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Shillingham’s south-facing fields roll their way to the historic tidal shores of the River Lynher, just a few miles from the sea. This creates a unique micro-climate with little frost and a very early Spring. Ideal for a vineyard.
Shillingham has been a working farm for four centuries. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was a dairy farm and in more recent years a beef, arable and lamb business.
However, Shillingham’s micro-climate has often made traditional farming practices challenging. Winter can be wild, Spring comes early, Autumn can linger and Summer can be very hot.
Shillingham is home to a stretch of Brunel’s original London-Penzance railway, which wound its way across the creeks and inlets of South Cornwall. After its construction, Shillingham became a major producer of vegetables, such as, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli, turnips, and cauliflower. which could be in London within 24 hours of harvest.
Shillingham’s proximity to the river meant that it was also at the centre of the busy marine trade. Vessels carrying stone destined for Plymouth and London passed East by its foreshores, and those returning West stopped to off-load their “dock-dung”. This was the manure from the naval dockyard at Royal William Yard and later Devonport.
The dock dung contained a wealth of broken pottery and old, thick glass, much of which was uncovered during the vineyard’s soil preparation. It is now being transformed into a mosaic map of the vineyard.
The idea of a vineyard at Shillingham was first conceived in 1604 when Richard Carew of Antony published “A Survey of Cornwall”. Having previously travelled across Europe on an anthropological tour of discovery, he returned home and mused why nobody had tried to grow vines on the shores of the Lynher as its climate and soil seemed perfectly suited. 500 years later, in Spring 2021 preparation of the land and planting of the vines began.
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FOTF = Freestyle on the Fifth, a themed challenge of the FFF+ group. This month the theme is Summertime as chosen by Laszlo.
The warm season always brings the sun worshipping masses to our coastline. I must admit, I love the sea, sand, salt, but not in the middle of a hot day. I much prefer our beautiful beaches at sunrise (although not much chance of me making a sunrise) or sunset (more civilised).
Of course, summer always brings drought and fire, and occasionally flood, thanks to northern cyclones. It's a country of extremes - becoming more extreme as the climate shifts up a gear - but our watery border is always there to swim in, gaze at and float on. Let's hope we all manage to keep it as pristine as we can.
I haven't been shooting much lately for various reasons, so I had to choose one from the archives (I hope Laszlo doesn't mind), but I have so many photos in my archives of beaches that it wasn't too difficult.
This Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) photo was taken at Bronte Beach, Sydney.
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A female Blackbird 'sunning' in the garden earlier. Had to Google the behaviour as I thought it was sick at first...
No-one knows for certain the reasons birds do this and several theories have been proposed. However, sunning would appear to perform two separate functions: maintaining the bird's feathers in good condition, and helping to regulate it's temperature. There is even a suggestion that they do it simply because they enjoy it!
Catching the Sun
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Photo by: Iain Merchant Photography (www.iainmerchant.com)
Sunrise this morning at Downhill Beach looking towards Mussenden Temple.
Mussenden Temple is a small circular building located on cliffs near Castlerock in County Londonderry, high above the Atlantic Ocean on the north-western coast of Northern Ireland.
It was built in 1785 and forms part of the estate of Frederick Augustus Hervey, the 4th Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Derry. Built as a library and modelled from the Temple of Vesta in Italy, it is dedicated to the memory of Hervey's cousin Frideswide Mussenden.
Over the years the erosion of the cliff face at Downhill has brought Mussenden Temple ever closer to the edge, and in 1997 the National Trust carried out cliff stabilisation work to prevent the loss of the building.
The inscription around the building reads, "Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem." "Tis pleasant, safely to behold from shore / The troubled sailor, and hear the tempests roar." The quotation is from Lucretius De Rerum Natura, 2.1-2
Now part of the National Trust property of Downhill Estate & Mussenden Temple, the grounds encompassing Mussenden Temple, and its manor house (Downhill Castle) are open to the public all year, from dawn to dusk. The temple itself is open on certain days, and admission is free. The Temple offers views westwards over Downhill Strand towards Magilligan Point and County Donegal and to the east Castlerock beach towards Portstewart, Portrush and Fair Head.
The temple obtained a licence to hold civil wedding ceremonies in 2007.
Cool halo around the sun today. added saturation and played with levels in CS2 for a more dramatic effect.
Sun rays seem to diverge from the tree canopy and cast beautiful shadows on a frosted field of grass on a winter morning.
I almost missed the sunset because they www.flickr.com/photos/noracarol/3444950812/in/photostream/ me to capture their pic. I'm overly friendly sometimes :)
This is vertorama by the way and shoot with gnd attached to the lens. Most of my sunset shots was taken with the filters, cos i wanted the foreground to be clearly seen in the picture though i do admit that I've plenty of failed shot (most of the time) hehe