Playing Catch-up part4

Well I'm getting through the backlog, trying to mix them up so you don't get bored and fall asleep in your coffee.
It's still changeable weather here in Northumberland but Hadrian's Wall looks good whatever the weather.
Earlier in the year there was a dig at Birdoswald, to preserve archaeology and hopefully await advances in detection technology, only one site is given dig permission every ten years so it was quite a big thing.
It was the site of a Roman burial ground and once the dig was completed the land was ploughed, using a horse plough and sown with wildflower seeds.

I was there on Wednesday and it looks stunning, I used a slow speed to capture the movement of the flowers in the wind, with thoughts of ghostly Romans enjoying the flowers. So there are seven pictures today

Roman Burial Site at Birdoswald August 2010 (NY611659)

Crag Lough July 2010 (NY769680)

Pre-dawn at Cawfields May 2010 (NY669654)

View west from Hotbank Farm June 2010 (NY772682)

Kings Hill August 2010 (NY797692)

Kings Hill June 2010 (NY797692)

Walltown Crags June 2010 (NY675663)

If you click on the pictures you will be able to see a slightly larger version.

More later.

27 04 09

Most people seem to walk the Wall from east to west.

In most cases I think the best views are to be seen looking west to east but there are exceptions and, in my humble opinion, the view over Crag Lough from Hotbank Crag, is one of them.

Yesterday was a mixed day weather wise but there was a good build up of my type of clouds as evening approached. It's been a while since I climbed up Hotbank so that was my first destination for the evening. NNPA has been hard at work over the winter and they've much improved the path and gate just after you cross the entrance track to Hotbank Farm. Some very large, and I imagine unwieldy boulders now make a good sturdy set of steps, great if you're rushing to 'catch the light' like I usually am.

As with most of this section of Hadrian's Wall the climb up to Hotbank Crag gives you a good anaerobic workout, or that's what I tell myself.

Last night I got my timings all wrong and was way too early for the sunset. On a nice night I might be tempted to hang around and wait, but there was a chill wind up on the top. I scouted out a few new spots for a sunrise shot looking east along the Hadrian's Wall Path as it follows the contours over Hotbank Crag, laughed at the antics of some of the Bradley Farm lambs, then decided to head somewhere a bit warmer.

As I came back down to Crag Lough the sun came out and just caught the slopes of Winshields Crag, making a nice picture, with no time to set up the tripod I just did a point and shoot.

(NY772680 - the grid references I post should take you to a map and the centre spot of the map is where I stood to take the photo)

I sit here writing away each day never knowing if anyone actually read what I write, if you'd like to comment please feel free.

Catch you later.