Castles and country houses

In the UK it's not unusual to come across a country house that is based on a former castle. After explosives and cannons became widely used in warfare castles were no longer the safe haven they were formerly. The English Civil War of the C17 was the last time armies grappled for control in fighting on UK soil. When peace came many castles were "slighted" (i.e. blown apart) so they could not be used in any future warfare. Some country houses were made from these remains, others were made by building living accommodation and stately rooms in existing, undamaged castles so that they became homes rather than military architecture. Chirk Castle dates from 1295 and was designed to suppress part of the Marches, the border area between England and Wales. It was bought by Sir Thomas Myddleton in 1593 for £5000 and successive owners converted it to the grand house we see today. The photograph shows the main entrance of the original castle was adapted to be the main entrance of the house, and the adjoining walls were pierced by mullioned and transomed windows to let light into the new rooms.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

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