The well-trodden path onto the greensand ridge rises from the narrow and perennially damp valley in which Ightham Mote is hidden and eventually gives a spectacular view across the Medway valley to the next sandstone ridge beyond. The church in the middle distance is in the small village of Shipbourne with Hadlow Tower and a…
Category: Art and Architecture
Western Sicily
We return to Palermo; it is one of the best cities for urban photography with its extraordinary mishmash of architectural styles and long perspectives down narrow streets. The extensive use of brown and dull red marble above dark grey flagstones give it a sombre tone. But the past is etched with the exuberant present, including…
Two East Anglian Tudor Manor Houses
Kentwell Hall in Long Melford, Suffolk and Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk are both moated, Tudor manor houses. Both have belonged to prominent Catholic families; the Cloptons at Kentwell and the Bedingfields at Oxburgh. The Cloptons took on Kentwell in 1377 but ran out of heirs in the middle of 17th century; the Bedingfields have lived at…
Great Dixter in mid May
Parts of the garden are a riot; rich with the wayside plants of the Mediterranean and Balkans intermingled with the local and far flung. The Peacock Garden is dominated by bright yellow umbels of great fennel Ferula communis contrasting with the mauves of honesty Lunaria annua, greater meadow-rue Thalictrum aquilegifolium and, I think, dame’s rocket…
Little owl on the old brick wall
The old farmyard buildings hold a pair of barn owls and little owls. The scolding blackbirds always let you know when they are about. The little owls are likely to nest somewhere in the abandoned livestock pens and the crumbling brick wall is a favourite perch. Of course, this photograph is as much about the…
Sissinghurst Castle Garden’s Sphinxes and Satyrs
Sphinxes and Satyrs are found on some beautiful, turquoise vases that adorn the patios and paths in the Castle Garden. A pair lining the forecourt have Satyrs as handles; these were wild, half-man, half-beast spirits associated with Dionysus, the god of wine and famed for their debauchery and outrageous behaviour. An adjacent pair are decorated…
Constable Country
Dedham Vale is a landscape of English oaks, pollarded willows and water meadows around the meandering River Stour. The villages are small but with imposing churches built on the profits of the wool trade. It is the landscape of John Constable and so, for many, of lowland England. Constable painted many scenes around the Mill,…
Kent Churches
These baker’s dozen were taken when heading to and from, or sometimes within, wildlife sites. The North Kent Marshes and Dickens country around Higham feature heavily as do Oare and Romney Marshes. A couple from the heart of the Weald and downland villages provide some contrast. All are a timeless and beautiful part of the…
Stour Estuary, Suffolk
The Stour Estuary is divided down the middle between Essex and Suffolk; on the Essex side the road runs east from Manningtree and ‘The Walls’ at Mistley to Harwich past a coastline of woodland and wetland nature reserves and, near Wrabness, the House for Essex. On the Suffolk side, it is equally wild with nothing…
Arles, Van Gogh and the Stars
Arles is a magnet for visitors and the attraction is Van Gogh and his ‘Starry Night over the Rhône’ on loan from Paris for a summer exhibition at the Fondation Van Gogh Arles entitled ‘Van Gogh and the Stars’. There are works by those that inspired him such as Jean-François Millet and many more of…
Firenze, Pisa and Lucca
Firenze or Florence is a mass of tourists that fill the streets, bridges, churches and museums. There is too much to see in one day so we head for the Uffizi and start to understand the enduring power of Renaissance art. The biggest pull are the many, huge works of Sandro Botticelli; my favourite is…
Paestum
A week on the coast in the old town of Castellabate in the Parco Nazionale del Cilento meant we were a short drive from Paestum or, as the original Greek settlers called it, Poseidonia. Paestum is a place of quiet, green fields filled with the remains of a city dating back around 2,500 years with…