Amelia's photos

Sunday challenge this week: This week, the Animal World, cute and fluffy, or majestic and powerful, or anything in between. If you can't find a suitable animal, maybe an ornament, artwork, etc. Close up preferred. Both these photos were taken on a walk around Aston Cil Nature reserve. The lakes are gradually being colonised by more species. Yesterday we saw two pairs of swans, 5 noisy coots, a pair of mergansers, a few flying ducks and 3 varieties of butterfly. The orange tip is one of the the easiest to photograph as it seems to stay still especially on dandelions. The first PiP is of a small bluish black beetle also on a dandelion and seen in the same area as the butterfly. The second PiP is of a male blackbird foraging underneath our bird feeders.

Robert Owen; 14 May 1771 – 17 November 1858, was a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement. On a visit to Scotland, Owen met and fell in love with Ann (or Anne) Caroline Dale, daughter of David Dale, a Glasgow philanthropist and the proprietor of the large New Lanark Mills. In July 1799 Owen and his partners bought the New Lanark mill from David Dale, and Owen became its manager in January 1800. Owen was a "pioneer in factory reform, the father of distributive cooperation, and the founder of nursery schools." His schemes for educating his workers included opening an Institute for the Formation of Character at New Lanark in 1818. This and other programmes at New Lanark provided free education from infancy to adulthood. In addition, he zealously supported factory legislation that culminated in the Cotton Mills and Factories Act of 1819. A true philanthropist. Courtesy of Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Owen The PiP shows the inside of his house.

New Lanark is a village on the River Clyde, approximately 1.4 miles (2.3 kilometres) from Lanark, in Lanarkshire, and some 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded in 1785 and opened in 1786 by David Dale, who built cotton mills and housing for the mill workers. We had a fascinating time in this well preserved and functioning village. Two historical homes were also open to the public. The PiP shows the interiors of a worker's home. There is also a trip through one of the the mills with holograms on the walls to indicate what was going on in the area. Very educational. Courtesy of Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Lanark

Today's Sunday Challenge is: A photo collage The photos were taken at Ellesmere and then travelling to Ruyton XI Towns. From top left clockwise: Oxlip, Ducklings, Small Bronze Figurine, Blackthorn Blossom, Grape Hyacinths and Lathyrus vernus, Stained Glass Window, and Hot Air Balloon.

The birds are very territorial during breeding season, and will fight with other members of their species, as well as other water birds such as ducks and coots, to drive them out of their territory. This bird had chased off quite a few contenders for territory, and I think the exposed white rump was an indication of aggression.

The back of the Lady Lever art gallery. The Lady Lever Art Gallery is a museum founded and built by the industrialist and philanthropist William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme and opened in 1922. The clickable PiP is part of the ceiling decoration in the Chinese room, devoted to Lord Leverhulme's collection of artifacts from Asia.

Port Sunlight was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in its soap factory (now part of Unilever); work commenced in 1888. The name is derived from Lever Brothers' most popular brand of cleaning agent, Sunlight. Port Sunlight contains 900 Grade II listed buildings, and was declared a conservation area in 1978. Port Sunlight has been informally suggested for World Heritage Site (WHS) status to protect it from development and to preserve the unique character for future generations; however, it is not yet on the current UK "tentative list" for future consideration as a WHS. In 1887, Lever Brothers began looking for a new site on which to expand its soap-making business. The company bought 56 acres (23 ha) of flat unused marshy land in Cheshire, south of the River Mersey. It was large enough to allow space for expansion, and had a prime location between the river and a railway line. The site became Port Sunlight, where William Lever built his works and a model village to house his employees. William Lever (who was created a baronet in December 1911, and was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as The 1st Baron Leverhulme in June 1917, and was further advanced to being The 1st Viscount Leverhulme in December 1922) personally supervised planning the village, and employed nearly thirty different architects. Between 1899 and 1914, 800 houses were built to house a population of 3,500. The garden village had allotments and public buildings including the Lady Lever Art Gallery, a cottage hospital, schools, a concert hall, open air swimming pool, church, and a temperance hotel. Lever introduced welfare schemes, and provided for the education and entertainment of his workforce, encouraging recreation and organisations which promoted art, literature, science or music. The historical significance of Port Sunlight lies in its combination of model industrial housing, providing materially decent conditions for working people, with the architectural and landscape values of the garden suburb, influenced by the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. Each block of houses was designed by a different architect. Courtesy of Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Sunlight William Leverhulme was a forward thinker, a philanthropist and way ahead of his time.

Today's Sunday challenge 39 is: Open door