Wednesday 25 August 2010

Cotswold clouds


The other evening, Andy returned from work and immediately whisked me off on the motorbike (I just had time to grab my camera and helmet). Apparently the views up on the Shipton Downs, a five minute drive away at the top of a long, wide hill, were spectacular. And so they were. Here we had a 180 degree panoramic view of the Cotswolds and the amazing cloud spectacle on display.

This next picture is not very remarkable, but if you look right through to the back, you can see a faraway sunlight hill with deep shadowed runnels. This is the
Uffington White Horse in the next county, Wiltshire, which I mentioned in my previous post.

I pushed my zoom as far it it would go, to see if I could pick up the white horse itself. I just about managed it, though the picture quality is poor. It is that little pale wormy thing scriggling down the hillside, just above the two fence posts in the foreground. It is actually about 23 miles away, so to be able to see it with the naked eye (or at least, a camera) is credit to our ancient ancestors who created it.
Back to breathtaking views - and clouds.


This is the crossroads we stand at, when we want to survey our kingdom. The bench is a recent addition, to the memory of a local man.

All around us we could see isolated cloudbursts, this one looked particularly heavy, a white stream plunging down into the land.

On the way home, we found another side of it. Here we were standing in bright, hot evening sunshine and somewhere over there, no doubt other people were wondering if it was monsoon season.


One final gorgeous scene, harvest stacks and, somewhere flying low to the horizon, three crows.



9 comments:

  1. Breathtaking... thanks for sharing this glimpse into the Cotswolds

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  2. I Love Clouds!!!! Thank you for these spectacular beauties. You made my heart smile!

    Janet xox

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  3. Wow, wow, and wow one more time.

    What a spectacular part of the world you live in. Please do pass along many thanks to the brilliant Andy, and his working motorbike, for getting you all and the camera out at the magic hour to see all this splendour. And to have that camera on board, many additional thanks, too.

    xo

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  4. If views and cloudscapes like these don't lift the spirit then I suspect nothing will. Amazing.

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  5. Lovely. One of the things I noticed most when I came to live in the Cotswolds were the skyscapes. Coming from the heavily wooded and secretive landscape of the Chilterns, I wasn't used to open views, just glimpses between trees.

    I've also always wondered where you could actually see the Uffington White Horse from. Visited it many times but never really seen it for, as you know, when you stand on it you can't make out the whole shape, it just looks like odd lines!

    Johnson

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  6. Magnificent skies,but I am wondering what you brought for lunch. I am sure it was a mouth watering sandwich or some such yummy thing.

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  7. Gorgeous. Its a different aspect of the Cotswolds thanks for sharing.

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