6: June

My Iconic image of Cromford, forget the pool and the Water Wheel. Visit Sacathin Books and you will return, the book bugs will bite. I manages to stay away for almost 10 years but I have returned; with me a new victim! If you like the TV series Balck Books, this is as near as it gets without drugs. I love this place, plus the staff are sane!!
 
Watch out for the "Tall Dad" test on the ground floor, and the tea room behind the secret book shelf door (usually open) on the first floor.

The House Martins have returned. Up until around five years ago House Martins nested regularly at this site. Then they went away and the nest fell into disrepair. This year they are back and have started rebuilding the nest, if all goes well there will be more images later in this project.

I do quite a bit of walking around Derbyshire and the Peak District, and have encountered many types of stiles to negotiate, but never before one with a build in dog gate!

For some obscure reason I ended up in Bolsover, then became lost. Driving around I came across this tree lined square of terraced houses with alternate red and green front doors.

The alter and stained glass window of the Church of St Giles, Hartington, Derbyshire. Taken during the flower festival.

The young Starlings have now been abandoned to their fate by their parents, and return regularly to the places that they were shown food shortly after fledging. At this time of year (and in winter) it is essential to keep the feeders topped up as these young birds are not yet experienced enough foragers to be able to waste energy visiting empty feeding sites. I know Starlings are disliked by many, but I bear them no grudge as they go about their daily task of survival.

The weekends rains have speeded up the rebuilding of the nest quite a bit. The pair of House Martins are now happy enough with the job that they have moved in together! Form obervations in previous years I know that House Martins have an incubation period of around two weeks; that bing so there may be chicks by the end of the month.

Not a lot to say about this one really, just a nice meadow against a blue sky (which didn't last long) near Trusley in South Derbyshire.

Leawood Pump near High Peak Junction Derbyshire. Built as the result of a court case in 1839 which caused the Cromford Canals water supply to be diminished, Leawood Pump raises water from the RiverDerwent into the Canal. Built to operate at 7.5 strokes per minuite it could raise 470,400 gallons per minute. Today the pump still operates on a monthly basis during the summer months, but only half it's original pumping capacity.

Ilam Cross is a beautiful Victorian monument, in the style of the Eleanor Cross near Wlatham Abbey in Essex. Built as a monument to Jesse Watts Russell, of Ilam Hall (now a youth hostel). The Ilam Cross as it is known was erected in 1841 and is constructed of white limestone. If you think the top section looks out of place that is because the original more ornate pinacle fell during a violent storm in the 1960's, and this plain section was erected as a replacement.

Chatsworth Hunting Tower stands on an escarpment 400 feet above Chatsworth House, on the edge of Stand Wood. It provides excelect panoramic viws across Chatswoth Park. The tower was completed around 1582 for Bess of Hardwick, to designs by the famous Elizabethan architect Robert Smythson. Originally it was used by the ladies of the house to watch hounds working in the park below, more recently it has been used as staff accomodation, and as the home of the Dukes nephew.

It looks like the serious task of incubation has begun. On bird is not moving from the nest as many other House Martins are looking for nest sites, the second bird of the pair is making regular trips to the nest. I had observed this "beak down the throat" behaviour regularly through binoculars, but it took me a while to capture an image of it.

One of the two 1954 Layland Commet commercial vehicles at the Belper Steam Rally. I selected this image as it reminds me of coal deliveries as a child. The Leyland would pull up the driver would sling a sack of coal on to his back.

I will be polites and not get folks to show their age by asking do you remember seeing these along the road side. Instead I'll ask when was the last time you saw one? In my case a fair few years; but a rummage through my boxeds of old stuff turned up the key that was issued to every AA member and my dad's yellow and chrome AA car badge with his membership number stamped on the front. I wonder if the key still fits?

A clear hilside stream running down from Bonsall Moor through a steep sided wooded valley. The scene was so tranquil I just had to have a go at recording the memory.

Recently hatched chicks being incubated under a heat lamp. All rare breed chicks these won't be destined directly to someone's dinner plate. The breeds include; Polands, Barbu-D-Ucle, Yokohama, Ixworths and Derbyshire Red Caps.

At Hilfields Farm in Derbyshire there is a large woodeen cross standing over four meters high, from ground level to highrt than I can reach the cross is covered in large galvanised nails. Each nail hammered in by a visitor as an act of rememberance for someone or something close to their heart. I found it quite moving.

This boar made it's feelings quite plain, not a keen fan of photography that is for sure. I really wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of those teeth, especialy those large side tusks!

This is how I spend a fair amount of time when trying to photograph wildlife, domestic and husbanded (farm) animals are relatively easy. With "wildies" you may know exactly where they are; but that's no guarantee they will show!

Two pots of mint for £2.00 at Sainsburys. Knocking the pots out I found three plants in each pot. After replanting my mint bucket, I planted these last two into the top of a section of old cinder block wall.

Some years ago, I dug a cutting of this plant out of a dry stone wall near Bakewell. It has done very little since then, but this year I have a carpet of blue flowers. I'm not much of a plants man but I think it's some form of Campanula.

I dread to think what this image say's about me. This is a quick snap of one of my book shelves, the one that get's most use, and just what is that book on Vitamins and Minerals doing in there?

Sad to say that photography is what keeps me going at times, I love to read too; so why not combine the two. Perhaps one day I may actually know what I am doing as a photographer.

I finally managed to recover some images from a failed memory card, this is a Turkey from the side of a footpath through a local farm. Always noisy, I hope he does not end up as someones Christmas dinner.

I can only imagine what a fine house this was during it's prime. Now a sad decaying derelict site, the woodland slowly reclaiming it. What a location for a horror film! This house I'm sure was very grand as this image is but one corner of the whole structure, it really does seem to be such a pity that it has been allowed to fall into this state.

My iconic building of the original Jubilee Campus of Nottingham University has to be the inverted cone at the end of the lake.

Petunia's are not towards the top of my list of garden plants. This sort in particular I find too brash for most plantings. But there it was all alone bright red and white in its container. Click!

A Water Vole (Arvicola terrestris) going about it's business collecting food amongst the lilly leaves on Cromford Canal (High Peak Junction), Derbyshire.

Mr Bunny doing his bit in the garden, helping out by recycling weeds in the shrubbery area into food, then fertilizer. Not only that it's good for his teeth and helps to keep the Vet bills down.

This morning BBC Breakfast did a piece on the growing popularity of Garden Sheds. They showed sheds that were like palaces and as big as my front room, sheds used as offices, and sheds falling to bits. This is mine, hiding in the bottom corner of the garden behind an apple tree. Small yes but it does the job, plus it has a solar panel to charge up its light should I ever be banished there!

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