Scavenger photo hunt – November

It’s almost the end of November and the monthly photo challenge has arrived again – where does the time go? This month’s topics are – House plants, Ring/s, Harbour, Window, Sky, and as usual, my own choice, so here goes –

I’ve mentioned before on this blog that I’m not a gardener in any way, shape or form, and that goes for indoor gardening as well as the outdoor stuff, so although I do like house plants I very rarely have any. I’ve had lots of various ones in the past and though I start off with good intentions and they look nice for a while I eventually forget to water them and they just die, so when I wanted to make a certain corner of the bathroom look a bit nicer I got an artificial trailing thing which does the job nicely.

House plant – the artificial trailing ivy

Over to Anglesey now and while on a camping holiday there in 2015 I came across the ‘Time and Tide’ bell, installed on Cemaes beach the previous year. It was sculpted by Marcus Vergette and is known locally as St. Patrick’s Bell as it’s situated not far from where St. Patrick is said to have founded his first church in 440 AD after being shipwrecked close to the shore. There’s an inscription on the bell in the form of a poem by Glyndwr Thomas – “Above the waves, melodiously, Sounds the name of a saint so fair, A bell whose knell is here to tell, Patrick’s eternal prayer” – and it rings twice a day with the waves at high tide.

Ring/s – St. Patrick’s Bell, Cemaes beach, Anglesey

Although Cemaes is only a small village with not much there it’s also a nice little place with a very photogenic harbour, especially when the tide is in. I can never resist paying a visit and taking a few photos whenever I’m camping on Anglesey so it was hard to decide which of the many to use for the next topic, however I finally decided on this one taken in May 2013.

Harbour – Cemaes, Anglesey

The next photo is one I used in a post twelve months ago but it’s so nice I couldn’t resist using it again. Walking through a local park one evening on my way home from an afternoon out I passed the back of a nearby church; the lights were on in the building, lighting up the stained glass windows, and while most of them looked quite plain the one behind the altar was something else. In the dark of the evening the deep colours of the stained glass really stood out and though I was looking at it from the outside it was certainly worth taking a photo.

Window – Stained glass window in a local church, seen from outside

Choosing a ‘sky’ shot for the next topic wasn’t easy as I have quite a few photos which would lend themselves, however while searching the archives I came across this one taken on the last day of November 2017. I was on the second day of a five-day break in Ireland and had been to Kildare and Portlaiose; the late afternoon shot was taken from the window of the moving coach as I was on my way back to Roscrea.

Sky – somewhere between Portlaoise and Roscrea, Ireland

I had no difficulty at all in choosing the final shot, in fact I decided to use two as they are so topical. If anyone is watching this year’s I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here you’ll know it’s coming from Gwrych Castle in North Wales; a derelict and dangerous ruin for many years it’s now in the slow process of being renovated by the Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust. I’ve camped several times at a lovely site just down the lane from the castle and in August 2016 I went on a guided tour of part of the grounds during a special open day, however three years previously, before any renovations began, I found a path round the back of the castle and managed to sneak into the grounds through a gap in the security fence. Although most of the actual buildings were boarded up I was able to wander freely up and down the paths and steps of the inner grounds, and as the place is built on several levels I got some good shots looking down from one of the upper turrets.

Gwrych Castle, setting for I’m A Celebrity… 2020

Incidentally, I’m A Celebrity isn’t a programme I would normally watch – I saw the very first one years back and decided it wasn’t my type of thing so haven’t seen it since – however I’m making an exception this time just because of the location, and sad person that I am I’m actually finding it quite entertaining.

Well that’s just about it for my selections this month, I hope everyone likes what I’ve chosen for the topics. As usual I’m linking up with Kate’s blog, time to make a brew now then I’ll hop across to see what everyone else has chosen this time.