Time flies as they say, and the scavenger photo hunt has arrived once again, with this month’s six topics being – edge, loaf, bridge, mine, black and my own choice. A couple of photos I took while away over the Easter weekend have lent themselves well to a couple of the topics so here’s my selections for this month.
Just a few days ago, on Easter Monday, I did a bit of exploring around the north end of Bassenthwaite Lake and a convenient parking place at the side of one of the country lanes gave me access to a lakeside woodland walk and several little stony ‘beaches’ where I was able to walk right along the water’s edge. Incidentally, Bassenthwaite Lake is the only body of water in the Lake District with ‘lake’ in its name, all the others are ‘waters’, ‘meres’ or ‘tarns’.

When is a loaf not a loaf? – when it looks like a loaf but is actually a birthday cake. This one was done for Michael a couple of years ago via the ‘design your own birthday cake’ gadget in our local Asda ; the photo doesn’t really do it justice, the cake was so realistic it really did look like a proper Warburton’s toastie loaf complete with tears and creases in the wrapper.

Off to St. Olaves in Norfolk now with a bridge I’ve driven over many times and which looks quite modern but is older than you would think. It carries the A143 over the River Waveney and is the first crossing point on that river south of Great Yarmouth. The road bridge itself was built in 1847 and is a very early example of a bowstring girder bridge with ornamental railing parapets ; the original decking was replaced with steel in 1920 and replaced again in 1959, with the pedestrian walkway being added in 1960. The notice on the side of the bridge warns boaters to ‘lower windscreen, keep off deck, sound horn’ – the river is tidal, and with ever increasing boat sizes there’s more than one holiday cruiser got stuck under the bridge in the past.

From east to west now with a visit to Anglesey and part of Parys Mountain copper mine. In 1768 a huge mass of copper ore was discovered close to the surface, a discovery which transformed the shape of the mountain and the fortunes of a nation. The Great Open Cast was created by miners using little more than picks, shovels and gunpowder, and what can be seen on the surface hides many miles of underground tunnels, shafts and huge caverns. I’ve walked round Parys Mountain several times in the last few years, it’s an amazing place full of amazing colours, and in late summer when the heather is in full bloom it’s really beautiful.

Closer to home now and the local hamlet of Firwood Fold, the town’s very first conservation area, and notable for being the birthplace of Samuel Crompton, inventor of the Spinning Mule. All the cottages in the hamlet are private residences and No. 5 is unusual in that it has two adjacent front doors. It was originally the hamlet’s school, with one door for the school itself and the other for the teacher’s house. Surprisingly, even though I learned about Samuel Crompton at school and Firwood Fold is less than two miles from home, I’d never actually been there until one day in March last year.

Finally, and quite coincidentally, another bridge for my last photo. This was taken just a few days ago while I was wandering round Cockermouth, and when I downloaded it onto the pc (along with the other 364 I took over the four days!) I thought it looked pretty enough to be included as my own choice for this month.
