Corbridge | northumbrian : light

Corbridge and snow …

Posted on February 6, 2018 by northumbrianlight

Winter has returned, or maybe it never went away. Certainly the conditions in far north Wick were milder but I doubt that still holds true. This is just a small collection of images taken in and around Corbridge earlier today – I have processed them differently but they all come out the same – cold:

St Andrew’s Church graveyard, Corbridge

Umbrella time – Corbridge Post Office

Who cares about the weather, as long as we’re together.

The from the bridge looking east down the Tyne.

Mike Anton Estate Agents, Corbridge

Northumberland, Personal, Photography, Railways, Writing

Out and about …

Gallery | Posted on July 11, 2016 by northumbrianlight

… in Hexham. It will be September before we start travelling again so the summer months will be based at home: playing golf, putting miles on the motorbikes and keeping up with the endless maintenance tasks that are part and parcel of owning a converted cow byre. This year we are experimenting with changing the colour of the external woodwork, something I may live to regret.

Although we live in the country, almost everything you need is within a few miles drive, in the local towns of Hexham and Corbridge. Everything else is available on the Internet. The problem is that these last few weeks, Hexham has moved several miles further away. The main access from north of the Tyne has been severed while essential repairs have been carried out to the railway bridge. It can be quite pleasant wandering the much less crowded streets but it has done local businesses no favours. In no particular order, these are some of the images captured around the town over the last week:

To round off, this is the mill at The Linnels, just outside Hexham – it is too easy to pass by familiar places and take them for granted:

Northumberland, Personal, Photography, Writing

Another week …

Gallery | Posted on February 28, 2016 by northumbrianlight

This is a selection of images from Blip over the last seven days. It has been a quiet week in Lake Wobegone – two rounds of golf, one on the coast and one in Yorkshire (Spring must be around the corner); no rides out on the bikes, too darn cold but the chains have been cleaned and oiled; various walks around Hexham, including one to the station – hence the picture of Les Dawson. It is a look I have enthusiastically courted all my life – disapproval – reassuring that I can still do it 🙂

I finished reading Adlestrop Revisited by Anne Harvey, an anthology inspired by Edward Thomas’s poem. It includes this by Martin Newell, an extract from Adlestrop Retrieved:

Bombastic brash and over-prone
To shouting on his mobile ‘phone
He’s cancelling his three o’clock
Or booking tickets for Bangkok
So fellow travellers have no choice
But hear his self-important voice.
“I’ve godda window, Tuesday. Noon.
“Yup. Abso-lootly. Speaktcha soon.”
No sooner has he closed the thing,
His brief-case then begins to ring.
And down it comes from off the rack.
“I’m breaking up, I’ll call you back.”
As fellow travellers wish he’d stow
His mobile phone where phones don’t go.
And so the pompous prat proceeds
From Paddington to Temple Meads.

Have a good week all and may you find life’s silent coach 😜 🚊

Slow TV

Posted on January 10, 2016 by northumbrianlight

This is my personal contribution to the current trend for Slow TV – a routine drive out to Corbridge for petrol (and back). It may not be as good as a canal trip along the Kennet and Avon, nor as engrossing as the Sami and their reindeer but there are highlights – a friendly postman, kamikaze pedestrians and an ancient tractor – see if you can see them before the motion sickness kicks in. Has Beethoven’s 9th (royalty free) ever sounded better 😝

This is really just an exercise in testing and getting used to a GoPro camera which is small enough to put anywhere – on the dash, attached to a crash helmet and one day, maybe, mounted on a drone.

In the meantime enjoy the continuing diabolical weather in Northumberland and the heavy mist along the Military Road – the prayers have yet to be answered 😡

I’ve just seen a face …

Posted on October 3, 2015 by northumbrianlight

… I can’t forget the time or place
Where we just met

Falling, yes I am falling
And she keeps calling
Me back again

These two images were taken in St Andrew’s Church, Corbridge on a bright Autumn afternoon. There is something irresistible about backlit stained glass in the cool of an old English Church; a bright and fitting way to remember little Annie:

Northumberland, Personal, Photography, Weekly Photo Challenge

Lovin’ Summer

Gallery | Posted on July 27, 2014 by northumbrianlight

Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer lovin’. Thus far it has been a fabulous summer in Northumberland and fortunately we have no plans to go anywhere until the Autumn – what is the point when we live in this glorious county.

This was my summer lovin’ week in Northumberland:

Sunday – heavy rain overnight but the skies are clear:

Monday – temperatures are rising and it is becoming almost ‘too darn hot‘:

Tuesday – an evening walk along the Tyne at Corbridge – it is looking low:

Wednesday – remember this heat in the bleak, dark December days:

Thursday – a view across a sweltering county from Hedley on the Hill:

Friday – There is talk on the local news of the heat damaging road surfaces – can’t resist it can they – no good news without the obligatory bad. This one seems to be holding together:

Saturday – sailing through Kielder Forest:

(click on the images to enlarge)

Northumberland, Personal, Photography, Writing

Along the Tyne

Gallery | Posted on December 29, 2013 by northumbrianlight

I am on rations; I have been told that I have been eating and drinking far too much over the festive period but I know this to be completely untrue. It is a well-known fact that around the winter solstice, trousers shrink and only begin to expand again as the light returns. Consequently, in order to stretch my clothes, we embarked on a long walk around Corbridge and Riding Mill along the banks of the Tyne. It seems to have worked, I am sitting much more comfortably; I think I will reward my scientific endeavours with another mince pie 🙂

Happy New Year all!

We picked up the Tyne at Corbridge heading east towards Newcastle and leaving the river at Riding Mill Station opposite Styford Hall; the return route was along the A695 (click on the images to enlarge).

Postscript – Weekly Photo Challenge: One Shot, Two Ways

Posted on August 17, 2013 by northumbrianlight

We walked up to Beaufront Hill Head again on Thursday and the change from the previous week was dramatic. The sun was hidden by a blanket of cloud and the barley had been harvested – it felt like the year was on the turn – one shot, more ways:

(Apologies to Tina Schell who had asked to see colour versions of the previous post – I tried but they lacked any drama – so here are some even gloomier versions :-))

Weekly Photo Challenge: One Shot, Two Ways

Posted on August 11, 2013 by northumbrianlight

The same place, the same time; one shot, two ways. The view is south from Beaufront Hill Head, across the Tyne Valley towards Corbridge, Slaley and beyond. This is the highest farm on the Beaufront Castle estate: Beaufront Hill Head is at 214 metres above sea level whereas our home at Beaufront Woodhead is at 167 metres. The views south from both locations are breathtaking in either landscape or portrait – particularly if you climb to Beaufront Hill Head from Sandhoe – the majority of the 217 feet ascent is completed in just a few hundred yards:

(click on the images to enlarge – particularly the second)

Travel theme: Roads

Posted on March 3, 2013 by northumbrianlight

Travel theme: Roads: Sometimes a road, sometimes not. This is Leazes Lane, a little used by-way that runs north from Corbridge, underneath the A69 towards Halton Castle. If you can find this on Google Street View and approach the ford from the south, the season magically changes from deep winter to high summer in the space of click.

Click on the images to enlarge.