Author: geoffspages

Commonly spotted – accidental gardening

On By geoffspagesIn PhotographyLeave a comment

Scenes from a back garden: The most successful residents of our garden are often the accidentals – a fine flock of aquilegias, which arrived uninvited, for example. The “let’s leave it and see what it grows into” principle has served well. The lace-cap hydrangea and the weigela grew from bits accidentally broken off their parents (bought from garden centres). The parents died off years ago, but the broken bits, just pushed into the soil and well-watered, have flourished. Recently, when cutting the grass (it wouldn’t be right to describe it as a lawn) I spotted (wrong word) some distinctive leaves, just in time – and having managed to protect them from the mower, they’ve thrown up shoots with flower heads – common spotted orchids. Now why couldn’t they have come up in one of the borders?

English Heritage

On By geoffspagesIn NT and EH, Photography, Railways...1 Comment

English HeritageDay 4 of the “Cambrian Coast Express” tour. Flying Scotsman is hauling the train (as I write) between Crewe and Paddington, via Hereford and the Severn Tunnel. We went out to Stokesay to see it, with the castle providing a (scaffolded) backdrop. Inevitably, a little cloud obscured the sun over the railway line, while the castle basked in full sunshine. I don’t think 60103 was feeling very well – a few minutes down at Stokesay, it has just arrived at Bristol Parkway (Realtime Trains!) around 30 minutes late. The photo says it all – no visible smoke or steam (it was around 25c – another warm one), thought the diesel at the back seemed to be working hard…

Update: The train left Parkway on time (it had been scheduled for a lengthy stop) and arrived at Paddington on time. I wonder what the problem was?

The Closed Severn Valley Railway

On By geoffspagesIn Photography, Shropshire hills, Walks1 Comment

North of Bridgnorth, the track has gone; for much of the way to Coalport, it’s a private road with permissive access, a rough but very walkable surface, and plenty of shade. We’ll need that – not a cloud in the sky. The last train passed through Linley station more than 50 years ago, and given that there are no public roads, this stretch of the valley feels closed off from the outside world. It’s very quiet – just birdsong, contributing to the peace rather than disturbing it (and the odd cyclist, one or two walkers, a gaggle of canoeists and couple of farm vehicles – but who’s counting on a day like this?).

It’s downhill all the way from Broseley to the river; the railway track is more-or-less level. To get to the bus stop in Bridgnorth, we face a long flight of steps, which comes as a shock to the system after about 8 miles of walking. With 45 minutes to kill before the next bus, a pint will be a perfect remedy…

View OS map in Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=369185&Y=297306&A=Y&Z=126

Red Engines

On By geoffspagesIn Photography, Railways...Leave a comment

Day 1 of the “Cambrian Coast Express” tour: it was to have been hauled by “Flying Scotsman”, but in the event, 46599 “Galatea” hauled the train between Paddington and Shrewsbury. We’d better go and see it, though there probably won’t be much visible steam on a warm day like this. Having see the large red engine pass (five minutes early), we headed north (ish) to Woodseaves, near Market Drayton – it’s a “garden plant centre”, and has a rather splendid 7.25″ gauge railway (quite the other end of the scale…). The little green diesel “Sydney” was in charge when we arrived, but “Jean” was soon in steam – so we had two trips around the interesting layout – one hauled by Syd and the other behind Jean. We met the toad shortly after Galatea had hurried past; the aquilegia  which came home with us will join several others (which invited themselves) in the garden.

Benthall Buttercups

On By geoffspagesIn Photography, Shropshire hills, WalksLeave a comment

It’s a beautiful afternoon – too good to stay at home, too warm to walk far in the sunshine. If we leave the car at Benthall Hall we can do a circular walk, much of it in the very pleasant woodlands of Benthall Edge and nearby. It’s lovely down in the woods today, as the song goes, but we must leave them to walk back through the fields towards the car – fields full of buttercups, yellow in all directions.

View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=365735&Y=302716&A=Y&Z=120

Magpie, Titterstone and Clee

On By geoffspagesIn Photography, Railways..., Shropshire hills, Walks2 Comments

Walking in south Shropshire with a “railway” friend: one who appreciates the interest in the remnants of industry in these very quiet hills. They’ve been extensively quarried for stone – parts are still being worked – and the coal measures were exploited too, many years ago. There are former railway trackbeds, of the standard gauge line which took stone down to Ludlow, and the narrow gauge lines which threaded the workings. Magpie Hill’s stone went by a different means and route – an aerial ropeway took its stone down to Detton Ford, on the long-gone CM&DP. The concrete bases of the pylons are still in place, and there are bits of rail here and there, mostly in use as fence posts and similar. Long-abandoned concrete structures stand here and there, slowly crumbling, like the remains of some lost futuristic city. They can feel rather spooky when the mist comes down, but there’s no such nonsense on a fine sunny June day.

View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=359845&Y=276831&A=Y&Z=120

Croft Ambrey and Bircher Common

On By geoffspagesIn Herefordshire, NT and EH, Photography, WalksLeave a comment

We arrived at the Croft Castle car park at midday, to find it almost full, but once we were beyond the immediate surroundings of the house, we saw few other people. One or two were making their way up to Croft Ambrey, but we had the woodlands almost to ourselves when we chose a more roundabout route to the hill fort. Bircher Common is quiet too – just us and a few sheep. It’s very pleasant on a day like this – warm sunshine and a cooling breeze – on these Herefordshire hills.

View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=344730&Y=266330&A=Y&Z=120

Coalport cakewalk

On By geoffspagesIn Photography, Shropshire hills, Uncategorized, WalksLeave a comment

What better reason could there be? The youth hostel at Coalport, beside the china works, is a quiet and sheltered spot for refreshment (with the added entertainment of watching visitors trying to park their cars – yes, we’ll sit outside), perhaps a little over half-way on this enjoyable (and easy…) walk. And once again, after some showery weather, it’s a very pleasant day for it. There’s colour everywhere – the oilseed rape may be past its best, but there’s plenty more yellow in the hedgerows and verges – and purple, and blue, and white to set it off. There’s a cool breeze when we start out, but it’s quite still in the deeper parts of the lane, and the air is heavy with the scent of the May blossom.