Since all my political stuff is over on the
Devonian's Political blog and the ramblings I write about life with a novelist wife are on
Rodney Willett's Blog I thought it might be rather nice to devote this one to some of photographs that I have taken - and still take - of the west country.
At any one given moment, there is something special going on. Oddly the most boring time of the year is high summer when, for a few weeks, nothing very much happens. Now, however, during the last couple of weeks in October and the first in November is the season of sunrises. Obviously there are sunrises throughout the year but during these three weeks they happen just as we are getting out of bed. Not every morning has a worthwhile sunrise but these are quite nice. Our bedroom window faces south east and looks over farmland towards the highest points on Dartmoor which is about ten miles away.
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| Not a very colourful sky this morning - 16 October - but the profile of Dartmoor is clearly etched against a washed out sky. To the left is the highest point on the moor at 2,039 feet above sea level known as High Willhayes. Yes Tor is the runner up being about 8 feet lower. That is further away from us to the left of the gap through which the East Okement River runs. This winds its way north to join the River Torridge and to enter the sea near Barnstaple. |
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| High Willhayes again, a few minutes before the sun rose from behind it |
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| A few moments later and with a couple of early morning plane trails. |
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| Next morning and the moor was covered with threatening clouds . . . |
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| . . . which seemed to darken as the sun rose beneath them. |
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| I have made no adjustments to the colour in this photograph. Can anybody tell me why there are times when it looks so weird? |
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| I wasn't sure that I would get away with this one but I think it works. |
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| They say 'red sky in the morning: shepherds' warning' (which is more appropriate here than 'sailors' warning) and it was certainly true on the day these two pictures were taken. It absolutely bucketed down. |
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| I really wanted to take one with the sun rising out of the East Okement valley. There is far too much flare for this to be a good photograph but I am quite pleased with it. |
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| This is a bit of a cheat in that the picture was taken last May. There is almost no colour as mist fills the valley. Even so, the outline of the moor is still visible, if only very faintly. |
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So, over to you. If you like the idea of seeing random collections of pictures of England's west country, please leave a comment and I will post some more.
