St Mary & St Nicholas Littlemore revisit

 

 

This week the Church Explorer gets a a little back on track with his posts and revisits  St Mary & St Nicholas Littlemore a church which was shut on my last visit. This time I came along at a more reasonable time and had a pleasant look around.

Back to Wales

 

Back to Wales this week and the beginning of July  when we took the dog out for a walk one evening. The sky looked gorgeous so my walk was a little longer

Along the track looking across the mown meadow towards Aberedw Hill

Further on I looked back towards the site we came from

Then across towards the Radnorshire hills

 On the way back we walked around the lake and a last view of the clouds floating over the hill

I will leave you with this panoramic I too at the start of Aberedw Hill and the clouds I liked so much Happy Skywatch

A Few Random Photos

 

A while ago I purchased a new zoom lens for my camera it was time to try it out  so I sat in the garden and just took a few random photos. They are all taken from a chair I was sitting on the patio

Foxgloves one thing our garden is never with out, the seed everywhere

Closer look at them

Moving around I spot a bee

There it goes

Time to fly

cheeky sparrow

and our even cheekier blackbird

Sparrow feeding on a fat ball

I will leave you with these Goldfinches. 

Take Care

St Giles Horsepath

 

This week  the church Explorer visits St Giles Horspath which I pope is the last of the churches I forgot to write about after revisiting it. This church has connections with Cowley Works 

Hot day Sunset

 

If you missed me on Wordless Wednesday the I can only give my apologies. This week was the  hottest of record here in the UK and I remember the drought in 1976 which was hot but tame in comparison. By the time Tuesday came around I really did not feel like posting a blog. I had intended to show some skys from a few I have been collecting recently but I think this week should be shown.

Around 8:45 I noticed the sunset so I went out the front of the house and took this shot

Going up to the bathroom I managed a few more

back to a standard view

There was even a cloud floating around

 

This is a stitch shot out the back over the village, not much cloud there either. The day peeked at 39.3c and overnight we had little sleep as it was 28c.

By 9am the next day it was 33c and this photo was taken at 11:54 shows 39.3

The readings outside are taken by a thermometer which is inside the birdhouse to shelter it from the rain

 

This was the temperature at midday

and this is how the  garden looked from inside patio doors. I had hoped that was it

but no!

Half an hour later it hit 40c and kept going

finally peeking at 14:18 where it hovered for the next couple of hours. It did cool down and ended up being 28c in our bedroom most of the night. little sleep was had as by 4am we were up but that is another story. So that was two days of Hell we kept the curtains and blinds shut all day  and tried to shade the patio doors. During the day London burned and you have to feel for the poor souls who lost their houses in the fires. I'd like to think we will get no more day like that but I feel it will not.

The weather has now cooled down to a more comfortable temperature, we just need rain now.

Happy Skywatch

A Shadey Walk

 

Last month on one of the hot days I took my son to Swindon Art Collage so he could set up for a show his group were having, not knowing how long it would take I went off around visiting churches for my Church Explorer Blog. After parking up nearby I took a path along to the church I was visiting.

 The path took me along  path under the shade of trees which was very pleasant

 

 I stopped at  a bridge that spanned a stream 

 

The bridge where I had to turn right

 

flowing to to its destination

 

The plant life looked lush and the place cool ahead I could see another bridge I had to cross to get to where I wanted

This was my destination St Mary's Church Bishopstone

Take Care

As a quick footnote I  just realised I have been a blogger for ten years, I first started wringing with Forgotten Fairmile back in 2012. The blog is still active if you want to look

St James the Great Denchworth

 

 This week The Church Explorer visits St James the Great Denchworth on the third of my revisits I missed the beginning of the year. This had been one I had looked forward to seeing after looking at the outside of the church

 

Churchyard clouds

 

Took these early this month when I went up the churchyard to visit my parents grave. I just liked the clouds 

I liked the cloud formation I noticed

It all cloud and blue sky looking in the wider view

I thought it worth visiting this grave as well, but she gets a lot of visitors from all over the place

Happy Skywatch

Blackbird at the window

 

 

Steam Engines

 

Today I will take you back in time to a bygone era. The first few photo's were take by my Dad who used to live in a time they were in use and also worked with them on the farm he lived on in Ireland

The first photo was taken back in the 1950s and shows a little boy stood on the steam roller. It was parked up near the downs and belonged to Berkshire county council. As far as I know it is still around today. I remember these being used on the road and most likely have seen this one in use

This was a few years later in the 1960's after dad had learned to drive, he was driving his Austin 1100 over what looks like Wallingford Bridge. The engine is called Margaret built in 1870 and still around today

He used to go to Thame show and was only too happy to take photos of the engines there 

Showman's engine

Large an small engines

Steam Lorry. After sending this to person I know who owns  a seam engine I was informed all the engines in the photos are still around

This one is and it's called Old Timer and was owned by the founder of the Thames Valley group, the guy in the photo is the present custodian and was his fireman

The company which is featured on the engine own around tree of these, you see their new trucks around the area

This  one you see around here very often on the road 

I will leave you with this shot of Old Timer as it went past our house. You might have guessed like my dad I love to see these engines still going and the little lad in the first photo was me.

Take care