Farewell to Somerset, for a little while...

If these photos don't seem up to my usual standard I have 2 excuses, I mean reasons! Due to my laptop crashing at the beginning of the year, I haven't been able to take my DSLR out on explorations as I have had nowhere to put the photos so I am a little out of practice on the technical camera side of things. My second reason is also linked to the lack of laptop - I have no Lightroom to enhance my photos. Instead, I had to use the basic editing Windows 10 photo viewer allows which, to be fair, is more than Windows 7 ever did!

So back to the post - I have moved across country to the East after a negative experience in the school I was doing my NQT year in. Before I left, the west, I joined my landlady for some gorgeous walks in the springtime countryside with her two amazing dogs! These photos are from those walks.

Walk number 1: Greyfriars Wood, High Littleton, Somerset.

Although I had walked in the woods before with my landlady and her dogs, I had only been to the waterfall once before so as a farewell walk, we went to the waterfall. For those of you familiar with the TV show Robin of Sherwood, this is one of the filming locations. The woods themselves were once part of the Earl of Warwick's hunting estate.

The top of the falls.

A view from the bottom of the falls which are hidden to the left behind the bank.

One of the gorgeous dogs. This is Jonty the springador (lab x springer spaniel). He's only 2 or thereabouts!

Jonty and "old boy" Fred finding the perfect sticks for us to throw into the pool!

Fred plunged into the pool for one stick...

And found the biggest "stick" possible. He started growling and barking at the "stick" because he couldn't lift it!

Fred looked at us as if saying "well come on, throw another one!"

The falls!

Beautiful sunlight through the trees.

Fred didn't want to leave!

Jonty can jump pretty high. He can jump over a park bench so we got him to jump over this tree branch. It took a few goes, and lots of impatient barking from Jonty, before he actually jumped rather than just ran under the branch.

Fred waiting patiently.

Jonty happily trotting off with his piece of bark.

Spring showing itself in the trees.

The bluebells were just showing themselves!

Fred trotting back to us.

Jonty racing back to us...

Happy Fred.

Jonty wanted to do another circuit of the woods!

Walk number 2: The Mendips

We let the dogs explore as they always do, knowing they would come back! But we took a wrong turn and ending up at the rock a bit later than planned with no dogs... The family that were already at the rocks had last seen the dogs 20 minutes previously!

Somewhere out there...

Here comes Fred!!

And here comes Jonty!

Reunited. Not sure what they're all looking at.

Funny faces!

Tired dogs!

I'm going to miss these three!

Exploring Framlingham Castle

This post is a little overdue, since I left Suffolk a couple of weeks ago but at least it's here now! Between all the cricket I was playing in Suffolk while on holiday with my parents, I did get out to explore Framlingham Castle. Having seen a couple of photos and read some information, it seemed this castle would be the closest I could get (so far) to seeing Toira (from my book) in real life, except for the fact that it doesn't have a massive great keep in the middle. But putting little differences aside and the slightly smaller scale of this castle compared to Toira Castle, Framlingham did not disappoint. Due to it being similar to Toira, I visited as a writer, not a photographer and expected to just take a few snaps that would help me picture the scenes in my book better. But it turns out, while I was importing a new set of photos from another castle exploration, I noticed that some of the snaps I had taken were pretty passable for my blog. 

This is the large gatehouse that greets visitors as they walk up the road from the car park to the castle. It doesn't have a drawbridge but a later addition bridge over a large ditch. 

From that bridge you can look to the right and see the path leading around the castle and towards the lake which used to be the source of fish for the inhabitants in the Medieval and Tudor period. Just standing there looking at the dramatic heights of the castle walls as well as the deep ditch, I couldn't help but wonder HOW armies would have even thought they could get into this castle by force! In a way this is very similar to Toira Castle's defences as well as the sprawling countryside and lake beyond it.

This is what is left of one of the towers. It's possible this is equal to a very important part of Toira castle in my book (except of course it would not be a ruin).

Looking back at the gatehouse from another important spot in Toira Castle.

The opposite view.

And there is the lake. In medieval times this lake would have been bigger, reaching to the top of that bank before the blue-grey tree.

A view from the walls into the castle. Not all ruined castles in the UK allow you to walk on the walls so it is always special when I can take the routes and walk along the walls to see what the medieval inhabitants would have been able to see and not see - especially the castle garrison.

This for example is what those on the wall beside the gatehouse would be able to see of the outer defences.

Another view looking down into the grounds, this time towards the gatehouse again. You might have noticed the well near the gatehouse. It is in a similar position, strangely, to a fountain feature in another of my book castles, El-Hana.

Toira would have a large keep in the middle of the grass not allowing for this view across to the gatehouse. It would also have a greater amount of space between the keep and the walls.

Another view of that lovely lake.

This is a view of the prison entrance from the back of the castle which is in the same position I have put the dungeon in Toira Castle.

I decided to walk around the lake, hoping to catch a glimpse of some of the birds they advertised as being in the area. Sadly despite the beautiful blue sky and hot weather I didn't see any of the wildlife. but the view was pretty. And it allowed me to get away from the noisy teenage tourists and the not-so-teenage pokemon "trainers".

The walk took me along a bit of a muddy "cow track" and I disturbed quite a few of these butterflies before I was able to sneak up on a group and take a couple of photos.

All in all, it was a successful and really helpful exploration into the world of Toira Castle and Framlingham Castle. It was really interesting to be able to stand on the walls and picture the events that happen at various points around the castle!

Sunset, seagulls and oyster catchers

This evening I went for a walk down to the Stour River to watch the clouds take on sunset colours and hopefully get a photo of an oyster catcher! After exploring the little paths in the wood above the river, I headed down to the riverside. There were some guys learning how to sail - I spared them the embarrassment of being photographed as a few capsized right near the shoreline to laughter from friends and family - some black-headed gulls (I think), walking in the surf and some oyster catchers. The sun cast an orange glow across the sky and the clouds played along by creating shapes and catching the rays in a lovely photogenic way. 

A buried feather in the ooze of weed left at low tide.

Sailing School while the clouds flowed over each other like a waterfall - there was hardly a breath of wind!

The promise of a pretty sunset.

Black-headed gull wading through the surf.

Someone took some chalk and wrote on the jetty!

Oyster catcher! And a gull calling to his mate.

I think this cloud looks like Dumbo!!

And the last of the sunset before it disappeared behind the thicker clouds on the horizon. Look closely and you might see a griffin in the clouds.

Sunrises in the west, and sunsets in the east!

So, I'm finally on holiday after a tough PGCE year in Cornwall. I spent six months living in Launceston in a house that had a beautiful view over the valley border of Devon and Cornwall including Dartmoor in the distance. I was treated to some beautiful mornings when the valley was covered in a beautiful fluffy duvet. The following photos show some of the different views of sunrises I had over my time in the house.

An icy winter morning looking across to Dartmoor.

Yup, those are trees peaking out of the clouds.

Today was the first time I've taken my camera out with me for a couple of months - I just didn't feel I had time to go through and edit photos if I did take my camera. Mum and I took the dog down to the Stour River with Harwich on the far shore. It was sunny-ish when we left the house with dark clouds in the distance. They were very dramatic clouds.

There were a few black-headed gulls playing in the waves.

The dark clouds were coming closer.

So we turned back...

A tiny boat with a BIG name!

Well we tried to avoid the rain but unfortunately clouds travel faster than we do.