Saturday 28 August 2010

April Showers in August and New Newsletter

We are having heavy showers and sunshine here in the Peak District so it is more like April than August! It's a bit chilly too when the sun isn't shining, with quite a cool breeze.

The builders have made a good mess at the side of the house. The old leaking roof is off the side part (so it leaks properly now!), walls are down and they have started putting in steel beams and brick pillars to hold everything up as well as a few new roof trusses. We should see the new roof going on this week.

I sent out a newsletter yesterday. It will be on my web site sometime next week hopefully. If you are not on the distribution and would like to see it here is the link to the archive for all my newsletters.

Just putting finishing touches to my new lecture Lake Light; 73 prints done, just a handful to go.

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Windy Day in the Peak District

I was in the Gallery in the Gardens in Buxton yesterday and walked the 12 mile round trip, as usual. It felt very autumnal - the first time for several months that I have needed 3 layers and a windproof to keep warm. Clear as a bell on the way in, fast moving clouds but no rain. Lots of heavy rain during the day while I was in the Gallery. Walking home was interesting. It stayed dry except for a few spots of rain so didn't need waterproofs but it was so windy. At one point on the route the old single track road I follow for part of the way passes between a narrow passage in the rocks. We have nicknamed this Windy Gap because it is often windy here. However, yesterday was exceptional. The wind was continuous, not gusting, and was strong enough to ripple my cheeks as I tried to walk against it. I wished I had my wind speed meter as I suspect it was way over gale force (from 36mph) and probably around 50 mph. Fortunately, it was just for 100 yards and then it was back to being just a strong wind. Made it interesting though. It's quite cool today and has been since Monday, looks like the summer has gone and we are into the autumn.

Sunday 22 August 2010

Builders Arrived this Week

It all started with a leak down the side passage on the house; the only way from the front garden to the back garden without going through the main house. With the builder and a local architect we decided that the best way forward was to raise the roof line to match that of the main house. We then decided to expand the gallery space by knocking out an internal wall or two. So the job has grown somewhat from the original plan to stop a leak!

Jan cleared the side passage and lots of the gallery last weekend then I finished off by clearing all of the pictures from the walls and we moved the browsers into the hall.

On Wednesday the builders arrived to start knocking walls out and working on the roof. By Friday some of the internal walls were downand the main gallery was partitioned off from the mayhem on the other side. Now we are awaiting an engineer to come on Monday to specify the number and size of steel beams that are needed to make sure the building stays up when the last wall is knocked out!

The gallery is still open. We have around 400 browser prints on display in the hall and 140 pictures on the walls, so the gallery can still operate by appointment, as usual. Roll on October when it will all be finished.

Happy days!

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Wet Weekend in the Yorkshire Dales

We returned from a weekend in the Yorkshire Dales last night. I was hoping for some good views across the tops but we mostly had rain and grey days. I took quite a few waterfall shots yesterday around the Aysgarth area and some images from the hills around Grassington and Buckden between Friday and Sunday (between showers!).

We stayed in Grassington in Wharfedale, which is just a couple of hours driving from here. This is where we will be based for a 2 day 'Waterfalls and Dales' course next year. This will give us access to locations between Bolton Abbey in the south and Aysgarth in the north. Lots of variety of subject with limestone pavement, waterfalls, trees, rock formations, dry stone walls, isolated barns in the landscape and lots more. Keep an eye out for the dates if you are interested, just 5 places available at £300 each.