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