OWT - Living in the past / Chilcompton – where our story begins.

This is a view of the street I was born in.  For reasons that were never made clear to me, my parents dispensed with the normal routine of fashionable health care and decided (or maybe they did not decide at all!) to let me be born in the front room.  I would live in the same house for the next 19 years, until I left to study in far flung Sunderland.  It’s strangely grounding to live within feet of the spot you were born.  Maybe that accounts for my (slightly over blown) sense of place in the childhood landscapes I remember.  

I was born in the spring that followed the coldest winter for a generation, and I cannot really imagine what it must have been like inside the house during those snowy months – although “cold” springs to mind.   

It’s an ongoing source of amusement to me that I now live a house with central heating (for only the second time!) in a part of the country where it’s rare to have frosts and I can wear shorts for most of the year.  I think my mum would have liked the warmth.

You can find more pictures from around the world at Our World Tuesday.

You can find more of my rambling thoughts on the world by clicking the Paying Ready Attention image on the RHS of this page.

Enjoy the pictures.

Marco Monday - Living in the past / Red Clover.

This has been one of my favourite pictures for a very long time.  I think it’s due to the angle of the shot.  I was lead flat on my stomach in the middle of an abandoned railway line in the middle of Chilcompton when I took this picture.  It was the 30^th May 1981. Slide film, bellows and a fully manual camera.  A good deal has changed since then, but I still like the picture.

You can find macro shots of a more current nature at Macro Monday.

You can find the latest post to my other blog by clicking the Paying Ready Attention image on the RHS of the page.

Enjoy the close ups.

SkyWatch Friday - Living in the Past / June Skies

(Click to see a much better version)

Continuing our journey through the past here are some images from my last trip to the UK.  

The “panorama” has been over sharpened to give a grainy feel to the image.  As a kid I spend a huge amount of time near where this image was taken – and in some ways this less the perfect, altered, image seems to say something about the nature of childhood memory; often imperfect and over overlaid with layers that obscure the truth of the matter.  It was (and still is) a place of dragon flies, of long hours fishing, of Roman ruins running along the contours of the hillside and older hill top barrows and broad and indistinct henge circles.  As you may have guessed I miss the place.

The clouds are my concession to a real sky picture!  They were taken in the early morning as the sun came out from behind a hill and for a while the sky was all colour.

You can find more sky images at SkyWatch Friday.

You can find the latest post to my other blog by clicking on the Paying Ready Attention image on the RHS of the page.

World Bird Wednesday - Living in the Past / Wood Pigeon

Just to get me in the mood for my rapidly approaching birthday – it’s not one of those big significant round number ones, but it’s not far off – I thought I’d dig out some pictures from the past.  A kind of “Living in the Past” sort of post.

On one of my infrequent trips back to the UK I spent some time at Slimbridge, the home of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.  This organisation was set up by Peter  Scott, whose father died on the return journey from the South Pole.  I was sat in a hide when this wood pigeon landed more or less directly outside the window.  It’s one of the few bird shots I had to take with a wide angle lens!

It’s not really the kind of bird people would travel any distance to see, but I don’t see them any more so I thought I’d give it a brief dance in the spot light of World Bird Wednesday.

You can find the latest post to my other blog by clicking the Paying Ready Attention image on the RHS of the screen.

Enjoy the birds

Our World Tuesday - Victoria Avenue

Australia’s forests are dominated by gum trees – eucalyptus trees – and while these are splendidly beautiful trees, they do not loss their leaves in autumn and so they do not put on a show of colour.

To find the autumn colours that come with the cooler days and longer nights you have to look for trees imported from elsewhere.

Victoria Avenue in Canterbury puts on one of the best displays of autumn leaves near my house.  I pass this street when I drive home – although it unfortunate that I the days I walk home it’s a bit off the beaten track.

I happened to have a camera with me as I was coming home last week, so I pulled into the street to take a few pictures.  I think I may have been a week or so late for the maximum colours – but the street was hardly shabby!

I can’t help but wonder what these street trees do to the value of the houses they shade.  And secondly, I can’t help but wonder on the hell you would get a removal van into the street should you ever need to leave or move in!

You can find more pictures from around the world at Our World Tuesday.

You can find the latest post to my other blog by clicking the Paying Ready Attention image on the RHS of the screen.

Enjoy the pictures.

Macro Monday - Locks

Thought I’d combine some macro and black and white into one post.  This is an image I took a long time ago (although not pre DSLR), and I have been waiting for the right place to use it.  This seems to be its moment.

I was originally drawn to the “old/new” thing that is happening between the locks and the wood, and I think the B/W treatment plays on that idea.

You can find more macro shots at Macro Monday.

You can find the latest post to my other blog by clicking on the Paying Ready Attention image on the RHS of the screen.

Enjoy the close ups.