Photographic Interlude – Winter 2021/22

I’m usually fizzing with blog ideas but this has been a tough month to say the least, so I find I’m a bit empty and knackered when it comes to ideas. That said, I have still been taking pictures, so I thought I’d post some of those here so you can see what I’ve been up to.

This is Shildon Engine House – very quick history: It dates back to the early 19th century and housed a (Cornish) pumping engine to keep the lead mines dry. When it fell out of use it was flats for a bit, used by mining families. It’s in the very pretty Blanchland (not Shildon, as the name might suggest…) and I found what we think is a bit of blue fluorite while up there, so that’s been added to my ‘finds’ drawer now.

Abandoned Vehicles

Abandoned cars are a thing and I’ve found quite a lot over the years. The newest is this old Austin. The amphibious car on the right isn’t a new find, more of an old friend, but it was the first time in the snow so I thought that was probably a moment in time worth capturing.

I’m not sure if these caravans were abandoned/empty or not to be honest, but they were wonderfully grim on the misty hillside.

Not too sure what to say about this one, I did a bit of a double-take. Hard to make out in a photo, but it’s a tree full of old bike frames. Yeah, not a lot more to add really. See if you can count the bikes? Like a Where’s Wally but with more despair.

A Horse, of Course. Well, Three Actually

Finally, one of my favourite photographs of the last couple of months.

Spotted these guys fixed in this sort of tableau and hurried back along the road to get it before they shifted. I needn’t have worried, they stayed like this for quite a bit. One theory is that that the smallest horse and the medium one have had a falling out and the big horse is trying to get them to patch it up.

With the sun behind the arch and nothing in the background it feels very much like an American prairie scene, like there’s nobody around for hundreds of miles.

So there you go, that’s my winter so far.