Month: July 2017

Northumbrian Jaunt

Posted on by Simon Woods

I went for a 4 day jaunt round Northumbria, took photos mostly of castles, since there are quite a few round there, also a lot of beautiful unspoilt coastal views and what have you 🙂 I shall label some of these to give an idea of what they are.

Edit: Hmm, added some descriptions to the photos but they didn’t stick, so I’m just going to type something vague here, first theres the giant “Angel of the North” sculpture seen from the main north road – then the campsite, and some photos from the bay overlooking Lindisfarne, (or Holy Island) the Bamburgh Castle, followed by Alnwick castle, ( a Harry Potter film location, hence the children flying brooms etc) There’s a lot of fountains there, and a poison garden.

Next castle on the list was Chillingham, which was odd, it was in ruins, but this antique dealer guy bought it, did it up and filled it with antiques, so its an odd mix of disparate objects!

Next castle is Dunstanburgh, a ruin, but got the best photos of the lot, as the location was stunning and good light – I climbed over the gat to get in, as got there late!

Final castle was Warkworth, a semi ruin, nice place with a lot of interesting info to read and look at.

Final shot of the Angel of the North on the way home 🙂

 

Axeholme Bike Ride

Posted on by Simon Woods

Just watching Brian Cox on TV, he says the Universe is 13 billion yrs old, and the sun is 5 billion, my first thought is, what is outside of our universe? Oh, I know he’s clever, but it does seem a bit simplistic to say that it all started with the big bang, I mean, I just imagine our universe as this giant beach ball, with all of us inside it, ever expanding (or whatever its doing) it just seems a bit weird to me. Its all very complicated, I understand that, but I imagine Gods mind isn’t really complicated, and we’re missing some vital rule, that we’re completely on the wrong track trying to figure it out, like Gods just thinking “You guys, you really have no idea!”

Oh I’m not saying I think its like Brian Cox isn’t as smart as me, cos its amazing what he comes up with, I just imagine God sitting watching Brian Cox on TV going “Wow – thats really amazing” along with everyone else, like when you start of a chain of events, only on a bigger scale!

Anyhow, I don’t know what I’m on about or where I’m going with that, I just went out for a bike ride and filmed it on my head cam thing, then I delete the sound, (cos its really all just wind noise) and replaced it with some music for yours and mine entertainment. For this, I used music by UK Decay, Cocteau Twins, and Fields of the Nephilim, old favourites or mine. This is 80’s music, Goth, punk, new wave if you like, just some of the best stuff from my vaults! I fave some of this, I know its not going to be to everyones taste, and its a 1/2hr long video, so its not like I expect anyone to sit thru it, but I really enjoyed doing this.

I had really enjoyed doing one a while ago, but it wouldn’t display due to copyright laws, this might be ok, as its all independent record labels, so not so chased up like the big labels. I’m just waiting now while it uploads to find out if its going to be allowed or not.

Anyway, this is a trip round an area called “The Isle of Axeholme” the music I used is a bit dark and goth, so maybe I should have filmed at night might have worked better – with just the headlight to see by, maybe I’ll do that next time, but it was  lovely sunny day, unlike today, (which has been rainy), anyway, I’m moody by nature, I just love sulking, I’m a natural goth really, Its not that i’m in a bad mood, I just like to feel “grounded!”