WARMTH

I had a bit of a problem with this one! Carmi had challenged us to find a photograph depicting "warmth". He's alright, up in Canada - steaming mugs and cosy clothes - well, you can't fail, can you?

But here in the UK it is just wet, wet and wet again! So I came up with the warmest photograph I could find!

Hope it makes you think of a nice warm summer!

INDUSTRIAL DISEASE

Carmio's challenge this week was a real poser!

I don't get to any blighted places, or old industrial sites (though there are plenty round here.) But eventually I thought of Danes Moss.

There are a lot of interesting geological reasons why Danes Moss is a big area of lowland peat. Peat digging has gone on there since Medieval times, and only ended in the 1960's. Leaving a desolate area of acidic pools, which filled with reeds, and scraggy alder trees on the drier bits.

In places, the old rails and sleepers can be seen, along which trucks, pulled by ponies and filled with peat, could be taken to the nearby canal and loaded onto narrow boats. Old photographs show it to be a very busy industrial area, a bit like open-cast mining, only wetter!

A small plantation of conifers, and the overgrown peat cuttings gave a spooky air to the whole place. It was always very quiet, apart from the hissing of the electricity cables carried by pylons over the area.

However, the pools attracted a number of dragonflies, plus rare mosses and peat-loving plants, and the area was designated a Nature Reserve. This has led to the plantation of conifers being cleared, and a boardwalk built right across the old peat diggings.

Ex-industrial, but the 'disease' bit is being cured, I think!

SHADOWS

Shadows generally add something to a picture. Taking shots of just shadows is another thing altogether! Here are my efforts.

Early morning sun in the Park yesterday morning, after a very hard frost. Should you wonder at the humps and bumps, its a pitch and putt golf course! (We emerge from our gate at the second green!)

Sun and shadows on frosty grass.

And lastly, shadows on disturbed, thick snow.

For more shadowy shots, go to Carmi's challenge

MELLOW YELLOW

Its all things YELLOW for Carmi's challenge this week. Follow the link to see lots of other interpretations of Yellow!


I was going to try and avoid flowers and trees, and found this one.....

and this.......

But then I had to think of the beautiful autumnal colours we had this year, like this.......

and this...........

And of course, there are flowers.........

Which are in the Flower Market in Madeira, and.........

this, which was in a beautiful bouquet I was given for Mother's Day by my daughter.

And then, just to reflect the "mellow" part of the title, I chose this one.....

which is part of the Watts Chapel in Surrey - a very OTT chapel in mainly Art Nouveau and ~Arts and Crafts.

And lastly..........

taken as our ship approached Cadiz, Spain, at dawn.