Posts Tagged ‘stationary cycling’
dooryards and doorways (day 41 to 43)
~
In the Falmouth area of the Cornwall coast, my eye has been drawn to the human landscape, in particular the dooryards and doorways …
~
map showing distance travelled (map from Google Earth)
~
7-41 October 18, 2013 35 minutes 3.0 km (within Falmouth)
~
On the 41st day of my virtual cycling trip along the coast of Cornwall, I spent all my time in the city of Falmouth. The best part of the trip was along High Street where the store fronts and signage make me want to stop and look around. Lots of people too!
~
The fence post and red door in the image below resulted in my favorite watercolour to date. I love the colour red!
~
~
October 15, 2013 ‘door in Harbour Village’ Jane Tims
~
7-42 October 23, 2013 30 minutes 3.0 km (from Falmouth to south of Goldenbank)
~
~
October 23, 2013 ‘Roscarrack Road’ Jane Tims
~
7-43 October 27, 2013 35 minutes 3.0 km (from Goldenbank to Mawnan)
~
When I paint, I often edit out the items I don’t consider to be ‘beautiful’. For me, this includes garbage cans, litter, plastic of any kind, and so on. For example, in the watercolour below, I ignored the background. However, I think that great art probably hides in those not-so-pretty necessities of life …
~
inspiration for ‘gate on Old Church Road’ (image from Street View)
~
October 24, 2013 ‘ gate on Old Church Road’ Jane Tims
~
Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
gates and wirescape (day 38-40)
~
On Day 38 to Day 40 of my virtual bike trip along the Cornwall coast, colourful houses and storefronts caught my eye …
~
map showing distance travelled (map from Google Earth)
~
7-38 October 8, 2013 25 minutes 3.0 km (Penopal to south of Mylor Bridge)
~
As usual, I also loved the gates I ‘saw’ along the way. The gate below, on the road to Mylor Bridge, had shaped posts. When I painted them, however, they looked like milk bottles, so I squared them off. I took other liberties with this one as well …
~
inspiration for ‘gate on Carclew Road’ (image from Street View)
~
October 12, 2013 ‘gate on Carclew Road’ Jane Tims
~
7-39 October 11, 2013 35 minutes 3.0 km ( south of Mylor Bridge to Mylor)
~
The houses in Mylor Bridge are quite colourful, so I stopped to paint this row. Painting the wire overhead takes a steady hand and concentration …
~
inspiration for ‘houses in Mylor Bridge’ (image from Street View)
~
October 12, 2013 ‘houses in Mylor Brdge’ Jane Tims
~
7-40 October 13, 2013 30 minutes 3.0 km (Mylor to Flushing)
~
More colourful houses caught my eye as I ‘biked’ along the Penryn River near Flushing. The purple pigment would not cooperate so the tumble of flowers ended up red in the painting! …
~
inspiration for ‘dooryard in Flushing’ (image from Street View)
~
October 14, 2013 ‘dooryard in Flushing’ Jane Tims
~
The scene below is from somewhere along the streets of Falmouth, just across the Penryn River from Flushing. I loved the colourful houses and storefronts but after I had painted the scene, I could not find the image in Street View. I wonder what the woman in the painting would think if she knew she was the star of my Blog today! …
~
October 14, 2013 ‘side walk’ Jane Tims
~
Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
fields and ferry crossings
~
7-35 September 30, 2013 35 minutes 3.0 km (north of St. Just in Roseland to ferry across River Fal)
~
The thirty-fifth day of my virtual bike trip left me scrambling for an image to paint. I biked over miles of country road and although the countryside is lovely, I couldn’t seem to find an image that ‘spoke’ to me. In this end, I chose a tree along the road to Philleigh. Greens are so difficult for me – I couldn’t seem to achieve anywhere near the yellow hue of the greens in the photo …
~
inspiration for ‘countryside near Philleigh’ (image from Street View)
~
Oct. 3, 2013 ‘countryside near Philleigh’ Jane Tims
~
7-36 October 2, 2013 35 minutes 3.0 km (ferry across River Fal to Feock)
~
Ferry crossings are always fun. The Ferry across the River Fal didn’t look very different from the crossings here in New Brunswick …
~
the blue flat-decked boat is the ferry … and look at the big ship just up river (image from Street View)
~
I especially liked the house where the ferry docked on the west side of the river – lots of flowers and stone …
~
~
September 27, 2013 ‘flowers near River Fal’ Jane Tims
~
7-37 October 8, 2013 25 minutes 3.0 km (Foeck to Penpol)
~
If the thirty-fifth day of my travels was mostly fields, the thirty-seventh was mostly trees. I love the circular ‘tree tunnels’ formed along the Cornwall roads when the hedgerows are pruned. In this interpretation of one of one of those archways, I decided not to paint a single individual leaf …
~
inspiration for ‘road tunnel near Penpol’ (image from Street View)
~
October 3, 2013 ‘road tunnel near Penpol’ Jane Tims
~
Along the way, I often ‘see’ enchanting gateways. I particularly like the gates with stone post like this one near Feock …
~
October 4, 2013 ‘gate near Feock’ Jane Tims
~
Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
sea side bright 7-31
~
Portscatho on the Cornwall coast is a village of bright white houses and views of the sea …
~
~
As in most of these seaside villages, there is public access to the shore …
~
~
and a place to stroll along the waterfront and watch the boats at dock …
~
~
If my bike trip was real instead of virtual, I would ask the owners of the patio below if I could sit and watch the ocean for a while …
~
~
Best View: a shed, covered in vines, near Portscatho …
~
September 15, 2013 ‘shed near Portscatho’ Jane Tims
~
Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
finding places to grow 7-30
~
Stone walls are a common site in the coastal towns and villages of Cornwall. On today’s virtual bike trip, I noticed how plants find growing space in the crannies and crevices of these walls …
~
plants growing in the nooks and crannies of a stone fence (image from Street View)
~
Vines also take advantage of stone surfaces and climb over stone shed and houses until they take the shape of the building they climb on …
~
vines take on the outline of a house (image from Street View)
~
In a maritime climate in particular, lichens often find a place to grow on rooftops or on stone surfaces. Orange-amber lichens have established themselves on the roof and walls of this grand house in Trewithian …
~
amber lichens on stone and roof (image from Street View)
~
Three interesting names today … Treworthal, Treworlas and Trewithian …
~
Best View: shadowed road on the way to Treworthal and a gate near Trewithian …
~
September 14, 2013 ‘road with shadows’ Jane Tims
~
September 14, 2013 ‘afternoon by gate’ Jane Tims
~
Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
small-scale economies 7-29
~
Did you ever sell vegetables by the road or help your kids run a lemonade stand? On Day 29 of my virtual bike trip, I saw two examples of this kind of small-scale economy. Selling roses and pots of plants provides some extra money for the vendor and something pretty or useful to buy along the road …
~
~
map showing distance travelled (map from Google Earth)
~
Setting up a roadside stand means finding a way to display the merchandise (a small bench will do), making a sign on a piece of paper or cardboard, and being ready to run out when you hear a car stop in the yard …
~
selling roses along the road (image from Street View)
~
selling plants along the road (image from Street View)
~
Best View: for some reason cars caught my eye on this virtual bike trip … a green car travelling on a highway near Treworlas and cars with their headlights on as they drove through a dark tunnel of trees near Veryan … I used ‘resist’ to keep the green car white until the last and learned the hard way that too much ‘resist’ will lift the fibres from the paper ! … won’t do that again!!! …
~
September 7, 2013 ‘green car’ Jane Tims
~
September 7, 2013 ‘headlights in dark woods’ Jane Tims
~
Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
climbing roses 7-28
~
Climbing roses seem to me to be one of the quintessential elements of England. On the 28th day of my virtual bike trip along the Cornwall coast, roses seemed to clamour over every door …
~
~
~
These are a few of the climbing roses of Portloe …
~
~
~
~
Best View: the rugged coast at Portloe … I am trying ‘resist’ to keep small areas white as I paint … you apply the ‘resist’ to the watercolour paper before you begin to paint and then rub it off afterward … worked well, but I have to pay attention to the shape of the small areas of ‘resist’ …
~
September 7, 2013 ‘rugged coast at Portloe’ Jane Tims
~
The ‘resist’ can also be used to leave white space where flowers should be …
~
August 25, 2013 ‘roses in Reviskey’ Jane Tims
~
Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
don’t ignore the signs 7-27
~
a view of the coastal path near Portholland (image from Street View)
~
~
map showing distance travelled (map from Google Earth)
~
Today, I cycled very carefully along the roads near Portholland, watching for falling rocks …
~
watch for those rocks! (image from Street View)
~
and falling cars …
~
watch out! danger! (image from Street View)
~
The coast at Portholland is rugged and picturesque, but dangerous for both cars and hikers …
~
those warning signs are important … I think the red box holds equipment for rescue … (image from Street View)
~
more warning signs (image from Street View)
~
Best View: cove at East Portholland
~
August 14, 2013 ‘cove at East Portholland’ Jane Tims
~
Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
along a stream 7-26
~
~
map showing distance travelled (map from Google Earth)
~
One of the difficulties of a virtual trip using Street View is not getting a full view of some of the streams I cross. Until you reach the ‘bridge’, the angle is not right to see the water. When you are on the ‘bridge’, the view is obscured by the blurred curved area in the lower part of the view, a characteristic of the Street View camera.
~
Today, however, I caught several glimpses of a stream that followed the road from Manassick Wood to Portholland …
~
stream along the road near Manassick Wood (image from Street View)
~
I even had a glimpse of a small waterfall created by a tributary to the stream …
~
course of a waterfall … almost dry in this image, but during and after a rain, it must be lovely (image from Street View)
~
The best look I had at the stream was after it emerged from the woods to a field of white flowers. The flowers look a little like Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota), with white, umbrella-shaped flower clusters. However, these plants look more robust than the rather delicate-looking Queen Anne’s Lace, so I will just call them a species of wild parsnip.
~
stream banked by white flowers (image from Street View)
~
Best View: ‘biking’ from the woods into the bright sunshine and seeing the stream meandering toward the sea, banks overflowing with white flowers …
~
August 25, 2013 ‘valley to the sea (Portholland)’ Jane Tims
~
This is the view that inspired the painting …
~
valley with stream and white flowers, looking towards Portholland (image from Street View)
~
Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
naming the woods 7-25
~
~
~
Today’s bike trip took me past the ‘woods’. Almost any time I ‘bike’ through a wooded area in Cornwall, I find the wood has a name on the map. I think naming the various acreages of woodland makes them more precious. Giving a name to the woodland identifies it and acknowledges its right to exist.
~
The names of the woodlands in the Caerhays area of Cornwall include: the Forty Acre Wood (reminds me of Winnie the Pooh!); Castle Wood; Kennel Close Wood; and Battery Walk Wood, among others. Each woodland has its own characteristics and I long to get off my virtual bike and explore some of the woodland plants.
~
on the right is the Forty Acre Wood (image from Street View)
~
I know from my history studies that forests and woodlands are strongly connected to the history of England. The nobility of post-Conquest England had a special love for the forest and the hunt, and protected park-like settings for the pursuit of wild game.
~
In the 12th century, the king protected the woodlands with the Assizes. These were formal rules governing both the public and officials. The purpose of the “Assize of the Forest” was to protect the forest and the game living there. The Assize described rules for conduct in the forest and for use of the land, wood and game. It also described the roles and responsibilities of those assigned to protect the forest, enforce the laws, and monitor and report on the state of the forest. The Assize further specified punishments for breaking the rules and for the forest administrators if they failed to meet their responsibilities.
~
road through Kennel Close Wood (image from Street View)
~
The rules of the Assize were designed to ensure the continued use of the forest.
For the King, one value of the forest was as a source of revenue from rents and fines. Rental income came from pannage (keeping of swine) and agist (pasturing). Fines were generated from illegal hunting and other uses, purprestures (encroachment such as building within the forest), and assarts (use of the forest clearings). Wood had value as fuel, or as timber for building boats, bridges, defenses and castles. Other values included the King’s own pleasure in hunting, and the favor he gained from gifts of venison or other wild game, or from granting others the privilege of hunting.
~
the secluded and cloistered Battery Walk Wood (image from Street View)
~
Medieval hunters had various words to describe the different parts of the woodlands. The ‘chase’, for example, referred to the open woods for hunting of deer, and the ‘warren’ described the unenclosed tracts where other wild game such as pheasant and partridge were hunted.
~
three deer among tamarack in New Brunswick
~
Best View: shadows on the road … hill on one side and the Forty Acre Wood on the other …
~
Sept 6, 2013 ‘shadows on the road (near Gorran)’ Jane Tims
~
Copyright 2013 Jane Tims
nichepoetryandprose 