Life – Page 24 – Journeys of Heart and Mind

Image of the day – 19

Agreement and mutual benefit are essential and beneficial in human societies, and are recognised as such worldwide.

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

This wooden carving marks the point where two canals meet in Stroud. The Stroudwater Canal to the right allowed Severn river boats (trows) to carry Welsh coal to Stroud to power the steam engines taking over from the less efficient water power in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The Thames and Severn Canal, opening a few years later, enabled the smaller London barges to make their way to and from Oxford and London to the east.

Cargoes would need to be unloaded from barges and reloaded on trows or vice versa to make the entire journey. But London barges were not suitable for the waves, winds and currents of the River Severn, while trows were too large for the locks and other facilities of the upper Thames.

Shaking hands is an interesting choice in a sculpture to signal agreement and mutual benefit. Agreement and mutual benefit are essential and helpful in human societies, and are recognised as such worldwide. When agreement and mutual benefit break down we have arguments, murders, violent demonstrations, and even wars. These are all social on some scale or other. How much better it would be to stop those behaviours and shake hands. But that’s not always possible, sadly.

There’s a saying that it takes two to have an argument. That’s true – but it also takes two to stop arguing and shake hands.

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Image of the day – 14

Any creative work seems quite magical, as what was only in the creator’s mind appears in actuality and can be seen and touched.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

Here’s another view of the gardens at Hidcote. Lawrence Johnston designed Hidcote with the concept of ‘garden rooms’, one of which is the focus of this photo. Walking through the Hidcote garden you pass from one room to another, to another repeatedly. There are constant surprises every time you turn a corner or pass through an opening in a hedge. It’s delightful.

I love this kind of garden and I think you might too, if you ever have a chance to visit Hidcote – take it!

This, to me, says something about the nature of creation in general. There’s a design stage during which the idea of ‘rooms’ is a foundational step, and even some of the layout, or even most of it, take shape in the designer’s imagination. And almost always there’s a second stage after things start to be laid out on the ground (for a garden). In this second stage, it may become clear that improvements are possible once you see the ‘lay of the land’. Little tweaks and changes can improve the design significantly.

But always, in any creative work, something comes into existence that was simply not there before. Any creative work seems quite magical, as what was only in the creator’s mind appears in actuality and can be seen and touched, or in the case of a garden – walked in and admired.

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

Image of the day – 11

Hidcote is managed by the National Trust to very high standards, and National Trust food is also very good.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

Hidcote is a wonderful garden near Chipping Camden, north of Cirencester where we live, and I took this photo in June 2024. Donna and I spent a while casually strolling around, enjoying the sunshine and the gardens and stopping for lunch. Hidcote is managed by the National Trust to very high standards, and National Trust food is also very good. We are National Trust members so we don’t pay an entry fee and can come here as often as we like, we know the place really well.

Most of us would agree that a water lily flower is a thing of beauty, yet it is also ephemeral; it’s here today, gone tomorrow. Living things are all like that, from the tiniest bacteria to the largest blue whale. Life makes up for temporary fragility by it’s abundant reproduction and ability to adapt to new opportunities. Life is amazing!

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

Image of the day – 2

Come on mate, get preening! How do you expect to find an attractive female robin with scruffy, untidy feathers like that?

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image each day, or as often as I can; a photo I took, an image from Wikipedia, NASA, or some other open source, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy. This is the second in the series.

Pretty & Pip is one of my favourite coffee shops in Cirencester. I wrote ‘the robin‘ because he’s always there, in their lovely courtyard. If I didn’t know the guy that owns and manages this place I might even think the robin ran it! He certainly thinks he belongs there, and he does a pretty good job of picking up cake crumbs and generally keeping the place spick and span.

But come on mate, get preening! How do you expect to find an attractive female robin with scruffy, untidy feathers like that?

Favourites

For convenience, here’s a list of my favourite images:

Anemone, Cloud, Honeybee, Hydrangea, Kiftsgate1, Kiftsgate2, Large White, Mugshot, Nelson, Robin, Rose, Spilhaus, Sunset1, Weston beach

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

Image of the day – 1

The demolition of a famous old landmark, the ‘Air Balloon’ pub.

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m going to post an image each day, or as often as I can; a photo I took, an image from Wikipedia, NASA, or some other open source, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy. This is the first in what may become a long series.

Roadworks on the A417, at the Air Balloon Roundabout

The scarp slope of the Cotswolds is steep, and roads usually have to twist and turn to reduce the slope to acceptable levels. A new section of dual carriagway is being built near the village of Birdlip, to complete the link from the M4 near Swindon to the M5 near Gloucester.

It’s involved the demolition of a famous old landmark, the ‘Air Balloon’ pub, and the amount of rock being moved is astronomical. All of this to smooth out a course for the new road that will let it make the 300 m climb in one, long, sweeping bend. The completion date is estimated to be Spring 2027.

Cirencester

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Cirencester area images:

A417 roadworks, Advent Market, Bishops Walk, Baunton, Canal 1, 2, Castle Street, Christmas lights 1, 2, Church 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Churn flood, Countryside, Fallen tree, Fleece, Gasworks, Gloucester Street, Hare 1, 2, Hospital, Market Place 1, Phoenix Fest, Riverside Walk, Stone plaque, Stratton Meadow, Tank traps, View, Wonky 1, 2, Yellow Iris

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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