If only

I was awake when TT got up for work and 4am so I decided I'd get up, drop him off at the farm, then go and takesome photographs.
It looked foggy but with a nice sky above the fog so I headed for the highest point on Hadrian's Wall, Winshields Crag.
Got to the top in plenty of time but nothing much was happening, some lovely colour in the top third of the sky but it was dull and grey in the bottom two thirds, not ideal.
Decided to give it up as a bad job but then I wondered if the Little Owls would be around at Cawfields and pulled into the quarry car park.
A Dabchick was diving up and down in the water and a Heron took off as I crossed the grass from the car.
Still lots of fog but some of the ducks took off and I grabbed a photograph.

Mallard through the mist

Then I spotted the sun coming up through the fog, amazing what a difference a bit of light makes to a photograph, and I took several shots before the sun was swallowed up by cloud and fog.

Let there be light

I headed up towards the Crags, figuring I was out anyway I might as well get a bit of exercise.

Took my camera and tripod but left my filters behind.

Cows were grazing right next to Hadrian's Wall, they huffed a bit as I approached, I don't think they like the fully extended tripod for some reason, but they moved off the path and I passed by.

One of the Buzzards I photographed last week took off and called above me, crows and swallows swooped and yet again the sound of the farmers quad bike as he checked his stock.

Hadrian's Wall on Cawfield Crags

Took a photograph of the Wall and then one of the brown cow before heading back to the car and home.

How now Brown Cow

Tree in the mist

The fog was still thick at Gilsland, I stopped to take a picture of trees in the fog.

Not one of those WOW mornings but then if they were all great there'd be no challenge to get up and go would there?

as always the photographs used on the Blog are copyright of Joan Thirlaway and cannot be used without written permission.

Golden Hour

Photographers talk about the golden hour, that hour before sunset and after sunrise, when the light is rich and often golden.
Last night looked promising so off I went.
Called into Cawfields Quarry, it's haymaking/silage making time and fields are being cut literally from dawn to dusk while the weather holds.
I love the patterns made by the cut grass, left in lines to dry.

 Field that carries the Hadrian's Wall Path from Great Chesters Farm east to Cawfields

( well if you're walking w-e that is)

Light on the Cawfields Quarry face was lovely, we don't have many easily accessible bodies of water of the Hadrian's Wall Path but this is one. It was here I saw a Little Owl, managed a grabbed picture otherwise I would just have marked it down as a Tawny Owl. I'm hoping to get a better shot, using my 'big' lens, tried tonight but while the owl was in the same spot it was camera shy tonight. I was getting eaten alive by midges so I made a dignified retreat, Round 1 to the Little Owl.

Cawfields Quarry Lake

Some nice clouds in the sky so I went off to Sycamore Gap, while the sun doesn't actually set behind the tree I hoped the cloud to the east would colour up to make a nice background.

It takes 20 minutes from parking the car to the tree and by the time I got there all the cloud had gone from the bit of sky I needed it in.

Took a photograph looking towards Winshields Crag from Highshields Crag, than another looking towards the east and Hotbank Crag, strange how often the sunset colour is better in the east than in the west.



View west to Winshields Crag from Highshields Crag with the Hadrian's Wall Path snaking through the view.

Looking east over Hotbank Crag and Crag Lough, from Highshields Crag

Then the sun went down and it was nearly all over for another night, on the way back to the car I stopped at one of the other areas of water on this bit of Hadrian's Wall, Crag Lough.

You've probaby seen this view many times but it makes a nice full stop to my outing.

I had a few hours sleep then I was out again for sunrise but I'll save those pictures for another time.

Oh and here's the grab shot of the Little Owl,  massively cropped as it was taken with my 18-200mm lens a fair distance away. Challenge is now to get a 'proper' shot of it.

as always the photo's used in the Blog are copyright of Joan Thirlaway and can't be used without written permission.

Misty morning

June is here and that brings those misty mornings I love.
It's unpredictable, some places it's impenetrable and everything can change in seconds.
I started out at Steel Rigg, I had some friends coming to spend the day with us so I couldn't go too far, I'm lucky that I can get up at 3.30am and be home again by 6am.
I was helped by the fact that there was no cloud so I knew it would quickly become too bright for my lens.
I was using the Nikon D7000 and I'm starting to really like this camera, it has it's quirks but it also has some really useful features.
Not much blurb just a set of photographs, in the order they were taken, starting at Steel Rigg with a quick stop at Cawfields Quarry on my way home.

 Three lambs and the view south over Bardon Mill

For a change the sheep stayed within camera range. Some dawn colour in the sky.

Mists rising from Crag Lough and the marshy land below the crags

Sun rising over Hound Hill to the north of Hadrian's Wall, the cows started bellowing to great the day.

You can see how far over the sun rises at this time of the year

Sun's up and it's time for breakfast

Let there be light

This is what they mean when they talk about 'The Golden Hour' that lovely warm light you get within an hour of sunrise. Light catching the Hadrian's Wall Path as it crosses Steel Rigg.

Cawfields Quarry, taken as I headed home.

As always the photographs are copyright of Joan Thirlaway and cannot be used without written permission.

Early to rise

Alarm was set for 5am and it seemed I'd only just got to sleep when it was waking me up again.
Not much cloud in the sky and frost on the ground, thinking it was about time I got back into the swing of early mornings, I got up and off I went. The thermometer in the car was reading 0 degrees and it was a bit nippy on the ears and fingers, fortunately I had hat and gloves in the carand I was glad of them.
I was suprised there was no mist, I thought conditions would have been ideal, but then what do I know?
Working on the premise that it was the weekend and, after all the people who were out on the Hadrian's Wall Path yesterday, some of the more popular spots might have other photographers, I went to Caw Gap.
I have absolutely no objection to other photographers out in the morning it's just I always seem to need to stand in front of them or at least within their picture frame.
Caw Gap was empty, just me and the birds, there is something so evocative about the call of the Curlew.

Hadrian's Wall at Caw Gap, it might look as if I'm standing on the Wall but I'm in a gap.

Hadrian's Wall is an ancient monument and I try to treat it with respect climbing on it is frowned on and knowing my luck I slip and break something.

My favourite viewpoint is just a bit further west of this spot so off I went, I like good value for my outings and high up on this point of Cawfield Crags you get views in all directions, so if something interesting is happening away from the sunrise you're well placed to capture it.

View towards Winshields Crag, the highest point on Hadrian's Wall.

The sun appears along with some contrails to add interest to the sky.

There was a 10 mile hike over these Crags today for the British Heart Foundation, apparently they filled all the available places in double quick time, I hope people were well prepared for the tricky bits. At least the frost should have gone before they started.

As is my habit I called into Cawfields Quarry, I wanted to see where the sun was in relation to the peak there, and to see if any birds were on the lake. The contrail sky make a nice reflection in the water and then it was back home for a warming bowl of porridge.

Cawfields Quarry Lake

as usual all photographs are the copyright of Joan Thirlaway and cannot be used without written permission

http://www.joanthirlaway.co.uk/

Hadrian's Wall at Cawfields

It was lunch time before the skies cleared today and TT decided he'd accompany me on my sorté.I was hoping to get some more photographs of the Dabchick at Walltown Quarry so I headed there thinking TT would have a walk and come back for me, but I hadn't anticipated the wind being quite so fierce.
The lake was bare of birds as the wind scudded across the surface the birds, and there only seemed to be Mallard around today, were being quite sensible and sheltering behind a wall.
No sign of the Dabchicks or the Tufted Ducks that were there last week.
I sat there thinking, you never know what might appear when a great gust of wind knocked me, and the tripod flying, with the camera end giving me a bang on the head on the way to the ground.

Time for 'Plan B'.
Off to Cawfields thinking that as we were out anyway we might as well have a walk, I just took the camera with me.
The wind at our backs pushed us up Cawfield Crags, and however windy it was a Walltown, it was windier on the tops of the Crags reminding me to say to anyone planning on walking the Hadrian's Wall Path, do it from west to east so you have the prevailing winds behind you.
The footpath men have been to Cawfields with their little green sticks but in my first picture today you can see an area they've repaired, this would have been a groove that's been filled and reseeded.

Cawfield Crags with remedial repairs to the Hadrian's Wall Path

It said on tonight's weather forcast that there had been gusts up to 50mph and I could believe that, it was very warm but you had to keep your outer coat zipped up or you were lashed to bits, and in danger of hang gliding over the Crags.

After the ups and downs of Cawfield Crags you eventually reach  the road at Caw Gap

From Caw Gap you can continue up onto the slopes of Winshields Crag, you can see the  line that was Hadrian's Wall in the picture, we chose to head back to the car park at Cawfields, taking the lower track that runs parallel to the Wall, making a three mile circular walk.

The lower path looking east to the right of the picture you can just see the Vallum

The views from the lower path up to the Wall are quite impressive, if you think the Wall was 6 metres high when it was built.

The view up to Hadrian's Wall from the lower path, at Thorney Doors on Cawfields Crag

There are lots of visitors about, considering it's so early in the season and mid week, more of the wrinkly set, like me and TT, making the most of our retirement time.

Milecastle 42 at Cawfields with views west over the Fort at Aesica and Mucklebank Crag.

We laugh about the silly things that 'Public Works' and an intransigent attitude do in this day and age but obviously it was no different in Roman times, if the Milecastles had to be a Roman Mile apart then that was it written in stone, quite literally.

You can see from this picture how much easier it would have been to move the Milecastle just a bit to west where the land is flatter.

On several of the Forts and Milecastles along the Crags there's a gateway to the north that opens onto a sheer drop, not at all practical but can't you hear an ancient clerk of works insisting 'it's on the plans so that's how we build it'?

I include this view to the south over the Mare nd Foal standing stone just because I like the clouds

We eventually got back to the car park, spent some time watching a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly enjoying the dandelion flowers, and looking for toad spawn before heading bag home with burning faces from the sun and wind but feeling better for the fresh air.

Toilets at Cawfield Quarry, refreshments at The Milecastle In and Herding Hill Farm Shop.

As usual, all photographs used on this blog are copyright of Joan Thirlaway and cannot be used without my written permission.

More photographs at www.joanthirlaway.co.uk

20 02 11 : Hadrian's Wall

Cawfield Quarry on the Hadrian's Wall Path

Most photographers like to use water in their shots, you only have to look at the winners of big landscape competitions to know how it can enhance a photograph.

On the high part of the Hadrian's Wall Path we only have two areas of water that are easily accesible and Cawfields Quarry is one of them.

This is an early morning shot with the rising sun just catching Hadrian's Wall on Cawfield Crags, taken last October so the sun is rising to the south of the Wall.

It's a useful morning stop because the lake here is deep so you can often find mist rising off the water.

Wildfowl don't use it very often for some reason.

Crag Lough

The second area of water is Crag Lough and it's best for sunsets.

The rights to the fishing are owned by a syndicate and from March to October the boats are on the Lough.

You have to cross farm land belonging to Hotbank Farm to reach it, as always please treat the land and animals with respect.

Sometimes the cows will come down to drink or just paddle in the Lough and if they place themselves nicely it can enhance the shot.

From this angle you look west, Hadrian's Wall runs along the top of the crags to the left side of the picture, the peak in the centre is Winshields Crag with Steel Rigg beneath it.

This was taken in September last year.

This Lough also is good for mist in the early mornings but that would be from the Steel Rigg viewpoint.

All photographs used on this Blog are copyright of Joan Thirlaway and cannot be used withpout written permission

01 02 11

Well I got off to a really good start yesterday by getting the date wrong.

I blame the watch makers, the dials are tiny fiddly things, hard to pull out the correct distance, then when you push them in the date jumps (and don't get me started on clocks in cars).

How I ever arrive anywhere on time is a mystery to me.

So here we are in February and today's pictures come from Cawfields on Hadrian's Wall.

At this time of the year you can get those lovely extremes of light, bright sunlight on the ground and dark lowering clouds in the sky.

This is one of my favourite spots because you can see Hadrian's Wall snaking over the various crags.

The landscape here wouldn't be the same without our thousands of sheep munching at the grass, the local breed is the Black Face sheep.

Behind the sheep you can see the sun hitting the Vallum, a defensive ditch, on the skyline are the Thirlwall Nicks, otherwise known as Mucklebank Crag and Walltown Crag.

I've had problems recently with people stealing my pictures from a photo site I was using.

Another photograph of this view was stolen and posted up as being in Washington State.

Well you could look for it in America but you won't find it there.

It's Cawfields Quarry, a deep lake left over from the stone quarrying carried out in days before English Heritage or National Trust were there to protect the ancient monument.

They quarried right through Hadrian's Wall - I've been told there's a double decker bus and several other vehicles under that water, and certainly police divers do use the pond for training exercises.

If you double click the photographs you can view tham at a larger size, please remember they are copyright and you would need my permission to copy them.