Winter on the Cam

Yesterday felt like winter on a walk along the Cam. Parties of workers were out clearing up the banks. Lots of derelict punts and bicycles removed from the river.

CRUFC Lose 17-20 in Hard-Fought Game

CRUFC were narrowly beaten in a tough match yesterday against second in the table Old Ethamians. These from jpegs shot at 4000 iso in very poor light but hopefully give a feel of the game.

Wimpole Hall, the National Trust and the Oak Leaf

 The National Trust chose the oak leaf as its symbol in 1932 - they ran a competition to find a design but as nothing was suitable they asked six designers to submit designs based on either an English lion, the rose, or the oak to represent English heritage.  The winning design was by artist Joseph Armitage (1880-1945).   Wimpole Estate has some fine oak trees including a narrow-leaved one near the Folly with an impressive spread.
The Church at Wimpole (not part of the NT property) has a long building history including refurbishment in the 19th Century in Gothic style, which incorporates many carvings of Oak leaves and Acorns along with other symbols of the church. The oak tree has been held in high esteem throughout history including the Greeks and Romans. The Druids frequently worshipped in oak groves (the word Druid was probably a Gaelic derivation of their word for oak, Duir, and meant men of the oaks). The spiritual appreciation of oak did not cease with the advent of Christianity and the Oak/Acorn symbol is commonly used.

 

Multiexposures at Canon's Ashby Church

With time to spare and the rain falling heavily outside, I decided to play around with the multiexposure on my camera. Unlike the Canon with its very advance multi feature with the ability to do many shots with different blending modes, the Fuji only does two and in a basic blend mode. So here a few that I liked. Interested the way in the second image my eye sees the 'reflection' as embossed (top part) and original as concave. The sixth image is a single shot - reflection in a glass case, the next two are 90 degree rotations and the last two combinations of subject and a texture. I think the fly in the 7th shot was on the glass table reflected and not present in the horizontal shot.

 

Canon's Ashby Priory Church

Canon's Ashby all but disappeared in the 14th century, due to the Black Death and land enclosures. The church of St Mary the Virgin is the ony remaining part of the cathedral-scale priory church built in the late 12th century from brown ironstone as part of a large estate now owned by the National Trust. As the main Manor house is closed on a Tuesday, I sheltered from the rain inside the church -here a few straight shots (next blog some more creative images)