Building 02B

On a small industrial estate in Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, are a number of modern, metal, cuboid-shaped industrial buildings. Each one has been marked with a unique designation comprising a letter and number that is the most prominent feature of its exterior. So overpowering is this alphanumeric designation that it often dwarfs the name of the business within - as is the case in the photograph above. I took my photograph at a weekend and the absence of any workers or their vehicles, along with the sparse weeds at the base of the building, gave the scene something of the look of a "ghost-town".

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

Fonts, ballflowers and chancels

Medieval builders almost always started building a church at the east end of the chancel, the place that housed the high altar, the necessary prerequisite for worship. Consequently this is often the oldest part of a remaining medieval church. However, rebuilding in a more modern style, or expansion of the church, often meant building anew, and in such cases the area around the high altar may not be the oldest. Sometimes a font, the necessary prerequisite for admission to the faith, is the oldest part of the church. And, many churches kept a venerated old font even when rebuilding took place. But a font, though usually made of stone, is easily moved, and many were replaced, or even moved elsewhere. The font stem at Tewkesbury Abbey (above) has ballflower decoration that dates it to the fourteenth century (the bowl is newer), similar to the age of the chancel, but a couple of hundred years more recent than the nave. 

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Sunny Shoreditch Park

On a recent weekend the warm weather brought people out into sunny Shoreditch Park in London. Dry weather and the popularity of the park had turned the green grass yellow but that didn't stop young and old coming out to feel the sun on their faces and backs. As we passed through the park the looming buildings under construction gave a dissonant note to the tranquil scene.

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

Inanimate faces

It's said that people's ability to notice faces, even where a whole person cannot be seen, harks back to man's prehistory when this skill helped an individual to stay alive. Today that skill exists in us still and it has transferred to inanimate objects - we can see faces in wallpaper patterns, clouds, domestic appliances, the fronts of cars and even in buildings. The gable end of the building called Peterscourt in Peterborough has a "face" that I cannot help looking at each time I walk by. Look at my photograph and you'll see the the small windows as two eyes, a chimney flue nose and even part of a further small window as one of the nostrils. The open porch and doorway, of course, form the gaping mouth.

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