There and Back

With promise of a wet day, we thought ` let`s visit a town` - so just down the road from Ingleton is Kirby Lonsdale and that is where we headed. Despite the forcast, we did not get very wet and were able to wander around and look at a few interesting things. WE also had a great dinner in a resteraunt in the high street. While the rolling hills around Kirkby Lonsdale provide picturesque views, the town itself is quite magnificent. Its Georgian market square is extremely elegant, while its stone buildings have changed little in almost 300 years. Unfortunately I didn`t take many images in the town centre amongst all the traffic! Kirkby Lonsdale has been an important settlement since the Neolithic era with the remains of Celtic towns being unearthed close by. It was also inhabited by the Romans, with a milestone and the remains of a road being found close to the River Lune in 1836. It is believed that the road was part of a route that run along the side of the Lune and connected forts at O

Although we had visited many of the places around this area before, it was `many moons` ago - 12 years to be precise! So we were looking forward to this holiday, although the thought of the journey was a bit daunting. As it turned out, the journey was not as bad as anticipated and the A14 - M6 route was easy to follow. Arriving in Ingleton, we soon found our cottage and made ourselves at home. The weather had threatened us, but the week overall did not turn out too bad, enabling us to see most of what we had planned. One of the things which first struck me was - rivers. Ingleton has the River Doe and the River Twiss meetinng to form the source of the River Greta, which passes under the viaduct and is itself a tributary of the River Lune! Ingleton rivers The story of the local railway is some what bizarre. It has two station!  It was originally planned in 1846 to form part of a main line route from London to Scotland, but fell victim to rivalry between railway companies. Completion was

This session with Gill was to two locations - both coastal - one to Aldeburgh and the other to Shingle Street. These are two beaches which have a variety of flowers on the beach area and amongs the boats and other paraphernalia. Obviosly, most of the images feature boats, but the flowers are quite spectacular in unexpected places. Hers are a few of my offerings! These first three show the flowers in the landscape and amongs the general objrcts of the area  ..... generally boats .... .... but not always! These two images above show flowers in general patches around the beach. Other large clumps of flowers are around the sheds and posts etc All of the above images were taken at Aldeburgh, and those below are from Shingle Street. These lower ones focus on individual flowers. Bee Orchid. Not too common but a beautiful flower  Vipers Bugloss and the same below. Vipers Bugloss   It was very interesting focusing on the flowers on the beaches because it is not generally an area associated wi

Helmingham Hall is a spectacular place to visit and I have visited several times. On my birthday, Rosey took me back to wander the beautiful gardens (and buy me lunch!) as a birthday treat - it was lovely. Many events are held here during the year, but just walking around the estate and gardens is well worth a visit. The moated hall, built in 1510 and still occupied by the the Tollomache family, the family that built it originally. A couple of the sculptured shrubs in the walled garden A mass of beautiful Allium A general view of one of the many pathways Close up of Allium head Love In A Mist Peony Not sure of the name of this flower Lovely white roses All in all a lovely walk around the gardens followed by lunch in the Cafe - thanks Rosey! Home

Several of these next images were taken on a previous visit but I had forgotten to put them together, so here goes! Starting with a shot of the whole church. The parish church of Southwold is dedicated to St Edmund, and is considered to be one of Suffolk's finest. It lies under one continuous roof, and was built over about 60 years from the 1430s to the 1490s; it replaced a smaller 13th-century church that was destroyed by fire. The earlier church dated from the time when Southwold was a small fishing hamlet adjacent to the larger Reydon. By the 15th century Southwold was an important town in its own right, and the church was rebuilt to match its power and wealth. The church is renowned for its East Anglian flushwork, especially that of the tower. Knapped and unknapped flints are arranged in patterns, textures and designs and create the stone work. You live and learn! The rood screen is considered by many to be the finest in the county. It stretches all the way across the church, a

Southwold is a lovely coastal town I have visited before but never fully explored. So when a family holiday was proposed, I looked forward to finding out some details and obviouly some photos. Southwold was mentioned in Domesday Book (1086) as a fishing port. It received its town charter from Henry VII in 1489. The grant of the charter is still marked by the annual Trinity Fair, when it is read out by the Town Clerk. As a town its fortune was directly linked to the neighbouring town of Dunwich, which we also visited during our weeks stay in Southwold. Gun Hill Green - one of the many `greens` around Southwold. Nearby Dunwich had, by the thirteenth century, become one of the greatest east coast ports in England and one of the ten largest towns in the country. Its wealth was derived from trade, shipbuilding and the town’s large fishing fleet, due to the large harbour, the “Kings Fleet”, which was sheltered behind a shingle spit extending south from Southwold. However, the east coast was