The Cotswolds - Kelmscott

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Kelmscott, famous as the home of the writer and designer William Morris, is a small, secluded hamlet on the north bank of the river Thames, and is at the end of a no-through road that peters out at the Thames towpath. It has remained a small and predominantly agricultural community, built around two working farms, and even today it consists of less than 200 residents.

The Cotswolds - Filkins

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The village of Filkins is actually two villages, as sat right next to it is Broughton Poggs, officially the small Broadwell brook marks the boundary separating the two villages, but in reality, you can walk from one to the other and not know it. Broughton Poggs doesn't actually have any roads that lead into the village, so you could only walk to it.

The Cotswolds - Bampton

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Continuing our tour of the Cotswolds, and in recognition of the fact that Downton Abbey is returning to the screens very shortly, we visit the lively town of Bampton. It may seem oddly familiar to Downton Abbey fans, as it doubles as the fictional Yorkshire village of Downton, supposedly somewhere between Ripon and Thirsk!

Hay Bales at Sunset

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I have been out and about in the Cotswold countryside a few evenings in the last week, to try and get some hay bale sunset action. Not as easy a task as you might think, given the changeable weather conditions we've had recently, and that the hay bales seem to be whisked off almost as soon as they appear on the landscape.

Not deterred, I searched high and low to find some shots, sometimes the sun appeared at the right time, and sometimes it didn't appear at all, sometimes the bales were still there, and more often than not they had been squirrelled away, but my efforts paid off in the end, and I managed to snaffle a few images from this years round of hay bailing.

Exmoor Day 2 - Moorland sunrise & some wild ponies

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I was up early again in the hope that sunrise would be more amenable than the previous day. I took the little lane that heads upwards onto the moors, before arriving at at the coast road and then onwards to Porlock. I stopped on the silent moor and hunted around for some heather, which was a bit of a task, as there wasn't much about. I found a small patch that would have serve as my foreground colour and parked up, watching the sky to see if my time was about to be wasted again.

Setting up in the still morning, all I could hear were the eccentric bleatings of distant sheep, as they rummaged around in the undergrowth for some breakfast, but beyond that, it was as if the landscape itself was still sleeping as there was complete stillness.

After waiting a little while a small glimmer appeared on the horizon, there was a great deal of cloud about, but thankfully a nice gap had appeared, which allowed the rising orb to fling a little colour about the surrounding brumey blanket.

Exmoor Day 1 - Battle with the clouds

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I was down in Exmoor for a couple of days, which is always a good thing, as it's such a beautiful spot. I was somewhat limited in what I could get up to though as I had recently broken a toe, so my mobility was somewhat impaired, no walks through the Barle Valley on this visit. If I could drive to it, then I would go to it, otherwise it was out of bounds.

I was up for sunrise first thing that morning, at the slightly impudent hour of 5.30, and I took a drive through Simonsbath and out onto the moorland in the hope that there would be some spectacular colour in the sky. There wasn't.