Deep lanes and the ever changing land: my blog
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Dartmoor’s Smiley Wall
Last week I spotted a Tweet from BBC reporter Sophie Pierce about a ‘smiley wall’ on Dartmoor. I frequently drive past this part of the moor, on the road connecting Widecombe with Ponsworthy, and I think I first noticed the ‘face’ around 4-5 months ago, but had never stopped to look at it. A few…
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Exe Estuary, September dawn
There doesn’t seem to be any time to process photographs or write blog pieces these days. I will post more and write more about this dawn trip to the Exe Estuary (a week ago) as soon as time allows, but I’m fond of this one, so thought I’d give it an early airing.
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Sittaford Stone Circle – the first stone circle to be discovered on Dartmoor for 100 years
There has been considerable interest, not only in Devon, in the announcement this year of a recently discovered stone circle high on Dartmoor. It was actually discovered back in 2007 by Alan Endacott, but the hard work of unearthing the stones (by the Dartmoor Preservation Association volunteers) was carried out in April 2015. I haven’t…
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A distant pony
During my walk last week to the Sittaford Stone Circle (about which more soon) I stood for some time on the slopes of the tor, looking down to the Grey Wethers circles, taking occasional photographs. The light at this point (around 6:45 am) was low but because of the cloud cover very changeable: sometimes very…
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Almost dawn on the East Dart
Last Monday evening I sat planning a walk on the moor to Sittaford Tor, with the intention of capturing photographs of the recently-discovered stone circle. Whenever I’ve visited this tor previously I’ve parked by Fernworthy reservoir and walked through the forest, across to Grey Wethers and up from there to the tor. But the long…
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Holwell Traditions
Like many people local to Dartmoor, we visit Holwell Lawn, near Hound Tor, toward the end of May every year. The Bluebells will always, by then, have been in flower for several weeks in other parts of the county, and in the Dartmoor woodlands. But from the middle of the month walkers, photographers and of…