Framedlight

In June we took the campervan down to Margam, near Port Talbot, as Alan was doing the Dragon cycle ride from there. We had not booked anywhere to stay for the night and arrived at Kenfig reserve looking for somewhere to have a short walk and prepare dinner. As there were no barriers on the car park we also decided to stay there to sleep. A mistake as the car park seemed to be full of activity throughout the night with cars racing round and goodness knows what taking place. We locked the door and put our hands over our ears but did not sleep well!! The reserve runs down through dunes to the sea which is a fair walk away and has a large lake from where you can see the chimneys of Port Talbot on the horizon. The evening was warm and sunny but suddenly clouded over and there was a sharp shower (while we were in a bird hide fortunately) and this gave some wonderful light. The pictures were taken on the D800e with 24-70mm zoom lens and a tripod. I have converted 2 of the pictures into mono...

I know that anyone looking at this blog will be fed up with the trees! After a late start autumn has hung on and on and I have been to a number of places where the trees have been stunning - and who could resist? I am a fan of forest pictures, especially liking those of Hand Strand and Dav Thomas. We happened upon Calke Abbey a couple of weekends ago after visiting friends in Nottingham and it is certainly worth going to. The house was left to the National Trust in a semi derelict state and although it looks tidy outside, apparently not much has been done to it inside. I say this because it was closed as the National Trust shuts all of it's houses over winter believing the nation is confined indoors watching daytime telly. As you can see the day was overcast and tried to rain a couple of times. The grounds are extensive and there is a river running through on one side, in a steep woody ravine. There is also an isolated church which lies a little way from the house and was shut a...