Photothon 11: island ornaments

The hedgerow alongside the canal is usually overgrown and raggedy. Sometimes behind it are houses this tremendously neat gardens. The glimpse through a fringe of nettles can be a pleasing contrast. This bit of garden is interesting. They have a wonderful feature of their own private island but they have filled it with a miscellaneous collection of objects. It includes a rather nice stone. If everything else was removed and this was put in the centre with the gravel raked around it, it would make a nice Zen garden.

Photothon 4: Winkwell

Instead of turning left and going to Nash Mills I turned right and ran to Winkwell, to the pretty pub by the canal.



I can remember sitting here with my neice, when she was younger. We were talking about the canal and how barges used to be pulled by horses. She thought hard and said that the water must be very shallow for the horse to be able to walk along the bottom. Perfectly logical.

In the same spirit you can see that the bridge is very low and a barge would have to be very flat to get under it.

Although it is pretty I tend not to run this way so much because the tow path is quite rocky, uneven and harder on the feet. Last year a sharp flint, shaped like an axehead, worked its way into the grooves of my trainers and punctured right through the midsole.

You see running by the canal is not all about tranquility there are hazards as well, even if they are very, very tiny hazards.