A Good Weekend For Photographs

After weeks of endless rain, we're having some proper winter weather (though thankfully no snow). This has provided some excellent photo opportunities... beginning with Saturday morning's sunrise...

(A little blurry because it was taken through the window and I'd just woken up.)

On Sunday, we had a proper frosty Sherlock Holmes style fog...

I love the way the mist flattens the landscape, making it seem like layers on layers...

Then yesterday, the sky was so clear I had to take a stroll up to the highest point around: West Nab...

Look at that blue...!

And that view...!

Sadly, I didn't meet Simon Armitage up there... but you can see why this is one of his favourite inspirational places. It even got me feeling poetic... but I'll spare you.

And finally... this is where we hold the sacrifices.

Going South (3) Shaftesbury

The only thing I knew of Shaftesbury was its famous Gold Hill: the location of "Britain's favourite TV advert", as directed by Sir Ridley Scott in 1973.



It doesn't look much different today, though you're lucky if you can take pictures like the ones here... I had to wait 20 minutes for a break in the tourists. Bloody tourists.

Worst are the ones who insist on re-enacting the Hovis ad for their own amusement. Without even bothering to bring a bike...

What I didn't know about Shaftesbury is something even more breathtakingly picturesque - Park Walk, a long, tree-lined promenade looking out across Blackmore Vale and towards Glastonbury Tor. Unusually for the area, Shaftesbury is a town built on top of a great hill, and as such it's one of the highest towns in England (not to mention one of the oldest). The view from Park Walk is stunning... photos, I'm sad to say, don't do it justice. Go there on a day of big clouds like these for the ultimate spectacle.

Oxford Comma

Being a huge fan of Inspector Morse, I wasn't about to let my recent trip to Caption go by without taking a little stroll around Oxford itself. It's a city I've always wanted visit... but would it live up to expectations?

Well, there certainly are some beautiful old buildings and wonderful examples of classic architecture. I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to architecture, hence my use of "classic" in that previous sentence rather than "Classical". Pedants beware!

I suppose I had it in my head that Oxford would be all old buildings, trapped in amber, time-warping me back to a long gone Golden Age of England as soon as I drove through the city limits. In places though, Oxford looks like any other city. I guess every high street needs a Superdrug.

Many of the actual colleges were either closed to the public - or charged a hefty entry fee that unemployed writers couldn't really justify paying - but I did get to walk through the grounds of Christ Church College and the Bodelian Library (above). Tempted as I was to shout, "Do hurry up, Lewis!" I kept quiet as a mark of respect... and because I generally get very annoyed by people who talk in libraries. As to those colleges I couldn't gain free entry to, I leaned through the gates and took a few photos anyway...

I began my tour very early on Sunday morning while the streets were reasonably quiet... but it wasn't long before I was joined by hordes of tourists. Every corner I turned, I met another group, guided by an old boy of Oxford (it was usually boys) sharing his knowledge of the city's history and heritage. As beautiful a place as Oxford undoubtedly is, I soon grew tired of all the sightseers with their cameras... particularly when they prevented me from getting decent photos of my own!

As the morning rumbled on, the skies over the dreaming spires grew cloudy and began to threaten rain... so I headed down to the river to catch a few shots that matched the Oxford in my head even more than the magnificent skyline...

Oxford, then: almost everything I'd hoped for. Just a disappointing lack of cunningly planned murders being foiled by grumpy misanthropic policemen and their thick Geordie sidekicks. You'd have thought they might have organised at least one after I'd driven all that way...

Now That I Don't Have A Job...

...you might think I'd have more time for blogging. Strangely, I seem to have less. Make of that what you will.

Still, more time at home at least means I get to take loads more photos of the crazy things cats do. Because the internet can never get enough of that.

For example, here's Murphy. He likes boxes. He's also too fat for boxes. Dilemma.

Meanwhile, Molly has been complaining that I never feature her photos on my blog. She's just not as dumbassedly photogenic as Murphy, I guess. Here she is catching up on a spot of smartarse sunbathing.

And to finish off, here's some more crazy squirrel action from Colin...

Tomorrow - I'll attempt to solve the problems in the Middle East. With a photo of a wood pigeon.

A Spring Evening

This post was not brought to you by Persil Automatic, Abercrombie & Fitch or Michael McIntyre Live At Wembley.

Honestly.

A Walk In The Autumn Woods

You know how when you get a day off it always rains but when you go back to work the sun shines again?

Last week, the law of sod went in the other direction. Tuesday, it hissed it down. Thursday, there was a storm of biblical proprotions. Wednesday, when I was lucky enough to get a day off, the sun shone on the righteous.

So I went out for a walk in the woods and enjoyed the colours of Autumn... which I shall now share with you here, in lieu of anything more interesting to write about on a Monday.

Holiday Wildlife

I promised you holiday snaps, but things keep delaying me. Here are a few creatures we met on our latest visit to the Lakes...

A family of swans. The young cygnet must be almost fully grown but has yet to develop its adult feathers.

We set out most days to feed the ducks and swans we'd met on previous holidays. Being earlier in the season, many of these were further down the shore in Bowness where the crowds could keep them in bread crumbs all day long. Apart from the family of swans seen in the first picture, we had to settle for feeding cheeky seagulls like the one above.

You can see understand meerkats have become so embraced by the Evil World of Advertising. They are exceedingly cute.

As are these chaps, the ring-tailed lemurs from Madagascar. Another red-ruffed lemur lived with them. Amazingly acrobatic creatures.

A family of zebras had just given birth to a new foal. Sadly they wouldn't let us close enough to the baby for a picture.

Emus in action.

And a brawny bison. OK, I'll come clean. Most of these critters aren't living wild in the Lake District - imagine if they were. We encountered them instead at Trotters World Of Animals in Bassenthwaite. Well worth a visit. While there, I held a python and a blue-tongued skink (no photos, sadly - worried the flash might piss them off!). I declined the chance to hold a tarantula though.

A dancing crane. This fella was a real show-off. We missed the falconry display at Trotters, but were lucky enough to stop off at the Yorkshire Dales Falconry Centre on our way home where met met some very entertaining owls... that's me in the bottom picture with a friendly little barn owl on my arm.