Blog 2022

Published on by John’s Postcards14 Comments

Welcome to this first post of 2022! The lack of posts in the latter part of 2021 was mainly due to the fact that we were preoccupied with moving house. We have now downsized and, on 1st December – just in time for Christmas, moved to a bungalow in the village of Newton Solney, just a couple of miles from our old house.

A new beginning in many ways, and along with that, an intention to restart posting postcards on the blog. With the all too familiar travel restrictions sadly these will not be from recent holidays but rather images from the past, some that have been in the pending tray for a while, and also some photographs taken around our new home and surrounding area. So as the sign says – welcome to Newton Solney.

St. Mary’s Church, Newton Solney

The gate of the year

Published on by John’s Postcards9 Comments

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

Minnie Louise Haskins

To all our friends and followers – with very best wishes for a peaceful and healthy year in 2022

Mid-May landscapes

Published on by John’s Postcards5 Comments

I first blogged about this expression in 2019 but as it’s that month of the year again I retell the story, this time with a few new photographs, particularly with hawthorn, or May blossom, in full bloom.

Many years ago a colleague told me he would be photographing his ‘mid-May landscapes’ the following week. His birthday was in the middle of May and each year, without fail, he would book the whole week off work. This was partly to celebrate his birthday but mainly to spend some time in the countryside to capture his mid-May landscapes.

I hadn’t heard the expression until I met Ron but I knew when I heard it exactly what he meant. I thought perhaps it was a well-known term used by photographers and artist which had somehow passed me by but Googling the expression doesn’t support that idea. Perhaps it was just an expression Ron had made up, or had once heard and it stuck with him just as it stuck with me and perhaps after today, with you too.

Bluebells 2021

Published on by John’s Postcards7 Comments

I first wrote a blog about bluebells in 2019 and then again in 2020 so to complete a hat-trick here are a few photographs of the display this year. These were all taken in the woods very close to home so a walk along the path through the dale becomes is a real joy and pleasure when this magic carpet of native bluebells appears.

“Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints”