Great Tew: Dog Rose Days

Great Tew: Dog Rose Days
16 June 2003

Location	Great Tew, Oxfordshire, OS Explorer, 191 (west). There's a free public car park in Great Tew. That's where I started my walk. I walked eastwards along the Great Tew Park all the way to delightful Nether Worton. My return route was more northerly, using roads and bridleways back towards Raven Hill but turning west before reaching it. Then I took the bridleway and lanes back to Great Tew, skirting Cow Hill. There was still some daylight by the time I returned to Great Tew, so I took a look at the church in Over Worton. I've been to Great Tew twice before. Once in August of last year and once in August the year before that.

Weather	Sunny and wonderfully hot.

Click on the images to see larger versions. There are also links to desktop-sized versions of some images. Please help yourself to them.


	One of the fun things when returning to a place a few times, is to see how sometimes the same things catch my eyes, and sometimes completely new things are revealed. This is an old favourite.

So is this, the post office cum shop in Great Tew.

	I'm quite ruthless when I cull and crop my images. Every image needs to tell a story and tell it well. From that point of view maybe this picture isn't really up to scratch. There is no story, just the light filtering through the maple leaves and shining brightly onto the nettles. Maybe it's a bit pointless but I still like it. Desktop

At the time of this walk, I was participating in a photo contest community and the theme for the week was decay. So there are quite a lot of pictures here that could be interpreted to be about that. Here the fallen-down wall has been replaced by a rusty, bent-out-of-shape gate that isn't going to keep anything in or out. Beyond the gate the sun shines on a path, beckoning.

	Every time I get the chance to take a photo of a venerable old oak like this one, I get all giddy. With the sun shining on it, for once it's not just a black hole in the landscape. We can actually appreciate the light green foliage and the twisted shapes of the boughs.

This oak on the boundary between two fields was more dead than alive.

	Another fallen-down wall. I love how the sunlight filters down through the leaves of the ash tree onto the grass and stone.

A close-up of elder flowers. They were in bloom everywhere, dotting the scenery with their white froth. Desktop

	A look at the scenery shows the valley and the next ridge. The flowering elder bushes are easy to spot.

A wall that hadn't fallen down. I like the texture and the feeling of tradition that dry-stone walling gives. Desktop

	There was a door in the wall. I took a picture of the handle. The lever is broken, so I guess it's not in use anymore.

In strong contrast to the decaying wall and door, opposite was a field of green, growing grain.

	Looking back along the path I've been taking. Desktop

An abandoned house sits inside the wall.

	A closer look at the window. With stonework of that quality, the house could stand for centuries still.

Not only elders were in flower. There were light pink dog roses everywhere. On this one the yellow stamens in the middle really stand out.

	I took a black-and-white version too.

Passing through an alfalfa field, I noticed how the earth had cracked.

	Eventually I reached the church in Nether Worton. I was surprised I didn't take a picture of this headstone last time I was here.

Fresh growth on box, Buxus sempervirens, in the churchyard. Desktop

	The colours of this faded rose make me think of India. Or rather the strong reds and pinks that feature so prominently whenever British interior designers are trying to create a room with an Indian feel. I imagine that vision has about as much in common with Indian tastes as Danish Modern has with how real-life Scandinavians decorate their homes. Desktop

The door frame of the church in Nether Worton fascinated me.

	Another, more dramatic look at the stonework. Desktop

Passing over a footbridge, a dragon fly obligingly posed on the railing. I took lots of pictures of it but this was the one that came out best.

	We were having a drought and this poppy was definitely suffering. I like the combination of intense scarlet with faded aubergine and velvety black.

These really were dog rose days. I love the subtle veining of this flower.

	A closer look at that delectable pinkness. Desktop

I got the opportunity to take some more pictures of wild flower. This beauty in purple is called tufted vetch in English and Vicia cracca in Latin.

	Another obvious member of the Leguminosae family, is meadow vetchling, Lathyrus pratensis. If you think the flower looks like a miniature sweet pea, you'd be right on target. The sweet pea is Lathyrus odorata, the sweet-smelling pea.

The last wildflowers of the day were these poppies with the sun shining through their scarlet petals. This is probably the common poppy, Papaver rhoeas. I found them by the carpark in Great Tew.

	It was still light when I reached the car, so I drove to Over Worton to take a look at the church. This lamp by the gate caught my eye.

The final picture of the day was this head. It's one of a pair, flanking the entrance to the Over Worton church. Desktop