I have been taking part in a swap on Swap-bot for which we had to take a photo a day for a week and send them to our swap partners. On some days I had lots of photos and struggled to choose which to send; on others it was a struggle to get even one I decided to include some of the extras here, so for each day, there is a main picture, but for some there are also thumbnails of other photographs. Click on them if you want to see the full sized versions
Here is my week, such as it was.
We went on a Artists's Studio Trail around the University area of town, so of course I took my camera. We went through a back gate into a garden in which there was a very modern house - a lovely design! We looked at some ceramic pieces displayed in the garden close to the house, but then my DH went around a wall and called me over to see what he had found. We both love old buildings and something about this one in its derelict state appealed to me. There is a closer picture of the stained glass below. By the way, we bought two prints while we were at that venue. :-)
On our way out of our house, I saw a bee on the honeysuckle by the front door, I wanted to try to take a picture of it, though conditions were against me - it was raining, I was carrying a bag and the bee was moving. The picture on the left is the best I managed to get of the bee, but the other is a better one of the flowers.
Then, as we walked to the car, I saw this scooter which is quite often parked near our house, and which always makes me smile.
I didn't get out of the house today, but here is a view of the bramble (blackberry) blossom near the house.
Another day when I didn't get out, except into the back garden. I left my bike propped against the wall just over a month ago. The alternation of hot sunny days and very wet ones has allowed the bindweed (convolvulus arvensis) to run rampant, and it is thoroughly entangled in the wheel spokes.
The highlight of my Wednesday was a visit to the dentist - just a check-up, fortunately. My dentist's office is in a lovely Georgian property. According to the practice website," it was built around 1770. It was originally the home of the well known local writer Mary Russel Mitford who wrote ‘Our Village'. The house was purchased with a sum of money won by her father in the Irish sweepstake. Mary was reputed to have chosen the winning number at the age of ten." The building has been a dentist's office since before 1890.
By the way, I forgot to take my camera with me, so all today's pictures were taken on my DH's Nokia phone.
The entrance to the building, and a closeup of the hydrangea you can see just to the left of the steps. I'm not really a fan of in-your-face pink nor of mophead hydrangeas, though I love the lace caps, but this was just such a lift on a grey day, I couldn't resist including it.
Thursday was another wet day so I stayed at home again. "Oh dear, what to do for a photo? Of course, one of the cats!" Well, Tigs was out for most of the day, and Wysi really didn't want her photo taken - can you tell? "What? You want a photo of ME?!?!"
So why a picture of a red pillar box? Well, some of you visitors from outside the UK might think it quaint, but the real reason that photo is here is because there was a postal strike in the UK on Friday. I thought the strike was due to start at 3pm, so I posted some swap-bot mail the previous evening, expecting it to be collected in the morning before the strike started. In fact, it started at 3am so my postcards spent the day in the postbox. :-(
Although it was a grey, wet day, we decided to go for an early evening walk along the towpath. We are lucky to live just a few blocks from where the River Kennet (aka the Kennet and Avon Canal) joins the River Thames. We join the towpath beside the Kennet, near the red gate visible through the arch on the left of the photo. The swans and other waterbirds congregate there as they know they are likely to be fed by visitors (picture below). I almost used the picture of the Thames looking west (below) as my "picture of the day". It conveys the atmosphere of the evening best of all the pictures - the drizzle, the quietness. In the end, I went with this picture as the mixture of the built and natural environment is closer to my general experience of living in this area.
We walk through the arch in the first picture and under the railway bridge and footbridge (neither shown) to reach Kennetmouth itself. The big tree in the picture on the left is at the actual confluence of the two rivers. Behind it is the Thames, in front of it is the Kennet, and to the right, the waters merge, often turbulently. To me, the picture makes it look as though the river is in flood. It is quite high, but not actually flooding. The picture on the right is from roughly the same position, but I have turned to face the Thames, and the swans are coming from the Thames into the Kennet.
Now we were on the Thames towpath. The first picture is looking west along the Thames past Kennetmouth, the next shows the view directly across the Thames and the last is looking east (down river). As you can see, the swans are everywhere.
The previous pictures for today show a typical trip to Kennetmouth, but I did get two pictures of less common sights. Narrow boats travel the British waterways system. The name comes from their long narrow shape, which makes it possible for them to pass through narrow canal locks. As we came round from the Kennet to the Thames, there were three narrow boats at the temporary moorings there. This picture was taken on our return, a little later in the evening. I also spotted this wonderful wild flower. It is the first time I have seen it there, and I have no idea what it is. If anyone knows, please tell me!
Back to Jenny's Home Page
This page is http://jennyk.co.uk/photo-a-day/photo-a-day.html
© 2007 --- last updated 2nd July 2007