Polling Station

At least it is a nice moring

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

Vote Mad Hatter

Rainbow Watch

Back from the A to Z challenge to Skywatch Friday and I will start with a Rainbow I took down in Wales a while ago, might add I took it with an Android Tablet not my usual cameras.

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

Taking Part in Blogging from A to Z

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

Taking Part in Blogging from A to Z

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

Taking Part in Blogging from A to Z

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

Taking Part in Blogging from A t Z

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

Taking Part in Blogging from A to Z

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

Taking Part in Blogging from A to Z