How I spent two days

[JohnC]

These photos were taken last Monday and Tuesday.

Last Monday I went looking for wildlife in Somerset.I didn't find any. I did however happen upon a couple of attractive photo ops. I was driving along and these caught my eye so I stopped and went back. These first two are of an old church,I mean it's not used now but I thought the notice on the gate for such a building was  still inappropriate..'Keep Out' ..so I promptly 'Went In' Lol. The small waterfalls are right by the entrance gate which is only 20 paces from the building so all quite compact.It's at a  very small hamlet called Rickworth. The first two are different re. the light/sun









Next is the Brecon Mountain Railway, which we visited on Tuesday en-route to the sw coast of Wales.but unfortunately as you see in a couple of the photos, it was like being taken through a wood,very disappointing.









Next is our visit to the Mumbles (Bracelet Bay) -SW Wales. I'll leave the lady covered in the tarpaulin sheet Lol. I was photographing the gulls when I saw how funny she looked. The gulls were battling against the wind and for most of the time gave up,landed and sat on the nearby grassed area for ages. I don't really know what sort of gulls these are-not the regular Herring gulls, not black-headed..maybe Caspian. I'm not sure. The bird very close was really very close,infact I think it was this one I wondered if I'd got it as it went over my head.
I deliberately shot into the sun on the bay photo. very low.

[JohnC]

Here is the church at Blagdon Somerset.

[JohnMurphy]

Some very nice work there John.
That old church in the first two is very photogenic and Blagdon Church looks like an epic location.

[rjgjr]

Such a beautiful set of photos John, definitely a prime photo op area, as is everything I have seen from England, Ireland and Scotland. It's hard to imagine that a lot of those structures were considered old when the States were first being settled! I love what you did with the waterfall and the small gauge railroad is beautiful, even if the route it traveled isn't much to look at.
Of note, and probably nobody cares but me, I'm really into genealogy and looked up your Gloucester. My Mothers side of the family is from the area around North Petherton, Bridgwater, Somerset southwest of you, forgive me if I don't quite have that correct. They go back to about 1500 or so. My Fathers side is from Dalry, Ayrshire, Scotland far north of you, I have them back to 1700 there. back to the topic, great photos!!

[Danny Power]

Lovely images John. 

[paulster78]

More great images John, i like the effect you have created with  the water, the old church in no.1 and 2 is a great subject-i like no.2 the best because of the sunlight and shadows. Some very good Bif shots too 

[martinastro]

John, these are two excellent sets of images!, I keep going back over them again and again. I was very impressed by the first two in set 1, stunning scene with great exposure and colour, absolutely splendid 

Top marks on the castle images in set 2 also - beautiful late Summer scenes.

[JohnC]

Many thanks and much appreciated,I'm sure a lot of my  motivation is how well received our photos are on here ,we certainly see a lot of lovely photos from all over so it's educational too.

Lots of ancient building here,Richard. I think a lot of people in the  US and Canada have links here-my brother-in-law and his family live in Canada.

You're spot on Richard..I've looked at the map for North Petherton and it's just off one of our main routes into the south west, the M5 motorway and as you rightly say, just south of Bridgewater .I can take a run down there and take some photos , be interesting for you to see. I see it has quite an impressive church (more like one of our cathedrals ) so I'll check out some dates. As you'll probably know Gloucester  has a cathedral too (used to be a monastery ) and was a Roman city built in 49AD. I'm planning on going down the M5 to a  different wildlife area,I've been told there are otters there so I can include a trip to North Petherton. If you know of any particular village names  around there let me know and I'll take a few photos there.

[rjgjr]

I wouldn't make a special trip John, but if you are down that way that would be great. I don't have any other villages or towns, basically just North Petherton. All of the geneaolgy sites I frequent have the same basic information, they just might spell things different, such as sommerset, somsershire. I think down through the ages things have been misspelled and/or lost in the translation. The best thing I can do is get over there sometime to check it out for myself, and that's on my bucketlist. Thanks for your help.

[markt]

Great shots John, looks like you have been enjoying your adventures.  Thanks for sharing, always good to see!

[Danny Power]

Great shots John. Im loving the train images