There and Back

This post was originaly made in August 2020 but I was not able to go inside the church due to the dreaded Covid. Now, some five years later, I was able to go inside. So, same post with some interior images added! On the River Deben in Suffolk sits the tiny village of Ramsholt, a place I had never visited. From a book of photographic walks by local photographer Gill Moon , we picked this one for a walk with our cameras, on a very bright sunny day. I took a Nikon lens with a circular polarising filter, as I thought it would help with the bright sky. However, having not used the filter for some time, I had forgotten that I have ruined a number of images using a polariser, as the filter often made the sky far too dark. I almost managed the same today! However, it did help on some images. What a position to sit and have your evening meal! By the time we had finished our walk, the front terrace was getting quite full. According to the advertising blurb:  "The Ramsholt Arms is a popular ...

To quote the web site of    Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity :  We are proud to be the official NHS charity of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which provides hospital and community health services to around one million people and in 2022/23 was the second largest NHS organisation in the region. When you make a donation to the Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity , you help take care of patients and staff at your local hospitals and healthcare centres – providing those extras that go above and beyond what the NHS can provide, and which make such a difference to happiness and healing. You’ll help improve patients’ lives by bringing some good into a difficult time, such as making sure there’s tea and coffee in the waiting room for patients receiving chemotherapy or providing the slippers that keep older patients safe from falls. Your kindness can also help provide the hospitals with the life-saving equipment, cutting-edge technology, resea...

Having walked past the woods some days earlier, I realised that the bluebells were really showing. A few days later and a visit to the Grove with camera was the day`s mission.  From the road, these are the first two images I took - this was before we even entered the woods!   Walking down the side of the wood to reach the only pathway through, we disturbed a deer! Once in the wood, these images were taken from the pathway. Absulutely beautiful! Every year I think the same - I never tire of nature`s beauty. Besides bluebells there was other forms of life of course. This being, so my wife informs me, a Cleopatra Beetle. Then a couple of images of a Small White. Not forgetting the image at the top of this post of the deer we disturbed as we arrived on scene! Overall,  a beautiful area to spend time in.    Index of posts   

Today was divided between Playford Church, one which I had never visited, and a revisit to St Mary at Capel St Mary to bring up to date my record of this local church. So firstly, a drive to Playford, a small village just north of Ipswich. On the outside initial impressions are that nothing stands out. Then I noticed that it had a south tower, as opposed to the normal West. However, there are a few in Suffolk apparently. Shelley, near home, has a North tower! An interior view, with the lovely east window. The east window is a triple-lancet design, meaning it features three narrow, pointed arches. T his memorial obelisk in the churchyard was erected in 1857 to commemorate Sir Thomas Clarkson of Playford Hall (died 1846). Clarkson, who lived at Playford Hall in the latter years of his life, was instrumental with William Wilberforce in the abolition of slavery. Clarkson is said to have thought out his opposition to slavery while riding from Cambridge to London in the summer of 1785. H...

Cathedrals of UK The intention is to visit and photograph all of the Engand ones - at least to start with! Here are a few I have visited to date. Canterbury Cathedral St Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, arrived on the coast of Kent as a missionary to England in 597 AD. He came from Rome, sent by Pope Gregory the Great. It is said that Gregory had been struck by the beauty of Angle slaves he saw for sale in the city market and despatched Augustine and some monks to convert them to Christianity. Augustine was given a church at Canterbury (St Martin’s, after St Martin of Tours, still standing today) by the local King, Ethelbert whose Queen, Bertha, a French Princess, was already a Christian.This building had been a place of worship during the Roman occupation of Britain and is the oldest church in England still in use. Augustine had been consecrated a bishop in France and was later made an archbishop by the Pope. He established his seat within the Roman city walls (the word ...