Bluebells Revisited

My post, ‘Bluebell Potential?‘, raised the subject of photographing Bluebells>  It questioned whether, for me, it was worth the effort since I often ended up disappointed with the results.  Well, five days later, I did revisit the woodland on which I had stumbled and had a closer look.  I think that I was still a little early for the best display, but the weather forecast was dreadful for my next opportunity so I took a look anyway,  The display had certainly moved forward and a few snaps were duly taken.  More importantly, I was able to explore the extent of this woodland more fully, and it proved to be a really rewarding walk, even though the weather was not very ‘spring like’.

Here are a couple of shots to show how the flowers and ferns had come on.

It probably was worth waiting for, so I revisited again a few more days later.  I’ll post some more from both this visit and the later one soon.

Magnolia

Magnolias are always an impressive sight in the spring, but high winds and rain often mean that the blooms do not last long.  I couldn’t resist snapping this, so far undamaged, bloom in the Killerton House Gardens last weekend.

Bluebell Potential?

Around this time of year, usually a bit earlier, photographers seem to get obsessed with searching out photos of bluebells.  Often, at least for me, the results are disappointing.  Last year failed for me because although I found some good locations, the bluebells seemed to bloom is a bit of a ‘trickle’.  No doubt I can blame the weather for that.

This year, I decided not to even bother with bluebell photographs.  The weather this year has made them bloom late.  Will this, however, mean that their sudden rush to reproduce will result in some bumper displays?  Although I decided not to bother with them this year, a couple of days ago I stumbled on a copse of trees, where there seemed to be some potential for bluebell photos in a few days time.  They were just starting to come out, and they were interspersed with ferns, which I thought might add to the display.

I’ve just posted one shot.  Will it be worth going back in a few days, with more intent on composition?  I guess we will have to wait and see.

Any ideas on how many days to give them?

Wiscombe Park – 4

In my first post about last weekend’s Hillclimb at Wiscombe Park I admitted that my previous visits to that venue had been about 50 years earlier.  I noted how little things had changed over that period.  I can’t really remember, but wonder whether the timing system caravan might have dated from that era.  I’m sure that the timing system itself is much more up to date, but by the look of it, the caravan could have been around when I was last there.  I was impressed by how well, and how quickly, the times were presented to spectators all the way up the course.

Does anyone know when the caravan was installed?

Posts 2 and 3 can be found here and here.

Wiscombe Park – 3

In the last couple of posts about last Sunday’s visit to Wiscombe Park, I showed something of the variety of types of car that are used for speed hillclimb competition.  This is another car that interested me.  It is something of a ‘mixed bag’, known as a Kayne Special.  I didn’t get to talk to the owner, so I didn’t get any detail information at the time, but fitted with a Rover V8 motor, it did have one of the largest engines in competition on that day.  I do like large engines in small cars.

First a couple of shots taken in the paddock,

and then one on the hill.

Since the weekend, I have done a little ‘googling’, and I have found ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, a blog which provided a lot of information about the Kayne Special.  In fact there was a series of three Kayne Specials, designed and built by one Colin Cooper.  The following links, Kayne Special 1, Kayne Special 2 and Kayne Special 3, summarise the story of these cars, leading up to the one, driven by John Biggs, that was seen at Wiscombe Park last weekend.

My thanks to Ralph for providing information which gives some background on the Kayne Special.  I would also recommend his blog to anyone interested in motoring and motorsport as it provides a variety of ‘gems’ of information.

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Wiscombe Park – 2

If you can’t afford a Cooper T65 like the one in my last post, it is still possible to have a lot of Hill Climb fun in a road going vehicle like Tim Cartledge’s Series Production Ford Puma, shown below,

or maybe in an Austin Mini Cooper S like this one driven by David Nutland.

I’ll post some more soon.

Wiscombe Park – 1

Anyone who has spotted my earlier post on the GT1 Championship event at Silverstone in 2011, may remember that I have been interested in motorsport since an early age.  Well, last week, whilst taking my wife for a day out in Exeter, we passed an AA road sign directing traffic to a Hill Climb event at Wiscombe Park, in Devon.  Since that was the very venue that helped develop my interest in motorsport, I thought that it might be good to revisit last Sunday, as long as the weather wasn’t too bad.  Studies of all the weather forecasting options suggested that it would be mainly dry but cold, so we decided to go.

The Devil

In my last post I made a reference to a particularly dangerous looking machine in the Masson Mills Textile Museum.  This machine, a cotton balebreaker, was known as ‘The Devil’ and it is shown in this photo.  Cotton straight from the bale was passed into this machine where vicious looking rotating spikes opened and cleaned the cotton.  This was the first machine in the process of cotton production.

Apart from the open gears it looks fairly harmless when at rest, but when you consider that its purpose was to break down the compressed cotton bales, ready to start turning them into yarn, it is clear that anybody coming into contact with its active workings would come to a sticky end.  Numerous accidents occurred.  We were told that in the old days, the Mill management would have little sympathy for anyone injured whilst working.  It is even alleged, that they sued the parents of one child worker, who was pulled into the workings of this machine and killed, for spoiling the batch of cotton.

The Masson Mill was producing cotton from 1783 until 1991, and has since been developed into a working textiles museum.

Cotton Wool Colours

Apologies to anyone who has already spotted this one, without a photo.  That was due to me trying to master blogging from my new ‘smartphone’.  I failed!  It was too smart for me.

Here is another shot from our recent trip up north.  These pieces of cotton wool caught my eye while we were visiting Sir Richard Arkright’s Masson Mills museum.

I had always thought that cotton was dyed after it had been spun, but here there was some that had been dyed before that stage.  If anyone can explain, please do.

These ‘samples’ were neatly arranged behind a particularly dangerous looking machine which will feature in another post soon.

Thanks to Bobbie and John for taking us to Masson Mills.  It was a great day out.

Canoe Slalom Competition

I haven’t posted here for a while, but I am still around.  Here is a quick post to prove it.

While visiting good friends near Nottingham last weekend, I had a brief opportunity to visit the National Watersports Centre at Holm Pierrepont.  As it happened, there was a canoe slalom competition going on, apparently part of the GB Team Selection series, and I had an opportunity to snap a few photos.  I have no real knowledge about this sport, but it appears that this competition was for the women’s C1 slalom.  We didn’t have an opportunity to watch any other classes.

What I was very pleasantly surprised at was the accessibility of the competition to spectators.  We just walked in, and as long as we didn’t get in the way of the officials and judges, we were able to go pretty much wherever we wanted.

The photos aren’t great, but are at least something a little different for me.

I think my favourite is the last one, but maybe it should have been cropped more heavily.

My thanks to John for taking me to the National Watersports Centre.

If chores permit, I will try to post some more from last weekend soon.