Just as it was bright and sunny yesterday it was wet and miserable today…and did I mention cold with it?
We decided a rest day was in order today so packed a picnic and headed off South but not to the Open Gardens as the rain was steadily getting worse. I felt a bit guilty not going as I know how much hard work it must be for the garden owners to prepare and then not to have many visitors turn up must be disheartening but the rain was a bit too heavy for comfort, at least my comfort.
We had not gone far from home when we stopped the car to have our picnic on the moors high above the Holme Valley were much of The Last of the Summer Wine was filmed. The view is quite spectacular and made more atmospheric today because of the mist.  The wind up here was quite strong, buffeting the car as we ate.
The photo clearly showing the signs of Autumn approaching. I shall be sad to see the summer go this year although it has been too hot at times it was really nice not to have to think about coats and umbrellas for a while.
Instead of the open gardens we decided on an indoor outing at the Millenium Galleries in Sheffield. There was an exhibition of the Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography – which was mainly pioneered by four early photographers – Lewis Caroll, Julia Margaret Cameron, Oscar Rejlander and Clementina Hawarden. It was a free exhibition with a request for a donation which I don’t mind giving. I never really knew very much about the beginnings of photography until today; only that it was not a simple procedure and that the early photographers had to be something of a technician as well as an artist to be able to develop them.
The early photos were mainly of women and children and some quite famous people such as Darwin and always posed of course as movement could not be captured and always quite sombre. To take a photo you had to keep quite still for many seconds and for a child this must have been almost impossible yet some of the photos were quite expressive and captured incredible moments of affection and tenderness to the extent that you felt like an intruder. There was no photography allowed in the exhibition so I have nothing to show but do have a look at the link if you are interested to know more by clicking Victorian Giants.
I was completely fascinated by the prints and each one had a small caption beside it explaining the photo, who took the picture and naming the models. The Duchess of Cambridge had made an opening foreword to the exhibition and picked out her own favourites which in itself was interesting.
On the way back to the car park we passed John Lewis in the city centre where there are three large Plane trees laden with their pretty conker like fruits.
After leaving Sheffield we drove down to Bradwell in Derbyshire to pick up my mum from my sister’s caravan. We had a quick look in Castleton as it is a few years since we have been – at one time when our girls were young and we shared the caravan with my sister and brother we went on most weekends and holidays – it is much the same as it has been for the last 30 years or more – a slight change of shops and cafes here and there but nothing drastic. We took the back road out of Castleton to Hope and once again the mist was quite spectacular.
We drove up on to the highest point above Hope and Castleton and stopped to take a few more snaps.
So despite the dismal weather we managed to have a successful and interesting day.
As mum is staying with us a few days now and she is a little high maintenance these days it is possible I will be having an enforced blogging break for a day or too and you may notice an absence of comments. We will be taking her home on Wednesday evening so blogging should resume after that!
Have a lovely bank holiday.
back soon x
where the journey takes me 2 