Category: Photography

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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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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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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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

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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.

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A rose in the rain

Is a rose with raindrops on its petals any less beautiful than a rose with dry petals? No, in fact many would say it looks even better with a few raindrops on it.

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Image 96 – 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

‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet‘

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Juliet spoke these words of Romeo, his surname was a practical issue between rival families, but she loved him regardless.

Is a rose with raindrops on its petals any less beautiful than a rose with dry petals? No, in fact many would say it looks even better with a few raindrops on it. They emphasise its freshness, and they highlight its apparent fragility while revealing an unexpected robustness.

A rose in the rain is a lovely thing! I hope you like this one; I just had to take a photo. The cultivar is ‘Queen of Sweden’ and it was released in 2004 by David Austin.

When: 8th September 2024
Where: Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, England

See also:
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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Spilhaus projection

Quite beautiful in it’s own right, it provides a holistic view rather than focusing on one ocean at a time

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Image 95 – 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
(Wikimedia)

Sometimes, looking at things in a different way makes a world of difference (pun slightly intended).

This is a map projection much loved by oceanographers and other scientists researching related subjects such as marine life. It makes the world’s oceans the entire focus. Clever!

Athelstan Spilhaus invented this map projection; he was born in Cape Town in 1911 and worked at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, from 1936. In 1942 he began developing ways of mapping that would focus attention on the world’s oceans. This Spilhouse Projection is not the only result of his mapping work by any means, but it’s arguably the most impressive. Quite beautiful in it’s own right, it provides a holistic view rather than focusing on one ocean at a time.

When: 16th June 2023
From: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

See also:
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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Large White

The adult in the photo is feeding on nectar from a Buddleia inflorescence. Butterflies and bees home in on these.

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Image 94 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

Announcement – I’m making a few more changes, The image number is moving down so the title can be more relevant to the content, and I’m adding date and place for the image source.

Click to enlarge

The large white butterfly is the bane of vegetable gardeners. The adult females lay their eggs under the leaves of brassica crops – cabbages, cauliflowers, brussels sprouts and more. The caterpillars that hatch out feed voraciously on the plants, and as they grow larger they consume the leaves faster and faster, sometimes leaving just a stalk and nothing for the gardener to harvest.

The adult in the photo is feeding on nectar from a Buddleia inflorescence. Butterflies and bees home in on these. Although the photo’s one of my favourites, it’s technically poor as it’s enlarged from a small part of a shot taken back in September. Still – I like it and I want to share it.

When: 16th September 2024
Where: Hidcote Garden, Gloucestershire, England

See also:
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. My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome!

Image of the day – 93

The worker honeybee in the photo is collecting pollen. Insect-pollinated plants have slightly sticky pollen that lodges on the bee’s hairy body. Bees visit flowers to collect nectar from the base of the petals, but get dusted with sticky pollen in the process.

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

Click to enlarge

Like all plants and animals, bees are pretty well suited to the actions they need to perform to live and reproduce. That’s what evolution does, it homes in on the best shape and size of wings, the optimum size for flight muscles, best arrangement of hairs on the legs to brush loose pollen towards the pollen sac for collection and transport, the best mouthparts for collecting nectar and so forth.

Quite a challenge, and an astounding achievement, but entirely doable by making small, random changes and selecting the best.

Here’s an example to make that bold claim clearer. If a random change enables the worker bees to carry on just a few days longer in the autumn, the hive will have slightly larger stores of honey for the coming winter. That hive will survive when a hive with less capable workers might not. And that’s enough. The new queens from the surviving hive will carry the altered gene and it’ll be present in the workers of the new colonies those queens create. The altered colonies will also survive in slightly colder places than before so will succeed at slightly higher altitudes and in slightly cooler climates.

The worker honeybee in the photo is collecting pollen. Insect-pollinated plants have slightly sticky pollen that lodges on the bee’s hairy body. Bees visit flowers to collect nectar from the base of the petals, but get dusted with sticky pollen in the process. Bees clean themselves like most insects (you’ve probably seen houseflies doing it, sweeping off particles of dust with one leg while standing on the others). When bees clean themselves, most of the pollen end up stuck together as a lump and lodges on a series of special hairs on the hind legs. Look closely and you can see this bee’s pollen load on its rear leg; an orange/yellow colour. Pollen is protein rich and the bees feed it to the bee pupae in the hive.

The plant feeds the bees nectar for energy and pollen for growing young bees; while the bees move pollen from flower to flower, and often from plant to plant over quite long distances, sometimes a mile or more. So the bees and the plants both benefit, it’s a useful co-operative effort.

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

< Previous | Index | Next >

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome!