St Mary Witney

 

This week the Church Explorer visits St Mary Witney as beautiful church that stands at the end of a green dating back to Norman times and with a churchyard full of old headstones, tomb chests and the odd Bale Tomb

Blossom time

 

As usual I was up at the crack of eggs with the dawn just opening it's bleary eyes, looking out of the kitchen window is never good, as I see things I want to take a photo of

The tree is opposite our window and the pink blossom was looking glorious

Like I said dawn was showing her bleary head or words to that effect

 A while later she was shining on the tree

This tree I spotted taking my son to work it really shone when I came home, needless to say I went straight around to get a photo. The person who lives there is my Friends Brother in law. I sent a copy to his sister and she sent it to him. The reply was he thought it was spooky because the day before he did the same thing

Glorious blossom

Near the Indian Restaurant another tree was in blossom

But this one stood out

Even the dark clouds set it off

Ok so I used this for skywatch this week but the next three photos I too today on my way home from a  church crawl 

 A swan flew right across my line of vision

 

Captured on my dash cam

 

So I cropped a photo for you to enjoy

Happy Skywatch

St Mary Charlbury

 

 

This week the Church Explorer visits St Mary Charlbury a church you might recognize from the TV program Father Brown 

Blue Sunset

 

Sunday evening in mid February I spotted the glowing clouds out the front of our place

 

They had a fiery look about them

 

Turning pinkish as I turned towards the allotments 

 

Coming out wider you got blue sky mixing in

 

Wider still shows the blue and glowing sky

 

Which got darker as the glow lessened 

 

Till it was just a strip

 Turning towards the south a pink like was all you could see of the glowing sky

Happy Skywatch

Minster Lovell Hall

 

I had heard of Minster Lovell Hall but it  was never somewhere I thought of visiting. Some of the guys I used to work with came from the village. Last week I was visiting St Kenelms church for my blog and noticed that Mister Lovell Hall was next door so I took the time to have a quick look around the place. Minster Lovell Hall is now under the care of English Heritage and is open during reasonable daylight hours to look around.

You literally walk out of the churchyard and you are in the ground of the hall

Wide angle view of the hall remains, the main entrance is blocked off because the ceiling is unsafe

The remaining tower near the River Windrush

The view you normally see in literature on the place

The west end of the hall

A great hall used for entertaining royalty and other dignitary's 

One of the other rooms in the place

the corner which took you to another wing of the building, the old doorway which took you to an upper floor still in place

In the foreground you can see a covered well where they would have drawn water which is a couple of foot below the grate

 

This I think might have been the entrance to the chapel 

The grand entrance with the intricate ceiling, I managed to get a photo over the top of the fence

View of the hall take with my phone

And one of the church through the ruins

Take care

Forever Young

 

It was my friends Birthday the other day, I only found out after going around for a chat, we have know each other since we were kids and in our teens both rode around on a Lambretta scooter. I know he still owned one (top right) so I made a birthday card with a collage of scooters. He might sill own a couple but I'm happy to go and sit on his now and remember when I owned one.

Take Care

 

St James the Great Stonefield

 

This week the Church Explorer visits St James the Great a beautiful old church dating back to the 13th century which is steeped in history

1st February

 

I thought the sunset on the 1st February was quite spectacular especially as it was the beginning of the year.

 

I first noticed the sky from the kitchen window so went upstairs to see this 

 

The sunset was beautiful

Zooming in the sky glowed orange

Looking the opposite was the clouds were beautiful

Blue sky and pink clouds

The sunset colored the clouds

An amazing pink

Even towards the setting sun the vapor trails took on color

 

On my way to pick up my son I passed the gravel pit so on the way back I too this photo of the silhouette of the gravel elevator  

Happy Skywatch

The Earth Trust

 

On Sunday I stopped off a The Earth Trust to see an exhibition in some archeological finds that were on show over the weekend

The converted barn where the exhibition was held

This was what I had come to see, it is an iron age Tyuere from a back smiths forge that was uncovered nearby

 

Remains of a crucible that was also found

Various finds which you had to guess what the were best of it all was the archeologists did not know either

 

Roman finds

 

Roman coins

More roman finds

some wood carving

 

I went back outside to visit the dig remains and passed this building where I have been before on a photograph course 

This is the area of the archeological excavation, in the background is Wittenham Clumps, the hill on the right was an Iron Age Hill Fort

Take Care