Friday My Town Shoot-out - spires, steeples and weathervanes.

As usual I have been very naughty and interpreted 'My Town' as virtually the whole of mainland Britain though the above one is just down the road - at Eastham on the Wirral.  Hopefully my cheating will be forgiven.  As can be told by the state of some of the photos they are from my archives asnd the dirty appearance of some is because they were scanned in from slides and I failed to clean the slides properly.  Silly me.

This one is My Town - Liverpool.

Exeter Cathedral in Devon has lots of towers and spires. 

This little church is at Altcar on Merseyside, not far from Liverpool.

Another Wirral church - Capenhurst.

This slide is labelled as Deerhurst Church in Gloucestershire but it isn't.  It was taken on that Cotswold cycling holiday, in 1965, but I've labelled it wrongly.  I wonder where it was?

How's this for an unusual spire - Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire.

And here is an octagonal spire at Fifield in Oxfordshire.

And, of course, I had to include a weathercock - this one is just down the road at Thurstaston on the Wirral.

If you would like to see what spires, steeples and weathervanes other members of the gang have found please click on this FMTSO link.

Friday My Town Shoot-out - Bring on the Green

 
It's St Patrick's Day tomorrow so it has been suggested we bring on the green.  Whether this is your favourite day of the year, you couldn’t care less or you are somewhere in between, I hope you are enjoying the fact that in the Northern hemisphere Spring seems to be on its way!   So here are some FMTSO shots from Cheshire in England.

I couldn''t find any green cows but they love our green Cheshire grass which contributes to our lovely Cheshire cheese.

Thornton Hough (on the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire) has a beautiful green cricket pitch.

And our local Mallard drakes are getting their shiny green heads to attract Mrs Mallard.

It's not quite Shamrock - it's Wood Sorrel.

Not a native species - the Red-tailed Racer - but you can find it in Chester Zoo.

Where I also found this Plumed Basilisk

and this Golden-capped Conure.

And finally I had to find the wearing of the green - A self-portrait of Anton Raphael Mengs in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, in next-door Lancashire.

If you would like to see how other members of the gang have brought on the green  please click on this FMTSO link.  (Apologies if the link doesn't appear to have been put on yet by the team.  In fairness they do a brilliant job and it is run by volunteers who are human and prone to illness, etc. as opposed to robots who are prone to being erratic for no good reason!)

Friday My Town Shoot-out – Path, steps and walkways

Just a couple this week - but for a change they are within a mile or two of home - Pensby on the Wirral, UK.

This is a pathway through the herb garden in the walled garden of Royden Park.

Heswall Dales is a local beauty spot where people enjoy the footpaths and plenty of people take their dogs for a walk.

A bridle path in Heswall Dales.

I hope you have a good week, walking your pathways and please be careful on the steps. For more FMTSO bloggers and their take on 'Paths, steps and walkways' please visit this link.

Friday My Town Shoot-out – Motion

I'm back - hopefully my postings for FMTSO will be a bit more reliable again.

This week's theme is Motion. I've interpreted 'my town' rather liberally and these were shot throughout England.

Fomula One - Nigel Mansell, Ferrari - Silverstone, 1990s.

Benetton (I think it's Thierry Boutsen driving) - Silverstone, 1990s.

Gigi Fernandez, Wimbledon semi-finals, 1995

 

Amateur show-jumper - Liverpool Show, 1960s

 

Bonfire Night, Liverpool, 1960s or early 70s.

Mersey Tunnel entrance early 1970s.

As you can see from the dates I've had to dig deep for these.  Hopefully next week's will be more local and more recent.  For more FMTSO bloggers please visit this link.

Friday My Town Shoot-out

I nearly didn't do this week's FMTSO post but in the end I couldn't resist the challenge.

The theme is 'Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue' and was set by Mark.

For something old I chose this 150 year old wall at Arrowe Park near where I live on the Wirral in Cheshire, UK.

But when you look a bit closer it is rather older than a century and a half. This sandstone itself was laid down somewhere in the Permian (280 million years ago) or the beginning of the Triassic (240 million years ago) Periods.

For something new I couldn’t resist using lambs. This is a little Balwen Sheep lamb with its mum.

And these are Lleyn Sheep that have escaped from their mums to have a play.

Here is something borrowed. This is where I get philosophical (as Mark has done). The wood and iron that form this wheel have been borrowed from the earth. Eventually they will crumble back into the earth. It is as well if we remember that everything we take from the earth is only borrowed and it is to be hoped we don't damage it too much on its route back there.

Initially I thought I might cheat for something blue and show a cow - they often look so sad with their downturned mouths.

Instead, for something blue I have turned to one of my favourite themes, pillar boxes. In 1930 special blue-liveried Air-Mail boxes appeared but they only lasted until 1938 after which they reverted to red or disappeared. This one in Windsor is no longer in use but survives as a piece of street furniture in that heritage conscious town.

I hope you enjoyed my response to Mark's challenge and to see what else folk have found for FMTSO this week visit the link here.

Friday My Town Shoot-out - Sweets

The Friday My Town Shoot-out this week is "Show us sweets in your town". I struggled with this. I looked around and found a couple of rather old Mint Imperials.

I couldn't even go down to Heswall and do some shopping. The old sweet shop closed down a couple of years ago...

Fortunately the famous Moffat Toffee Shop is still going.

But it is a long way from me.

So I looked around for other forms of sweet things!  I found some Sweet Peas.

We also have that wonderful tree the Sweet Chestnut.

 We even have a sweet weed - Sweet Alison.

 In the Scottish town of Dunkweld thwere is even a bookshop called Sweet Words.

While Liverpoool has a Sweeting Street:-

 ButI have to finish with one of my favopiurite flowers.  The Sweet Violet.

To see what other folk have found that's sweet in their towns please click on this link.