Forget-me-not

The forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica) is a perennial flower that, once resident in your garden, is likely never to depart, hence, I imagine, its name. It is a plant with which I have a love-hate relationship. I like its flowers, a welcome splash of light blue in spring and early summer, and I like the fact that birds benefit from its plentiful seeds. However, those seeds also ensure that the plant spreads itself around your garden and requires too much (albeit not difficult) attention to keep it where you want it. The example in the photograph is from my current garden.

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

Lane near Rathmell, North Yorkshire

Driving from Tosside to Rathmell via Long Gill (as the sign post has it) in early summer, near the end of June, we came upon this view.The road is flanked by bracken, dog rose, buttercups, elder flowers and hawthorn as well as drystone walls. The nearby fields are all pasture and meadows, the latter not so blitzed by chemicals that wild flowers cannot grow. Distant trees mark the course of a stream. On the right, in the far distance, the higher part of Settle can just be seen with the Craven limestone hills rising behind the town. The flat summit is Fountains Fell and farther left one of the Three Peaks, Penyghent, can be seen. Above the whole panorama is the kind of interesting sky that I love for photographs. No wonder I stopped to record the scene.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10     2016

May in April

Plenty of sun and warm temperatures brought out the hawthorn (Crataegus) leaves and subsequently the tree's blossom quite a bit earlier than usual. The old country name for hawthorn blossom is May blossom because of the month in which it flourishes. This year's early appearance gave my wife the same thought that I had for a blog post showing this often overlooked tree - May in April!

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Yorkshire Dales morning

I took this photograph on a footpath leading from Watery Lane just out of the market town of Settle, North Yorkshire. You won't find a lane of that name on the Ordnance Survey maps: there it is called Brockhole Lane. However, for the past several decades and perhaps longer I, and many other people native to the town, have styled it after the streams that regularly flow along its length. We had just left the lane and were heading up to Lodge Pond when the early morning mist began to clear and ahead of us, above the hillside and through the trees, the sun appeared. Such shots, where little preparation can be made, are a bit hit and miss, and often require some processing. So it was with this one.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Canon 5D2     2012

Cobble-faced cottages, Holt

This terrace of cobble-faced cottages dates from the early to mid-nineteenth century. They can be found on one side of Albert Street in the small town of Holt, Norfolk, a place where they are accompanied by many more buildings that are faced with these small, water-worn pebbles.

I noted them several years ago and saw them once again when I was watching an episode of "Dad's Army", a comedy TV series based on Britain's WW2 Home Guard. The series was filmed in Norfolk and the production team must have thought the distinctive features of this row of humble houses would be a good backdrop for one of the scenes.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300     2015

BHS, Hull

When, in 1971, I moved from the Yorkshire Dales market town of Settle to the East Yorkshire city and port of Kingston upon Hull, it was something of a culture shock. The countryside, hills, mountains, valleys and villages of the Dales were replaced by the imposing city buildings and flat, urban sprawl of the city. I was often asked if I regretted the move and my answer was always the same - "No"- because the visual interest and history of the city was something that I appreciated and which provided a seemingly endless supply of subjects for my camera. One of the most noticeable buildings was the BHS store in the main shopping area. This former Co-operative store has a huge, fine and imposing, concave mural of 1963 by Alan Boyson that references the city's fishing fleet.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10     2015

Peacock butterfly on blackthorn

One of the problems of running more than one camera is keeping up with the shots you take because, of course, there are multiple memory cards to manage. Today's photograph is a recent one that I'd have posted earlier if I'd remembered I'd taken it. In these coronavirus times a colourful, uplifting shot carries more weight than it might otherwise. Butterflies seem more abundant this spring though I have no hard evidence to support my feeling. Peacocks in particular are everywhere and this one minded my presence rather less than usual.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Social distancing and walking

We've recently experienced an extended period of fine, dry weather with successive days having clear blue skies. Initially this was accompanied by the sorts of temperatures more commonly experienced in July and August. However, lately the east wind has brought temperatures that are more usual for April, the consolation being that the skies retained their azure perfection. The current UK lockdown regime permits people of the same household to take a single period of outdoor exercise in their locality, keeping the duration to no more than an hour, and observing social distancing guidelines. Consequently, we have had an almost daily walk by the river, over the hills and through the woods. Today's photograph was taken on a riverside path as we walked with only a 24mm lens on the camera and clothing suitable for the lower temperatures.

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

Cinema or gasholder?

I remember the evening I took this photograph. We had left St Thomas' Hospital in London and were walking to the Tube line that we needed. I hadn't thought we'd come upon the British Film Institute IMAX cinema. I had never seen its illuminated exterior before, but once seen I saw the potential for a shot or two. I posted what I considered to be my best shot on my PhotoReflect blog of the time: the one above is the second best. Looking at it again as I prepared it for posting it occurred to me that the cinema has the look of an illuminated gasholder, right down to the lattice-work supports.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Canon 5D2     2013

Sustead church, Norfolk

Four miles south-west of Cromer in Norfolk is the small village of Sustead. In 2009 we stopped off there to have a look at the parish church of St Peter and St Paul. The architecture of this building, like many in Eastern England, reflects the ongoing attempts of the parish to erect, embellish, extend and repair its most important structure. You can see work from the Saxon and Norman periods, from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, from the time of the Tudors and the Victorians. The piecemeal work of the roof (pantiles and plaintiles) and the walls (rubble, flint, render, bricks and cut stone) give it a "worked over" look that suggests enough money was rarely forthcoming. The vast majority of English church towers are rectangular. The tower at Sustead is one of 124 round towers in the county of Norfolk. The other examples are in Suffolk (38), Essex (6), Sussex (3), Cambridgeshire (2) and Berkshire (2).

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus E-510     2009

Seafront shelter, Cleveleys

I took this photograph in 2007 as extensive work was being undertaken on the sea-wall and defences at Cleveleys, Lancashire. As well as renewing and raising the wall that separated the beach from the both the promenade and road, a number of futuristic lights were being installed (see left). A further addition was circular shelters that also had a look of "tomorrow's world" about them, but were also redolent of the 1930s. More photographs of this striking design work can be seen here and here.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus E-500     2007

Coronation Class tram, Fleetwood

For many decades Blackpool was one of the few English towns continue with trams. When other cities were taking up the tracks and dismantling the over-head wires, Blackpool was continuing to run its trams of varying ages on the ten miles of track between Fleetwood and Starr Gate at the south end of the town. They not only provided transport, they also formed part of the seaside holiday "offer" that attracted visitors. This beautifully prepared "Coronation Class" tram with its corporation green and cream colour scheme, "moderne" or "streamlined" chrome styling and rounded windows, dates from the 1950s. I photographed it on "Tram Sunday" in 2005. Just visible behind the tram is another tram made to look like a navy warship. You can see it in all its glory here.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus E300     2005

Ship figureheads

The front of a ship has often been the point at which decoration or sculpture is placed. The Ancient Greeks and Phoenicians painted eyes on each side of the bow. The Vikings had carved figureheads, perhaps to ward off evil spirits. In the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries British naval ships usually had a carved figurehead that illustrated the ship's name. Merchant vessels had them too: the Cutty Sark, as I recall, has a bare-breasted Nannie, a witch, holding a horse's tail. It was this scantily-clad personage that, dressed in a "cutty sark", chased Tam O'Shanter in the poem of that name by Robert Burns.

Today, the Cutty Sark, in Greenwich, is a museum and underneath it is a fine collection of figureheads from ships of various ages.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10     2014

A purple door

Wilson Street in Newark, Nottinghamshire features a plain Georgian terrace, brick-built in Flemish bond, with colourful doors. The fact that each door is a different, very bright colour, makes me think the row has a single owner. Another odd feature of the terrace is that each door bears two numbers and two doorbells, indicating that it serves as the entry to two dwellings. I've photographed the terrace before because of the doors and the way it is lit by the sun. The photograph above was taken solely because of the impact of that purple door.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100     2017

Architectural fragments

Tucked away in a covered corner of Hereford Cathedral is something that can be seen in many such buildings, churches and ruined monastic buildings - a pile of architectural framents. These have often been dug up having been buried in the grounds of the building for centuries. Others have been "re-purposed" as infill rubble when old work is replaced by new or extensions have been built, again, often centuries ago. This particular pile features pieces of scallop capitals, Norse-influenced interlace, chevron etc, mainly from the period of the Anglo-Romanesque, i.e. from approximately the ninth or tenth centuries to the twelfth century.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100     2017