Sailing Away

First light

A Raft of Apples is heading south and when I run out of England at Portsmouth onto the ferry to France.  

I return in the first week of September hopefully full of French patisserie, pictures and memories.

"Such a day is it is when time

piles up the hill like pumpkins

and the streams run golden"

(Laurie Lee)

 

ABC Wednesday - Elements

 Coniston Water

The elements as described in ancient and medieval philosophy were earth, air, fire and water from which they considered all other substances were composed. Later a fifth element was added called quintessence, or quinta essentia, supposed by Aristotle to permeate everything.  Well this is the quintessence of a  hot and sunny Sunday when people head for the water. They were 'in their element', sailing and swimming. although the boy at the bottom of the photo was not quite prepared for how icy cool a lake fed by mountain streams can be and was heading for shore. He shared his experience with us as he came ashore .

An aerial and elegant master of the elements, the golden ringed dragonfly (cordulegaster boltonii) who lives by mountain streams and heathland, I tried to get closer but the crunch on the rocky path alerted it and it resumed its patrol up and down the the bracken and stream .

Kikby Moor

Earth, air and water all in one picture. The spinning wind turbines on wet moorland and gathering clouds, we were 'braving the elements' on this walk last week.

That leaves one element left, fire,

 Broughton in Furness

no flames here though, because there are 10 retained fire-fighters to put them out, and on the left is their training tower. Retained fire-fighters are people who have full time jobs but are on call and when that call comes are ready to drop everything to become part of a team to fight the element of fire.

Time to take a canoe out of its element and natural environment where it glides through the water carrying its passengers, to four people carrying in onto the solid earth, dry land.  The end of an enjoyable day on the water.  Time for home.

Eager to see more of the participants of ABC Wednesday and what words they have envisaged beginning with E?  Then visit here.

Saturday Mix - Old

No problem about guessing the age of this pub its on the door frame and the sign, 1691.  The Ship Inn only open three days of the week, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. What do the folk in the village of  Kirkby in Furness do the rest of the week?   No problem, there is another pub open all week at the other end of this street, but not as old as this one.

Shannara's Saturday Mix photomeme whose prompt this week is Old (Gammal)

ABC Wednesday - Dock

Looks nice enough to be a swimming pool, down the ladder, splash, so cooling on a hot day. Not wishing to dampen any enthusiasm but it is a darkling dock.  This is the old entrance to the Victorian graving dock or dry dock which is now a museum.  If I had pointed my camera the other way and not been mesmerised by all the blue then I could have shown you the building.  I also discovered when I was about to post this that I have never taken any pictures of it, inside or out, a dearth of images, I must declare I'm discombobulated..  So lets not dally here and walk further on round the corner to the home of
a handful of fishing vessels who tie up at this dockside on the Walney Channel.  The letters BW on the side indicate that Barrow is its Port of Registration.

The only other vessel docked on this day, the houses of Walney Island in the distance.  What else denotes a fishing dock, well perhaps

nets and of course

 seagulls, no coastal town is without its Herring Gulls, which despite its name has a catholic diet with some regional variations but essentially an opportunist eater.  Wonder what its got its eye on here.

Drop in at ABC Wednesday where there will be many different posts of words starting with D

Gardeners

"There is no spot of ground, however arid, bare or ugly, that cannot be tamed into such a state as may give an impression of beauty and delight" - Gertrude Jekyll

 

ABC Wednesday - Clouds

The fluffy cumulus clouds of June.  I'll start here because it is my favourite month, everything is newly green, the field flowers are in profusion, birds are in full song and bees are on the wing.  A time to celebrate.  A path has been cut through the long grass in the grounds of Eccles Rigg

and the groundsman has cultivated his art of mowing stripes. Cumulus humilis in the sky, clouds that are wider than they are tall.

The same June weekend but on top of the Coniston fells with streaks of cirrocumulus clouds which live at a higher altitude than the fluffy cumulus.

Early June, after a deluge, what were cumulonimbus clouds, the heart of every thunderstorm , we watched as the weather swirl around stopping by this cairn coming down from the Nine Standards (much more impressive cairns than this but I may save them for a N or an S week). The same day a walker was struck by lightning near here. Ay caramba

April showers on the River Kent as it flows through Kendal seemed benign by comparison.

Oh for a summer's day, changeable weather isn't it. No worries they are only gathering cumulus congestus , tops like cauliflowers, gathering over Coniston Water 

Winter, mid level altocumulous clouds, sometimes called cloudlets, by the coast the 'new' Hodbarrow lighthouse built in 1905, turned off in 1949, restored and relit in 2003, solar powered with a flashing white LED light visible for 12 miles.

Enough at looking up at the clouds lets look down at them. Inversion covering the Irish Sea as we stood on the top of  Black Combe looking out to the Isle of Man on a beautiful February day.

I am the daughter of earth and water,

And the nursling of the sky;

I pass through the pores of oceans and shores

I change, but cannot die:

(from The Cloud by Percy Bysshe Shelley)

Catch up with what other contributors to ABC Wednesday are conversing about using the letter C