Paragliders at the Blorenge, Abergavenny

On our circuit of the Blorenge near Abergavenny we came upon a group of paragliders lining up to take off. They seemed to be waiting for just the right updraft. When it arrived they walked into the wind which inflated their wing. A few steps forward made everything taut and with that they ran of the mountain and into space, flying over or around the town of Abergavenny some 1400 feet below.

 We saw one paraglider carrying two people. The preferred landing space for most seems to have been Castle Meadows and a nearby field.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Pennants, pennons and bunting...

 

...are often the same thing. However, I was always taught (or perhaps discovered) that "pennon" is the correct name for a triangular flag and "pennant" is an alternative and more widely used spelling. "Bunting" is any kind of hanging, stretched or suspended decoration on a string or cable and may include pennants. Pennants can be divided into a) the common triangular form b) tapering pennants where the pointed tip has been cut off, and c) swallow-tail pennants where the point is cut off leaving a double tip like the bird's forked tail. As we sat outside a coffee shop in Ledbury I pondered the triangular pennants above our heads, reflecting that they were definitely bunting, and that the deep blue sky really stole the impact of the blue triangles.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Pier Bandstand, Weymouth

click photo to enlarge

A passer-by needs only a brief understanding of architectural history to place Wemouth's Pier Bandstand as a building of the 1930s. Put together in one building the symmetry, rendered finish, elongated windows, stepping above the central entrance, curved walls, elongated railings, minimalist clockface and flagpoles and you have most of the characteristics of a "moderne" building. It is the work of the architect V. J. Wenning and opened in May 1939. At that time this structure was the entrance to a large bandstand and concrete deck with seating for 2,400 that extended out towards the sea (removed in 1986). Indoors it housed concerts, dances, talent shows, roller skating, boxing and wrestling and many other attractions. It continues in use today, a focal point on this part of the promenade, and it is sympathetically restored (see the signage lettering).

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Pen y Fan seen from the Blorenge

During a recent family walk on the Blorenge, a summit overlooking Abergavenny, we were favoured by warm, sunny weather with a light breeze. Visibility was quite good too and shortly after we set off on our walk through the heather and bilberry we stopped to look at the distant Pen y Fan (886 metres, 2907 feet), the high point of the Brecon Beacons. In the photograph it is the rightmost of the two sloping peaks on the central horizon, the lower summit being Corn Du (873m). In the foreground of the photograph is an old farm surrounded by small fields edged with tumbledown dry stone walls.

A dead tree

There are more dead trees to be seen than I recall seeing in my younger years - and that's a good thing. Dead trees add to the diversity and richness of habitat required to make our natural surroundings support the widest range of animal and plant life. In the days when a narrow range of trees were grown like cabbages - i.e. plant, tend then crop - dead trees were seen as failures taking up the space that could support a thriving specimen. Today foresters think beyond these narrow confines and plant for wildlife as well as timber, intermingling, selectively cropping and even returning to "old ways" through coppicing and other methods. The example in the photograph shows a dead parkland specimen tree in the grounds of Chirk Castle near Wrexham. I wouldn't be surprised if it was home to woodpeckers and a larder of life for birds and insects.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Red oak bark

The first time I came across and identified red oak (Quercus rubra) was in a Lincolnshire cemetery. Since that time I've come across this attractive North American species in many locations, both urban and rural. The photograph above features the trunk of a member of this species. I liked the semi-abstract appearance of the bark with the jagged verical slits that reveal a red inner, and the contrasting, cloud-like pale green and darker patches.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Melverley, a timber-framed church

The church of St Peter at Melverley in Shropshire is a wholly timber-framed building. There was a time when the majority of churches in areas without easily accessible building stone were constructed in this way. But, over time more durable stone and brick replaced wood, as it did to a lesser extent in houses, and today wholly timber-framed churches are a relative rarity. Melverley's church dates from the 1400s or early 1500s and was restored in 1878. Most of the elevations, with the exception of the east end, feature close-studding i.e. vertical posts with little space between. The pretty broached bellcote continues the timber theme and seeing it reminded me that towers and bellcotes are often the only timber-framed part of quite a few Herefordshire churches.

 Inside the nave and chancel are a single space with the inevitable barn-like feel to it.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Under the Market House, Ross on Wye

The Herefordshire town of Ross on Wye has a late seventeenth century market house. It is made of red sandstone columns and arches that are open to the public and a stone and timber room above (now a gallery selling the work of local artists and craftspeople). It was originally designed to offer a covered space for market stalls, something it still does to this day. On non-market days it is a place to sit, shelter from the rain (or intense sun!), and generally watch the world go by. As I was doing just that the other day someone was using it as a vantage point for a phone call and I took this shot of the scene. I've converted it to a black and white image because the strong blue fascia of the Boots store was overpowering the composition and weakening the strong silhouettes.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Canoes on the River Wye

I came across these canoes tied to the stonework of an old wharf by the Hope & Anchor pub in Ross on Wye. The recent rains had left water and leaf debris in them and I initially wondered why they hadn't been cleaned out. Then it occurred to me that they were fastened there to advertise the services of one of the companies that rents canoes for trips along the river. The wharf enabled me to get above them and I took this photograph of them looking like the petals of a flower head. The colour version of the shot wasn't very colourful so I settled on black and white that made them much more striking.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

River Dee seen from Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

The Llangollen Canal follows the valley of the River Dee for many miles. My photograph shows a view of the river as it flows under the Cysylltau Bridge (also known as the Pont Cysyllte or the Bont Bridge). It was taken from the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct that carries the canal across the valley. Cysylltau Bridge is a sandstone structure built in 1697 and extensively rebuilt in the eighteenth century. Though it has only a narrow single carriageway six feet wide it is still used by vehicles travelling in both directions.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

River Dee at Llangollen

In its 70 miles the River Dee rises in Snowdonia and passes through England and Wales, marking the border in places, before discharging into the Irish Sea. This photograph was taken from a bridge in the Welsh town of Llangollen and illustrates its rocky passage through the settlement. The outcropping limestone in the valley made it easier to erect a bridge over the river at this point, and the town and its castle grew up around the crossing.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

HRH

As a lifelong republican (small "r" not big) I shouldn't be posting photographs of royalty, particularly a newly crowned king. However, it's not so much the subject as the skills of the sand artist that caused me to take this photograph. It was in a specially designed, shell-like shelter, seemingly purpose-made for such displays, that we came across on the promenade at Weymouth, Dorset.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Steam locomotive driver

Whenever I've visited a preserved railway I've noticed the enthusiasm of the volunteers who give their time to the undertaking. It has occurred to me that many of these men and women getting deep satisfaction from working with real trains must have played with toy equivalents when they were youngsters!

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Dean Forest Railway pannier tank loco

For the first time ever we visited Parkend in the Forest of Dean when one of the Dean Forest Railway trains was in the station. Usually all we hear is the distant whistle of a departing loco. If that makes us sound incompetent I should point out that we've never tried to coincide with the trains. This preserved railway line has a small number of steam locos and diesel multiple units that offer rides to the general public and further diesel engines under preservation. The engine we saw is above. It is a British Railways (W) pannier loco, no. 9681, Class 8750. Its wheel arrangement is 0-6-0PT. The locomotive weighs 50 tons and has a tractive effort of 22,515 lb/f. It was built in 1949 making it  a relative youngster among preserved locomotives. Very appropriately it carries the "unicycling lion" badge that was used after the creation of the nationalised British Railways in 1948.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Tomb effigies

It is commonplace to find  tombs and effigies of the wealthy and influential in England's cathedrals. The sculpted men and women are usually replendent in their finest clothes and armour. They further display their status and connections through coats of arms and references, pictorial and written, to their civil and/or military achievements. Occasionally, however, poignant additions to the display of swagger can be found. The photographs today show the tomb and effigies of Alexander Denton (d.1576) and his wife Anne (d.1566) in Hereford Cathedral. To most viewers the damage inflicted to faces and hands by Puritan iconoclasts of the seventeenth century are the most eye-catching features.

Rather fewer notice the swaddled child with its pillow, tucked by Anne's leg, an indication that she and the child died during childbirth. This touching feature gives the modern viewer a reminder of the precariousness of life at that time and shows how riches could not transcend such losses.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5