Tag: Bickerton Hill

Old wall box.

David MLeave a comment

One from the archives taken in Cheshire in the 1980s. A wall box is a type of post box set into a wall.

This box was set into a sandstone wall on Bickerton Hill, Cheshire, England. Bickerton Hill is a low, red sandstone hill close to the southern end of a long-distance footpath known as The Sandstone Trail. The area was quarried in the past so the wall is probably built of locally sourced sandstone.

I did a selective colour treatment to leave the post box red with the rest of the image in monochrome.

Sometime after the photo was taken the post box was stolen. Removed from the wall in the dead of night I presume. Apparently there are people who collect old post boxes and obviously some aren’t concerned about obtaining them legally.

Selective colour treatment of an old post box.

Amanita muscaria.

David M2 Comments

A second Fly Agaric post, Amanita muscaria is the scientific name for the mushroom.

Although classified as poisonous it hasn’t stopped slugs or snails eating part of the cap of the one on the right. You can just see the edge of eaten section slightly right of centre of the top of the cap.

At the same time, the reason it is called Fly Agaric in English is because in the past the mushroom was powdered into milk to kill flies in parts of Europe. Bug Agaric is an old alternative name for the mushroom for the same reason.

Amanita muscaria.

Fly Agaric.

David M2 Comments

One from the archives taken in Cheshire in the 1990s. Fly Agaric are the classic Toadstool beloved by illustrators of children’s stories.

But they’re far more interesting than that. With the red cap and white spots some people assume it’s highly poisonous. It is poisonous but human deaths from ingestion are extremely rare.

It contains psychoactive substances and some cultures have used it for its hallucinogenic properties. The mushroom was used as an intoxicant and entheogen by the indigenous peoples of Siberia.

I picked this shot because I like the way the Bracken fronds have wiped the white spots off a section of the cap. The white spots are the remains of a white veil that enclose the mushrooms when they emerge from the soil.

Fly Agaric and Bracken.

Treetops.

David MLeave a comment

One from the archives taken in Cheshire in the early 1990s. It shows the low evening sun illuminating the tops of trees around Bickerton Hill, Cheshire, England. A shot that sat in my files being overlooked but it’s grown on me after scanning it a few years ago.

Bickerton Hil is a red sandstone hill and is the southern end of the Mid Cheshire Ridge. A range of low sandstone hills sticking out of the Cheshire Plain. There is the remains of an Iron Age hill fort on top of part of the hill.

Low sun on tree tops.

Trees and shadows.

David M3 Comments

This week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge is Notions of Shadows and of Light.

I thought it was a very good prompt and considered a few of my photos. In the end there was one of my shots that became the obvious pick for me.

The photo was taken with telephoto. I shot different framings with a 300mm, a 425mm telephoto (the 300mm plus a 1.4x teleconverter) and a 600mm. Actually the 600mm version was taken with the 300mm plus a 2x teleconverter. The wind was so strong on top of the hill the photo was taken from that my 600mm was being shaken to much for an effective shot despite using a substantial tripod.

This is the 300mm version.

Trees and shadows, Bickerton Hill, Cheshire, England