Nice play of light and shade you've caught here. Have you considered cutting the bottom bit off below the walkway? I think it distracts a bit from the wonderful lines and curves in the upper part.

First week was great, beautiful agriturismo, good weather. Second week let us down a little, poor weather and most of our group had terrible hay fever, to the extent that one guy wore a permanent covid mask.

I had the same thought.

Pretty amazing how they decorated the church with odds and ends, like a car exhaust pipe as the basis of the font. The link takes you to with a nice back story, that adds to your pictures.

The guy who did the frescoes, did a wonderful job.

The only downside is that out of place ramp and handrail, that I presume has been added to the entrance by the council.

Continuing theme du jour.


Unfortunately the stairs leading to upper part of old town were closed due to reconstruction so by the time I got around and up from other side the fog was mostly gone..

Great Hill - Again!

What do you know, I don't go up to Great Hill for ages and then twice in a couple of weeks. Just like buses, or something. Anyway, nothing much to report from this walk, just your bog standard 5ish mile White Coppice to Great Hill and back on a hot and initially sunny evening that went a bit hazy later on. I didn't stick around for sunset, although, by the time I got back to the car I might as well have!

All images taken with the Fujifilm X-T50 and Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 or Fuji 55-200 (making a rare appearance outside of "lens drawer hell"). Processed from individual raw files in Capture One Pro 23. EXIF will say X-T5, but that's because I've hacked the RAF files with EXIFTool to get my version of C1P to load them.

I'm really enjoying this little camera, but I've still got my doubts about the Sigma 18-50. Certainly it doesn't bear comparison to my Nikon S series or Fuji GF zooms and I think it falls short when compared to the first party XF lenses I own too. Distant details don't look particularly, er, detailed. They're not blurred as such, just lacking crispness and resolution, which is not the case when I stick one of the little XF primes on the camera. With that said, it's not awful and it's light and it's tiny, which is it's main selling point, particularly for me at the moment, plus it's a lot more convenient than a bag of primes, but I don't think I'd recommend it.

Foxgloves

These seem to be the only interesting flower knocking around the places I visit at the moment.

The White and Black Coppice Boundary Walls

The boundaries of both White Coppice and Black Coppice are defined by a pair of tall dry stone walls that encircle each area on the moorland sides and each dropping down the Black Brook gorge where they would meet if not for the presence of Black Brook itself. The walls aren't really maintained these days, probably not since the days of the moorland farms judging by the state of them and several portions have collapsed or are likely to do so in the next few years.

The Slop Stone

Talking of ruins, hidden amongst the rubble at Coppice Stile is an intact slop stone. I'd have to check my records, but I'm sure this used to be a lot more hidden and looks like its been uncovered a bit recently.

Here's a view of the slop stone from the other side, showing its location in relation to the wiry Hawthorn tree that dominates this ruin and almost seems to be looming above it from this perspective.

Grime's Gatepost

Further along the path across Heapey Moor we come across the oft ignored ruin of Grime's farm. Between the path and the ruin, almost lost in the grass stands this lone gatepost, which, without its companion almost looks like some forlorn and lonely standing stone. Barely poking out of the grass, it always reminds me of the shy and nervous standing stone in one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, that just wants to be left alone and will resort to hiding in a bog to avoid receiving any attention.

A slightly different angle with a corner of the Grime's ruin in the distance and showing the colour of the lichen dotted atop it.

Heapey Moor

Despite the bright sunny start, things were turning a bit murky by the time I'd crossed this stretch of Heapey Moor. You can see the tree at Coppice Stile on the far right and the back of Healey Nab (AKA The Nab) in the distance behind Black Coppice. The Grime's ruin is lost in the grass somewhere on the bottom left.

Drinkwater's Plantation

This tree stands at the South / West corner of the small plantation adjacent to the Drinkwater's ruin and was backlit by the late evening sun. The plantation is curiously fenced off with a waist high wire fence. I often wonder if this is to keep people out or to keep something else in.

Hoghton In The Mist

By the time I reached the summit of Great Hill a low lying mist was forming in the valley to the North, looking particularly good towards Hoghton. This was taken with the Fuji 55-200.

Great Hill Farm

I really like the way the sky has turned out in this one, I think it's got a bit of a Turner-esque feel to it without looking overly forced. There's probably about half a dozen layers on it, dodging, burning and teasing out the details I wanted to highlight. I did try brightening the foreground a bit more, but it killed the mood of the scene and this feels kind of representative of how it looked.

The Gatekeepers

Following the path down the side of Great Hill and approaching the Great Hill Farm ruins, these three sheep paused in their relentless search for better grass to watch me warily as I made my way down. There was some good looking crepuscular action going on in the sky behind, but I didn't feel like I was really in the best place to take advantage of it.

*post edited to swap the captions of the last two photos which I've just realised were in the wrong order.

Like that different interpretation on a classic Vista we all know.

That half hidden view is actually very intriguing.

Most unusual build on far away island.

Great details, but this shot is all encompassing...

Great mood.

Not to minimize your other fab shots, but

That second shot is beautiful. A shadowy figure in an eccentric hat walking through that scene would be perfect ;-)

The last is amazing.

This is very effective. Really emphasises the 3D effect.

Very graphic shot. I agree with others - the bottom part is a bit of a distraction.

This one puts me in mind of the Bayeux tapestry.

Amazing mosaics!

This one has a great sense of mystery... Choose the right path and...