Hook Norton, Oxfordshire

Excellent monochrome! Stay well!

Admired in: www.ipernity.com/group/tolerance

Ditto
www.ipernity.com/doc/isisbridge/15155219

Well seen. You certainly have an eye for a picture. This shot is only possible during the Winter months.

Have you put that to the test?

No, but I can confidently assume that when the trees are in leaf, the buildings beyond won't be visible.

That depends where you stand. Try standing by the striped masonry.

I prefer the composition from this POV, and that's where I stand.

Stand where you like, but the shot is possible from further down, even in summer, unless you actually want the church partially obscured, as you have it here. Personally, I think it's a bad POV, because you've got that straight-edged white roof on the right.

There again we must agree to differ. To me, both the church tower visible through the trees and the white roof are attractive components of the picture, and taking it from this POV produces a more interesting and pleasing composition, and draws the eye into the scene better.

Sorry, but it doesn't draw the eye at all, as the church in monochrome is barely visible as a church and could easily be a block of flats, whilst the white roof is just an irritant off to one side and doesn't form a coherent part of the composition.

We differ on all of the above and agree to do so.

De-cidedly.

Disappointingly, Oxford this Saturday is looking doubtful. Thanks to rail strike action, the last London-bound trains will leave by early afternoon, and National Rail advise essential travel only. Coming by car would be an option but a costly one, but the city centre might be rather dead. The forecast isn't brilliant either. One has it sunny until 11:30-ish but another has it overcast all day.

What do you want to come for anyway? For a more Christmassy experience, you might consider Woodstock, although it doesn't have a station.

To imbibe the Christmas feel (carol singers, buskers, department stores playing Bing Crosby and the decorations in the Covered Market), to have an egg and bacon bap in Browns, to buy a pork pie in the Covered Market, to look round the outdoor market, after dusk to see quads with their chapels lit inside, and in the morning to get a better shot of the Bridge of Sighs than I did last year.

Like this, you mean?

www.ipernity.com/doc/isisbridge/46080338/in/album/407343

www.ipernity.com/doc/isisbridge/46066466/in/album/407343

www.ipernity.com/doc/isisbridge/46083594/in/album/407343

www.ipernity.com/doc/isisbridge/32106819/in/album/407343

Yes.

I could "do" Woodstock and see everything there is to see in under an hour, and it's a long way to drive just for that.

This looks good.
woodstockchristmaseve.com

Yes, but it starts at 17:00 and that's too late for me.

Well, the olde worlde shops look pretty, with lots of little Christmas trees.

And in the end he went to Oxford, but didn't get his pie.

It was an easy (if inefficient) journey by car to Oxford - traffic was light and parking easy - and quicker door-to-door than going by train, and I was home before 5, but it was still a 'big day' and, tired as I am, I'm going to church for Midnight Mass.

Something I forgot. I've now edited (and added it to) my comment under your canal sunset picture.

Yes, I know you have like a phobia of too many 'likes'.
But I hope your lunch was to your liking.

Theirs certainly was to theirs.

It isn't a phobia. It's just that after about the third "is/was/will be/he's/she's/it's/they're like" in as many sentences (or even the same sentence) I come out in a red rash.

With the Americans and the Estuarese it's not even a "like", more a nasal quack - nylike - every third or fourth word, but unlike the relatively educated young people of today, we were taught and expected to speak decent English as well as write in it.

Cold turkey again?

Contrary to expectations, no. The soup was tepid, but the main course was hot, and we weren't expected to wait with our filled plates in front of us getting cold. And it was chicken and roast beef not turkey, which I'm not madly keen on. But I did think that the beef must have been badly undercooked because I heard a mooing noise when the food was placed on the table. Some people think it necessary or good manners to moo or go "mmmmm" or "ooooow" when (particularly Christmas) dinner is served. I don't.

I think it's called appreciation.

By whom? A good guide to what is good manners is to imagine whether or not the King or Queen would slaver or make greedy, animal-like noises when food is placed before them. Appreciation and good manners are not incompatible.

I prefer not to think about royalty when I'm eating. I certainly won't be slavering when Charlie and his henchmen have us eating bugs.

Thanks for posting your wonderful picture to

www.ipernity.com/group/buildings