Part the second

I have actually thought about where I was going to start with this post. I think I have mentioned that I have been walking up and down the Rushall Canal, which cuts through the estate I live on and is five minutes walk down the hill. It actually joins on to the Wyrley and Essington Canal which has a branch leading up to Chasewater where I spent many a long day working as the boatman in the early 80's. Yes I was the one that said "come in number 9 your time is up".

I get to the canal about half way along its length and have the choice of heading "up" towards Hayhead Nature Reserve or down towards the Motorway.
This is a picture I took on the way to the Motorway during the summer. The canal itself is fairly straight

To be honest most times I go up as it gives me lots of options to loop back home or if I want or to branch off into the Aboretum and wander around in the fields. This mainly happens when my youngest wants to come for a "Bike ride". She rides the bike I tend to jog along behind.

One of the things I like is the opportunity to get the same picture at different times of the year. At the moment these are my favourite.


The first was taken at begining of November as Autumn swept through. I do like Autumn and the colour of the leaves, the berries and the fruit, I could go on, but you get the Idea.

Compare this to the a picture I took a month later. Autumn has been and gone and Winter has truly arrived.

All the leaves are gone the variety of colour has been replaced with a monochrome. Yes there is the green of bark, lichen and moss. this is background the white of the snow and frost dominates. The water which reflected the surrondings is frozen and snow lies over it.


I should go to bed now so more soon

2011 New Year

Hello

So I am writing something on the first day of the new year just about anyway. It is well after 11:00 pm and I am sort of thinking about a New year Resolution to make more of an effort with my blog and to generally put more effort in this year. 2010 saw a bit of a decline in my writing from its peak in Dec 2009. I think I found it harder and harder to have something to write about. I am still taking pictures, but am now based in Telford which is somewhat less inspirational than Shrewsbury. I do miss the River. I did take this at sunset in November. I like it anyway

I still walk during my lunch times and have a couple of routes that I follow. I do take fewer pictures, there is much less change and roads just don't have the same. The weather over last Month or so has given the whole place a different cast. This is a "frosty" picture of St Peter's Church and also a picture of the frost and snow with The Wrekin in the background


So this is my take on Telford, well this does make it look much more attractive than it really is. Telford is a "New Town " and does not seem to have any focus or any feature that ties it together. Yes, there is a shopping centre and various other "attractions" but it has no history and nothing that ties it all together.

Enough for about Telford, which I know so little.

OK enough for tonight

December mark 2

So back again. I think Lauren has given me some inspiration. So now this is the second stint of the Month and it is only the 9th well it was when I started. For the last week or so it has been cold the canals and lakes and even some of the rivers are iced over. For the first week in December this has been a shock to the system.

Yes I know if you live in other places this fairly common. However here it it unusual to say the least, especially this time of year. This is Forge Mill lake in Sandwell Valley modeling this months Iced over look.

Even Telford where I am based now has taken on a winter look.

this was taken just up the road from my office looking across to the other side of the valley. In the background through the mist is the Wrekin.

It does have a picture post card look about it. The Wrekin sits in the background. The rose hips in Frost is my favourite and the moment.

The temperature seems to set to rise over the next few days and frost has now gone from the trees and the ice on the ground is melting

Good night !!

December already

So it is December and I have not put anything up since September/October. I suppose I just do not have the enthusiasm that I used to have and "getting around to sitting and typing something up at the end of the day is not all I once thought.

So has any thing changed since last I wrote not much. I am still working in "sunny" Telford. I can still go for a walk and in fact walk just as far if not further than in Shrewsbury, there is a road, a motorway even, but the River is not there and the River changes every day however subtly. By its nature it brings new things passed every day. and I miss it.

I went to see the Cowboy Junkies in at Gorton Monastery Manchester at the beginning of November and they were great. I even managed to take some half decent pictures. The sound was good and they could have played all night. I was a very happy bunny. I first heard them probably over 20 years ago playing Blue Moon (Song for Elvis) , and since then I have kept up with their output. well I usually was about 5 years behind, I actually have almost all their releases over the last decade and they are getting better and better.

I always start this far to late and don't really have the time to put every thing down.



I have to got to bed so good night

End of Sept

So it is the end of September and I finally come back to write something in the blog. I am still taking pictures around home and work. Work has moved I am now based in Telford. More roads and fewer Rivers. I still get to go and walk and take my camera. It is autumn and the colours of the trees fruits and berries are something else. I even manage to capture this on occasion.

I did do a fair on saturday in Ironbridge. I went with quiet a lot of hope that I would at least sell something or that there would be lots of positive feedback and I could make lots of contacts. I don't think either eventuality happened. The venue was so out of the way that even with lots of people in Ironbridge on their World Heritage Day few if any came our way.

This has been short and not very sweet, but has kept my hand in.

Night for now

Back again

So I have started working through the pictures I took on our trip to Scotland this year. We stayed in a cottage in Ardwell a village about 10 miles south of Stranraer in the South West. It was very quiet an peaceful. The weather was kind, what rain there was was usually brief and where it did persist we were driving or more often sleeping.

The sea was just 100 yards from the cottage and the path was easy to walk. So I was able to get some pictures like this of the beach as the sun set behind me. I love the shades of colour in the sea, sky and on the beach.

I saw lots of birds and for the first time in a while, seals. I even got the occasional kind one to pose for me as it lay in the shallows. I have had some pictures of seals before but they have usually been ones where you have to know where to look. this time the seal is I hope easy to see.

OK I will come back to this as I go through my pictures. I did take a lot of flowers and plants this year.

OK time for bed

August no 1

This is more to say I have not forgotten to do this. I have been on holiday in Scotland for the last 2 weeks. The south west corner and I will spend more time on that at a later date. anything else to report. Well yes and no I have been asked to move across to Telford at some stage and work from the office there. When this will actually happen is another thing, I have said yes as it will save me time and money in getting there and back. I will be looking after the Learndirect Centre there so it will not be Rocket Science but it should keep me more involved than I am now.

Until then I will do my walks up and down the Severn in Shrewsbury and take picture. Before I went to Scotland I got a couple of pictures that I particularly like. The first of a Sparrow, I am growing to like Sparrows more and more as I get older. They were one of the first birds I was able to identify (or so my mother tells me) in our garden and after a long period of, I suppose, me ignoring them, they have pushed themselves back into my consciousness. Anyway I like the picture taken in Shrewsbury a couple of weeks ago.

Second I my hunt for the perfect teasel picture goes on. This was taken in Sandwell Valley by the Forge Mill lake.

OK enough for now

Goodnight