Matfen Hall

Weekly Photo Challenge: A Day in The Life

Posted on by northumbrianlight

A day in the life – I guess it should be “my life” but I enjoy the oblique reference to Lennon & McCartney:

Woke up, fell out of bed 
Dragged a comb across my head 
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup 
And looking up, I noticed I was late 

Saturday 30th March 2013, the clocks change tonight in the UK and the light begins its return to the evening skies.  I hasten to add this is not a typical day, indeed these last few weeks it has been very untypical, there being more chance of snowboarding than playing golf. First thing this morning it looked like more of the same as our new neighbours looked distinctly uncomfortable in a north easterly blizzard. Nevertheless, as the morning progressed the weather eased and by 11:30 conditions were relatively benign.  The day starts from warming up the car, heading along the Military Road to Matfen Golf Club, completing a very enjoyable round, mostly in the sun, and then heading home to once again sit in front of a PC screen – I omitted a photo of the latter, it being sort of self-evident from this post.

All the photos were taken on a Samsung SII smartphone and then given the Instagram treatment:

The neighbours – they don’t look happy
Out to warm up the car
Up to the Military Road (Hadrian’s Wall) and turn right
This doesn’t look promising
This looks better – No snow on the greens!
My 45 year old brass putter – will it work today, probably not.
Spot the golfers in the trees
All golf balls are magnetically attracted to this lake
Bacon rolls – Now you’re talking!
How true!
My golfing buddy waits patiently to halve the match
Time for home and don’t spare the horses

Matfen Hall

Posted on by northumbrianlight

It is good to be home and almost reassuring that we have no immediate plans to travel again in the near future; it feels like a good time to hibernate.  This week marked my first round of golf for 2013 at Matfen Hall.  I remember this course being built in the grounds of a Cheshire Home in the early nineties and these many years later it has matured to the point where it feels like an intended part of the landscape.  It is challenging and best played out of season when it is quiet and not over-populated with societies, those who feel they must line up at every putt as though the Ryder Cup depended on it and groups of casual visitors for whom the adjacent par 3 course is probably a test too far.  In the summer this is the land of the 5 hour round but on Thursday, with no more than a dozen hardy golfers out, it was just fine.

This is one of my first digital photographs; after years of conventional photography, I still remember the amazed delight at these instant results taken with a Fuji FinePix6900 Zoom on New Year’s Day 2002.  It shows the 18th at Matfen complete with resident swan on the River Pont; the tee shot is played across the water and the fairway doglegs left to a green just off the edge of the photograph.  It is a magnificent finishing hole in front of the Jacobean style mansion.

Matfen HallThis image is less successful but it does include the glorious stone bridge that takes golfers from the tee to fairway; it is a very solid construction, originally intended for the passage of cattle over the River Pont.

Matfen HallTwo features dominate the course – the quite narrow but deep and fast flowing River Pont which comes into play on four holes and the Ha-ha which cuts across the entire course and comes into play on another four, more if you have an unreliable swing. The Ha-ha comprises a drystone wall where the ground is built up on one side such that views from the main house are uninterrupted by animal enclosures; playing up close to a Ha-ha on the steep side makes for an almost impossible golf shot.  The same device surrounds the gardens immediately in front of the hall, thereby keeping livestock, but not agile golfers, off the main lawn.