52-Week Photography Challenge: July

From Sheffield to Scotland

As a relative newcomer to Full Frame, I haven’t yet joined the 52-Week Photography Challenge. So, belatedly, as it’s now August, here is my first attempt at following the monthly prompts.

27. Abandoned

A region of the Derbyshire Peaks just outside Sheffield was extensively quarried for the hard and abrasive stone known as Millstone Grit or Gritstone. The rock was used to create millstones for grinding flour prior to the Industrial Revolution.

With the advent of machines used for grinding, millstone grit fell out of favour as it ground away too quickly. It was replaced by a quartz called Chert which wore away much more slowly and needed less maintenance. The demise of the millstone grit industry was so rapid many incomplete stones were simply left as they were, and some ready for delivery also remain where they lay.

Thousands of these heavyweight stones, each over two tons, can be found across the region. The one above is in Padley Gorge and is gradually being reclaimed by nature along with massive boulders already quarried but never hewn to shape.

28. From my Kitchen

This was the view from my kitchen window before we moved house in 2019

A pair of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers visited our feeder regularly throughout the year. They devoured the fat treat we put in coconut shells for them. They were quite messy eaters, which kept the Dunnocks and Pheasants happy.

We first heard their arrival when a metallic drumbeat echoed around the garden. The male had found the TV aerial to be the most effective way of announcing his presence. Our house was surrounded on two sides by deciduous woodland, and we guessed the couple lived there somewhere.

The woodland was home to a variety of wildlife that visited our garden by day or night. Birds varied from Kestrels and Tawny Owls to Long Tailed Tits and Bullfinches, and Mammals from Badgers and Foxes to Squirrels and Mice.

29. Street Photography

I don’t get my knickers in a twist about many things (except the incompetence of the UK government), but this mural annoyed me in a way I can’t comprehend myself.

That is not a POPPY; it’s an ANEMONE which has nothing to do with any World War, Flander’s fields or the trenches.

That’s all I have to say about it.

30. Frame within a Frame

This image is from last year in August, a couple of days after my 60th birthday. The wooden sculpture is made from Caledonian Pine from the area and is called The Viewcatcher. It’s located at the top of a mountain adjacent to Loch Ness on the Great Glen Way.

The only way to reach this viewpoint is on foot, so my Husband and I set off early from the Holiday home we were staying in on the shores of Loch Ness. It was further than we imagined, and my Hubby was looking a little green as we neared our destination. I had to leave him sitting in the sunshine, enjoying the views while I climbed the last steep slope.

I had hoped we could each pose in front of the sculpture as typical tourists often do, but no. And a selfie doesn’t work. Nor did I carry a tripod up the side of a mountain.

That afternoon, Hubby was not at all well. A Covid test two days later was positive. I don’t think I’ll ever be forgiven

And that’s all there is to it.

Onward to the August challenge, where, hopefully, I’ll use the prompts to get out there with my camera.