Sculpture trail, Forest of Dean

A number of years ago the Forestry Commission, who manage much of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, established a "sculpture trail" in the woodland. It is a footpath several miles long that is punctuated by art works. One of the most striking is "Cathedral" by Kevin Atherton. It was erected in 1986 and remarkably, considering how it must be affected by the weather, it still gives pleasure today. In autumn the colours of the piece compete with the natural beauty on show. In winter it glows, jewel-like, against the more sombre colours of that season.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Sweet chestnut leaves

Sweet chestnuts (Castanea sativa) are thought to have been introduced to Britain by the Romans. They made a porridge of the ground nuts and milk called polenta. However, the nuts must have been imported because only the hottest British summers allow them to grow large enough to eat. Most of the sweet chestnut trees we see today were planted for decorative reasons. But can that be true in Herefordshire where they are extremely common? Regardless of why they were planted they do offer a colourful autumn spectacle, the leaves showing green, brown/orange and yellow simultaneouly, much like the beech.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Humorous sign

I came across this sign in the yard behind a pub in the small Gloucestershire town of Newent. It makes its point about good behaviour - to parents and children - with a little humour. It raised a smile on my face.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

The blue Malvern Hills

As we walked along the side of the the prominent wooded hill known as Penyard Park, near the village of Western under Penyard, we kept getting views of the the autumn coloured Herefordshire landscape below. Fields of ploughed red soil contrasted with the fresh green of sprouting winter wheat and sheep-cropped pastures. Russet and yellow tints marked the hedgerow trees and small copses as the green leaves took on their final colours of the year. And above it all was the blue ribbon of the distant Malvern Hills, about fifteen miles away as the crow (or local raven) flies.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Old Wye Bridge, Hereford

The six arched old Wye Bridge, a structure of sandstone faced with ashlar, was rebuilt in its entirety around the year 1490. In the years since then it has been substantially altered. Four arches remain much as originally built, one was rebuilt in 1684-5 due to siege damage, and another was rebuilt in the eighteenth century. All were altered in the widening of 1826 when pedestrian refuges were built on both the up and downstream sides at the top of cut-waters. The bridge had a defensive gateway similar to the one at Monmouth, but this was demolished in 1782. I took my photograph from the busy new bridge that replaced the old Wye Bridge and my composition benefitted from the inclusion of the cathedral in the background.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Photographing dog walkers

I frequently find myself photographing dog walkers. It's not that I'm a "doggy" person out to capture the variety of species (both dog and human) who fall into this category. It's simply that we do frequent some of the haunts of dog walkers and they are often useful as human interest or a visual focus in a photographic composition. As we approached the clump of trees that mark the summit of May Hill in Gloucestershire I noticed a few people passing between them silhoutted against the sky. I took several speculative shots with a long lens looking for a contrasty composition. This one, with the dog that didn't want to be restricted by is lead, and the owner who was getting tangled up in it, pleased me most. Not least for the humour of the situation.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Fallen sweet chestnuts

The advancing year combined with stronger winds produced a fresh fall of sweet chestnuts in the local woods. On our walk over and round May Hill we came across many strewn across our path. The actual nuts were much smaller than those of 2018, a year when the trees produced many that were large enough for people to gather and eat. The dark, warm glow of the nuts and the orange of the leaves, combined with the sharp, green prickles of the shells prompted me to point my camera at these examples.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Sunlit woodland

As we walked through some woodland on the slopes of May Hill in Gloucestershire we came upon an area of coppiced sweet chestnuts. It's unusual enough to come upon coppicing these days - trees seem to be grown and cropped like cabbages in most places. But why sweet chestnuts, we wondered, as we stopped to get a shot of the sunlight penetrating the trees on the path ahead? I couldn't come up with an answer and I must have a trawl of the internet to see if I can discover the reason. Some of the coppicing is just visible at the left of the photograph.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

View from Garway Hill

Our second visit to Garway Hill coincided with blue sky and moderate winds on an October morning. The views as we walked through the bracken and sheep-cropped turf were great and only slightly subdued by the fast disappearing morning mist. Sugar Loaf and The Skirrid were in view for a while and I photographed the latter as we climbed towards the summit. Our upward trajectory was slowed as we repeatedly paused to watch about twenty ravens, above the top of the hill, rolling, tumbling, even flying briefly upside down, for all the world looking like they were simply enjoying the October morning just like ourselves.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Church photography and trees

Seeing, appreciating and photographing the exterior of English churches is made much more difficult by people's enthusiasm for tree planting around the building. A few well-chosen and thoughtfully sited specimens invariably adds to the churchyard and surroundings. But the species, and more especially the position chosen for them, all too often blocks the best or often the only remaining good view of the church. St Margaret at Welsh Bicknor is a case in point. The building of the church was funded locally by an individual who chose a particular architect who produced a beautiful building. Since then trees have been planted that impinge on our appreciation of the structure. The latest is in the centre foreground of the photograph with a guard round it. Imagine its effect on this view when it is fully grown.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Severn estuary near Lydney Harbour

A visit to Lydney Harbour found us looking over the Severn Estuary trying to pick out landmarks. Berkeley nuclear power station (decommissioned in 1989) was one, as was the tower and nave of Berkeley church. High on the hill behind these was a tall, slim, pointed tower - the Tyndale monument. And in the far distance above the shining sands and sinous lines of water, the towers and decks of the two Severn crossing bridges could be seen, confusingly mingled from our viewpoint, with tall pylons that carry elecricity across the estuary. It was this cluster that I made a point of interest in my composition.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Autumn leaf

Recently, after a couple of days of almost non-stop rain, we visited our youngest son and found that he had erected a pop-up event shelter in his garden. It has arches rather than filled in sides and is ideal in these coronavirus times. The children can play under it, we can all meet under it and, as I found when I looked up, there are interesting photographs to be found under it. This leaf is on the outside surface of the shelter along with the water droplets. Unfortunately I didn't have a dedicated camera with me, only the one in my phone, but it did a reasonable job.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Phone

Shepherd on horseback

During our visit to Llanthony Priory we could hear a shepherd directing his dogs and moving sheep on the high ground above us. The sheep were, for the most part, being sheep and dutifully proceeding in lines across the brcken covered hillside. We couldn't see the shepherd, nor could I hear the sound of a quadbike - the usual method by which shepherds travel overland in these upland regions. Then a figure did appear on the horizon.

When I extended my lens to its maximum magnification I saw that it was the shepherd on a horse or pony - a sight I have never seen before in Britain. Today's photographs are technically inferior. But in terms of the subject they are proof that the old ways continue and, at least for this shepherd, remain the best ways.

Inside Llanthony Priory

When, between 1536 and 1541, Henry VIII ordered the Dissolution of the Monasteries, their properties and lands were sold with the funds raised becoming the crown's. Buildings were deliberately pulled down and damaged so that they could not be used for their old purposes. A few remained undamaged, particularly those that were given cathedral status. Some were allowed to keep a portion of the building so that it could be used as a parish church. In practical terms many of the monasteries became quarries with people using the stone to build or extend their own properties.

Llanthony Priory changed owners down the centuries with some of the building being adapted as accomodation. Today that portion is a small hotel and, unusually, the building as a whole remains in private ownership. Both photographs include a glimpse of a part that is currently still in use.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Llanthony Priory

In the narrow Vale of Ewyas, a fold in the Black Mountains, stands the ruins of Llanthony Priory. Its fairly remote location suggests to the casual observer that this is one of the many Cistercian foundations that can be seen across the British Isles. However, Llanthony was founded by two Augustinians around 1120 and was not completed until over a century later. It exhibits the style of architecture current when the Romanesque Norman was superseded by Gothic Early English. The delay in its construction was largely due to the depredations of the native Welsh following the demise of England's Henry I. During this period the monks fled to safer pastures across the River Severn where they built a cell, Llanthony Secunda, the remains of which can still be seen in Gloucester.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2