Tag Archives: Glastonbury

Architecture, art, Colour, flower, Glastonbury, history, Light, Nature, People, Photography, Religion, story, Wildlife, work

9 in 45: 26th December 2020

1 January 2021 ckponderings 2 Comments

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I’m well overdue for another photographic wandering, so it’s time for another “9 in 45” shoot. I tied this in with a Boxing Day walk, dodging showers and working off some of those festive calories!

The idea of the project is to set out on a walk with a phone/stopwatch and your camera. Set your stopwatch for five minutes and start walking. When the five minutes is up, stop walking. You have a minute to compose and take a photograph. Set your stopwatch for another five minutes and start walking. When the time is up, stop and, within a minute take and compose your second photo. Keep going until you have walked for 45 minutes and have nine photos.

So, the nine photos…

I freely admit that these photographs are not my finest work. I put it down to my general excitement of actually being out of the house!

Spring seems to be coming early this season – particularly given that we are only just past the Winter Solstice… Someone has forgotten to tell the daffodils, crocuses (or croci) and this forsythia…

The worst photo of the bunch by far… This was a definite hit-and-run shot, and that shows in its blurriness. There were people walking towards me, and I didn’t want to offend the person whose front door this was!

Ahem… Moving on, then…

I couldn’t take photos during the festive season without a nativity scene of some sort… I am not sure exactly what sort of nativity scene this is, though… Angel Gabriel looks a little misshapen…

A bit further down the road, and the crest above the door to another of the churches in Glastonbury. The insignia is that of Richard Bere, a 16th century abbot from the nearby Abbey.

It has been a particularly damp winter so far, with clear days interspersed with others of consistent rain or torrential downpours. Water, therefore, had to feature!

Picture six, and something a bit more abstract. Walking along, my eye was initially caught by the lettering, but the discarded bottle top added a nice additional dimension to the shot.

Glastonbury is not a large town, and the countryside is never too far away.

Walking along the main road, houses lie to one side, while Wearyall Hill is on the other. (Usually with a lot more sheep on it…)

It was a drab Boxing Day, as I have alluded to, and, on a day when the light didn’t exactly help the photographer, a brown-leafed hedge seemed to sum up the possibilities available..

Last of the nine photos, then, and another expanse of countryside. I am extremely lucky to live where I do, where are amenities are readily to hand, while nature and countryside are just a hop, skip and a jump away…

Click on the links below to see my previous 9-in-45 walks:

My inspiration comes from the amazing Postcard Cafe. Check out his awesome “Take Nine Photos In Forty Five Minutes” collection by clicking the link.

Animals, art, change, Colour, Glastonbury, Light, Nature, People, Photography, story, Transport, Wildlife, work

Adversity

21 December 2020 ckponderings Leave a comment

Things may seem at their harshest, but they will not stay that way.

You will persevere and you will succeed.

There is always triumph to be had in the face of adversity.

Animals, Architecture, art, Glastonbury, history, Light, Monochrome, Nature, People, Photography, Religion, story, Transport, Wildlife, work

Observation

15 December 2020 ckponderings Leave a comment

Viewing a situation from a different perspective is sometimes the only way to see the way forward.

Reaching out for a new viewpoint, you can identify the solutions to problems and the route you should take.

Soar like an eagle, and get the bird’s eye view that you need.

Architecture, art, Colour, Glastonbury, history, Light, Nature, People, Photography, Religion, story, Wildlife

Light In The Darkness

13 December 2020 ckponderings 2 Comments

While dark clouds swirl around us, there is always light to be found.

It may not always be from the most obvious or conventional of sources, but it is there.

Find that chink in the darkness and follow it into the light.

Architecture, art, Colour, Glastonbury, Great War, history, Light, Music, Nature, People, Photography, Religion, story, Transport, Wildlife, work

A-Z of Somerset: Pilton

5 December 2020 ckponderings 1 Comment

Continue up the A361 for 16 miles from Othery and you reach the surprising village of Pilton. I have driven through the village countless times over the years, and there is so much more to it than what is visible from the main road.

Situated on the top of a hill to the east on Glastonbury, the village once overlooked an inland sea that stretched to the present day Bristol Channel. This lead to the village’s original name, Pooltown, because ships were able to navigate this far inland.

The houses in the village are old, from local stone, and really fit in with the country feel. Despite the main road, laden with juggernauts, being close by, the majority of the village is in a sheltered valley, and within a matter of metres away from the A361, it can barely be heard.

The local church is St John the Baptist, which is on the north side of the valley, has a commanding view across all Pilton. Once again, the Church’s dominance is in plain sight, and it can be seen on the skyline from most of the houses.

In the churchyard is a memorial, a grave to Sapper Percy Wright Rodgers, who fell in the First World War. More information on this young man’s life can be found on the CKPonderingsCWG blog, along with more stories of the fallen of the Great War.

To the south of the village, a tithe barn stands alone and proud. Once belonging to Glastonbury Abbey, the barn once stored local farmers’ produce, of which they gave the Abbey – the landowner – one tenth.

The barn is now a Grade 1 listed building.

In the barn’s grounds is a monument to the Land Armies of both world wars; a bench in a quiet corner of an already quiet corner of the village is perfect for contemplation.

When I first made my intention of moving to Somerset known to friend, family and colleagues, the general first reaction was usually related to the annual music festival. My stock response to this was ‘no’, and, if the mood was right, this was usually followed up by the fact that the Glastonbury Festival does not actually take place in the town of the same name.

Worthy Farm, the location of the festival, is situated just to the south of Pilton, six miles from Glastonbury. It was only called Glastonbury Festival because that was the nearest town people had heard of.

If you get the chance to make a quick pitstop from your journey to the south west, Pilton is definitely worth a visit. A genuine gem of a village, hidden in plain sight, it is also a good start and end point for a wander across the Levels or over the hilltops to Shepton Mallet.

Glastonbury, Great War, history, People, Photography, war

CWG: Private Edwin Hann

25 August 2020 ckponderings 1 Comment

Edwin Robert Hann was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Albert Edward and Jemima Jane Hann in around 1900.

Research has led me to numerous dead ends regarding Edwin’s life. Hann’s tombstone shows that he enlisted in the 2nd Regiment of the South African Infantry.

The 2nd Regiment served in numerous key battled on the Western Front, including Ypres, Passchendale, Marrieres Wood and Messines. Their last major engagement was at Le Cateau in early October 1918. Given how soon afterwards Private Hann passed away, it seems possible that he was fatally wounded – or at least suffered trauma – during this battle.

His war pension records suggest that he died at a military hospital in Woking, Surrey. A little research suggests that, unless this was the medical wing of the local army barracks, then it is likely that Hann was treated at the former Brookwood Hospital (at the time known as Brookwood Asylum or the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum).

While I can find nothing concrete to confirm this, other Brookwood records suggest that fellow patients were either suffering the effects of shell shock or mustard gas. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that Private Hann passed away as an indirect result of the fighting on the front, rather than a direct one.

A second mystery arises around his burial, however.

Born in South Africa, fighting on the Western Front, treated and passing in Surrey. How did Edwin Hann come to be buried in a cemetery in Glastonbury?

Again, I can only surmise why this poor teenager was buried so far from home. Hann is a fairly common name in Somerset and, from a bit of research on Ancestry.co.uk, at the turn of the last century there are a large number of Hanns in and around Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet, and in particular a lot of Alberts and Edwards (like Private Hann’s father). The assumption can only be, therefore, that Edwin came to be buried close to a where his father’s family lived.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/146326981/edwin-robert-hann

Architecture, art, Colour, Glastonbury, history, Light, Nature, Photography, Religion, Wildlife

Focus

30 June 2020 ckponderings Leave a comment

Focus on the things that are important to you.

What is your priority right now? What can you do to address it? If you can’t clear it all in one go, break it down, and fix what you can; everything else will fall into place.