Bluebells

I've loved reading all your comments about the Royal Wedding.  It's so good to have some pleasant news to dwell on - even though it ran alongside more global natural and man-made disasters.  (The devastation from the US tornadoes looks terrible.)   It's a bit hard 'coming down to earth' - but here we are, the first of May already and that's my favourite month.  And here's another thing this country does well..... bluebells.

Is there anything prettier than an English wood full of bluebells?  Or in this case an English churchyard, since it surrounds the Church of St John the Baptist in Adel, Leeds.  I tried to find an evocative quote to go with the picture, but it seems bluebells don't inspire poets, as I could only find a couple of not-very-good ones.  Isn't that strange?

I was on my way to view a little gem of a garden.... more of that later.... and the walk from the car park took me this way.  I was enchanted.  It's only a 20 minute drive from Saltaire but I had never been here before.

Easter Day

Christ is risen!..... He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Wishing you all a very happy Easter, full of sunshine - within and without.

'Fan into flame the gift of God that is in you... for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, 

but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.'  2 Timothy 6-7

Heavenly host

Things are definitely getting a bit more cheerful round here - colour is bursting onto the scene in swathes of daffodils and early blossom, with fresh green buds on the trees.  And then everything seems a bit more bearable, don't you think?

I can never decide which season brings out the best in Saltaire's lovely Victorian church.  In winter, snow can lighten up the stone work, autumn brings wonderful colour to the beech trees around it, summer means lots of visitors and fetes, with all the colour and life that brings.  And in the spring, a host of golden daffodils certainly has impact.... the church becomes the backdrop instead of the main focus.

Talking of visitors and fetes, next weekend April 15-18 sees festivities in Saltaire to mark International World Heritage Day - raising awareness of our history and the efforts needed to protect and preserve our heritage worldwide.  It's the first time this has been marked in Saltaire since the village and mill was granted World Heritage Site status in 2001.  Full information and a programme of events is available on the Saltaire Village Website.  I hope to bring you more news later!

Spring garden

A neat and simple display in a Saltaire garden - but one that brings a welcome reminder of spring.  I love the miniature daffodils.

Pause....

 

A pause to remember all those throughout the world... Japan, Australia, Libya and countless more places... whose lives have been touched by tragedy and violence in the last few days and weeks, and those, like my own dear mum, facing battles of their own.  May you know the peace of the Lord, which passes all understanding.

Purple patch

The next town along the Aire Valley from Saltaire is Bingley - quite an attractive little market town, much improved a few years ago by the building of a by-pass that diverted some of the traffic from the town centre.  I had a wander along the riverbank and through the town square and passed this bank of crocusses, such a cheering sight and a reminder that spring is on the way.  No doubt certain of my readers would have preferred to see more of the pub in the background - The Ferrands Arms, named after one of the local gentry families. (See this post for another mention of the name).  The pub serves 'real ale' and appeals largely to a late-night crowd of youngsters - or so I gather, since I don't frequent the centre of Bingley late at night, as a rule!

iPhone art

Images © David Hockney (these were originally available for free download )

David Hockney's latest exhibition in Salt's Mill in Saltaire is called 'Fresh Flowers'.  It shows paintings he has made using his iPhone and iPad.  A series of images - mostly paintings of flowers - are dramatically projected onto three large screens in a darkened gallery, so that the colours are vibrant and you can see the 'brushstrokes' ... made using his thumb and an iPhone app called 'Brushes'.

“After all, this is a medium of pure light, not ink or pigment, if anything more akin to a stained glass window than an illustration on paper.”

They do look very soft-focus, as in this photo, no doubt on account of being enlarged so much from the original iPhone size.  But the colours are wonderful, the paintings deceptively simple and - as with much modern art - you kind of feel that you might be able to create something similar, at the same time realising that really you couldn't!  (I did, however, create a very satisfying impressionistic photo made up of three of the images - only fear of litigation prevents me posting it here!!  The two above are by no means my favourites but they were available to download whereas the others are all copyrighted.)

There's an interesting article by Lawrence Wechsler from The New York Review of Books that explains this new development in Hockney's work.  One of the things I most like about David Hockney is his willingness to experiment and to embrace new technology, and I am always fascinated to hear him talk about his thought processes:

"It [ie: the iPhone] is always there in my pocket, there’s no thrashing about, scrambling for the right color. One can set to work immediately, there’s this wonderful impromptu quality, this freshness, to the activity; and when it’s over, best of all, there’s no mess, no clean-up. You just turn off the machine. Or, even better, you hit Send, and your little cohort of friends around the world gets to experience a similar immediacy. There’s something, finally, very intimate about the whole process."

(The artist David Hockney was born in Bradford, studied at Bradford College of Art and currently lives on the Yorkshire coast at Bridlington.  Salt's Mill in Saltaire holds a large collection of his work.)

Peace on earth

Peace on earth..... seems to be a good thing to wish for at the start of another New Year.  Though in my photo, the dove seems to have got into a tangle with the floral decoration, which is perhaps not the best omen! Certainly peace on earth seems as far away as ever.  But I like to think we bloggers are doing our bit to foster friendly relations across the globe.  I dip into a lot of blogs, from all over the world, and I really enjoy getting an insight into people, places, families, festivals, customs and life in general in the many places pictured and represented.  I'm looking forward to another year of sharing my little patch of England with you.

I took this photo on Christmas Day in my church, St Peter's Shipley, which as usual was beautifully decorated for the festive season.  As someone with not a green finger on my body (!) I can only admire those with the skill to create such lovely and imaginative displays.

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy, prosperous, healthy, fulfilling - and yes, peaceful - 2011.

Flowers at No 30

Cheerful flowers to brighten up another Monday.  I am always surprised by how quickly the weekend disappears and another week comes round.  Had to smile at my daughter's Tweet not so long ago: "Oh no, not Ctrl/Alt/Delete again!"   I don't know if all PCs open up like that (I have an iMac at home and it's different) but I start up my networked PC at work like that every morning and apparently she does too!  Ah well, hope your week goes swimmingly - enjoy!

Looking glass

As autumn continues apace, with gales and rain here, I look back a few weeks to a more tranquil day when the sun shone and the canal was like glass.  You might fantasise a lovely young woman sitting in this window, brushing her hair in the reflection in the water.  Actually it is not a home but an office, just outside Saltaire village at Salts Wharf.  The workers have a nice outlook, don't they? The window is at canal boat level and in the summer there is much passing traffic on the water.  The bright yellow flowers are just a weed, I think, a crucifer of some kind perhaps.

This is my entry for Weekend Reflections.  Click the link for more beautiful and interesting photos on the same theme.

Eye candy

I don't know what it is about all these pinks and greens but they're such a soothing sight. Dove Cottage garden is a photographer's paradise but none of my photos do justice to this delightful place. I've lived in this area for many years and I hadn't heard of it until my friend told me about it. I was glad I'd made time to visit. Being herbaceous, its beauty peaks in July/early August - so I must remember to go again next year.

Lavender and pink

Dove Cottage garden again - lavender and pink make such a pretty colour combination. I don't actually know what the pink one is, but it was pretty. I make no apologies for filling my blog this week with flowers. I'm seeking some inner peace... just having one of those weeks...!

"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things..... And the God of peace will be with you." Philippians 4:8

Watering can with pansies

Another pretty little corner in Dove Cottage garden. I've always liked these old-fashioned galvanised watering cans - the plastic ones have no soul!

Dove Cottage garden

Another day out... but this time south of Saltaire, towards Halifax, to an area known as the Shibden Valley. It's an attractive green space, slipped in between the urban sprawl of the city of Bradford and the gritty industrial town of Halifax and close to where Sir Titus Salt had his home at Crow Nest. I was on my way to visit Shibden Hall, but first (on a friend's recommendation) I stopped off at Dove Cottage Nursery. You wouldn't know it was there, but it has a lovely 'secret' enclosed garden, full of herbaceous plants that are at their peak in July and early August. The strategically placed benches were ideal for sitting and contemplating Nature's bounty. I was enthralled by the drifts of mauve and the feathery grasses. They looked like pink mist.

Red and Green

These pinky red flowers are everywhere at the moment - bursting out of gardens, brightening up wasteland. I'm not too sure what they are - possibly Red Valerian - but they are very country-cottagey and looked pretty tumbling through this green fence on Dallam Avenue, just outside the boundaries of the Saltaire World Heritage Site.

Advance Notice: The Saltaire Festival & Arts Trail 2010 takes place from 9th to 19th September. See the Festival website and the Arts Trail website for full details. One of the attractions this year will be a re-enactment of the grand opening of Roberts Park as it took place in 1871: "Nearly a thousand children from the three Saltaire primary schools - St Walburga’s, Wycliffe and Saltaire Primary - dressed in Victorian costume will gather in Roberts Park, where actors will re-enact the original opening of what was then called Saltaire Park by Sir Titus Salt and members of his family in 1871." Doesn't that sound fun?

(Of course, your intrepid correspondent will be covering as much of the Festival as I can, and reporting back in words and pictures.)

In the pink

It's the height of the season for roses and even in the smallest Saltaire garden there is room for this exuberance of pink.

Bracken

No trip to Ilkley Moor is complete without a photo of one of the most prolific moorland plants - Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum). It is at its most attractive at this time of year, when the new fronds are just unfurling like a baby's fist. (Apparently in some parts of the world the young shoots - appropriately named 'fiddleheads' - are eaten as a vegetable, even though the plant is carcinogenic!) I can remember studying the life cycle of ferns at school - and very wonderful and complex it is too.
As to my photo, I was quite pleased with this one. I use a bridge camera rather than a DSLR, and it's hard to get a nice blurry background. You need low light and to trick it into thinking you're taking a portrait! So here is my portrait of a bracken frond!

Wisteria & honeysuckle

Floral delights in Ilkley are not confined to the public displays in the town centre. On the road up to the moor, there are some beautiful old houses (my dream homes). I spotted this lovely arch of wisteria and honeysuckle over a door.

These are spacious, double-fronted houses dating back to the early 1800s.

This one is currently for sale - a six bedroomed, stone-built terraced house... a snip at £675,000 (€814,000)! If you can't afford that but want the experience, The Rombalds Hotel is in the same terrace, so you could perhaps have a weekend break there instead.

Floral display

Ilkley is renowned for having wonderful floral displays. It has several times won the annual Britain in Bloom competition, in the category 'Town'. The last time was in 2004, I think. Even the local 'Pizza Express' has lovely hanging baskets and these make a welcoming sight when you arrive in the town by train, as the restaurant is adjacent to the rail station. You can sit outside on this covered terrace to eat your pizza (though I'm not sure I like the plastic roof!)

[As others are reporting too, I have comments but the number is not showing. You can still read them if you click on the comments tag, I think. And thanks to all who are commenting :-) I love reading them.]

Trench Meadows

It's hard to believe, but these meadows are almost next door to the new Titus Salt School (see yesterday). Between the school and the site of Milner Field, on the edge of Shipley Glen, lies an area of ancient woodland and meadow. It is very close to Saltaire itself - if you click my photo to make it larger, you can see the tower of Saltaire's Victoria Hall (and St Paul's church tower too). All this land used to belong to the Salt estate.

These particular fields - Trench Meadows - are a protected SSSI - a Site of Special Scientific Interest - since 1999. That means they are of national significance: 4.7 hectares of lowland meadow, a nationally rare habitat. They are south facing, on boulder clay deposits overlying Millstone Grit, forming 'unimproved species-rich neutral grassland'. I think that means the fields have never been cultivated and are kept short by grazing. They have some particular types of grasses and herbs including Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) and Devil's Bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis) and some orchids too, I think.

It really doesn't look much at first glance - I have walked this way several times, thinking it an attractive area but not realising its significance. (In fact, some friends recently told me about it.) But it makes my heart sing to find an SSSI on my doorstep, and to know that there are people who are passionate to save and even improve these areas. It is listed as 'recovering', which means there is a management plan in place that should see the area slowly improve to its optimum state. That makes me happy!