Andy Rodker's photos

Another low light shot. Possibly worth a close-up view. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLGl8Oc484Q Sight and sound. In the realms of popular culture / music, Hendrix has always been my favourite. Stevie Winwood starred here as well.

Another evening shot in fading but interesting light. Sight and Sound. Janis again and another heartwrenching (but never overwrought) performance!. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJa4cByczCM

Another low light offering on my constitutional walk at this time of day. The days are starting to get longer so I can start to use the unlit back lanes and paths at last. I would hazard a guess that this lane is very ancient indeed! I just liked this overhanging tree. View on large for a rather spooky twilight effect. PAM, I feel piskie presense on this path, www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJO97AKDgH0 Always liked this.

I think it can truly be called a fence, in a strictly minimalistic sense! From the Roman Road near El Escorial. This holm oak (encina in Spanish) is a pretty fine specimin imho! The skyline follows the crest of La Sierra de Guadarrama. I always had a soft spot for this gentle little pop song by this well known popular beat combo. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVwA5wVnwaE

La Sierra de La Cabrera. Fantastic walking / scrambling country. Shot taken on a bitterly cold January day (I know it looks like high summer!) Song for Laura. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMTEtDBHGY4

That wall is about 50 years older than the house and extends from the street at the front right to the back of the garden and beyond. So it would have been built around 1780 and the indications from a very old and badly defined map I found in the library some years ago showed that it probably enclosed a large tin mine of which further records are non-existant. A survey report did reveal adits below the house but as the closest one to the surface is 50 feet down and the rock is granite there is no possibility of land slip, even if St Day is known as 'Sinking City' (as fields and occasionaly houses have disappeared into sudden and unknown - or perhaps more usually - unrecorded mine shafts opening up especially in very wet weather and of which the mine caps were not durable enough, especially over the course of centuries!).

That enormous converted farmhouse seen under the Roman bridge over the river Toulourenc, had 12 bedrooms. It was the summer retreat of the family of my school French-exchange partner. I came here most summers from the age of 14 until my early twenties. How lucky was I??!!! It was a very formative experience! I'm still in contact with him by the way, so that's 51 years and my first visit there seems like yesterday! I did use black and white for my first holiday there so this must have been taken in 1972. A bit of Led Zep and why not? Sight and Sound www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaVFvWk3VZE

Another snow scene from my walk the other day. The snow lasted no more than 24 hours. Sight and Sound; Janis Joplin again and I feel her voice was at its best here. At least this is one of my favourite recordings. www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn5TNqjuHiU

A stormy day. The cloud here was looming above but the threatened rain didn't come.

I dropped my mum off at her hair appointment in Point Mills just up the road and went for a little stroll. I used to walk here as part of my walk from St Day to the southern coast at or near Devoran then go back using this path to the northern coast near Portreath, then back to St Day, In all it took me 10 hours. But I didn't have a camera or smart phone then. The fence is new. Belatedly they realised that the old arsenic mines were still contaminating the streams and rain water run-offs so what was a good old bycicle route, much used by families, became blocked off. Probably just as well! The viaduct carries the branch line from Truro to Falmouth. The stumps represent the old viaduct, I haven't looked up the details of this but will let you know if I do! (Don't hold your breath!) I wanted to get a shot of a train but had to go and pick my Mum up!

My Mum's garden under snow. It still doesn't look too bad! By the way this is NOT a black and white photo despite initial appearances (look carefully and you can find some red aubutilon flowers and some green leaves, perhaps better seen on large)!

Gwel Leden, an attractive farm on the outskirts of St Day. I was pleased to see the lights were on at The Star Inn, my destination for this day's constitutional - a swift half and a return to cook supper.

A pleasing 'shell' of a church. The roof fell in in the 1950s but the building had been dangerous and de-commissioned long before then. The new church over the road also seems to be very old but I guess it was built towards the end of the 19th century. This one was built in the 1820s but in inferior materials and it became unusable very quickly! Now an open air exhibition centre. An expansive graveyard surrounds it - it seems to have been the burial ground of choice for many of the mining villages near here, at least for the minority non- Methodists! Never really got into Jeff Beck - may he rest in peace - but I thought this was rather good so here it is! www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmnQd8UVsRY

A long description follows. Sorry! But please bear with me. I bought this excellent Portugese red (a good blend of the grapes stated on the label - an attractive label by the way!) at The Old Chapel Wine shop in Truro, Cornwall. They have an excellent range there. This shop used to be Laymont and Shaw, a well known firm back in the day, specialising in Spanish wines before they became fashionable. They actually had wine shipped in from Spain as the shop backs onto the tiny River Fal inlet that is the 'port' in Truro. Anyway, in the early 1980s, I used to drive down to Cornwall from London to visit relatives in Zennor from time to time and on the way back would stop off here to pick up my Dad's annual allocation of Vega Sicilia Unico and Essencia. These are without doubt what are known as 'trophy wines' and are famous as being Spain's greatest reds. They were then (and I think still are) on special allocation only and my parents (who then owned the award-winning wine shop the Wine House in Wallington, Surrey) were fortunate enough to be allowed an allocation of 10 cases of each of these special wines! I mentioned this to the current owner and we spent hours discussing all aspects of the wine trade these past 40 years! I still have some Vega Sicilia here in my Dad's Cellar. I think it's the 1990 (I'll check tomorrow, as we have only recently disposed of the last of my 1970s on my mum's birthday - it was still fresh and lively and extremely complex and very rich; a wine hedonist's dream!!) My Dad still has a 67 but it's so low in the neck that it must have expired by now - a pity! I'll take photos of my 'specials' and post them here one day. Sorry to bore you non-wine lovers!

... or Bawden Rocks, or Cow and Calf. These islets haven't got any kind of settled name. Nothing to do with this photo whatsoever but I just felt like (on a whim) honouring John Lee Hooker! www.youtube.com/watch?v=72p9TTkoymY

Sierra de La Cabrera with the brooding hulk of Mondalindo behind. Possibly better on large to view the granite shapes in more detail.

Looking north over Madrid from a hotel roof terrace on the Gran Via. (A cousin of Marta's was staying here and invited us for cocktails). It wasn't a bad sky that evening either! Sight and Sound. A Janis classic (I can never have enough of Janis Joplin) www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-irXmqIzGA

This is from the south and shows the steeper rise to the crest of the ridge. It was a slightly hazy autumn day and I went for a slightly hazy look. Therefore not worth enlarging for detail; there isn't any! Sight and Sound; The best pop song of all time in my opinion and that of John Peel. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PinCg7IGqHg