Xystus

On a sunny midday in April (which as it turned out was warmer than any day in May) I took a walk around Holker Hall formal gardens and along this path under a tree canopied garden walk - a xystus.

 Here one of the excellent gardeners who keep the gardens looking immaculate making her way, bag in hand, between the xystus

If one takes some steps back amongst the forget-me-nots and tulips (and the bare branches of the willow leaf pear tree) then in the distance can be spotted a gateway

which leads out from the formality of the the manicured gardens and into the meadows. The mown pathway

leads eventually to a sundial.  In the synchronism of ABC Wednesday it was exactly one year ago I featured it here because of its Roman numeral X. 

The Holker Hall gardens are near the garage I take my car to for its annual service so they make a nice diversion to while away the time (while hoping nothing expensive is wrong with the car). If you noticed that in my second photo the planters were empty it is because image was from 2014 when the gardeners were finished with Spring and getting ready for the next planting. There is always something to delight the eye in the gardens so here is this year's April planter.

and one of the many x factor plants in giant bushes and trees that people come to see in May and June

     When the azaleas and rhododendrons are in full exuberant flower. 

An entry to  ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at X here

  

Engine Inn

This pub sign is certainly a work of art.  The inn is 17th Century so in contrast to that the scene is modern. I would image that the original meaning of The Engine Inn might refer to a beer engine, one that pumped the beer up through the pumps from the cellar. But this sign is appropriate because for past 4 decades in the nearby Cark Airfield there is a Steam Gathering with vintage steam vehicles used in agriculture, industry and on roads.

An entry to Signs, Signs

Jumping

Jumping out and descending

Wind pressing, breath expending

Ground and tress into view

Floating down, two by two

The prompt of Theme Thursday this week is - Jump.  

The photographs are of tandem skydivers at the Cark Airfield.  Harnessed to an instructor the thrill of free-fall from 14,500 feet can be experienced for first time jumpers. Gift certificates available; don't buy me one. I was gasping for breath on a sudden (and mere) 400 foot drop via bosun's chair into a cave once.

ABC Wednesday - Umbrageous

Umbrageous - shady or forming a shadow.  This path will not look like this now for we have had another three snow falls since this picture was taken in November.  Even though all the leaves have fallen the slanting winter light means that the

trees still throw their shade.  There is still lots more of winter to come and when we pass the shortest day the saying goes "as the days lengthen the cold strengthens",  brrr.  I hope not, temperatures have plummeted well below zero this month. But the world turns and soon Spring will arrive    

and those plants that thrive in umbrageous conditions such as bluebells

which this year appeared later than usual due an unusually lingering winter. Worth the wait.  A walk through woods at bluebell time is undeniably an onslaught of the senses of sight and smell.
Sometimes unexpected things can be found in the depths of the umbrageous forest

such as a megalithic tomb, Roche aux Fées, hidden in the middle of the woods near Essé in northern France. A large partitioned chamber and an entrance oriented roughly towards the rising sun of the winter solstice. Its purpose unknown and unfathomable to us, lost in time, but thousands of year ago later this month the sun would strike through to this wooded clearing illuminating the chamber.  Perhaps they left their dogs behind to guard the village
 

today they enjoy themselves going for walks and this one finds the tiniest of shade from the information sign which is giving a little bit of umbrage.  Interesting how words change. The noun, unlike the adjective, is hardly ever used in this way.  It is considered an archaic usage.  Nowadays one takes umbrage rather than finding it on a sunny day.

Undeniably more interesting words starting with U can be found at ABC Wednesday