Misty Morning in Ellesmere

I took my camera to Ellesmere on the bus, yesterday. There was heavy mist when I arrived, and although the mist slowly cleared a little, the sun stayed hidden and the air was chill. So I came back home after lunch. Despite the weather, I enjoyed my morning pottering around looking for pictures. The lack of easy views encouraged me to seek out subjects I might otherwise have missed. And although there was not a lot of colour, what there was seemed extra vivid. Here are some photos taken in Cremorne Gardens, at the edge of the Mere and in the Castlefields.

 

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A Sunny Sunday Afternoon

Yesterday was such a lovely day that I took my stitchery and a packed lunch and my camera and went to the sunken flower garden in Shrewsbury’s Quarry Park, the Dingle. This is the view from the bench where I ate my sandwiches:

Here are a couple more shots of the garden:

Outside the Dingle, there was a fun fair starting up for the day. Even a small fun fair is a feast for my camera. You’ll find the whole set of yesterday’s pictures on Flickr, but here are a few to give you a taste:

The Shropshire Olympian Festival

In 1864 (in the year that the building holding the Tortoise Loft was erected  – the date is on the hopper-heads of the downpipes), The Olympian Festival which had started in Much Wenlock in 1850 was brought to the Quarry Park in Shrewsbury. It was a roaring success, and the National Olympian Association was founded the next year. The rest is sporting history. On the weekend of the 17th to 19th June, 2011, Shrewsbury held a re-enactment of this event.


The Friday was mainly a sports day for Shropshire Schools, the Saturday incorporated the Shrewsbury Carnival, the Sunday was a day of varied events, including coracle races on the River Severn and picnics on the grass, concluding with a massed choir singing the anthem ‘Floreat Salopia’, a fitting finale to a remarkable weekend. The costumes and events were a feast for a photographer.



I was there for a while on the Saturday afternoon and all day on the Sunday, when I was one of several Official Photographers producing black and white images for the Retrospective exhibition. The next week was a flurry of photo-processing, to prepare the work. The exhibition is now on show at Theatre Severn, in the Chapel Bar and is well worth seeing. A number of my pictures were selected, among many fine shots from the other photographers. I’m showing some of those that were not selected on this page, and you can see my full set from the Shropshire Olympian Festival on Flickr.



Thank you to all who were involved, and particularly those who were happy to pose in their fine Victorian costumes.

Watch This Space….

I have finally finished uploading my photos from Australia, so I’ll be posting the first installment of my holiday report very soon. There has been good reason for the delay – I had to find another job and I also had some artwork to do for a deadline. New job found, artwork sent off, and the writing of the holiday report is already underway.

Marquee

I’ve not taken many photographs of late – I’ve been busy working on drawings for a forthcoming art show in my spare time, and catching up on housework. But this morning, an intermittantly-sunny Sunday morning, I took the opportunity to wander along the riverbank to the Quarry Park with my camera. The Dingle Gardens were looking fine and full of colour, as they usually are, but I was far more interested in the shapes and textures of the marquees which are in the process of being erected for the Flower Show next month.

Sun, Steam and a Woolly Jumper

Yesterday was sunny, warm and dry – with just enough breeze to keep things pleasant. And it was also the day of the monthy outing of the Shropshire Community Flickr Group. Our destination was Oswestry’s Park Hall Showground, and the annual show of the Clwyd Veteran and Vintage Machinery Society. They are based in Wrexham.

Jason picked me up from Shrewsbury and collected James at Baschurch on the way to the showground. At the entrance, we met up with Peter and the four of us stayed together all day. The show had fewer steam engines than I expected, although those on display were beautifully maintained. An Aveling and Porter road-roller, a big black Fowler engine and a Marshall along with a delightful old fire engine inscribed ‘Earl of Chester – Volunteer Fire Brigade’. There were some scale model engines, too.

It might have been a bit short of steam, but there were plenty of other exhibits. A vast number of tractors, a beautiful Romany wagon – as beautiful inside as out – and a good number of old cars, lorries, buses, motorcycles and farm machinery. There were also collections on show – die-cast models, chainsaws, wheelchairs, mowers, tools…. Even a display of old milk bottles lovingly presented! Shire horses, birds of prey, sideshows, a big model railway giving rides, and a selection of events in the areana.

It wouldn’t be a machinery show without  lots of stalls selling things: sweets and toys and ice cream. (Great weather for ice cream sales!) Books, antiques, crafts – there was a whole hall of craft stalls as well as the outdoor stalls – food stalls. (I had lunch at a Thai food stall: an excellent red curry made fresh while I waited.)
 Stalls selling strange odd bits of machinery and metal laid out with as much care as the enthusiasts’ displays. And charcters, types, interesting faces. Plenty of scope for people-watching.

One of the arena displays was a man with an elderly sheepdog and a performing sheep. The sheep walked through a hoop and jumped little fences while being pulled along on a lead. (I gather they were both herding ducks later, but we didn’t stay for the rest of the show.)

Needless to say, I took a lot of photos. You’ll find more of them here.

We were expecting to spend a couple of hours at the showground, at most, and then go on to a Food and Drink Festival. But we stayed twice as long as intended, because there was so much to see. We decided to skip the Food and Drink and went off to Wales instead – to the River Dee and the Pontcysyllte Aquaduct near Llangollen. In the sunshine. And then home.