A to Z Challenge Reflections 2015

A to Z Challenge Reflections 2015

After a month of doing the A to Z Challenge it is time to reflect on how it went.
Well I must admit mine was in the planning for a while and would have gone out in 2014 but for the fact my laptop was broken and I had to recover the info off the Hard drive, not so bad but the second thing to go wrong was I dropped the backup drive and as yet have had no chance to recover the data so all my photo's are lost going back to 2008. Still I had started a file with my A to Z photos in so it was down to getting new ones for 2015 to finish it off. By the time April came around I had finished getting the photos and scheduled all the posts to  go out daily at 6am GMT.
Admittedly some places caused a few problems like
J where is used a local place name though I could have used a village name beginning with J but I'll leave that for another time.
Q nearly was but another local pace solved that
V was another problem but I opted for a park in Newbury to use
X was the biggest problem and will continue to be so as I can find no place in the UK beginning with it. Mind you I could have used Christmas Common and called it Xmas but I hate the use of it.
Z was another not so easy but I knew of a couple of farms  beginning with it. I must admit the one I used was not very nice round the area with all the construction going on. The town is not much better either.
I think  few mentions of new blogs I found and enjoyed are in order.
Take 25 to Hollister still going strong and telling you all about Hollister
The Ninja Librarian was anew one which mixed writings and some superb photo's
Bob's Home For Writing was another really enjoyable blog and taught me a lot more about Butterfly's
Star Trek - Sci Fi Blog Really glad I found this one as I love Star Trek
tashasthinkings.blogspot.com was another writers blog I really enjoyed reading
Blogging from A to Z April Challenge Nothing new in this as I have followed it since I started in 2013 it kept me on track and informed
Most of all thanks to all the other A to Z  members who visited and to the team who organised it. Now all I have to do is to start next years
Happy A to Zeding

Z is for Zulu Farm

Zulu farm is between Didcot & Harwell and no doubt it was a thriving place at one time back in the 1900's it was know ans Zulu Barn. The farm has diminished with the A34 cutting through the property and now thevbuilding of a new housing estate has taken the rest away

 Zulu Farm as it is at the moment, most likely the old barn is over to the left

 This was part of the farmland looking towards Didcot, the construction you see is a new college being built

 This looks towards Didcot Power Station, beyond the fence is the new estate

 Soon the towers and the tall sack will be demolished and the original Didcot Power Station will be no more and the mounds of earth you see here will be gone and in their place new houses. A sad vision of it's former self.

That's it for this years A to Z Challenge I hope you have enjoyed my offerings.
Thanks for visiting

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Y is for Yardro

 Yardro is a small farming near new Radnor in Wales. There is a farm and a few houses plus a chapel which is still in use

 The green triangle and chapel

 One of the nicest little ones around

 There is a phone box and out of sight a post box

 Face it where else would you come across a scene like this

 and this is looking over the fields to the countryside around the village

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X is for X ray

I said I would have to come up with something. Remember D for Diamond well one of the experiments they do uses X rays

 This is one of the experiments that has been published

 This is inside one of the experimental hutches which is lead walled (50mm thick)

 One of the X ray detectors

and this is another experiment being set up
Might add the also used Xrays on some of the conservation work done on the Mary Rose, Henry VIII flagship that sunk

  This is a new facility that is being built at the moment

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W is for Woolhampton

A small civil parish in West Berkshire between Reading & Newbury. It sits on the A4 Bath road and River Kennet, the railway also runs through it was well. Because of It's location the A4 made it well know for coaching Inns

Like the Falmouth Arms below which the last time I drove past looked like it had closed.

The bath road going by the Falmouth Arms

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V is for Victoria Park

No doubt there are many round the country if not the world but this one is in Newbury, it was originally called the Marsh but changed with the popularity of Queen Victoria and her Jubilee celebrations were held here.  The statue was originally in the market place in 1903 and moved to 
Greenham House in 1933 before its final position here in 1966

 Queen Victoria and the Lions

 Queen Victoria

Up to 1930 the park used to be common land which included the right to graze  cattle

Since then it has gradually  been encroached on by the A339 and housing

The Bandstand in the park

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U is for Upton

Upton a small Oxfordshire Town not far from Didcot which used to be on the Didcot, Newbury & Southmapton Railway.

High Street  leading to the Village

main road going past the George & Dragon Pub

 The former Upton Station, the yard is now a close called Beaching Close which is ironic as he closed the line down it was on.
 

 The High Street in Upton

Church Lane
 

One of the Thatched cottages which is along Stream Road

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T is for Thame

Thame gets it's name from the river that flows  past the town. It dates back to the Anglo Saxon times and was part of Wessex. It is now a civil parish in Oxfordshire. The river Thame also lends its name to the Thames as it flows into it at Dorchester.

 Thame High Street

  Looking down the High street from near the war memorial

Thame Town Hall

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S is for Streatley

Streatley is a small village along the Thames path in Berkshire and I might add the Ridgeway Path runs through it as well. The photo shows the village as seen from the Goring side of the bridge which is in Oxfordshire

Below is a view looking down towards the village from Streatley Hill

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R is for Reading

Reading is the County Town of Berkshire and only became that in the 1970's when due to Boundary changes Abingdon moved to Oxford

 This is Broad Street the main shopping area

 Here we look to the Kings Road with the Oracle shopping centre over to the right

This road looks to Broad street and John Lewis

 One of the things it was famous for was Biscuits  and this canal was the way they were shipped from Huntley & Palmers which was over to the right. Reading's Football team at one time were called the Biscuit Men

It's also famous for the Abbey Ruins, Reading had Huge Abbey until Henry VIII dissolved the monastery's  

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Q is for Quicks Green

Found this place looking on the OS maps and best of all it was not far from where I live. not much I can tell yo about the place other than it has a few houses and a chapel which I missed.

 As you can see it is a quiet place situated in woodland

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P is for Peppard

Yes there is a place called that not far from Reading though I have to admit it is easy to miss while driving through The correct name for the place is Rotherfield Peppard but people just call it Peppard

The photo here shows Peppard Common with a smattering of snow when I visited a few years ago

It also had a school which is over to my left out of sight, the road here leads to the All Saints Church

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O is for Osney

Here is a place I doubt many will have heard of let alone know its whereabouts. It's known also as Osney Island and is along the River Thames just outside Oxford. It has an active community and the place dates back to around 1129  when an Abbey was built there.

 Below is a photo taken from a Hot Air Balloon a couple of days ago and shows the Thames, the area above it is Osney and below Oxford the above photo was taken from near where the bend is by the lock.

 
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N is for Newbury

Newbury is a  West Berkshire town with a lot of history attached to it and one of my favorite local palces to go. The building you see below is called the clock house and sits on the junction of the Old Bath road & Northbrook Street

Below you see the River Kennet where it rund through the town

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M is for Marlborough

Marlborough is a town in Wiltshire and sits on the old Bath Road from London to Bath (A4) the river Kennet also runs through it which made it accessible to trade with London and Bath using the canal. It also has the second largest high street in the UK which you can see in the second photo

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