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A stroll around Avebury’s stone circle
I find it a little odd that Avebury is not as well known, nor as visited, as nearby Stonehenge. Personally I find it just as impressive and in some ways more atmospheric. Its stone circle is so large that over time people have built their houses around and among the megaliths; so that today it seems almost as if the somewhat unearthly stones are slowly encroaching on human space.
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A visit to Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain
Nowhere in England is the summer solstice more famously celebrated than at Stonehenge. This ancient site has been a place of worship and celebration of the solstice for thousands of years. Every midsummer it draws crowds, some committed Druids, others merely curious observers, to watch as the sun rises behind the Heel Stone to the northeast, and its first rays shine into the heart of the stone circle.
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The Conversation Piece and the Eye
Some sculptures are all the better for being in just the right place; think of the Angel of the North or Statue of Liberty, for example. And in its own less dramatic way that is true of the Conversation Piece in South Shields.
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Gallery: a May selection
We have had a cooler than average May, although not with many showers until the end of the month. But the flowers are here in abundance! It was time to get out and about with my camera.
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The great fort of Bebbanburg
One of the grandest sights on the Northumbrian coastline is that of Bamburgh Castle. It is a view that I never tire of. The castle stands on a massive outcrop of rock and towers over the sands below. Unlike many castles on this coast, it is still a family home, and thus far more complete than the ruins elsewhere. It is truly an impressive sight.
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Gallery: the magnificent magnolias of March
When I included some magnolia flower images in my recent monochrome spring flowers post it was to celebrate their sculptural forms in particular. But while black and white really emphasises those forms, draining them of colour isn’t to everyone’s taste. And to be honest the shapes are just as beautiful and distinctive in colour; while the different shades from pure white through delicate pinks to deep reds and purple are equally worth celebrating.
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Gallery: a February selection
Keeping up my resolution of taking at least one photo a day was very easy in the first part of February and much less so towards the end of the month. For the first two weeks we were in Costa Rica and I was in travel photography heaven – and overload! When we got home however the weather was cold and I was jet-lagged. It was hard to get motivated to look for images among the familiar scenes of home after the novelties of travelling.
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Gallery: favourite miscellaneous photos of 2021
Maybe it’s the ex-librarian in me that drives me to put things into categories. But as a librarian I learned that some things fit into categories more easily than others! That was certainly true of my favourite photos from last year, and when I’d finished sorting them I was left with a set that didn’t neatly fit into a single theme.
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My (photography and blogging) year in review
It’s fair to say that 2021 wasn’t quite the year I thought it was going to be when it started. Back in last January we were anticipating a possible return to ‘normal’ at some point during this year, with more freedoms and more travelling. That did happen to some extent, but only ‘some’ extent. Never mind, we’re still here and we’ve managed to have a pretty good year, all things considered.
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Looking for Thomas Hardy in Dorset
It would be hard to visit Dorset without at some point coming across the name of novelist and poet Thomas Hardy. He is inexplicably linked to the county, so many places in which featured in his novels. On a recent visit to the county I found links to Hardy everywhere.
