First one of 2025

 

The first sunrise I took in 2025 

The mornings had been quite dull up to this day when I looked out of the patio window

Out of the bathroom looking west

Bedroom widow and the sun sending rays

From the bathroom

Happy SkyWatch

One night in 2005

 

One November night in  2005 my wife |& I were woken up to the smell of smoke in our bedroom, not from out house but from outside. I looked out the window and noticed the Pavilion on fire and quickly phoned the fire brigade, turned out I was the third to do so. Nothing we could do so I went back to sleep.

Next morning I went out to see what had happened

Well I don't think they will be using the pavilion anymore

The roof was gone altogether

Just the beams remaining of the roof

The whole roof had gone

 

The piano survived

Firemen stood around talking after

Smoke still came from the building with debris outside

This is where it started, some one pilled up pallets and lit them, once the roof caught fire that was the end, what I saw was the roof going up. It's not the first time the pavilion has bee burned down, the old one in the rec was burnt as well.

The outcome was that a week or so later the whole place was pulled down. 5 years later they built a new pavilion which is much better that this one. I remain suspicious  how this one came to be burnt  down, a lot of people thought it did what it needed to. The new one is a lot more modern and up todate with solar panels and huge rain water tanks that are used for flushing the toilets rather than using mains water.

I only hope in 40 years they don't burn this one down as well

The new pavilion opened on the 25th May 2013 and since then has been in continuous use 

Take Care

St Peter ad Vincula South Newinton

 

This week the Church Explorer visits  St Peter ad Vincula South Newinton  a beautiful old church with the added bonus of having medieval wall paintings to see

 

New Years Eve

 

The I felt lucky to notice the last sunrise of 2024, face it I won't see it again 

The light was low so the photos look a little grainy  after I resized them for my blog, the photos can talk for themselves

That was the sunrise I witnessed at around 7:40 am

Happy SkyWatch

Retro walk

 

This week I thought of showing some photos I found from around Wallingford, these were taken back in 2008 

 

Winterbook at the time I took this photo it was in the parish of Cholsey

 

 

St Leonards lane named after the old church you see.

 

 

St Leonard's churchyard

 

Mill lane

 Oppiosite is the mill which I knew as Hunts Mill, the shop was the building at the end. I remember going in there and that there was a mill wheel

 

 

Reading road going out of Wallingford towards Winterbrook

 

St Mary's street 

 

 

Market square, the town hall is to my left

 

All hallows churchyard a bit of a forgotten place

 

This was a doctors surgery when I was a kid

 

The entrance to the Bull croft one of two parks in Wallkingford

 

This was something I came across while walking along one of the paths in the bull croft, it used to be in the marked square where the war memorial is now

 

The almshouses these date back to 1681

 

Take Care
 

St Mary Bloxham

 

This week the Church Explorer visits St Mary Bloxham the church which has the tallest spire in Oxfordshire a and one were the local vicar was nearly hung from 

Starling Murmuration

 

Nearly the new year and the weather was overcast & grey, I went into Wallingford and there was hardly a soul around

I took a photo of the town Christmas Tree which is lit up at night, apart from a couple of cars and person walking past Costa there was no one around.

Evening time and my wife & I noticed the starlings in murmuration

 

 

 This is one thing we have missed seeing for a while and this year we have seen it a few times

 

It was not a large murmuration but other starlings joined in. It's good to see them back around here again hopefully their numbers will increase.

 

Happy SkyWatch

 

Elan Valley Dams

A few retro photos this week taken back in 2006 at the Elan Valley in Wales, this is one of my favorite places to visit if you click on the above link you can rad the blog I wrote on the valley and the other dams there.

This is the Caban Coch dam

 That dam is 120 ft high

We were heading to another dam and the road went along a river called the Afon Claerwen it feeds into the dam we just came from

You pass this waterfall

As we got near the dam I noticed these landrover going off road though a lot of mud

 Ok they could do it

This is what we came to see the Claerwen dam this one is even higher at 144ft

From the dam looking over at the reservoir

 The reservoir

Take Care