To gild the lily:
Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
This is the last installment (for now) of images inspired by Jim Roche’s Substack on John Gossage’s The Pond.
On the side street there’s a gate leading into the abandoned and overgrown garden. Once I went in and took a picture or two. On this occasion I discovered it had been secured with a thin twist of metal ribbon. I considered removing it temporarily, but decided to honour someone’s property rights and instead photographed at various angles and over the wall.
I continue to explore the house at the corner, following on from the last two days’ posts. After passing the side, I had a brief view over an ivied wall, of the back of the building, giving on to the garden.
One thing I did before shooting was switch the camera to shoot in Fujifilm ACROS, a rich black and white film stock – I was trying to get a full range of tones (of course, I was shooting raw, so all the colour information was captured but it was helpful to visualise it in B&W right through the viewfinder.
to be continued…
Another weekend another Artists Open Houses neighborhood to explore, this time in Fiveways.
The cactus garden at Balboa Park is full of exotic looking cacti and other succulents that were new to me and looked exotic to my East Coast eyes.
Click on any image below to see them larger.
Contrasting the democratic power of the vote (today’s election day in the US) with royal autocracy, here are a couple of snaps of Brighton’s Royal Pavilion.
Farnham’s Victoria Garden is across the street from us here. During Heritage Week we joined a tour and talk at the garden giving it’s history (it used to be a public bathing pool). Although I’ve taken pictures here many times before, I took a documentary sample (see below) again on the day.
One day we took the train from Cardiff up to Newport where we caught a bus to Caerleon, home to several ancient Roman ruins and one of the primary claimants to be the site of Camelot. We first visited the Roman baths, which were fascinating, though I came away with few useful photographs, then made our way to a small museum, outside of which we visited the “Roman-inspired” garden where these pictures were taken.
After the graveyard (last post) we walked through the gardens and across the grounds of Chawton House, as the sun sank in the afternoon.
During the break our daughter was visiting from the States and we took her to visit Chawton House, erstwhile home of Jane Austen’s brother (the Jane Austen House itself, which we visited last May was closed for the holiday). The house has a fascinating history, which you can read about at the link above, and I took some pictures out the windows which provided framing of the view.
We had visited the Begijnhof in Bruges which was still operating as a beguinage. Antwerp’s is no longer has any beguines but remains a lovely and peaceful place. Click any image to see them larger (you may have to click the post title first if you’re seeing this in email)
From the Pl Poelaert we walked on to our appointment at the Horta Museum, where phones, cameras, and bags are strictly forbidden and toured the fascinating dual building. Afterwards, we walked past the Palais d’Egmont (Egmont Palace) and into the Square du Petit Sablon. Click the images above to see them full sized and with descriptive captions (you may need to click the post title first to access on the web site if you are seeing this in email).
While we have been round the castle keep several times, the palace itself is only open for touring on Wednesdays. We finally took the £5 tour which was quite interesting, covering the long history of the castle and its occupants and architecture. Naturally, I took a bunch of pictures along the way. Click the images to see them full sized (if viewing in email, you may need to click the post title first to open the web site).
