The Old Mill, Fountains Abbey

On Saturday I went to Fountains Abbey, a fantastic National Trust property. Featuring an Abbey in ruins, a wonderful water gardens, a water mill and a river, to say it was picturesque would be an understatement. Needless to say, there will be a few pictures from this site on this blog in the next few days.

This particular image is of the old mill, used by monks to produce grain. It also shows the outer wall, and the house just over from the river. The site was full of interesting objects-I hope you like the picture as much as I liked being there.

Comments, as always, much appreciated.

Plasma Gun Flower

I don't know why, but when I look at this image, it makes me think of a plasma gun disguised as a flower. Okay, maybe I watch too much TV, but it's just got that look...

More info: It's an unidentified plant (perhaps you can help?) that I saw in the garden at Wallington House, a National Trust property. I think it looks absolutely awesome, it's colours are great and the way it's half open, half closed really caught my eye.

Comments, as always, much appreciated.

The River Nidd at Knaresborough

Let me tell you, first of all, about this great app for the N95 called Panoman. It uses the camera to take a series of pictures-going, for example, from left to right-then stitch them together to make a panoramic shot. It's with that fantastic app that I've taken this picture.

So we're in Knaresborough visiting Old Mother Shipton's cave. It's okay, but not fantastic. The scenery, river and views round about, however, are amazing. After strolling along the river for a while, we came to a waterside cafe, where I had a most delicious chocolate milkshake, and my wife had a jam and cream scone that was so nice that the local wasps wanted to get in on the action...

It was from this vantage point, at a crease in the River Nidd, that I took the above shot. Now, I haven't yet been able to get onto the PC to check out the resolution and image quality, but from the screen of the Nokia N95 it's looking good... We've got the river, boats, trees and more. What do you think?

Comments, as always, much appreciated.

Oh, and one more thing... I've got something VERY EXCITING to say... So check back tomorrow for that!

The Walled Garden

First of all, I must apologise for my last post. The image quality was awful, but I only realised that once I saw the image at full resolution. Hopefully, this one will be better...

This is the walled garden at Wallington House. It was fantastic, and I'll be adding some of the flowers that I took photos of later.

This was a scene that I managed to snap from on top of the wall,overlooking the garden. I thought that the colours were beautiful, and the arrangement of the garden was fantastic.

Comments, as always, much appreciated.

The Gnarled Bark

I took this picture at Wallington House, near Morpeth, Northumberland, on Wednesday.

Wallington House is a National Trust property, and the house is really nice. But the grounds are nicer...

This image was snapped on the way to the walled garden. It hasn't come out as well as I wanted it to-but I must admit, I was in a hurry, and didn't really take any time in getting the shot ready. I just whipped out the old Nokia N95, snapped, and left. Reminds me of that joke about the panda... Anyway...

Comments, as always, much appreciated.

Alnwick Garden Tree House

So you all know by now that I went to Alnwick Garden on Monday. One of the big attractions there is the tree house.

Now, this isn't a tree house in the conventional sense. It's huge. By huge, I mean MASSIVE. It's got it's own restaurant, that's how big it is.

There are swing bridges to get from one area to another. If you think of the Ewok village in Star Wars, you're getting there.

So it was only right that I capture this image. It in no way does justice to the sheer scale and awesomeness of it, but I think you'll get the idea...

Comments, as always, much appreciated.

Planet Flower

This gorgeous flower was in the grounds of Alnwick Castle. I don't know what it is, so if anyone can identify it, I would be much obliged.

I was amazed at the spherical spikes, and it reminded me of those jazzy 3D wallpapers that you can download. I think I may have found my new background image...

Comments, as always, much appreciated.

Erupting Water

Here's another shot that I took at Alnwick Gardens when there on Monday. There are quite a few water features within the grounds, apart from the main water displays.

This one I found just off the main walkway. It was a constant jet of water and I thought it looked fab.

As I took out the Nokia N95, I wondered how best to capture the image. I decided that sports mode should allow the most detail, so that's what the resulting image is. I hope you like it!

Comments, as always, much appreciated.

95 and Still Smiling!

I just thought I'd share with you this picture of my 95 year old grandmother-in-law. She was born in 1914 and has seen lots of changes in her lifetime!

She doesn't like having her picture taken, so I had to slyly angle the Nokia N95 to get this fab shot, at a coffee shop in Alnwick Gardens on Monday. Of course, I did show her it afterwards, and she was quite impressed. What do you think?

Comments, as always, much appreciated.

Statue in the Garden

This is another shot from the Alnwick Garden trip that I took on Monday. This was just before we entered the Rose Garden. I'm not sure of the meaning of the statue, or whether it's something new or slightly antiquated, but I thought it looked really cool.

Notice the detail on the second image of the monkey!

Comments, as always, much appreciated.

Leafy Walkway

I was at Alnwick Gardens on Monday-what a fantastic place. The water fountains, the maze, the Poison Garden-with Home Office approved Cannabis-and this, a simple corridor with ivy growing all over it.

I took loads of snaps on the Nokia N95 at Alnwick, so I'll be uploading them here asap.

Comments, as always, much appreciated.