Still on the Internet, Still a Nobody
Rhonda and I went for a walk around Arlington Court in Devon yesterday, as part of The Cosmic Photo Challenge; taking time to explore the house for the first time, as well as the gardens I’ve visited many times before.
After listening to weeks of the radio building up to/looking back at Glastonbury festival (of which I am not a fan), it occurred to me that I hadn’t been to a music festival for a decade or more and I really fancied returning to that happy place after such a long hiatus. So I began searching for cheap, local festivals and came upon one only an hour and a half away in Cornwall, called Leopallooza.
There were several bands I liked or wanted to see, along with a good selection of unknown musical pleasures to enjoy, so I booked a ticket and collected some simple camping gear, because the weather had been glorious for weeks…
Of course, the day after I purchased my basic survival shelter and accessories, the rain started and pretty much didn’t stop for the intervening month until I left for the festival last Friday (July 21st), which was at least sunny.
Saturday, or rather late Friday night, the sky opened and it rained.
And rained.
Then it rained some more and kept raining.
Then, behold, the mud arrived.
But did we care?
No, frankly. I didn’t notice any dampening of spirits whatsoever for the entire good natured, family friendly, all inclusive three days I was in The Wyldes, mud and all.
As for my personal roundup of the music at the festival.
Top bands in no particular order-
Hot Lava, Mystery Jets, Willie and the Bandits, Bad Nerves, BILLY NOMATES, The Scribes, N’Famady Kouyaté, Orbital, Dutty Moonshine Big Band, Another Sky, Sprints, Smokey’s King Shufflers.
I thought Bloc Party were a little disappointing compared to the previous time I saw them, but the crowd clearly loved them, so maybe it’s just me.
Aurora was ok, she’s got a good voice, but not really my cup of tea.
And Leopallooza has *the* best festival bar I’ve seen anywhere; it’s right on the arena with a great view of the stage, it’s under cover, has sofas, armchairs and a pizzeria next door, it really doesn’t get much better than that.
A really fantastic weekend with a great atmosphere from start to finish, rain or shine, it’s a real shame it was the last one.
Anyway, here is my photo journey through The Wyldes, come and explore Leopallooza with me…
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I visited my hometown of Crowborough for a couple of days last week, primarily to see my mum, but I managed to fit in a bit of exploring while I was there.
I’d seen photos of Saxonbury Tower before, but never in real life, so I thought I’d take a drive out into the country and see it for myself, along with two smaller follies, Eridge Park Towers; both of which were originally part of the Neville family country estate.
The larger tower now houses a mobile phone mast, which is hidden inside the shaft of the building and you’d never know it was there…Apart from the loudly humming cooling unit bolted to the front door!
Anyway, now you can only make out that particular eyesore in one of the longer shots, I’ve edited it rather neatly out of the rest. ;~}
A very merry Christmas to you all and best wishes for the new year.
Here is the full set of pictures I took on a Christmas Eve walk around the National Trust’s Watersmeet property on Exmoor, some of which were used for this week’s edition of The Cosmic Photo Challenge .
Hi there, I hope you’re doing well and are enjoying weather as nice as it’s been here over the weekend. I thought I’d post some photos I took for The Cosmic Photo Challenge, many of which I didn’t have room for in this week’s edition, but they’re too nice not to share.
So here’s a tour of Venn Quarries Woods just outside Barnstaple, in the glorious summer sunshine of Saturday afternoon.
On Sunday morning I took a drive just out of Barnstaple, to Broomhill Art Hotel and Sculpture Gardens, which I have visited many times and I’ve taken a great many photos there, too.
The National Sculpture Prize is hosted here and a lot of the previous winners are on permanent display in their own part of the beautifully landscaped, lightly wooded river valley. But there is hardly anywhere on the sprawling, gently sloping site below the hotel and galleries, which isn’t a vantage point from which to view the huge number of artworks on display.
It is always a pleasure to wander through this surreal landscape of the imagination, seeing it grow and evolve each time I visit and I thought this time I’d really try to do it justice with a bumper photo tour. I even added an artistic experiment of my own, another peculiar panoramic selfie. ;~}
I hope you enjoy your look around a really magical place, maybe you can visit it yourselves one day…
Click on the image at the top or the link below it at the top of this post to find out more about Broomhill.
Hi there, sorry I haven’t posted in a while, life has been a bit full and I’ve been absorbed in various other creative pursuits, the main one being audio visual in nature, about which more in the not too distant future.
But for now I’m concentrating on the purely visual arts, namely; The Cosmic Photo Challenge.
For well over 200 posts now, my fellow intrepid photographic adventurers and I have challenged ourselves to come up with images themed around a weekly prompt and the results have been eye-opening, to say the least.
The creativity and talent out there in the blogosphere never ceases to amaze me and I’m very grateful to all of those who regularly take part…but I want to see more of that fantastic talent and imagination.
To that end, I’m reposting this week’s challenge here, with a few extra photos thrown in to sweeten to deal, along with ***A REALLY REALLY OBVIOUS LINK*** to The Cosmic Photo Challenge’s new home, so you can come on over and get involved.
*****
On The Cosmic Photo Challenge this week, I asked you to capture your images; On the shore.
After over 20 years living in North Devon, I finally made my first trip to a hidden Victorian gem, Tunnel Beaches in Ilfracombe.
Accessed by an unassuming white tunnel entrance just a few minutes walk from the high street, these beaches were opened in the early 1800s with the two naturally separated coves enabling ladies and gentlemen to bathe with their modesty intact. The gentlemen’s beach was in use for a wedding yesterday, so I took a stroll around the rugged landscape of the ladies beach and made a video tour, accompanied by an extract from a recently composed piece of appropriately watery ambient electronica*.
Where did your search for the water’s edge take you at the weekend? Let’s have a look at your pictures…
*****
*{Should you wish to experience the full version of this new track, along with it’s own, strangely mesmerizing video, you can do so HERE}
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To get involved with the challenge; check out the Cosmic Photo Prompt each Friday, then post a photo (or photos) on your blog the following Monday, with a pingback link to my Monday post.
Tag your posts with #CosPhoChal.
Any and all effects, editing, Photoshop, Instagram, morphing, collages, animation, gifs, or whatever other post production techniques you fancy are permitted, (in fact, they’re actively encouraged!) so get creative and turn your photos into artworks for the Cosmic Photo Challenge.
Friday’s lack of inspiration carried over into the weekend, so this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge is less spectacular than usual, featuring as it does; Ordinary everyday objects.
Among the objects I ordinarily see every day are ornaments in the living room – gifts from various friends and a clay lion Audrey made – along with the string lattice lampshades, with which I made some interesting abstract art.
What caught your eye around the house at the weekend, let’s have a look…?
*****
To get involved with the challenge; check out the Cosmic Photo Prompt each Friday, then post a photo (or photos) on your blog the following Monday, with a pingback link to my Monday post.
Tag your posts with #CosPhoChal.
Any and all effects, editing, Photoshop, Instagram, morphing, collages, animation, gifs, or whatever other post production techniques you fancy are permitted, (in fact, they’re actively encouraged!) so get creative and turn your photos into artworks for the Cosmic Photo Challenge.
Good morning everyone, I hope your Monday is going as planned so far, welcome to The Cosmic Photo Challenge, this week prompted by the theme; Houseplants.
I’ll be honest, it was a spur of the moment suggestion when I realised I’d missed even my usually late deadline for Friday’s Saturday’s post, but I’m quite pleased with the photos I captured of our indoor greenery, including one “artistic interpretation”.
Now let’s see the results of your search for vegetation to visualise, it’s easy to do…
*****
To get involved with the challenge; check out the Cosmic Photo Prompt each Friday, then post a photo (or photos) on your blog the following Monday, with a pingback link to my Monday post.
Tag your posts with #CosPhoChal.
Any and all effects, editing, Photoshop, Instagram, morphing, collages, animation, gifs, or whatever other post production techniques you fancy are permitted, (in fact, they’re actively encouraged!) so get creative and turn your photos into artworks for the Cosmic Photo Challenge.
Today’s edition of The Cosmic Photo Challenge is entirely your call, because the prompt was; Freestyle.
I have a few random images from the last week to offer you, starting with a rather obliging small tortoiseshell butterfly, which posed long enough for me to get a nice close-up…
…followed by an interesting view of a spider in the shed and a shot of the local crows coming home to roost.
Then we come to the inevitable mucking about section; starting with a composite image of three lucky consecutive shots of a squirrel I captured, as he jumped out of the flowerbed…
…and ending with an edited version of a simple photo of my reflection in an empty picture frame.
Now I’m keen to see what you have in store for us this week, so let’s have a look, don’t be shy.
*****
To get involved with the challenge; check out the Cosmic Photo Prompt each Friday, then post a photo (or photos) on your blog the following Monday, with a pingback link to my Monday post.
Tag your posts with #CosPhoChal.
Any and all effects, editing, Photoshop, Instagram, morphing, collages, animation, gifs, or whatever other post production techniques you fancy are permitted, (in fact, they’re actively encouraged!) so get creative and turn your photos into artworks for the Cosmic Photo Challenge.
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