ASTLEY HALL
Snowdrops in The Woods.
At last Winter is beginning to ease it’s unfriendly grip, so getting out and about is becoming easier and more pleasurable, taking less time now to defrost myself after each trip out with the camera.
Landscapes and street photography are my main interests, transport is also in the mix as well, railways mostly, to satisfy my inner big kid. I don’t work to a specific set of target images, if a scene catches my eye then I’ll press the shutter release. The moment is then captured and safe. I couldn’t go back an hour, a day, a week later to capture the same scene, that moment has gone and a fresh one is now in it’s place.
As I’ve posted previously a favourite location to take the camera for a walk is the grounds of Astley Hall on the outskirts of the Lancashire market town of Chorley. The history of the park is similar to many. The house has an Elizabethan core with additions made over the years to satisfy the prevailing fashions and the aspirations of the owners. A stream running through the grounds was dammed by the house to provide an ornamental lake, an extra layer of landscaped gentility to add a little grandeur. The house is open with an upper floor acting as a gallery.
Alongside the house a network of paths lead off through a wooded valley with the stream from the lake continuing its course through it. Now Spring is beginning to make its mark on the year the snowdrops are emerging, the splashes of green and the white of the flowers a contrast to the earthy tones of the bare trees and soil. Single flowers and widening spreads work their way through the trees. They are quite a feature and are flagged up as an attraction as soon as the first blooms emerge.
It’s a go to place of mine throughout the year to watch as the seasons cartwheel around, each in their turn.
For those who like the technical stuff the camera for the images is a Pentax K20 with an old style, manual 35mm lens, there’s something about the older glass that adds an extra dimension to the image.
