#19: Somerset Monument - Old Sodbury

Autumn Sumach

Owl & Swallow Roost - A Millennium Folly

Old Sodbury Church Stained Glass
and Reflection in the Pulpit Lecturn

I started this walk a few hours later in the day - I usually start early morning - and anticipated a different feel to the walk, particularly with the approach of sunset. But the late afternoon light was nothing special for photography. I did chance a b&w cloud picture as well as several in and around the church at Old Sodbury but I'll have to wait to see how they work out, and I found more colour snaps than usual, perhaps prompted by the onset of a little more autumn colour in the trees.

Most days of the walk I've seen and heard ravens and their amazing tumbling and flipping upside down flight. Today added a new feature to their display act which was quite startling. I heard a low metallic sounding noise as if a piece of metal was being hit. I turned to see a raven about 50 yards away fold its wings in as it flipped onto its back for a second and at the same time heard it emit the metallic 'tonk-like' sound. It did this several times so cause and effect were confirmed. I've seen and heard ravens many many times, both here and in North America but never heard this sound before.

#17: B&W Images: North Nibley - Wortley Hill

Wortley Hill Maize

Almshouses - Chapel Window

Tyndale Top

Westridge Woodland Path

#18: Wortley Hill - Somerset Monument

Sunken Green Lane

Ivy & Virginia Creeper

Glancing Light

Woven Floor Grill

As I'm progressing south the walk is becoming a little less cotswold-like. Certainly there are fewer ups and downs and fewer stone walls. And now the route has turned almost due south and is distancing itself from the continual low level background sound of the traffic on the M5. Parts of today's walk were so peaceful that the only sound I could hear was occasional birdsong, or the crarking of ravens or the mewing cries of buzzards, and now and again a distant farm tractor. But periodically the peace was shattered by an explosion of alarm calls and feathers as a pheasant broke cover just feet away from me, deciding not to sit quietly and let me pass.

We're obviously into autumn now but I'm surprised how green all of the trees still are. There are some signs of leaves on a few species of tree starting to turn colour but the first frost can't be far off which will accelerate the whole process.

One stretch of the walk - on the side of Wortley Hill if I recall correctly - was along a very deep cutting. A sort of deeply hidden green lane. There have been several others, but none as deep and long as this one. In a couple of places there were what appeared to be badger setts amongst the roots of old beech trees as well as many other smaller holes which must have housed various species of wild life. This was another place in which the sides were lined with hartstounge ferns but whilst the breeze was very gentle it was still just too much to photograph. I did actually find one patch to photograph which perhaps was just calm enough though I'm not certain the picture will pass muster. And I made a couple of b&w pictures in the Georgian church at Alderley - normally only open at the weekends but the lady doing the church flowers let me in for a few minutes - thank you.

I met several groups today walking the whole of the Way including one couple from Belgium. Compared with most of my previous days' walking this was almost crowded - but it was still only once every hour or so.

Totting up the miles I find that I'm now three quarters of the way to Bath. It will soon be time to decide whether to do it all again as a winter and spring walk - or find a new project.

Cotswold Life - October Issue

In the current issue (October 2009) of Cotswold Life magazine there's a two page spread of black and white pictures which I made during the first part of my walk along the Cotswold Way. They appear at the end of the 25 page feature on the Cotswold Way. There's a link to this blog included in the short article accompanying the pictures.

#17: North Nibley - Wortley Hill

My Camera at the top of the Tyndale Monument

Spiral Staircase - The Tyndale Monument

Victoria's Jubilee Clock - Wotton under Edge

A relatively short walk today but quite productive for my B&W images. The Tyndale Monument was open and I hauled my heavy backpack up the increasingly narrow spiral staircase. There must have been 150 steps to the top. Very rewarding views at the top and I think I found an excellent B&W shot but as usual I'll have to wait and see.

I've been surprised how few people I've seen as I've traversed the Cotswold Way - but today on the stretch between Wotton under Edge and the Tyndale Monument I'm sure I saw far more than on any previous day. Joggers, couples, mums with toddlers and pushchairs, many with dogs either on or off the lead, as well as several hardened walkers going 'all-the-way'. It seems to be a very popular stretch with local walkers out for a shortish stroll as it's an easy and very level stretch making a welcome relief from the more challenging sections. A little further on I met a group of walkers who I previously met a couple of weeks ago further north - hello again!

One of the hazards with my kind of photography arises from the fact that whilst I'm working with my camera my camera bag and other equipment lies open on the ground. The hazard is that it seems to be a magnet for dogs to come sniffing around. And you know what they do! I've been lucky as it's actually never happened to me though there was a near miss today! But I have seen a photographer have the expensive contents of his bag liberally annointed. I dread to think of my reaction to having thousands of pounds worth of equipment treated that way.

#16: B&W Images: Dursley - North Nibley

Tyndale Monument from Stinchcombe Hill

Hymnals & Prayer Books

#15: B&W Images: Nympsfield Long Barrow - Dursley

Hartstongue Ferns & Steps

#14: B&W Images: Stroudwater Navigation Canal - Ny...

Selsley Common

#16: Dursley - North Nibley

Towards the Tyndale Monument from Stinchcombe Hill

Russet Apples

The western escarpment of the Cotswolds appears to be perfect territory for golf courses. Today's walk was the third or possibly the fourth. The walk circumnavigated the whole course which is situated on the top of Stinchcombe Hill and which, like all of the others, commands spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. The far south point of my last walk was Dursley where I walked round the church but failed to find a really good b&w picture that I liked. Later I thought about something I'd seen in the church and decided I needed to return. That was easy as Dursley was today's walk's most northerly point. I now have the picture I missed last week.

It was much calmer today but still not quite calm enough for the hartstongue ferns. One day ...

The panorama above was beautiful in the early morning light. I've also photographed it with my large format film camera and am anxious to see if that has worked out well too. The imposing Tyndale Monument visible in the distance was built in 1866 to commemorate William Tyndale who first translated the bible into 'Early Modern English' in the 16th century. He was born at North Nibley, the village below the monument. My next stretch of the walk passes close by the monument.

My new boots had their first outing today. Verdict - very comfortable and much better than my three other pairs. Success.

#15: Nympsfield Long Barrow - Dursley

East from Cam Long Down

Yew Berries on John Wilkin's Tomb

One of the challenges this walk poses for me from time to time is not related to the walk. It's the wind. Photography with a large format camera requires the use of very small apertures (typically f32, f45 or f64) in order to secure sufficient depth of field for sharp focus. This in turn leads to having to use very slow shutter speeds in order to let sufficient light on to the film. If a sharply captured image is what you're after, and I generally am, then wind causing the foliage to thrash about like crazy is your number one enemy. At least it is in the relative darkness of a woodland walk which again was the case for a substantial part of today's walk. And today was not just breezy. Well, it started breezy at 8am - and steadily became strong and gusty. All the more frustrating as today I found the best area of the walk so far for Hartstongue ferns of which I'm desperate to make some good photographs. The woodland stretch between Nympsfield Long Barrow and Uley Long Barrow has many fine areas of these beautiful ferns but they were waving about like promenaders at the Last Night of the Proms. I will return when it's calm - John Sexton's "Quiet Light" is called for. I did find one small very sheltered area where I chanced a picture - fingers crossed - which I'll get to process next week.

I stopped for my cheese sandwich lunch on top of Cam Long Down. In spite of the wind it was warm in the occasional sun and I found some shelter from the wind on the lee side where I must admit to lying back and dozing for 10 minutes. I was woken by the croaking cries of 3 ravens directly above me enjoying the uplifting wind from the escarpment. It seems that for the sheer fun of it they were engaging together in their spectacular 'flip upside down' aerobatics. A joy to watch. And several hundred feet above them was an elegant slender sailplane enjoying the updraft in almost the same manner.

October's issue of Cotswold Life Magazine

Cotswold Life Magazine has confimed that a selection of pictures from my walk will be in the October issue.
It is advertising this on the front page of its website with a link to a short article and a link to this blog.