this into, not a single large dwelling, but a terrace of houses.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Royal Crescent, Bath

The Royal Crescent is one of Bath's great Georgian terraces. It was built on on a high point overlooking the city between 1767 and 1774 by John Wood the younger, son of the architect of Queen Square. The facade is 500 feet (150m) long and features 114 Ionic columns on its first floor. Lawns and parkland form the space immediately in front of the crescent. Interestingly, in contrast with the repetitious uniformity of the front of the building the rear of each dwelling is invariably different from its neighbour.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Swans and floods

The rainfall of October and November produced a few episodes of flooding of the rivers Wye and Severn. Thinking that the most recent flood would have subsided we went to Worcester for the day and found it otherwise. Water from the Severn blocked part of the car park that we used and when we set off to walk to the cathedral along the riverside path we soon found it was under water and impassable. The mute swans that congregate on the river seemed to pay the flood water no mind, and they simply extended their domain to the previously dry areas where people were happy to feed them.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Old woodland shed

We came across this old corrugated metal shed by the side of the path in woodland at Great Doward. It was near a couple of other sheds, one of which was built against the face of a limestone cliff. I imagine they date from the time when limestone was quarried at this location. All of them were slowly succumbing to the ravages of weather and plants, but must have many more years of decay ahead of them.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Young beech trees

England's "King of Trees" is the oak, its consort being the "Queen of Trees", the beech. The beech is a long-lived species and naturally occurs in the British Isles in south east England and south east Wales. It prefers well drained soils, and particularly those on chalk and limestone. However, such is the beauty and utility of the tree, it is now found in many areas of our islands. In Herefordshire and elsewhere I have noticed its liking for slopes, presumably because they drain quickly. These examples are relatively young beech trees and the area in which they are growing exhibits another feature of the species - they suppress the growth of the woodland floor suffering only the most persistent plants to thrive beneath their canopy.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

The Circus, Bath

The Circus, Bath, is a circular arrangement of three curved terraces of town houses, separated by three entry roads, with a circular park area at its centre. This layout was conceived by John Wood the Elder and constructed by his son between 1754 and 1768. It is said that Wood got his idea for the circular composition from Stonehenge which he had surveyed. Its diameter closely approximates to that of the prehistoric structure.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Llanfoist Wharf

At Llanfoist the Monmouth and Brecon Canal snakes across the lower levels of the Blorenge, a prominent hill that overlooks Abergavenny. Today the canal itself is used by pleasure craft, mainly narrow boats, and the towpath is populated with walkers, cyclists and dog walkers. However, after 1812, when the Monmouthshire Canal was joined with the Brecknock & Abergavenny Canal, iron was brought from Blaenavon to Llanfoist's wharf by tramroad for shipment to Newport. Good business and a busy canal prevailed until the second half of the nineteenth century when the railway was built and undercut the cost of transport. The photograph shows the wharf on a day in mid November, with the buildings and wooded hillsides reflected in the still waters of the canal.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Autumn trees

It took many years for me to realise that, usually, the best display of autumn colours doesn't occur until the beginning of November, and sometimes not until the middle of that month. Only then does the full range of colours appear, and only by that date are the colours both on the trees and also on fallen leaves on the ground. The display above was one we came on unexpectedly by the Monmouth and Brecon Canal at Llanfoist. Here that attractiveness was further enhanced by the leaves on the water and their reflections in it.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

People in landscapes

I'm a bit eighteenth century when it comes to landscapes. Many photographers like their landscapes to be unsullied by the human presence. I can appreciate that, and sometimes like it myself if the content of the view has great interest. But, as with many (most?) eighteenth century landscape painters, I do like a person or two, or an animal, to provide a focal point or to give scale to the composition. The photograph above would be considerably the poorer for the absence of the dog walker.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Remembrance

Today is Remembrance Day, the day on which we remember those who died in military service for our country. The red poppy has been a a symbol of remembrance for many, many years. In recent times the poppy fixed to a small cross has been increasingly popular. This photograph shows some of the seven hundred planted in the grass near the tower of St Mary's church, Ross on Wye, each one in remembrance of someone who died in a conflict since the beginning of the Great War.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Blacksmiths' shop

The photograph above shows the blacksmiths' shop at the Big Pit, Blaenavon. I put the apostrophe after the "s" rather than before it because I imagine this was the workshop of several people rather than just one. When I was young small towns always had blacksmiths, usually working alone, though sometimes with a partner or assistant. A large coal mine (this one closed in 1980) must have had metalwork a-plenty for this shop as four forges testifies.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Lime trees, Castle Green, Hereford

Castle Green, Hereford is, as its name suggests, the site of the former castle of the city. Today it is an open space with paths, a place of gentle exercise and recreation. One of the paths that traces the perimeter is planted with lime trees, trees that are very distinctive in autumn due to the way they unfailingly turn bright yellow every year, despite how the other seasons may have treated them.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

On Garway Hill

Garway Hill is a mere 366 metres in height. However, its height relative to the surrounding landscape is such that it gives far better and more distant views than might be imagined. On our first walk to this lowly summit we went on a day of promised sun that never materialised. Distant prospects were on offer but seen through low cloud and haze. Closer views made for better photographs. This shot shows Kentchurch Court, a country house of medieval origins with eighteenth century and later additions, some the work of John Nash, sitting in its deer park. The varied planting makes for a colourful autumn display.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Fungi

There are about 15,000 types of wild fungi in the UK and my identification skills extend to no more than a dozen or so. Fortunately I can, with 100% certainty, identify field mushrooms and we have for decades collected these and eaten them. On a recent walk on Garway Hill, Herefordshire, an upland of bracken and grass that is closely cropped by sheep and ponies, we came upon these examples. The only red (and white) fungus I know is fly agaric, and these are not they, as they say.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Abandoned coal trucks

Part of the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape World Heritage Site is the Big Pit National Coal Museum. This was a working coal mine from 1880 until 1980. In 1983 it opened as a a place that the public can visit in order to experience the industry that was pivotal to the industrial revolution and part of the life of all who lived in South Wales. The pit was closely connected to the Blaenavon iron works which is also open to the public. Visitors to Big Pit can go down the mine, explore the ancillary buildings of the site and see exciting audio visual displays. And they can also see some of the detritus associated with mining that was, presumably, left where it was when the pit closed; such as these mine trucks and bogeys.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Bracken and horizons

The ascent to the summit of Sugar Loaf takes the walker through an area of bracken with grass tracks criss-crossing it. On the day of our climb the unseasonal weather contrasted with the brown of the fading plants. However, it did make for great skies and successive, beautiful and subtly graduated horizons. I took this shot from about half way up and included my wife and grand-daughter for scale and as a point of interest.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Hanging on to summer

With wife, oldest son and oldest grandaughter I climbed Sugar Loaf in the last week of October. We set off in the morning carrying jackets and as we ascended our exertions made us remove the outer layer leaving single, summer-weight garments. However, once we had clambered up to the summit, looked around and taken some photographs we replaced our discarded layer and donned jackets to eat our lunch. What had looked and felt like summer soon changed to autumn chill as the wind struck. The photograph shows nothing of this. Only the brown of the bracken and the tints of the trees give away the season.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

River Avon and Pulteney Bridge, Bath

These days I'm very much an "incidental" photographer. What do I mean by that? Well, the OED defines it nicely, thus - "Occurring or liable to occur in fortuitous or subordinate conjunction with something else of which it forms no essential part; casual" In other words photography is secondary to the main purpose at the time. A visit to Bath involved us looking at some of the architecture that we last saw about forty five years ago. It also involved regular showers of rain and dark skies alongside sun, the latter being something that I particularly like in my images, and which prompted this shot of the River Avon and Pulteney Bridge.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

A wet street

Bridge Street, Crickhowell is an unexceptional narrow road. It winds down from near the centre of the small town to the longest stone bridge in Wales, a thirteen arched structure that spans the River Usk. As with many such narrow streets a majority of the buildings are colour-washed to reflect light in an attempt to brighten the rooms of the houses. On the day I photographed it a heavy shower had recently abated and the puddles and wet surfaces bounced even more light around, elevating this modest thoroughfare into something of greater visual interest.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Odeon Cinema, Weston-super-Mare

When the Odeon cinema was built in Weston-super-Mare in 1935 (architect T. Cecil Hewitt) it must have looked like the future had arrived. Its size, its Art Deco/Streamline aesthetic, its presence on the street corner, and the virtual absence of ornament, all marked it as different from most of the buildings being erected around that year. Only some of the blocky "Moderne" houses with their flat roofs, horizontal windows and glazing bars, and their stark white paint could compete. The Odeon still looks great today. The faience tiles in basket weave pattern have lasted well, as has the original windows and glazing and the lettering on the tower. The crowning glory (literally) is the tower with its twelve short columns and flat roof, the climax of a necessary vertical accent among all the horizontals.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Knightstone Island, Weston-super-Mare

Knightstone Island was originally connected to the mainland at Weston-super-Mare by a natural pebble ridge that was submerged at high tide. in 1824 the owner built a causeway above high tide and a low pier for boats. In subsequent decades successive owners built hotels, swimming baths, a theatre and other buildings on the island. The whole development struggled in the second half of the twentieth century. The main Pavilion closed and plans for leisure developments came to naught. However, in 2006-7 the whole island was redeveloped, old buildings were refurbished and many flats were built to complement the commercial properties. Today it is an asset to the town.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Birnbeck Pier, Weston-super-Mare

The sad sight seen in this photograph is the slowly collapsing Birnbeck Pier at the northern end of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. It was built in 1867 and is the only pier in Britain that links the mainland to an island. Unusually, it has a jetty that projects from the main pavilion that was used by ships bringing day visitors to the pier from towns along the Bristol Channel. The pier was initially popular but suffered steady decline over the years, despite successive attempts to revive it. It finally closed to the public in 1994. A lifeboat station used the pier for much of its life but this closed in 2015. The Grade 2 listed structure is, unsurprisingly, on Historic England's "Heritage at Risk" register.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Clevedon Pier, Somerset

One of Britain's most attractive piers, and the only protected by Grade 1 Listing, is Clevedon Pier on the Severn Estuary in Somerset. It was opened in 1869 as both a tourist attraction and a point at which ferries could tie up to take on rail passengers going to South Wales. It is 312m (1024 feet) long and has eight elegant, arched spans, the feature that distinguishes it from more utilitarian structures. The tidal range of the estuary is the second highest in the world (15m, 48 feet), and consequently a number of platforms are available to ensure ease of embarking and disembarking boat passengers.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Grand Pier, Weston-super-Mare

The piers of the British Isles give visitors a feeling of being at sea without leaving dry land. They also offer a range of seaside entertainments. However, their location makes them subject to damage by stormy seas, and their lightweight structure means they are susceptible to fire. Many have been lost and seriously truncated by such events. Weston-super-Mare's Grand Pier was opened in 1904. In 1930 the seaward end, including the pavilion, suffered a major fire. It was restored at a cost of £60,000. Rebuilding took three years. In 2008 the seaward pavilion was again destroyed by fire, and once again it had to be rebuilt, this time after only two years, but at a cost of £39 million.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Westward Ho

The village of Westward Ho! (including exclamation mark) near Bideford, Devon, was developed as a holiday destination in the 1860s. The developers took its name from Charles Kingsley's popular 1855 novel of that name which was set near Bideford. It subsequently became a popular name for a number of British sailing and powered boats. The small ferry in the foreground of this photograph was built in 1987 in Ardrossan, Scotland, and it was used on Cromarty Firth until 2010. In 2012 it was bought for use as a pleasure boat taking tourists from Weston-super-Mare (where it lies above) to the nearby islands of Flat Holm and Steep Holm, and renamed, Westward Ho (no exclamation mark). Interestingly the deck of the ship can be modified to carry 10 tons of freight or a single vehicle. This feature makes it Britain's smallest car ferry.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Boats, Weston-super-Mare

The Bristol Channel at Weston-super-Mare is wide enough to feel like the sea rather than an estuary. This feeling is enhanced by the presence of two islands, piers, a fine promenade and a scattering of boats. The fact that the beach is very shallow and hence the water is distant at low tide means that most boats are small and the larger vessels are presumably in nearby marinas. This colourful trio caught my eye at both low and high tide but looked better, photographically speaking, without the sea.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Smearsett Scar

The "scar" landscapes of the Yorkshire Dales (called "Karst landscape" in wider geological circles) are much loved walking areas. The grey outcropping rock and the short grass studded with wild thyme, mountain pansy, bird's-foot trefoil, rock rose, scabious and more are a magnet for those who enjoy exploring the uplands. Many consider them unspoilt and natural, but in fact they are artificial, the product of sheep grazing, and missing the much wider range of plant and animal life they would support if not so heavily cropped. The relative paucity of bird life on a recent walk taking in Settle, Giggleswick, Feizor, Stainforth and Langcliffe reminded me of what I used to see by way of birds in these areas fifty and more years ago. The change is dramatic and tragic.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Ribble Valley near Stackhouse

One of my earliest memories is living in a house in the group of buildings largely hidden by the trees in the centre of this photograph. It is a hamlet called Stackhouse, a small collection of houses and a farm. We were recently on the limestone scars above Stackhouse and I took this photograph to remind me of what my infant self considered to be the whole world. The mountain on the horizon is Penyghent, one of Yorkshire's "Three Peaks", and the flat-top on the right is Fountains Fell, named after its one time owners, the monks of Fountains Abbey.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Eagle feathers...

...of a sort are common in many English churches. However, they are made of brass and come in the form of a lectern holding a bible that is in the shape of a brass eagle on a stand. These occasionally date from the medieval period, are sometimes seventeenth or eighteenth century, but most often are Victorian and feature a dedicatory inscription. Such lecterns are usually below and to one side of the chancel arch and make a fine focal point during a service when a passage is read from the bible held on the wings of the eagle. The feathers above are coloured by the reflected surroundings in Great Malvern Priory, Worcestershire.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Rosie and Jim

Rosie and Jim were, in the minds of most British children, two rag doll characters in a T.V. programme. They lived on a canal narrow boat called "Ragdoll" in Birmingham, and each episode centred on their travels. The first two series were written and introduced by John Cunliffe (author of "Postman Pat"). It's no accident that two of the canal boats belonging to an excursion company in Skipton have adopted the characters' names.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Narrow boats, Skipton

The Leeds - Liverpool Canal is, at 127 miles, the longest canal in Britain built as a single waterway. It came into being two hundred years ago and is today a typical, leisure-boat filled canal, with the towpaths used by walkers and cyclists. Its dimensions allow the passage of boats no larger than 62 feet long, 14 feet wide, 7 feet high, and with a draught of no more than 3 feet 7 inches. Most boats seen on the canal are of those whose design derives from the canal "narrow boat". Like those at Skipton, North Yorkshire, seen in the photograph, they are often brightly (and sometimes ornately) painted.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Hawthorn berries 2

Continuing from the previous post, I have to say that the prominence of hawthorn berries this year is not only due to the favourable spring providing the conditions necessary for flowers to convert into berries. A further factor is the way the leaves seem to have departed the trees well before the berries have begun to drop or been eaten by birds. These berries were on a bush by the River Ribble and the dark background of the shaded water emphasised their redness very well.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Hawthorn berries 1

A few days in the North Yorkshire town of Settle, the place of my upbringing, coincided with a spell of weather warmer than the seasonal average. The accompanying blue skies lit the landscape well and also made the hawthorn berries stand out much more than usual. It seems to be a particularly good year for these "haws" and that probably speaks of a favourable spring that enabled more blossom to produce berries than is normally the case. This pair, near the hamlet of Feizor, were particularly eye-catching.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10