Category: Photography

Weekly Photo Challenge: Up Again

Posted on Posted in Photography, The Daily Post, Weekly Photo ChallengeTagged , , , , , 47 Comments

Sara Rosso has chosen Up this week. I knew this was familiar and sure enough some of us have been UP before. Here is mine from 2011 https://lucidgypsy.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/weekly-photo-challenge-up/ I still love my laughing Arabian!
To join in this time go to http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/weekly-photo-challenge-up-2/ and add your entry.
This time I’ll show you one just snapped at the park.

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Further from home, the tower in Kuala Lumpur

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and one to make you rush! If they rang you had to get up really quickly!

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Buckland Abbey Costumes

Posted on Posted in England, History, Photography, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , 16 Comments

Hand crafted gentleman’s attire

Buttons
Sleeve

A lovely gown made by the Costume Group

Gown

Lace detail

Sir Francis and his good wife

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The collar detail

Collar

And lastly, the lady from my poem last week. She was very knowledgeable and when I admired her hat, she told me that Elizabeth 1st ruled that all ladies should wear woollen hats. This apparently was to help promote the growth of the woollen trade.

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CBBH Photo Challenge: Multi-Coloured

Posted on Posted in Photography, TravelTagged , , , , 26 Comments

Marianne at http://eastofmalaga.net/ has chosen Multi-colored this month. Her own vibrant photos take on to Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam and New Zealand, check them out. Mine are all taken in Marrakech, one of my favourite places, with colour around every corner.

This challenge is a blog hop, to showcase two different blogs that you enjoy each time.
My first is Marina’s art blog http://marinakanavaki.com/ , her tagline is ‘Art Towards a Happy Day’, so very warm and generous. I love the way she uses her art not only as beautiful paintings but transferred to everyday items, at prices that make it accessible to all. Her work ‘As above so below’ is my favourite – so far.
Next, a relatively unknown blog http://2far2shout.wordpress.com/ , Tony has a light touch and describes himself as a slow traveler. He spent part of this winter in Australia and I loved his post about Kiama, God’s waiting room as he says! This time last year he was in India, returning to the places of his childhood. I have a copy of Hero on a Honda, his travel book about that trip.
I hope you visit and enjoy these two blogs!

Buckland Abbey, a Few Inside Photos

Posted on Posted in England, History, Photography, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , 16 Comments

Hampered by not being able to use flash I’m afraid!

A Fireplace since 1576!
Edwardian chapel
The hob, each area a different temperature
A bored volunteer making sure we didn’t pinch the artifacts!
A room with a view
Spinning corner
Going down
Laundry
Kitchn doorway
Family crest
The Georgian dining room
Tudor dresser

Too Early for Gardens

Posted on Posted in Gardens, Photography, Travel, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , 19 Comments

Buckland Abbey is on the far west of Dartmoor and spring is late this year. It isn’t a garden with herbaceous border, more formal and functional elegance and sweeping grounds. There is an Elizabethan garden and although it’s box hedges have been damaged by blight in recent years, it has been replanted. The National trust have been working to establish a flowery mead since 2001 and its wild flowers attract butterflies and moths. Each September the mead is cut and to maintain the low nutrients in the soil that grassland needs the cuttings are rmeoved. In day gone by these cutting would have been animal fodder and also strewn around the floor in the house for its sweet fragrance.

A quiet spot
Cushion bushes
The Elizabethan garden
Spring is trying its best
Secret steps
A place for quiet contemplation
The dormant flowery mead

Buckland’s Cistercian Barn

Posted on Posted in England, History, Photography, Travel, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , 15 Comments

Buckland abbey was founded in 1278 by Cistercian monks on land overlooking the tranquil Tavy valley. The monks were responsible for building the great barn, an impressive building which would have been a treasure store of produce grown on the large estate given to them by the then Countess of Devon, Amicia.

The abbey thrived for two hundred and fifty years until the dissolution of monasteries by Henry 8th and in 1541 the monarch sold Buckland to Sir Richard Grenville who converted it into a home, tearing much of it down, but unusually for the time the church was kept to become the main part of the house. Here is the great barn.

It’s far bigger than it looks on the outside!
Towards the entrance
Small shafts of light.
Huge doors were built to allow carts to drive in at one and out at another so that goods and produce could be unloaded in shelter.
The far end.
Wooden vaulting, the exterior would have been thatch.
The barn’s vast interior
An ancient apple press

I’ll be back tomorrow with some photos of the garden.