The garden has its hat on – a hat of snow.
Plants are sporting their new white headgear.
All sculptures and ornaments are wearing their ermine hats and coats.
The insects are warm in their homes, hopefully hibernating safely, but we will not know until the spring. Each night the little Jenny Wrens queue up to roost in their wicker basket.
Back to some Shropshire architecture for this posting as promised. At the back-end of 2012 I posted a couple of articles based around the market town of Ludlow after being challenged by some followers to feature architecture photos. So here is another batch of posts on the architecture of Shropshire.
Just ten minutes up the road we find the county town of Shropshire. It is not a large town but its ambition is to become a city. Shrewsbury is famous for its historical buildings, for being the birthplace of Charles Darwin and for being the friendliest, most well-mannered town in England.
We don’t go into our shire capital often for the usual reason ie shopping. We avoid shopping whenever we can and try even harder to avoid shopping in town centres. Too much noise, too many people, too much traffic!
But we love Shrewsbury for its buildings and the entertainment it provides for us. Theatre, cinema, jazz club and coffee houses.
This series of posts feature the buildings of our town. They will not follow a chronological order but we shall explore streets, alleys and lanes in bite-sized chunks of town, chunks just the right size to explore in a half day. It would be all too easy and obvious to present the architecture in historical order but I really want to give you the atmosphere of patches of the town. Sometimes the selected areas will seem random but that is how my mind works.
The starting point for today’s random collection of buildings is the coffee shop in Marks and Spencers. After a latte (Malc) and cappuccino (Jude), we are suitably refreshed and warmed up.
First stop is the school attended by Charles Darwin, where we find a big, bronze statue of the great man himself sat outside, while inside on one of the windowsills is the scratched signature of his brother. The building now houses the town’s public library and this famous graffiti is in between the book cases. Darwin is often described as the town’s most famous son, but he is more than that. The most intelligent person ever to have lived for example?
The building displays interesting detail in its stonework and a wonderful big sundial with two faces sits astride the one corner.
The cobbled lane leading to the library is overlooked by an interesting row of town houses and a beautiful gateway.
We walked on down Castle Street towards one of Shrewsbury’s most photographed buildings. It appears in many books about railways and about the Victorian era. The railway station. How can a railway station look so good?
To the left of the station forecourt we spotted a real “Mary Poppins” balustraded roof garden constructed in wonderful shades of red.
From the railway station we see hints of the castle, so we made our way towards it.
As we walked around this small corner of Shrewsbury town little details attracted my eye and my camera lens.
We always seem to walk over hill and moor country on cold days. Even back in the Autumn we found ourselves choosing a cold day to journey down to the Brecon Beacons in Carmthenshire for a moorland amble. The Brecons are an upland area of Wales that we tend to drive through but rarely visit so this was our chance to discover its landscape and wildlife.
As we set out on our walk the sky looked threatening.
With each step we took up the gently slopes the temperature dropped and the wind got stronger. Around us the bracken had been cut, perhaps to reduce its dominance on the landscape and let other species come through. It seems that wherever there are too many sheep grazing such areas as this the bracken takes over as sheep do not eat it. An excess of bracken reduces biodiversity. Half way across this trimmed area of bracken we came across a flock of waders nervously feeding on the soft soil in the green grassed areas between the rust-coloured stripes. We moved slowly forward, binoculars in hands, desperately trying to work out what they were. Our first thought was Curlews but as we got closer we realised they were too small. Next idea that sprang to mind was Grey Plover which proved correct. they were obviously on the move to somewhere on the coast and had dropped in for shelter from the wind as it got stronger, for a rest and for nutrition. The soft soil would give easy access to creatures below the surface, for which they were probing with their long, strong bills.
The slow walk up the slope took us through wet areas and gave us varied views.
When we reached the highest point we stopped for a coffee break and froze! The biting wind stung our eyes and made them run, making tears run down our cheeks, and blew my hat away.
We were hoping the dry-stone wall would afford some shelter, but most of it had long fallen exposing a rough old fence of pig-wire and gnarled posts. After replenishing our spirits we followed the fence-line along the ridge. It is amazing how photogenic a tumbledown, weather-beaten fence can prove to be.
While having our break we watched Red Kite gracefully soaring overhead in search of carrion.
As we dropped back down the slope at the end of the old wall we were sheltered slightly and the wind was on our backs – much better!
On the lower slopes just above the car park we came across two interesting fungi, very different in habit but both deep yellow in colour.
So an exhilarating walk in exhilarating weather! We must return in more clement weather!
We awake each morning this week to frost which gives way to mist. As the day light increases, the drops of melted frost hang from plants like miniatures lanterns.
Please click on the first image in the gallery below and click the right arrow. The technical details are with each photograph.
As a gardener I dislike the frost because it prevents me getting any tasks done but I love the way frost adds completely new character to the plants. The simplest bare stem or branch can come to life when the low sun catches a rim of frost.
As a photographer I dislike the frost as it makes my fingers hurt with cold deep down into the joints but I love the way light and frost adds a magical element not present at any other time. I find my fingerless thermal gloves a great help.
Grasses, when frosted create line drawings. My eye and camera lens are drawn to them on every frosty day.
Looking out into the garden on bright frosted days, the low morning light creates special moments as it catches the seed heads of perennials.
In our frosted garden artefacts, ornaments and objects take on a new life. The copper obelisk looks black against the whiteness and it sports a delicate white coating. My next post will be about others.
As 2012 ends and 2013 begins it seems appropriate to look back at the twelve posts I made based on monthly wanders around our garden. So please enjoy my selection of 12 shots. Just click on a photo to see a larger image and slide show.
Hope 2012 has been kind to you. Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year.
This series of posts all about architecture in Shropshire is in response to a challenge after a fellow blogger’s request for some photos of architecture. So Margie, if no-one likes these it is all your fault! Only joking!
A morning in Ludlow to visit a craft exhibition in which our daughter was showing her silver jewelery (see earlier posting), afforded us a few hours to walk a few of the narrow streets of this South Shropshire market town. This is a taste of some more detailed posts to come both of Ludlow and other towns and villages of our county.
A “taste of Ludlow” means different things to different people. For foodies the first ideas to spring to their minds, or stomachs, will be the number of restaurants with Michelin Stars and Egon Ronay mentions. Ludlow to many is the capital city of food, bettered only by London. But it is only a small market town. To historians and the architecturally minded it would be the buildings that popped up. Ludlow is well-known for ancient buildings going back in history for centuries. The streets boast a juxtaposition of styles and ages. Facades hide older gems.
Ludlow was the UK’s first town ever to be designated a “Slow City”.
Saturday is a busy time for the streets of Ludlow so most of these pics are looking up to avoid traffic and people.
The most important building in Ludlow though is really the Orvis Store where us fishermen can buy our fly fishing gear.
Most streets here are steep, some very steep! It is so lucky that there are lots of coffee shops as well as gourmet restaurants.
Here is a fine example of Ludlow’s hidden gems. This ancient window and patch of wall sits inside a much later building.
To most people especially calendar designers, holiday tour operators, the writers of gazeteers of the towns of England and TV crews, Ludlow is known for this one old building. The Feathers Hotel is featured in so many books and magazines. The path opposite it is worn away by the feet of photographers! It is pretty good but there is so much more!
There is even the odd modern piece of corporate architecture hidden away behind the historic street frontages and away from tourists’ glances. The new library and museum building is impossible to find, signed from nowhere but quite a handsome building of its type.
Ludlow architecture holds little details to delight the photographer’s lens. Just look through open gateways and up alleyways and there they hide.
And so I can only hope this little taster showing the variety that exists within the architecture of Ludlow will leave you wishing for more. If not there is more on its way anyway! I am thinking “Gates, Doors and Windows”, “Little Details”, ……………
Today is the Winter Solstice! A day to celebrate! From tomorrow each day will get a little longer, giving a bonus of extra light. So here is a present of a bouquet of frosted roses.
We delight in every rose bud that appears in the winter months and celebrate each and every one that opens out to present us with a bloom. When iced with a crystal layer of white frost they look even better.
I suppose I shall have to prune them down by half to stop the wind rocking the roots loose before too long, and then it will be a long wait until next May to appreciate these delicious blooms once again.
In my last post I followed a winter exploration in our own local patch of woodland As a contrast I can now transport you back into the summer and into another woodland.
As we were exploring a Sussex garden on a day when the weather gave mixed fortunes, we took to the woods to give us some protection from the showers and storms that interrupted the periods of sunshine. We thought the tree canopies would act in place of our umbrella which we had left in the car. The lighting in the wood struck us as really special as the sun and showers mixed so we explored the little wood further.
A winter wander around our local woodland patch within the grounds of the National Trust’s Attingham Park got off to a strange start. Expecting the cold weather to have restricted visitors to a few hardy souls, we arrived to see the main car park full, all overflow parking fields full and lots of extra parking also filling up rapidly.
We had arrived just after the start of their first Christmas related event – The Frost Fair. Bad planning! However the woodlands were quiet, the only sounds following us around were the songs of small and squeaky birds, Coal Tits, Treecreepers and Goldcrests.
The event we searched out was the art exhibition of the works of Mother Nature. She was her usual brilliant imaginative self.
Her woodcarving looked freshly made and full of texture and colour.
This piece looks to be based on the shapes of a crab’s claw.
Drawings on the cut trunks of a diseased Ash tree reminded me of cave paintings.
This triangular land art installation shows Mother Nature working in a more geometric way.
As the woodland path took us deeper in amongst the trees we appreciated the quietness of our footfalls, the quietness of the soft deep pine needle duvet. When it is quiet the subtleties of bird songs and calls are more easily enjoyed. We stood feet away from a Goldcrest feeding on insects he had searched out from the conifer needles with thin probing beak. He suddenly fell to the floor as if dead, or mimicking the gentleness of a falling leaf. He dropped into the fern and bramble undergrowth and stayed there out of sight. Was he feigning death to fool a predator or pretending to be a falling leaf with the same purpose in mind? As we stood silently in awe of what we had witnessed he reappeared vertically up into the branch he had fallen out of. One of those magical moments that two observers of the natural world will never forget! Any idea what he may have been up to?
Nature playing with light fascinated us as the sun dropped lower in the thin blue sky lighting up the understory with golds and oranges.
Water, be it a stream, ditch, river or pool, affords nature the chance of playing with mirrors to create illusions and mysteries.
On the land shadows are drawn long and dark. The long tall tree shadow stretches out across the pastureland. My own shadow tried to get in the picture until I managed to persuade it to move into the shadow of one of the tree trunks.
The shadow of the precariously leaning seat crossed our path as we approached the gap in the tall wall that would take us into the productive gardens.
The climbing, curling tendrils of this vine glow pink and red in the sunlight, forming a natural frame for the filigree skeletons of trees.
We greatly enjoyed our visit to the open air gallery.
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