Country Life

Most days I try to get down the road for a bit of a stroll and this is what I see when I turn for home:

I pointed the camera directly into the sun and that meant I had to burn in the sky a little under the enlarger.  OK, a lot and not very well at that, but it's easy to overdo.  Not the greatest of shots or prints but I said some time ago that I would try to show more of my immediate area, so here yah go.  On Fotospeed RCVC paper.

Our house is somewhere in the middle of the trees just left of centre and Yes you'd be right in thinking it's a bit closer to thon big wind turbine thing than is desirable.  We were here first, in case you were wondering but that counts for little when you're the little guy up against a £100m University that wants its turbines (there are two of them - the other is out of shot on the left).   It could be worse, I suppose - there's not much noise from them (thanks to the trees) but the shadow flicker in the winter months can be visually very disturbing. 

We're looking almost due West here - away over the low-lying hills in the distance and you're en route to the City of Derry/Londonderry, about 40 minutes away by car.  To the left (South) is the University and then the town of Coleraine.  To the right (North) we have Portstewart and the Atlantic Ocean.   Coleraine-Portstewart-Portrush is called The Triangle Area and we wouldn't be too far from the centre point, so although we're in 'the country' we're only a mile or so away from the three towns and the beaches at Portstewart and Portrush.  We're not bothered by too many neighbours, thankfully - although from time to time we do get the odd intruder in the garden.  It comes as a bit of a shock when you look outside and see a couple of tons of cow staring back at you through the window, but a call to the local farmer solves that particular problem and it's not long before the animal is back in the fields beside us, the fence repaired and I'm out with a bucket and shovel to collect the soon-to-be-fertilizer for the vegetable patch.  Ah the joys of country living, eh?