River Thames at Abingdon, Oxfordshire

The River Thames is navigable for 191 of its 215 miles that stretch from its source to the sea i.e. from Lechlade in Gloucestershire to the Thames Estuary, though small boats can venture, with care, a further 11 miles upstream, as far as Cricklade. A recent visit to Abingdon found the Thames (or Isis as it is sometimes known in this part of the world) busy with boats - inland waterway narrow boats as well as cruisers. I took a few photographs by the river and as I did so I reflected once more on the contribution that a church spire can make to a flat landscape: in this instance the medieval church of St Helen.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

A basket of flowers

Walking along one of Ledbury's main shopping streets I was prompted to ask myself, "If you are a shop selling brassieres how do you advertise yourself to the passing public?" What prompted this odd query was a shop solely devoted to selling that particular undergarment that was using the device of a traditional bicycle with a wicker basket full of flowers. It was approaching the problem - as advertisers are often wont to do - by coming at it from an oblique angle. Time will tell if it works. I took a photograph of the basket of flowers and found that a strong vignette added considerably to the image.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Sun dial, Dymock church, Gloucestershire

The sun dial of 1770 at Dymock church in Gloucestershire is in a very typical position - above the entrance arch of the south porch. This example also appears to be made of the usual material - slate, though its surround of wood is somewhat more unusual. Often the engraved slate slab is fixed to the south wall of the chancel. Both these locations ensured that anyone wanting to know the time simply approached the church by the usual south footpath and, when sufficiently near, read the time by the position of the gnomon's shadow relative to the marked hours. That is, assuming that the sun was shining. On our visit we were favoured with sun and the clock was pretty accurate. The words in the centre of the sun dial, according to my fairly limited Latin, means "God's shadow".

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Figure, War Memorial, Abergavenny

The sculpted WW1 soldier on the war memorial on Frogmore Street, Abergavenny, is the work of Gilbert Ledward. His "Tommy" rests on his Lee Enfield rifle, looking tired and worn by conflict. The monument, with its bronze figure, was unveiled in 1921, a tribute to the 374 men of the 3rd Battalion of the Monmouthshire Regiment from the town and surrounding area who died in WW1. Remarkably, 311 of those fell in Belgium in 1915 during the second battle of Ypres. Today the memorial is the focus of the town's annual Remembrance Service.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Catalogue index pages

Thumbing through a DIY store's paper catalogue I was struck by the way the coloured edges of the index system produced a pattern when I bent them. So, thinking that a close up would not be without visual interest I mounted my macro lens on the camera and took several shots. This is the best of the bunch but I think there's a still better shot to be had if I can find it.

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

St Michael and All Angels, Walford, Herefordshire

The earliest parts of the church of St Michael and All Angels, Walford, Herefordshire, are Norman. However, the chancel, north chapel and most of the nearly detached tower date from the thirteenth century. The overall shape of the building is a delightful interlocking of volumes with the tower's verticality balancing the multiple forms and pitched roofs. It once had a spire but it was removed in 1813. I'd be interested to see how that added to or detracted from the building, especially given the fin-like low angle buttresses; it must have looked like a C20 rocket!

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

Passion Flower

The passion flower (Passiflora) in today's photograph was one of many in a large drift of the plant that grew up a wall and across the ground in the centre of a town. Our success with this plant is fairly limited and, perhaps connected with that, it isn't one of my favourites. It is , however, very popular and comes in many colours. The flower is something of an oddity and in no way connected with passion in the sense of love or emotion, but rather, with Christ and his suffering surrounding his death. The medieval mind saw in the flower, and the plant in general, symbols connected with that event. Rather than me list them here is what Wikipedia says:

"The pointed tips of the leaves were taken to represent the Holy Lance.
The tendrils represent the whips used in the flagellation of Christ.
The ten petals and sepals represent the ten faithful apostles (excluding St. Peter the denier and Judas Iscariot the betrayer).
The flower's radial filaments, which can number more than a hundred and vary from flower to flower, represent the crown of thorns.
The chalice-shaped ovary with its receptacle represents a hammer or the Holy Grail.
The 3 stigmas represent the 3 nails and the 5 anthers below them the 5 wounds (four by the nails and one by the lance).
The blue and white colors of many species' flowers represent Heaven and Purity.
In addition, the flower keeps open three days, symbolising the three years' ministry."
photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Duck Houses, Newent, Gloucestershire

Mention duck houses to the man in the street in the UK and the discussion is likely to refer to the Conservative Party Member of Parliament who, in 2009, claimed the cost of one (£1,645) on his parliamentary expenses form. As I recall, his career as a representative of the people ended when he stood down at the subsequent general election. I don't know how much these duck houses cost but they appear to be well used, unlike the MP's  - he said the ducks never took to it. What I find slightly surprising is the purple loosestrife that has managed to grow and bloom on these floating houses. Presumable the copious manure from the mallards and moorhens are all that is required to give the plants the foothold they require.

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

Upleadon Court, Gloucestershire

Upleadon Court is a large brick farmhouse with nearby barns that forms a visual group with the church (see photograph below). The main building has a hipped roof, dormers, and modest windows and door. It dates from the eighteenth century. The adjoining timber framed wing is of the seventeenth century. There is a suggestion that the farmhouse was rebuilt after a fire, something that would explain the awkward juxtaposition of the older wing if it was all that remained of the original building. The framing of this structure is typical of the west of England with its square layout of timbers and absence of close studding.
 

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

St Mary the Virgin, Upleadon, Gloucestershire

The church of St Mary at Upleadon, Gloucestershire stands about a mile from the centre of the village next to an old farm. The nave is of the Late Norman period i.e. c.1150 and a round-arched doorway of that time can be seen in the photograph. For the church architecture enthusiast the striking feature of its exterior is the tower, a structure of probably c.1500. It stands on a stone plinth with, above, a timber frame of close studding filled with bricks on all but the east face which is stone.

The pyramidal cap is of green slate. Unusually, the timber frame has no exterior diagonal bracing. Inside the building the framing is visible - cross bracing, heavy timbers, and a belfry floor. The building was closed when we visited but we will return during its brief open period. Incidentally, the dry spring and summer, with attendant high temperatures continues and the sheep in this seemed to have about as little energy as we did.

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

Stinging nettle

The stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is one of the most common and widespread of British wild plants. It is one of a small number of plants, that includes cow parsley and cleavers (goose grass), that have benefitted from the nitrogenous acid rain that was and still is a feature of industrialisation. Children find its sting a source of pain though to most adults it is merely an irritation. There was a time when the nettle was always in the list of those to be planted or enouraged when making an area more wildlife friendly. However, none of the butterflies for whom it is a major food source are in danger, and it is increasingly the view that we have quite enough nettles and there are other plants more deserving of inclusion. These nettles were part of a group thriving in some woods and once again the light filtering down through the leaf canopy above made the composition.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

All Saints, Brockhampton, Herefordshire

All Saints church at Brockhampton near Ross on Wye, was built in 1901-2 by W.R. Lethaby. The architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "one of the most convincing and impressive churches of its date in any country." The clerk of works was A. Randall Wells, the architect of nearby St Edward the Confessor at Kempley, Gloucestershire. All Saints was built in the Arts and Crafts tradition, and, like Kempley, its style is a modernized Gothic. Unusually for a small parish church it has two towers, with the bells in the wooden tower over the porch rather than over the crossing. The building is thatched and has an interior as unusual and impressive as its exterior. Unfortunately, at the time of my recent visit, it remained closed due to the coronavirus.

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

Gatekeeper or Hedge Brown

Both English names of the butterfly Pyronia tithonus indicate something of the species' habitat. Gatekeeper alludes to it commonly being found on flowers growing in gateways, whilst Hedge Brown describes how it likes hedgerows and field edges. The species' food plants include wild marjoram, common fleabane, ragworts, and bramble. This particular example - and others nearby - favoured bracken, but this was probably only used as a place on which to sun themselves. Gatekeepers exhibit some variation in their markings. The butterfly in the photograph has four small brown "eyes" as well as the big dark eyes with double white spots.

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

Chrysler Airstream Land Yacht

Walking along a footpath through the edge of a Herefordshire village we came upon a most unexpected sight - a Chrysler Airstream Land Yacht set up as a travelling photo booth. Its location suggested that it was parked up awaiting its next excursion. I'm familiar with the U.S. caravans known as Airstreams but the "Land Yacht" badged puzzled me. Apparently it simply distinguishes a "luxury" version of the caravan.

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

The tallest hedge in Britain?

At our last house we had the unenviable task of cutting a hedge that was abut 120 feet long and 10 feet high. When I saw the hedge cutting featured in today's photograph I remembered our hedge and reflected that the job was as nothing compared with the task of keeping this monster in shape. I don't know whether this hedge at Cirencester Park is the tallest in Britain but there can't be many, if any, that surpass it. You might wonder why a country house that is surrounded by a stone wall as tall as that in the photograph needs a hedge behind it. It must, I think, be because the house is next to the streets and houses of the town and a taller barrier was felt necessary to preserve the privacy of the owners. Incidentally, watching this hedge cutting was probably the highpoint of our grandson's visit to Cirencester.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Field maple leaf

It's a little early for deciduous trees to be losing their leaves but a field maple I know has begun to do so. I suspect that it is suffering distress because not on all the branches have the leaves taken on a yellow tinge rather than the usual deep green of summer. Field maples are popular hedging plants in some parts of Britain. Elsewhere thay are usually single, taller trees. In autumn they naturally turn a fine, golden yellow, matched only by the lime tree. This leaf had caught itself on the arris rail of a fence and, havng no camera to hand, I snapped it with my phone.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Phone