Ashby Canal

We are staying near Mallory Park for the Historic Bike Racing meet tomorrow. I took a walk along the canal after a day sitting at a meeting. Originally intended as a connection between the Coventry Canal and the River Trent (which it failed to reach), the Ashby Canal was constructed lock-free and served the coalfields around Moira and Measham.  The last image shows the former Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway. It served the village of Higham on the Hill, closed in 1931 to passengers but goods continued to pass through until 1962 when the line was closed.

Royston Heath Pasque Flowers

We made our annual pilgrimage to Royston Heath to see the Pasque flowers late yesterday afternoon. Not the best conditions as very windy so focus stacks were difficult/ A very good year in terms of numbers of flowers though they have been damaged by the frosts and winds.

Boscombe Beach at Dusk

A beautiful evening for photography on my final evening in Dorset on Sunday - these are a timed set of images taken looking approximately west  towards the sunset (left image) and towards the east (right image) as darkness fell and a small crescent moon rose. In the last image the Needles lighthouse on the Isle of Wight can be seen on the righthand side.

Boscombe Pier

For our last evening in Dorset, we visited Boscombe as the sun went down and the lights came on  (images in approximate order of taking except the last taken before the pier illuminations). The pier lights give a lot of downward illumination so produced images under and around the pier that were very colourful. The pier has a very long history of failures from the first pier in 1889 to the present pier. Hopefully this one will stay structurally sound for a good many years. 

New Forest Beetle and Birds

A walk along the disused railway at Burbush produced a variety of birds and this intriguing Whirligig beetle, which apparently has two pairs of eyes - one to see above water and the other to see under the water. The Goldcrest was in very dark conditions but the bright head flash showed up fairly well.

Stanpit Marsh, Christchurch

Sunday started with clear skies and temperatures of minus 4 degrees so there was still ice around when we walked around Stanpit Marsh near Christchurch. Lovely large clumps of March Marigolds plus a few species of birds and even one hoverfly.