Amelia's photos

SC94 - Post 5 May - Framed. The doors are open allowing folks to enter the car to go down the cliff. For over a century Bridgnorth Cliff Railway has been transporting the people of Bridgnorth up and down the 111 ft sandstone cliffs that separate High Town from Low Town, and the River Severn. It is first and foremost a working railway; its importance to both the townspeople of Bridgnorth and to visitors to the town is undiminished by age. The railway operates two cars on parallel tracks. Connected by steel ropes, the carriages serve to counterbalance each other – as one rises to the top station, the other runs to the bottom station. The cars are now powered by an electric winding engine, but were originally driven by a system of water balance, each carriage carrying water ballast in a tank beneath the passenger compartment. The cars were replaced with “up-to-date” cars of aluminum monocoque construction in 1955. Simple sliding doors at each end of the cars run on their original ball bearing rollers. Each car weighs approximately 5.5 tonnes when fully laden with 18 passengers. On that trip downwards there were only 3 of us, myself, Adrian and a local woman. The track is 201 feet long, with a rise of 111 feet and consists of a double run of track – one for each car. Concrete steps run between the 2 tracks. It doesn't take very long to complete the journey in the 'car', but we walked up from the Low Town, and that took much longer. ;-) You might be able to notice, in the top right hand corner, a screen which shows the operators and ticket collectors what the queues are like. Adrian is there wearing a black jacket and pale trousers.

To the left is a ha-ha en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha-ha

SC93 - Post 28 April - Sign posts or Road signs The roundel on the top has Ruyton XI Towns on it, and it seems that the most important place is the vet's. There is another signpost here up to the private school, but it has been hit by a tall vehicle and is now facing the wrong way. Luckily the parents in their 4x4s remember the way. :-))

Yo-Yo Ma, Kathryn Stott - The Swan (Saint-Saëns)

Owned by Shropshire Council, the Victorian building was built as a school and dates to the 1860s, with major additions added in 1896. The charitable Abbey School was founded in 1708, moving to the purpose built premises in 1896 and becoming Shrewsbury National School in 1898. During the twentieth century it operated as an elementary school until 1957, after which time it was used by the Shrewsbury College of Art. It became redundant in 1980. In 1985 the English Bridge Workshop was founded. The EBW then continued the building's educational and artistic role. Elementary schools were the first schools in England and Wales intended to give a basic education to the children of working class families. At the start of the 19th century, the only schooling available to these young people was run by private concerns or by charities, and was often of a very poor standard.

HBM everyone

I won't be with you in apple blossom time, or this weekend in fact, as we are away for a few days. But here is a song - a real golden oldie - and I know all the words. ;-) 1941 HITS ARCHIVE: I’ll Be With You In Apple Blossom Time - Andrews Sisters And just because I love this music and video: Someone You Loved (Piano/Cello) The Piano Guys

The Dingle Garden is located within the Quarry Park in Shrewsbury and features ornamental season flowerbeds, ornamental grass areas, rockeries, shrub bed areas and various water features and is locked up and unlocked daily. For some reason it was totally locked yesterday, maybe because of the very strong wind, and the threat to trees, so I took this photo from one of the gateways. I think the pink tree is a type of maple, but I'll check the next time we are here.

SC90 - Post 7 April - Unusually blue item. Bluebells are usually blue I hear you say; but often the 'bluebells' in peoples' gardens are pale blue, pink or even white and are, in fact, Spanish bluebells, Hyacinthoides hispanica, which have more upright open flower heads. They are very common in gardens in this country at this time of year, and are threatening the native populations of the English bluebell. For a bit of fun, and knowing the inverse of yellow is blue, I took a photo of yellow gorse and inverted the colours using Photoshop. The results can be seen below. 1021409/52400990" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> 1021409/52400992" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">