St Mary Charleton on Otmoor

 

This week the Church Explorer takes you to Charlton on Otmoor and St Mary's Church which is outside Oxford. This is a charming church which I was lucky to also get to see inside thanks to the Church Warden noticing me in the churchyard 

A short Walk

 Just a couple of photo's this week from Wales when we were there last week. While taking the dog for a short walk I noticed the lake was clear and there was no people wandering around it, the seat looked like it was worth a photo

 

 

The seat waiting for some one to sit there and take in the view

 

 A little further along we come to the start of the upward part and there was a blue sky with clouds chasing it away. I did not take much after that apart from the sheep which were covered in bracken that I showed on Wednesday

 

Happy Skywatch

 

Camo Sheep

 

 

Hover Flys

 

While sitting on the patio today my wife mentioned  that all you could hear were hover flys on the flowers so I went over to look and indeed they were a hive of activity. Not wanting to miss the opportunity I went and got my camera and fitted the macro lens. I took some with my EOS R6 with EF 2.8 x 100 macro lens. Then took some with my iPhone as comparison. There are a few more photos than I normally post on a Tuesday which I apologise for

Bees to start with

Of the solitary type

First of the hoverflys this one is less that 10mm long

These two are sharing the flower

Getting it's head right in there

The hoverflys were all around 10 mm long but seemed to be everywhere

Next the iPhone these I felt were not so clear but then I did use the zoom on it to take a few of the photos

If I could have taken this with the other camera I think it would have been superb

Even tried to catch them in flight dodging about

 

Last one I'll go back to my R6. Hope you enjoyed them

Taking Part in My Little Corner of the World  Our World Tuesday and Imag-in-ing, you can find all the links in the right hand column Take care everyone

Inside Dorchester Abbey

 

This week the Church Explorer shows you the inside of Dorchester Abbey which looks as beautiful inside as it does out

 

Some more Sky Roses

 

I always see the Veilchenblou rose when I walk out in my garden and a little while ago it was reaching it's peek in flowering and looked it's best

I tried to capture it in it's best light

To see from where it looked best

 

 

 But most of the time the sky was grey

 

 

But eventually a few days later there was blue sky behind

 

And it looked glorious

Happy Skywatch

 

 

Abbey Concert

 

Dorchester on Thames

 

After visiting the Abbey the other week I took a few photos of the surroundings outside. The Village is called Dorchester on Thames though I think it should be Doechester on Thame as that river runs closer to the place. The Thames becomes official where the River Thames joins and in really the river above that point is really the River Isis  which I still have to go and get  a photo of and considering how much of the river I have wandered along I have never been to that point. 

Looking out through the lichgate you can see the George Hotel

Many of you should recognise this place as it has featured on a lot of TV shows. Wikipedia will tell you it featured on Agatha Christie's Poirot but it has been min many more like Midsumner Murders, Morse and Endevor plus a few more. It's a place I used to visit when I was in my 20's where I would spend the evening with friends there before heading off to Oxford near closing time for a curry. The road you see going to the right used to be the main road leading to Oxford and London till in 1988 they opened a bypass the the village had been crying out for because of the heavy traffic.

Looking the other way you can see the road bends to the right before going left and passing of the the Thame bridge.

This building you see in front of the abbey is the old Toll House and was where the tolls for the bridge were collected and no doubt for the use of the road towards Wallingford, where you would have had to pay another toll to cross that bridge (they used to like their tolls). 

This is looking along Bridge end, you can see the end of it on the right. The building on the immediate left used to be  a pub like most around this area they closed because they did not make the breweries enough money. The last building you see on the left (black) is where a petrol station used to be. Problem with it was when the bypass opened they had to close because no one stopped there any-more, in fact most of the village sort of closed after that and it became a bit of a backwater. Another garage come petrol station remained opened for a while till that close as well. Both sites have houses on the now. I drove the village for the last time going home from work on a Friday, on the Monday the village was closed off and the bypass opened.  That is all for now but I will return with more photos from around this village and from the more historic part.

Taking Part in My Little Corner of the World  Our World Tuesday and Imag-in-ing, you can find all the links in the right hand column Take care everyone

Dorchester Abbey

 

It has been a n few years since I visited Dorchester Abbey so I made the effort and went along to the church to look around, The blog is in two parts with the inside next week.

Skywatch Zoom

 

 Always on the look for skywatch photos I spotted some hot air balloons floating in the distance so I thought lest try out my 400 mm zoom and see what they turn out like. 

I took the photos using a Tamron 100-400 mm zoom, not my first choice but affordable when I bought it a few years ago, it used on my Canon R6. What I only just noticed is that there is a para-glider under the balloon on the right, I did not notice it when I spotted the balloons

The balloons were too far away to get a good clear view of them

I thought the clouds look like they could be worth photographing, did not see the pidgin till I downloaded the pictures.

Fluffy ones

Moody ones

Threatening ones 

Ones with Red Kites flying past

Living where we do you can guarantee seeing these flying overhead everyday

Happy Skywatch