Photos from yesterday back to the 1970s.
Monochrome Monday travels to Cheshire, England after some light snow has fallen on the Cheshire plain.
The snow shows the fields as a patchwork with some interesting clouds on the horizon. Taken from Bickerton Hill looking towards Chester and the River Dee estuary.
The new Cosmic Photo Challenge is Technology.
The photo is of a lift bridge in the village of Wrenbury, Cheshire, England.
The lift bridge was designed by Thomas Telford, built in 1790 and is still in use today. It spans the Llangollen branch of the Shropshire Union Canal and carries traffic over the canal. When a boat comes along the bridge is lifted to allow the boat through.
Wrenbury Mill behind the bridge is now used by a company who rent canal narrow boats for holidays. Part of the hire fleet is visible on the right of the photo.
The new Lens-artists Weekly Photo Challenge is History.
As a photographer who grew up in Cheshire, England my first thought was Roman Chester, or Deva Victrix as the Romans called it when it was one of the main army camps in Roman Britain.
Having mentioned the Romans I will start with a view of the Eastgate Clock. The clock stands on top of the Eastgate, the original eastern entrance to the Roman fortress. For this shot I am standing on the city walls on the south side of the clock.
Next a visit to Bridgegate. This gate was constructed in medieval times when the Roman city walls were extended to the south to follow the north bank of the River Dee. The gate then guarded the southern entrance to the town.
Now a visit to Phoenix Tower. This tower stands at the northeast corner of the city walls. Probably constructed in the 13th century it has also been known as the Newton Tower and King Charles’ Tower in the past. Sections of the city walls on this section are a mixture of Roman and Medieval.
Finally some interesting features inside the city walls. In the foreground is the Chester High Cross which has a long and complicated history dating back centuries but was moved to this position in 1975. Behind the cross are some of the Chester Rows, covered walkways giving access to first floor shops and businesses. The Chester Rows are unique and date back to medieval times.
The new Wits End Weekly Photo Challenge is Feathered Friends.
As a long time bird photographer I had all sorts of ideas for a post. Then I started thinking about bird families and realised that I could post about the Nuthatch family divided by decades and locations.
So we’ll start in Cheshire, England with a European species, the Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea), also known as the Wood Nuthatch. Photographed in the 1980s, I had set up a shovel handle as a perch for a European Robin that wouldn’t cooperate. So I photographed the Nuthatch when it used the perch.
Now to a North American species, the White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) photographed in Saskatchewan, Canada in the 1990s. A bitterly cold winters day, around -30°C with some light snow coming down. The dark crown stripe means that this is probably a male.
Finally, another North American species, a Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) photographed in Ontario, Canada in the 2000s. Once again, the dark crown stripe means that the bird is probably a male.
The new Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is Architecture.
I thought a quick tour of the centre of my home town would be in order. One of its claims to fame is having one of the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England. The settlement dates back to Roman times when it produced salt for the Roman garrisons at Chester and Stoke-on-trent.
St Mary’s Church stands to the east of the town square. The oldest surviving building in the town, it dates back to the 14th century. One of the few buildings to survive a fire in December 1583 which destroyed most of the town to the east of the River Weaver.
The front of St Mary’s Church.
The Nantwich War Memorial on the town square with St Mary’s Church in the background.
Part of the square and some of the old buildings around it. St Mary’s Church is on the left side of the photo.
Or rather some dry stone walls and and a barbed wire fence.
The new Weekly Prompt Photo Challenge is Fences.
In some parts of Britain field or property boundaries can be hedges or dry stone walls. This photo taken in the Peak District close to the Cheshire/Derbyshire border. It’s an area between Wildboarclough and Bottom-of-the-Oven. There’s two place names that are hard to forget. A lot of the field boundaries in the area are dry stone walls.
So called because they’re walls of stacked stone put together dry, in other words without mortar. Some of the dry stone walls in Britain are centuries old.
Or giving the photographer a look of disdain?
The new Weekly Prompt Photo Challenge is Up.
The attitude of this male Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) makes me think it’s a look of disdain for the photographer sitting in the portable canvas hide a few feet away.
Normally they’re looking down, watching for a fish in the water or an insect on the ground. It’s possible the bird was watching something in the air that could be a potential meal or a threat.
