Bluebells and historic cemetery, Tavistock.

 

I visited Tavistock’s historic Quaker cemetary yesterday. It’s a wildlife haven and as I drove in my wheelchair, I saw bluebells, primroses and the silent flight of many butterflies between the old headstones.

I can only travel a short distance and bluebells are hard to come by, as not many woodlands are safe or accessible to wheelchairs.

Bluebells normally grow in hedges and open ground on Dartmoor and flower in mid to late May, it being higher ground than other parts of Devon.

My wheelchair got stuck in some mud in the cemetery but I got out of it and guided it out of the mud easily enough, phew !

 

 

 

Snowdrops and abbey ruins, Tavistock Devon.

 

St John’s well Tavistock in Spring

Cosdon beacon stone row Dartmoor

Box drinking well Middlemoor Dartmoor England

Postbridge clapper bridge Dartmoor

 

Taken last summer…..

Snowdrops in Sampford Spiney churchyard Dartmoor UK

Devon lane

 

 

A Devon lane near Sampford Spiney west Dartmoor.

 

Summer rivers, rocks in woodland and sunken lanes.

Summer it would seem has come to Devon…we are forecast seven days of warm weather…..this is the time of year I most crave in winter. And yet, I am always waiting for the wheel to turn again, as it must.

A couple of weeks ago I went back to a drinking well, Middlemoor and a nearby sunken track. I dutifully took my tripod and captured the lane and well one overcast afternoon.

 

 

I think maybe these are the best shots I have taken of this lane and well…proving that an overcast day can be fruitful..

I held a photographic teaching session at Shaugh Prior, on the edge of Dartmoor on Monday, the day was sunny and warm and the bracken was growing up in the mixed woodland.

 

 

A patch of white stonecrop on a rock proved a good subject matter to teach depth of field and apertures and the river Plym proved useful for demonstrating longer shutter speeds.

 

 

 

The old mine buildings and the outcrop of rocks are also interesting subject matter they remind me of sets from The Hobbit or other such Tolkeinesque films…..

I look forward to a long week of good weather (we hope) but at the same time I will be waiting for the wheel to turn, the storm to break the weather…..:-)

Sunsets, woods and a cool Spring.

I am combining several blogs in one here as I have not written one for a while.

Last week  I went up to Cox Tor on the western edge of Dartmoor to capture the sunset, it was freezing and I admit I got these shots from the car !

 

Luckily, it was worth it as I watched the sun go down over the distant Bodmin Moor.

I was up at Cox Tor this Monday for  another freezing shoot, a lesson this time me and my student climbed the summit of Cox Tor in the biting wind. The light was overcast and not promising, but we managed to get some passable shot of interesting hawthorn trees.

The best find for me was this wonderful moorland oak unusual to find one out on the open moor like this.

 

 

The third and final shoot for this blog was this morning’s teaching session at Grenofen woods, always a favourite spot for me and full of interesting material for photography.

My student and I found a wonderful natural cave and which may well have been part of the mine workings.

 

Another good find was a log covered in moss and lichen, sometimes the simplest things make good subject matter.