Category: Photography

Chastleton window

The panes of old glass are held in place with lead, reinforced by a horizontal iron bar for additional strength and rigidity.

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Image 108 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

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I wonder what past events might have been witnessed by this lovely, old window at Chastleton House in Oxfordshire? Windows are not made like this any longer, the window frame is stone-built as part of the structure of the house. The panes of old glass are held in place with lead, reinforced by a horizontal iron bar for additional strength and rigidity.

Chastleton is on the eastern edge of the Cotswolds, between Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Norton. It’s famous for its amazing plaster ceilings but it would still be an architectural gem without those. It’s managed by the National Trust these days.

The house was built in the Jacobean period between 1607 and 1612; it was owned by the same family for almost 400 years until the National Trust took over in 1991.

When: 15th December 2023
Where: Chastleton House, Oxfordshire

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Fallen tree

Some things are important…we should do the things that matter most right away…we should not fritter away our time…life really is precious.

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Image 107 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

Larger view

Winter storms occasionally bring down mature trees, even if they are healthy. That happened on the road between Stratton and Cirencester on 21st December 2023. The picture shows the clearing up afterwards. The car driver had a very frightening experience and a lucky escape; the tree trunk crushed the right hand side of the bonnet and I imagine the car was a write-off. Amazingly the windscreen was undamaged and the driver presumably shaken but unhurt.

The road was completely blocked by the trunk and branches of this large, mature lime tree, but the team worked quickly and it was clear again later the same day.

Life is full of unexpected events, most of them entirely harmless, some of them inconvenient, and occasionally something that shakes us up and makes us think about life in a different way, at least for a time. It’s probably good for us to face these think-about-life-differently events once in a while. It helps us to realise that some things are important, that we should do the things that matter most right away, that we should not fritter away our time, that life really is precious, and that we should be sympathetic to those who have suffered unexpectedly in life.

I suppose in the end the important thing is to love others regardless of whether they are close family, complete strangers, or somewhere in between. Everybody matters!

When: 21st December 2023
Where: Cirencester, Gloucestershire

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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Churn flood plain

You can see the Churn’s flood plain very clearly in this image. The treeline on the horizon marks the border of Cirencester Park and is on much higher ground.

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Image 106 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

Larger view

This is a view of the River Churn overflowing into fields, the village in the background is Stratton, where Donna and I live. As you can see, Stratton is on higher ground and is not at risk of flooding, though some parts of nearby Cirencester are at risk during the winter.

You can see the Churn’s flood plain very clearly in this image. The treeline on the horizon marks the border of Cirencester Park and is on much higher ground, and beyond those trees the beech woodland is criss-crossed with rides at different angles, very different from farmland and home to roe deer and many kinds of wild woodland plants and animals.

When: 23rd December 2023
Where: North of Cirencester, Gloucestershire

See also:
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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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. 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!

Churn flooding

Some buildings, like the lovely, old Cotswold stone house in the photo, were often built quite close to the area of flooding, choosing ground just high enough to stay dry.

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Image 105 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

Larger view

This view of the Churn flowing through the village of Baunton, a little north-east of Cirencester, shows it spilling over its banks and spreading across a field; this is normal, winter-time behaviour for the Churn for much of its length. Rising near the top of the Cotswolds at Seven Springs south of Cheltenham, it has cut a winding valley running towards Cirencester, the southern half of which is liable to flood.

Some buildings, like the lovely, old, Cotswold stone house in the photo, were often built quite close to the area of flooding, choosing ground just high enough to stay dry. Many other buildings in villages like Baunton were built a little higher still.

Historically, the regularly flooded land would serve as summer grazing and provide a hay crop in late summer. In this way, cattle could be kept on the land with a stock of hay as supplementary feed when winter grazing on the hillsides was prevented by snowfall. Higher (and drier) land could provide other crops like barley and wheat.

South of Cirencester, the Churn joins the Thames at Cricklade, and the combined flood plain is quite extensive. North Meadow on the edge of Cricklade is bordered by the converging rivers and is famous for its huge colony of snakeshead fritillaries By the time the Thames reaches Lechlade, it is navigable all the way to London and out into the North Sea.

When: 23rd December 2023
Where: Baunton, Gloucestershire

See also:
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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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. 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!

Cirencester Hospital

The old house is still interesting on the inside, at least one beautifully oak-panelled room is now a patient waiting room, and gives a hint of how the house would have appeared in its heyday.

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Image 104 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

Larger view

Cirencester had two hospitals in the 1950s. There was the Cirencester Memorial Hospital, the main part of which was demolished recently and is now one of the town’s car parks. And in 1948, the new NHS took over a large house near the Bull Ring (the town’s Roman Amphitheatre) and converted it internally as a maternity hospital – The Querns Maternity Hospital. Later, this was repurposed again as a general hospital and modern extensions were added. The Memorial Hospital closed.

The photo shows the rear view of the old house, you can see part of a modern extension on the extreme left. The old house is still interesting on the inside, at least one beautifully oak-panelled room is now a patient waiting room, and gives a hint of how the house would have appeared in its heyday.

I was born in this building when it was a maternity hospital, I was either the first or the second baby after the hospital opened in 1948.

Today, the NHS is struggling with insufficient funding and too few staff leading to long waiting times and impacting the wellbeing of patients, I hope the present government will be able to start correcting this, bringing the service back to full strength and effectiveness. That aside, the NHS remains a wonderful service for everyone who lives in the UK, a job it’s been doing for more than 70 years.

When: 9th January 2024
Where: Cirencester, Gloucestershire

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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Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. 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!

Cotswold skies

One of the joys of these walks is the sky. Sometimes it’s grey and overcast, sometimes it’s blue from horizon to horizon, but sometimes it’s full of interesting cloud formations at various heights.

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Image 103 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

Larger view

Traditional Cotswold fields were quite small, but as in many parts of the UK, farmers have removed hedgerows to combine small fields into larger ones that can be more efficiently cultivated, planted, and managed. Although this has some deleterious effects on wildlife and biodiversity, it does create some big skies. Here is an example.

This field is an easy walk west from Stratton where I live, along a permitted route along a stony track. I come out this way from time to time to enjoy the wide open spaces, to look at the nearby polo fields, to listen to the larks that nest here in considerable numbers, and to watch them rise higher and higher before plummeting down to land.

And one of the joys of these walks is the sky. Sometimes it’s grey and overcast, sometimes it’s blue from horizon to horizon, but sometimes it’s full of interesting cloud formations at various heights.

This wonderful world is full of beauty in big skies and also in tiny details. And it’s always different, no two days are alike.

When: 19th January 2024
Where: North-west of Cirencester

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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Hen Brook

This was such a peaceful view that I just had to take a photo to remember it by, and years later I’m very glad I did.

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Image 102 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

Larger view

Hen Brook is a very small tributary stream that flows into the River Great Ouse in St Neots, Cambridgshire. We lived in St Neots for years before moving to Cirencester in 2017.

Walking just 100 metres or so from this point, Hen Brook really is tiny, but the final stretch before it enters the river was widened and deepened so that barges could reach the point in the town where much of the industry was in Victorian times. Today it remains navigable, as does the river itself. There’s an area for private boats around this area, and a yacht marina further downstream on the river itself. This was such a peaceful view that I just had to take a photo to remember it by, and years later I’m very glad I did. I hope you will like the composition as much as I do.

When: Summer 2010 (ish)
Where: St Neots, Cambridgeshire

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?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. 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!

Cloud activity

Perhaps it’s just a foreshortened view and what seem to be extensions spreading sideways are really parallel to one another.

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Image 98 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

Click to enlarge

This cloud seems to be throwing itself out widely in all directions like a truly massive explosion. No doubt meteorologists have a name for something of this kind. Or perhaps it’s just a foreshortened view and what seem to be extensions spreading sideways are really parallel to one another.

Either way, it seemed to me to be equisitely beautiful and therefore well worth a photo and a post here on JHM.

When: 25th November 2024
Where: Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England

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?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. 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!

Advent Market

Everything imaginable is on sale, delicious foods, jigsaws, Cotswold beers, British and French cheeses, hand-crafted items from socks to coasters, picture frames, baskets, and much, much more.

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Image 97 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

This is Cirencester’s annual Advent Market, when streets in the centre of the town are closed to traffic for two days and market stalls appear in place of the traffic. Everything imaginable is on sale, delicious foods, jigsaws, Cotswold beers, British and French cheeses, hand-crafted items from socks to coasters, picture frames, baskets, and much, much more. There’s live music and it’s the time of year when the town’s Christmas lights are turned on for the first time.

Donna and I walked into town to see what was happening, we had sausage sandwiches and coffees for lunch at Hugh’s first, then walked around to check out the market stalls.

People love events like this, clearly. It was heaving with far more people than we usually see in town. All ages were represented, people came in from the local villages as well and it was so packed that it was sometimes difficult to see what was on display.

Here’s a short video clip to give you a sense of the atmosphere at the Advent Market. I had to hunt out a less crowded area on the fringe to record this!

When: 30th November 2024
Where: Cirencester Market Place

See also:
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

< Previous | Index | Next >

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. 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!

Photos in Nature

Scientific images are always informative if you are a specialist in that particular discipline, but they are often very attractive in their own right too.

Here’s a fine selection of amazing images, beautifully presented by the journal Nature.

The photos were included in their latest alerts email, you can sign up for free if you want to (link near the top-right of their home page). You won’t always receive a collection of images like these, but you will see science news stories with interesting individual photos included.

Scientific images are always informative if you are a specialist in that particular discipline, but they are often very attractive in their own right too. I’m sure you’ll agree if you look through the selection presented here.

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. 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!