Quiet Footpath

Had to take my car into the garage for some minor repair work yesterday, with the view to picking it up the same day. Unfortunately, as seems the case so often, the garage were supplied with the wrong part, so they had to delay the repair until today.  The garage is about three miles from my home and I usually use my bicycle to drop off and pick up my car – I can put it in the back of my small MPV.  However, today was not a day for riding my bike – a temperature just above freezing after a dusting of snow overnight and driving snow showers meant I preferred to ‘wimp out’, choosing to hoof it instead.

Although the title would suggest one thing, the footpath is anything but quiet, as it runs alongside the A1 Motorway, a main route North/South through England.  The scrub trees on the right give some relief from the traffic noise and more particularly today, some respite from the biting wind.  In the event, as I often find, the weather became perfectly reasonable for cycling, but, hey, it was a pleasant walk.  (And I saw my first Treecreeper of the year – once a birdwatcher always a birdwatcher!)

—Stephen—

 

A Glorious Day

‘Is that blue sky I see in the top corner?’,  I hear you ask. ‘Yes, indeed!’, is my reply.  After a foggy start, my buddy and I headed off to the local hills to get some moody atmospheric photos – but, often the case, the fog cleared (as in life).  The result was a very pleasant couple of hours in the sunshine, not a cloud in the sky – though there was a little dirty haze in the distance from the smoke of some burning on the moors.  The wind was a bit keen – but for the most part we were sheltered by tall conifers growing on the opposite side of the reservoir valley that we sauntered along. (Sauntering is my standard practice when I’m out doing my photography – it drives any companions mad… unless they are photographers too!)

I parked the car opposite this footpath marker, which seemed so inviting.  As it happened, we walked in the opposite direction – I have to have a care as to the stability of the ground for my buddy – I could see the footpath traversed the side of a hill and was poorly defined. (I may wander up here sometime for a solo trip.).

You may be able to pick out a trace of yellow amongst the green in the distance – this is the beginning of flowering of Gorse, a common countryside bush around these parts.  The wire fence is primarily as a sheep fence – some of the stone walls are quite low.  There is a stile to allow walkers to get past the wall and fence.

—-Stephen—-

Waymarker

Another waymarker picture.  This is a typical scene in the countryside of the UK, where waymarkers tend to be placed at decision points along the public paths.mentioned in previous posts

I like this type of ‘open-ended’ viewpoint, a photographer’s typical ploy to hide the full truth.  In this case, immediately over the brow of the rise is a road/pavement – the footpath continues on the other side. 

 

 

—-Stephen—–

Wasburn Valley

Near to the church at Blubberhouses there is a footpath along the River Washburn to the dam at Thruscross Reservoir.  I’d walked along it for about 1/4 mile a few weeks ago, with the intention of revisiting when time allowed – I posted a few pictures from that initial visit.  Saturday was a nice day, so went for a saunter to suss it out further.  This picture gives a bit of the flavour of the walk.  In places, the path is very much narrower that this ‘two track’ section.

Where’s the river?  It’s to the left, the other side of the trees.  The sky to the left was very bright so I had to eliminate it in this composition to get some detail in the shadows – the dynamic range would have been too wide.  An HDR option would have been the solution, but that’s not something I particularly involve myself in.  I often use this type of tactic to overcome difficult sky conditions, in preference to a ‘white-out’ for the sky.

———Stephen———-

Reservoir Walk

The owners of Thruscross Reservoir, Yorkshire Water, maintain a footpath round the perimeter of the reservoir for use by the public – though, in truth, a footpath would probably develop over time, as people would probably take the right anyway.  At least now the footpath is managed and it encourages people to follow it, rather than set up a myriad of tracks.

It’s a reasonable walk all the way round (a little over 4 miles, I think), which can easily take all morning/afternoon if you dawdle, like I generally do when I’m out with my camera.  Of course, being a body of water there’s no short cut, you either go back the way you came or go all the way round!

———Stephen———