scene_again | Entries tagged with byslantedlight

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

milomaus made me think of this comm again today, turns out it's been seven years since anyone posted here - and that was me posting just to keep the comm off the to-be-deleted-due-to-inactivity list... So while I was here I thought I'd do that again!

Here's the view out my window in 2009, the last time I made a 1st February post here, when I lived on the other side of the country in Cambridgeshire. And here's my current 2021 view, from where I live in Somerset. *g*

I'd love to see how other people's view have changed, if anyone's still out there... *g*

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

I know I've been awol lately, even though I've taken pics I don't seem to have managed to post any, and I will, but in the meantime I saw this on someone's Flickr page, and thought it might be quite a fun idea for Scene_again - photo memes? And they rather fit with the raison d'etre of Scene_again too - the same views/different times/places, but in this case the same questions/different places/people!

I quite liked this Travel Meme over at Flickr, and thought that with a few adaptations it might be fun - does anyone fancy the idea? Rather than just posting the answers, we'd post photos as answers (with explanations if we wanted to)... (I'd've done an example, but I'm at work, so I'll have to wait until I get back to my own computer before I can try it myself!)

Photo Travel Meme
1. What country do you live in?
2. What was the last country you visited other than your own? (Or place, if you've not been to another country!)
3. What is your favorite kind of trip?
4. What place would/do you go back to again and again?
5. What is the most atmospheric place you've visited?
6. What is the most peaceful place you've visited?
7. What is the farthest north you've ever been?
8. What is the farthest south you've ever been?
9. What is the largest city you have visited?
10. What is the most beautiful place you've visited?
11. What destination would you recommend to a friend?
12. If you had to move and live somewhere you've visited, where would it be?

Does anyone else fancy it? It might take a while to organise/post, so there's no rush... or should we have a deadline? Oh, does anyone fancy a different weekly meme along specific themes? Mods, is it okay if I suggest that?!

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"Farringford. Walked with Tennyson among the trees and lawns. Tennyson said 'White lilac used to be my favourite flower.'" William Allingham, 1866 (Isle of Wight)

"Went with Dora at 3 o'clock to a picnic in the Marsh... We played hide-and-seek in the wood and danced Sir Roger de Coverley under the oaks in the green glade near the keeper's lodge. Agnes and Edith made a pretty picture once for a moment as they stood together on the mound at the foot of the oaks, dressed alike sisterly in bright magenta skirts.

"The sheets of bluebells were still in all their splendour and the pink rhododendrons were just beginning to show their blossoms." Francis Kilvert, 1874 (Wiltshire)

"Great Bear at 1/2 to 8 to 9 exactly at zenith. The Rider precisely overhead." Richard Jeffries, 1880 (Surrey)

"Do you know what guelder roses are? Big sumptuous white clusters with a green light upon them. We must grow them." Katherine Mansfield, 1918 (Cornwall)

2009

Golden gorse, and pure white May, and fields of yellow rapeseed... Byslantedlight, 2009 (Wales)

2010

A misty morning, and the sun with legs this evening - and everywhere warm and promising... Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"Incessant rain from morning till night... The Skobby [chaffinch] sat quietly in its nest, rocked by the wind, and beaten by the rain." Dorothy Wordsworth, 1800 (Westmorland)

"...to Combe Wood to see and gather bluebells, which we did, but fell in bluehanded with a gamekeeper, which is a humbling thing to do. Then we heard a nightingale utter a few strains - strings of very liquid gurgles." Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1874 (Surrey)

2009

"Wales was cloudy, but full of Spring-green and blossoming and everything growing." Byslantedlight, 2009 (Wales)

They said it might rain today, but it barely even tried, and by the evening it was so beautiful the whole world seemed golden, light and air and all... Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

(Also, I'm quite spooked that although they're of completely different places, on opposites sides of - actually in different countries, the shapes and lines of those two pics are almost exactly the same - except for Wales being hilly, and Cambs. being flat!)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"Nightingales visit my fields and sing awhile: but withdraw, and travel on: some years they breed with me." Gilbert White, 1778 (Hampshire)

"Warm and mild, after a fine night of rain. Transplanted radishes after breakfast... gathered mosses and plants.... All flowers now are gay and deliciously sweet. The primrose still pre-eminent among the later flowers of the spring. Foxgloves very tall, with their heads budding.... Grassmere very solemn in the last glimpse of twilight." Dorothy Wordsworth, 1800 (Westmorland)

"I had a very comfortable journey. The country in the bright morning light was simply bowed down with beauty - heavy, weighed down with treasure. Shelley's moonlight may glittered everywhere... I have never seen anything more solemn and splendid than England in May - and I have never seen a spring with less of the jeune fille in it." Katherine Mansfield, 1918 (After train journey from Paddington to Cornwall

2010

Today looked like a grey day, but there was warmth, and a breeze, and sometimes sunshine...

...and daisies and a pair of crows in a tree... Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"Sheared my mongrel dog Rover, and made use of his white hair in plaster for ceilings. His coat weighed four ounces. The N.E. wind makes Rover shrink." Gilbert White, 1788 (Hampshire)

2010

High skies, alive...

...and greenery out my window, and a soft sunset... Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"A very cold morning - hail and snow showers all day... we... walked backwards and forwards in Brothers wood. William tired himself with seeking an epithet for the cuckoo." Dorothy Wordsworth, 1802 (Westmorland)

"Lark singing beautifully in the still dark and clouded sky at a quarter to three o'clock in the morning; about twenty minutes afterwards the first thrush; thought I heard distant cuckoo - not sure; and ten minutes after that the copse by the garden perfectly ringing with the music... southerly wind, warm light breeze, smart showers of warm rain, and intervals of brilliant sunshine; the leaves in copse beautiful delicate green, refreshed, cleaned, and a still more lovely green from the shower; behind them the blue sky, and above the bright sun; white detached clouds sailing past." Richard Jeffries, 1879 (Surrey)

"I find the country very beautiful. The apple trees are leaning forwards, all white with blossom, towards the green grass. I watch, in the morning when I wake up, a thrush on the wall outside the window - not a thrush, a blackbird - and he sings, opening his beak. It is a strange thing to watch his singing, opening his beak and giving out his calls and warblings, then remaining silent. He looks so remote, so buried in primeval silence, standing there on the wall, and bethinking himself, then opening his beak to make the strange, strong sounds. He seems as if his singing were a sort of talking to himself, or of thinking aloud his strongest thoughts. I wish I was a blackbird, like him. I hate men. D.H. Lawrence, 1915 (Sussex)

2009

It's a low-skied grey day, as if you can feel the cotton-soft flumpff of them, and a little bit misty so that you think it might rain, but it doesn't, it isn't...
Byslantedlight, 2009 (Cambs.)

2010

Glorious blue skies to work, clear sharp air - and then it clouded over, and I kept expecting it to rain... but it didn't. This picture is from 9.10pm - the glory that will be summer, and long, light nights... Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"Up before three o'clock, and a little after upon the water, it being very light as at noon, and a bright sun-rising; but by & by a rainbow appeared, the first that ever in a morning I saw." Samuel Pepys, 1664 (London)

"Cut the first bundle of asparagus." Gilbert White, 1784 (Hampshire)

"Ashen shoots injured by the late frosts, and kidney-beans and potato sprouts killed." Gilbert White, 1791 (Hampshire)

2009

Grey and damp, though not especially cold when I popped out for lunch. There's a sign down the road advertising new asparagus... Byslantedlight, 2009 (Cambs.)

2010

Scene again from yesterday - a silver lining to the sunset tonight... It wasn't cold again for most of today, though there was a thought of a frost this morning. Was gorgeous to bike through though - blue skies, and that clear, fresh morning air that sings at you...
Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"The rhubarb-tart good, and well flavoured." Gilbert White, 1790 (Hampshire)

"A real May-day at last; warm, west wind, sunshine; birds singing as if hearts would burst; four or five blackbirds all in hearing at once... song of thrush more varied even than nightingale; if rare, people would go miles to hear it, never the same in same bird, and every bird different; fearless, too." Richard Jefferies, 1879 (Surrey)

2009

Another day of skies, high skies... Byslantedlight, 2009 (Cambs.)

2010

Cool again today, enough for gloves on my bike this morning, but not my fleece! An odd day though - it thought about raining, but didn't really, it thought about being sunny, but wasn't really. Finally it decided to go with a pretty sunset - which I just missed!
Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"In the clough (the bluebells) came in falls of sky-colour washing the brows and slacks of the ground with vein-blue." Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1871 (Lancashire)

"This is the bitterest bleakest May I ever saw... A black bitter wind violent and piercing drove from the east with showers of snow. The mountains and Clyro Hill and Cusop Hill were quite white with snow. The hawthorn bushes are white with may and snow at the same time." Francis Kilvert, 1872 (Radnorshire)

"Bluebells in Hodder wood, all hanging their heads one way. I caught as well as I could while my companinions talked the Greek righeousness of their beauty, the lovely - what people call - 'gracious' bidding one to another or all one way, the level or stage or shire of colour they make hanging in the air a foot above the grass, and a notable glare the eye may abstract and sever from the blue colour - of light beating up from so many glassy heads, which like water is good to float their deepest instress upon the mind." Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1873 (Lancashire)

2009

Another lovely morning...and the day stretched out until ten o'clock at night!
Byslantedlight, 2009 (Cambs.)

2010

A dramatic march of clouds yesterday as I drove home - from one angle they actually looked yellow-gold inside, but I was still in my car then and with no camera - bad byslantedlight. Behind them was a roiling mass of darkness...

...and even the crows perched high, and watched the edge of darkness pass by... and then the sun came out, and everything was happy-golden again, so that was alright!
Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

Sorry - here we go again with the catching up...

"Nothing but cold east winds, accompanied with sunshine... At the beginning of this month I saw fruit trees in blossom, stretched out flat against stone walls, reminding me of a dead bird nailed against the side of a barn... The east-wind feels even rawer here than in the city [Liverpool]." Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1857 (Lancashire)

2009

Another wind-swept but blue-skied day, warm and sunny and rather beautiful...and managing to be full of drama at the same time! Byslantedlight, 2009 (Cambs.)

2010

Monday was... what was Monday? Sunny, cloudy, sunny, cloudy... neither warm nor properly cold... Monday was Spring. Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"The turtles were trilling softly and deeply in the dingles as I went up the steep orchard. The grass was jewlled with cowslips and orchises. The dingle was lighted here and there with wild cherry, bird cherry, the Welsh name of which being interpreted is 'the tree on which the devil hung his mother'. The mountains burned blue in the hot afternoon." Francis Kilvert, 1870 (Radnorshire)

2009

Blossoms and bowery green walks today, in the evening when it was sunny again, and warm. I turned down a Public Bridleway that usually has a barking dog lurking loudly by the house on the corner, and found myself in this green and white and Spring-ish tunnel! There were rabbits on paths, cows and calves in fields, and a thousand tiny flies... Oh, and what looked like it had once been an absolutely huge mushroom of some kind, pale and fleshy right in the middle of the path - in Spring? Byslantedlight, 2009 (Cambs.)

2010

Was out for lunch with a friend today - and another wee friend decided to join us. She got ever so brave - that denim jacket in the second pic is being worn by first (people-type) friend!

And for weather - it was this kind of a day - grumpy looking clouds, that did nothing more than sulk and skulk and back off when the sun came out... Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

Sorry for all the catching up...

"Green gooseberries. Lapwing's eggs at the poulterers." Gilbert White, 1769 (Hampshire)

2009

The rapeseed is looking a little faded and blowsy now - I wonder what happens to it next? The lambs have quite disappeared from their field, and I can't see sight nor sound of them anywhere. There was a rabbit at least, sitting happily in the sunshine this morning...

( 2 more pics )
Byslantedlight, 2009 (Cambs.)

2010

Rain today, all day, but I went out in it anyway because I fancied some fresh air, and came to Wimpole Hall again - a square flower with raindrops, and an unusual wee flower among the tulips with a woolly jumper for the wind!

( More pics... )
This is why I like Wimpole's gardens so much though - ducks playing in the water through spring blossom, and scatterings of flowers across the grass... Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"The bloom of the fruit trees is the finest I ever saw in England. The pear-bloom is, at a distance, like that of the Guelder Rose; so large and bold are the bunches. The plum is equally fine; and even the blackthorn (which is the hedge-plum) has a bloom finer than I ever saw it have before." William Cobbett, 1823 (Surrey)

"I see how chestnuts in bloom look like big seeded strawberries." Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1874 (Surrey)

2009

Another blustery and semi-grey day, a bit cooler this time. Byslantedlight, 2009 (Cambs.)

2010

An ordinary-seeming day until I got home, when the clouds hung low, and the cloying scent of rapeseed seemed to be everywhere... Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"By the backwardness of the spring my elm trees in the rookery are uncommon backward in putting out into leaf, so that there is little or no appearance of the buds putting forth. So that to all appearance the nests are as naked as though the depths of winter, notwithstanding we have taken young rooks for a fortnight past." Richard Hayes, 1770 (Kent)

"Great showers, and hail all around. Showers of hail at a distance look of a silvery colour. Rainbow. The hanger is bursting with leaf every hour. A progress in the foliage may be discerned every morning, and again every evening." Gilbert White, 1786 (Hampshire)

"A sweet morning... The small birds are singing, lambs bleating, cuckow calling, the thrush sings by fits, Thomas Ashburner's axe is going quietly (without passion) in the orchard, hens are cackling, flies humming, the women talking together at their doors, plum and pear trees are in blossom - apple trees greenish." Dorothy Wordsworth, 1820 (Westmorland)

"First summer-feeling day... The banks are 'versed' with primroses, partly scattered, partly in plots and squats, and at a little distance shewing milkwhite or silver - little spilt till-fulls of silver. I have seen them reflected in green standing farmyard water. Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1871 (Lancashire)

2009

A day of wind that raced the clouds, and sometimes blue skies, and again balmly and somehow soft, until the night closed in again. Byslantedlight, 2009 (Cambs.)

2010

A pretty day to wander down to the polling station... sunshine and the colours of Spring. I love that you can even see the scatters of pollen on the close up of that blue flower (double-click) - does anyone know what it is, btw? Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"Shot three greenfinches, which pull off the blossoms of the polyanths." Gilbert White, 1784 (Hampshire)

"We walked in the twilight, and walked till night came on. The moon had the old moon in her arms, but not so plain to be seen as the night before. When we went to bed it was a boat without the circle." Dorothy Wordsworth, 1802 (Westmorland)

2009

Another peach and grey dawn, walking between raindrops at 6.00am, before what looked like a day of blustering winds and glowering clouds, but in fact when I went out at lunchtime, was a gorgeously balmy breeze! And still Spring blossoms to be seen...
Byslantedlight, 2009 (Cambs.)

2010

Another flatwhite day today - cool enough for a fleece on my way to work, warm enough for a t-shirt on my way back. Something happened to imbue my room with the cloyingly-sweet smell of rapeseed in flower this evening though - just a change in the wind direction, or has it suddenly burst to life in the fields? Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"The brook and Paincastle mill pond glancing like silver. A beautiful sunny afternoon and the cuckoo calling everywhere." Francis Kilvert, 1870 (Radnorshire)

2009

Dawn, grey and peach and slightly muffled. And this evening, at last, rain and wind and cold outside. Byslantedlight, 2009 (Cambs.)

2010

Colder than it seems like it should have been, though the sun came out by late afternoon, and stayed with us until it set with golden glow... Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"Cold. Morning raw and wet, afternoon fine... Cowslips capiciously colour meadows in creamy drifts. Bluebells, purple orchis. Over the green water of the river passing the slums of the town and under its bridges swallows shooting, blue and purple above and shewing their amber-tinged breasts reflected in the water." Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1866 (Oxford)

2009

Clouds and wind and blue skies and wind and clouds again today, and cooler with it...though it ended beautifully clearly.

( And a contrail-crossed moon... )

2010

Today, I went for a walk over the hill...through the forest...

And into the bluebell woods...

( And what did I find? )

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"A bright cold morning, and while the sun was yet low the shadow of one of the five poplars fell across part of the spire of another, deepening and richening the green." Francis Kilvert, 1870 (Radnorshire)

"Lovely at last; dew in Rokeby parks, and sun on budding branches. Walked up Greta bed and found Brignal churchyard with my own Madonna herb all over the little chapel. Stayed long by the altar: at least, the place where it had been; Greta murmuring through the small east window. The little piscina uninjured. The woods all jewelled through with anemone and primrose, and perfect peace everywhere." John Ruskin, 1876 (North Riding)

2009

Green and green and green. Byslantedlight, 2009 (Cambs.)

2010

Well, there's greenery under there - Little Tree Across the Road is sprouting along very happily - but today was a day of grey, though it didn't actually rain again. It just stayed grey...

And look at the difference between last year and this in an identical scene! I didn't do that on purpose, but... yes, last year was much more green!
Byslantedlight, 2010 (Cambs.)

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

"To Westminster, in the way meeting many milkmaids with their garlands upon their pails, dancing with a fiddler before them." Samuel Pepys, 1665 (London)

"The grass crisp with white frost. Tulips hang their heads in the morning, being pricked with the frost." Gilbert White, 1776 (Hampshire)

"Sunday... No service at church this morning, being under repair. A most gracious rain almost the whole night. Lord made ups thankfull for the same. All vegetation seems at the height of growing." James Woodeforde, 1796 (Norfolk)

"As soon as breakfast was over, we went into the garden, and sowed the scarlet beans about the house. It was a clear sky, a heavenly morning. I sowed the flowers, William helped me. We then went and sate in the orchard till dinner time. It was very hot. William wrote The Celandine*. Dorothy Wordsworth, 1802 (Westmorland)

"We have a cherry tree from head to foot every branch sleeved with white glossy blossom." Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1872 (Lancashire)

2009

To the fields at the top of the hill this morning, which not long ago were brown rutted earth - now brilliant with Spring cheer! Barely any mist this morning, just a bright blue sky, and new-budded trees. Byslantedlight, 2009 (Cambs.)

2010