Wednesday 21 December 2016

Santa's on His Way


Gloomy sky when I took this on top of a local garage


That's it for this year, I'm taking a break till the new year till then
Have a great Christmas and New Year 



Monday 19 December 2016

Christmas Trees at Basildon Park



Went along to the National Trust Property at Basildon Park to see the decorations and as usual I took a few photos for you to see.


The day was quite cold & bleak but the decorations were welcoming 

the entrance decked in garlands

 The tree in the entrance hall

 The dining table set out for Christmas

 Music room  with deorated tree

 The music room tree

 Present sround the tree

 Looking down on the entrance hall tree


 The tree in the old kitchen looking very rustic.
Taking part in Our World Tuesday




Sunday 18 December 2016

Gun Street Mural



Spotted this on the end of a building on Gun Street Reading


Taking Part in Monday Mural


Friday 16 December 2016

Three Days Last Week



Last week was not the best and started off miserable with fog about so I took some photos on three consecutive days out of the office window
Tuesday
Looking towards the trees nearby from the window, the sky is somewhere above the tree outline
A wider view of the area

Wednesday proved a little clearer with the sky showing and you could at least see the downs in the background  
Wider view shows the area more clearer


Thursday was rain


The sky looked miserable again
But lunchtime it cleared up again and looed a lot nicer. How was your week?




Tuesday 13 December 2016

Giant Turkey







Behind the Fence



Following on from my previous posts I decided to go up and check out what was being done behind the big fence you see

Quite a long section had bee fenced off from  view

Behind it was obvious they were stripping back the top layer of soil looking for archaeology, the yellow markings showed areas of interest


This is what the rest of the field looks like

Lucky one of the archaeologists saw me hanging about and came over, his assistant had a bucket which he showed a few things they picked up, some of it Roman. There were roof tiles and parts of pots, the small round one is the base of a little beaker.


This one he held up was off a storage jar

The last time the dug ten months ago they found a Roman Building or Villa in that fenced off area and it was excavated, had I realised I'd have been round like a shot. The building extended off to the right under some 1960's housing and no doubt was badly damaged in the work being done. I came away feeling quite pleased we had such history in the Village. The fenced off area was covered to preserve what is left of the building and will become a childrens play area. Don't worry I'll be back for an update as they are going to do an open day to show people what they found.
Taking Part in Our World Tuesday

Thursday 8 December 2016

Black Mountain Sky



Last Saturday my wife & I wet down to the caravan site to close up the caravan and put it in storage for the winter. We came home the usual way through the Black Mountains. The week before I noticed snow on the tops and a week later it was still there waiting for more to come. The photos were taken out of the passenger window as we drove past  towards Sugarloaf Mountain  and the dark sky above.



Heading up the A40 road through the mountain


Heading down and looking back towards the snow capped tops there are times when low cloud hides them all.


Monday 5 December 2016

Ten Months Ago



Last week I called my Blog Watch This Space the photos were taken from across the fields near the local Vets a place I have to go every few months with our dogs. Ten months ago I
was taking one of them up there when I noticed a load of trenches had been dug in the nearby field 



Last week I showed the fence on the other side of this field where they are going to build


The fenced off area is near the houses you see in the distance, what I did not realise at the time is there were trenches there as well or I would have gone to get photos of them and what was going on


As you can see this is a big field, the line of trees you see in the distance and houses on the right  are beside the Reading Road (A329) 


One of the trenches, where I Think there might have been a ditch in the middle


 This one has had a small section dug deeper uncovering something


This is looking towards the old Hospital at Fairmile 


And this was the culprit responsible for the trenches. They had been dug for an archaeological survey of the field for a prospective development of housing. If it goes ahead I would imagine the best part of 1000 houses being built here, I might add last week I said 20 houses were going in across the field I think it is nearer 60 that are supposed to be built. What will happen here on this field I could not tell you but if it happens then I will be on hand to get a few photos. Next week I will show you what is behind the fence across the field
Taking Part in Our World Tuesday

Reading Minster



This week I'm showing some of the increadible work in Reading Minster Church St Mary


Above you see the back of the altar in the Chancel


The noth aisle you can see a painted screen and beside that an Altar 


 The altar with the paiting above it 


The Painted screen with figures that have muical instruments 


The Painting above the Altar showing St Mary
Taking Part in Monday Mural