The Hindu Temple

The latest issue of the online anthology Cosmopetry is entitled "BET ON PLANETS or THE SMALL OLYMPICOSMPOETRIADA OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM" by SARM Cosmpoetry Master Club and Friends .

It starts with photographs of the moon and Jupiter by Valentin Grigore over Targoviste in Romania. It is followed by numerous photographic contributions from around the world of heavenly bodies including, nebulae, eclipses, Saturns rings, the transit of Mercury, the Perseids, the Aurora Borealis as well as poems on astronomical themes.

My own contribution is an astro-photo-tanka from March 2001 in Singapore.

the Hindu temple
through the open doorway
people at prayer
over them in a dark sky
sickle moon and Jupiter

© Gerald England



Other photos show the similarities between Teide Volcano, Tenerife and Mount Fuji, Japan. Catalin Beldea displays a lovely sequence showing the total solar eclipse of March 8th 2016 over Indonesia. Adrian Bruno Sonka writes about Asteroids with Satellites. The whole collection was coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and designed by Florin Alexandru Stancu on behalf of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy.

See the whole thing at Cosmopetry.

Also visit Skywatch Friday.

Ye Olde Bull Inn, Llanbedr-y-cennin

According to HistoryPoints this country pub dates from the late 17th century or early 18th. It may have replaced an even earlier hostelry on the site.

The road which climbs past it was used by drovers to take livestock from the mountains to markets further east. The name is thought to relate to the bullocks which hauled carts over the upland tracks. Some were kept at a farm a little further uphill from the pub.

The fields behind the Bull Inn hosted annual sheepdog trials on New Year's Day. Competitors came from as far away as Cumbria and North Yorkshire, until entries grew so large that the competition was restricted, in 1905, to North Wales.

It is a J.W.Lees pub. For current information see its Facebook page.

A contribution to
signs, signs;
Skywatch Friday;
Scenic Weekends.

CATS delivery site

This is part of the former Oldham Batteries site which has been derelict for more than 10 years.

According to the council website "Tameside Council has been successful in securing £1.67 million from the Greater Manchester Growth Deal Round 2, which will deliver a new relief road linking the A6017 Ashton Road at the M67 Junction 1 slip road to the A57 Hyde Road in Denton. The proposal seeks to relieve congestion to reduce traffic delays, improve air quality and road safety for the travelling public and the population of Denton. Alongside these improvements the road will also facilitate the comprehensive redevelopment of the former Oldham Batteries Site.

According to the sign on the side of Edward Street:
"This site has been selected for the delivery of the
Greater Manchester NHS Clinical
Assessment & Treatment Service
(CATS)
Our mobile units will visit this location
at regularly scheduled times."

Information on the service can be found on the Greater Manchester CATS website.

A contribution to
signs, signs;
Good Fences;
Skywatch Friday.

St Mary's Graveyard, Haughton Green

Looking across the graveyard of St Mary's, Haughton Green.

For more photographs and information about the church see my earlier post from March 2015

A contribution to Skywatch Friday and Inspired Sundays.

Through The Light

The latest anthology from Cosmopetry is Through The Light described as:
COSMOPOETRY INTERNATIONALS XX:
WITH OR WITHOUT EINSTEIN,
THROUGH THE LIGHT!

-dedication to the International Year of Light 2015
by SARM's Cosmopoetry Master Club and Friends-
My own contribution is a haiga based on a view of the bandstand in Victoria Park, Denton.
well beyond the light
twenty-two miles a second
Spooky whizzes by
and is a reference to the comet/asteroid that passed by the Earth in 2015.

Mine is only one of many contributions of astronomical photographs and poems featuring cosmic events that happened in 2015. Credits go to
Coordinator Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Technical counsellor Valentin Grigore
Literary counsellor Arlene Carol
Web design Florin Alexandru Stancu

With the support of some admirable members of the
Science Fiction Poetry Association, Astronomers Without Borders
and International Meteor Organization

*

© 2015 SARM
(Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy)
A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

The view from the West Shore

Whilst back in Llandundo a week ago I took the road train from the noisy North Shore to the quieter West Shore.

Out of shot behind me is the busy children's playpark whilst the beach sits below the pebbled foreshore.

This is the view past one of the breakwaters up the estuary of Afon Conwy with the island of Anglesey just visible on the horizon.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

Albion Church, Ashton-under-Lyne

Albion Congregational (now United Reformed) Church in Ashton-under-Lyne was built 1890-95. It is Grade II* listed.

On completion the Church was said to be the most beautiful Congregational Church building in England, mainly of Gothic design with glorious stained glass designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones and installed by William. Morris.

More information can be found on the church website

A contribution to
Skywatch Friday;
The Weekend in Black and White;
Inspired Sundays.

Salute to the V-Force

Last weekend was the final flight for the Vulcan XH558 on a two-day, round-the-country tour - Salute to the V-Force - of the locations where the remaining V-Force airframes & planes are on display in a variety of museums and exhibitions.

At around 3pm last Saturday it flew over Manchester Airport and I captured these few shots from near the Shadowmoss tram stop close to the perimeter of the airport.

Avro Vulcan XH558 was built in 1960 and retired from display flying for the RAF in 1993. In the 1960s, these planes were to carry the UK's nuclear deterrent (had it ever been necessary) until that task fell to the Polaris submariners. They were used for long range conventional bombing missions during the Falklands conflict in 1982, and then retired from active service. This plane was restored to flying between 2005 and 2007 by by the Vulcan to the Sky Trust.

2015 is to be her last flying display season. A variety of factors have led to this situation - XH558 now has more flying hours under her belt than any other Vulcan ever did, so whilst still perfectly airworthy for the foreseeable future, it's now getting harder to know where to look for potential problems; spare parts are increasingly difficult to source, and last but not least, engineers with real, hands-on experience of the aircraft in RAF service are almost all retired or departed this life.

As a result, the Technical Authorities (essentially the three businesses that maintain the aeroplane) have decided not to continue to keep her flying beyond 2015. Under Civil Aviation Authority regulations, she must therefore be evermore grounded.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

Llandudno War Memorial and the Moon

Following up from yesterday's Llandudno view here is another - this time showing the back of the War Memorial.

The War Memorial which was erected in the 1920s, was designed by by S Colwyn Foulkes. It takes the form of a rusticated granite obelisk with a golden ball finial with flame cresting. The memorial is flanked to North-west and South-east by strips of ground set out with low slender bollards of granite and with four contemporary lamp standards with wide fluted circular shafts with moulded bases, each shaft surmounted by multi ball lamp finials of glass.

In the background are wind turbines far out at sea.

Beyond the golden ball finial was a half-moon.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

Cock Hotel, Haughton Green

The Cock Hotel on Two Trees Lane, Haughton Green, Denton, Manchester dates back to the mid/late 19th century. There is nothing more about it I can tell you.

A contribution to signs, signs and Skywatch Friday.

Hail on Hyde Road

The A57 at Crown Point, Denton. On the right is the entrance to Morrison's supermarket. The fence separating the pavement from the busy road is reflected in the window of the Quicksilver fireworks shop. A shower of hail is just falling but failing to stick.

A contribution to
Good Fences;
Skywatch Friday;
Weekend Reflections;
Scenic Weekends

Waterloo Sunset

Taken September 2013 near Waterloo Road, Blackpool.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

Sunset reflections at Llandudno

Earlier this month I spent a few days in Llandudno. The promenade stretches a few miles and I found myself walking a lot of it almost twice a day so was quite exhausted by the end of my stay.

However I did take a lot of photographs. About half an hour or so before actual sunset the sun had sunk behind the Great Orme and was underlighting the clouds which were then reflected in the waters of the bay.

A contribution to
Skywatch Friday;
Weekend Reflections;
Scenic Weekends.

Sunset behind Water Wings

(click on image to view full size)
Water Wings by Bruce Williams is one of the installations for the Great Promenade Show. It was designed to be viewed in motion from the adjacent tram track and road, the photographic image of a swimming child laser cut into an 8m long curved stainless steel screen gradually resolves and disappears again as the viewer moves past.

The Great Promenade Show was part of a complete reconstruction of Blackpool's South Promenade in 2001 which incorporated a major series of new public art works commissioned by Blackpool Borough Council, and described by them as "an outdoor gallery of contemporary art". Ten large-scale permanent works were installed at special viewing points along the well-designed new 2km walkway.

A contribution to Good Fences and Skywatch Friday.

Captured colours at Gorton Station

I was on a train from Manchester Piccadilly which stopped briefly at Gorton Station.

I couldn't help capturing this scene with my phone-camera.

The blue benches and the yellow gritbox lie by the side of the turning point for the access ramp which leads to street level high above.

A contribution to
Good Fences and
Skywatch Friday as well as
Shadow Shot Sunday,
Monday Mellow Yellows and
Blue Monday.

Sky Reflections, Esso, Churchtown, Southport

A contribution to Skywatch Friday and Weekend Reflections.

September sunset over South Promenade, Blackpool

(click on image to view full size)
When staying at the New Mayfair Hotel in Blackpool as we did in May, June and again in September this year, we choose a room with a sea view. And this is why. It allows us see marvellous sunsets through the window.

(click on image to view full size)
This photograph was taken just two minutes after the first one.

A view that focuses on the clouds (taken 30 seconds after the first) can be seen on my photoblog sithenah.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

August evening

August evening
so many colours
so many swirls

words & image © Gerald England

This is one of two of my haiga that are included in International Master Festival, a project by SARM's Astropoetry Master Club coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and Valentin Grigore in partnership with Astronomers Without Borders with the support of some members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association
and International Meteor Organization, the astronomical circle of Bucharest National Children Palace and SRCSTV ("Youth for Future" Romanian Society for Culture and Science)

The project celebrates 20 years of existence of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy (SARM).

The pages contain a wealth of photography, poetry, haiga from all over the world.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.