A summer’s weekend to Plymouth and Dartmoor
The river Tavy at Tavistock
Young friends at the river Tavy, Tavistock
The churchyard in the village of St Dominicks
Old stone wall of the churchyard in St Dominicks
The new bridge, Two Bridges, Dartmoor
Wild stallion on Dartmoor
Buttercups in Kensington Gardens
Photos from inside the pedestrian subway linking South Kensington tube station and the National History and V&A museums
South Kensington pedestrian subway
Victorian skylight
South Kensington pedestrian subway
Once you look at these photos it’ll be pretty obvious that I didn’t take them myself. However, I can lay some sort of claim to them, after a fashion, because my great-grandfather (also a very keen amateur photographer) took them during his WWI service with the British merchant navy. I was flicking through the few photos of his that I have to hand (his overall archive is huge, and only partly digitised so far), and I thought I’d share a some of them.
This series comprises of some of the photos taken during my great-grandfather’s training and service in the Kite Balloon section of the Royal Naval Air Service – both in London and at sea.
Balloon training, Hurlingham, S-W London
Launching a weather balloon from the ship deck
Balloon, mid-burst
Holding on to the ripped balloon
Balloon launch
Balloon - underbelly and basket
The ruins of medieval Tantallon are magestic in their decay, and despite the ravages of both war and time the castle still commands the coast of the Firth of Forth at North Berwick. For those interested, Historic Scotland has more information on the history of the castle.
View east from Tantallon Castle
Intruder's silhouette
View to Bass Rock from Tantallon Castle
Tantallon Castle and Bass Rock
Central tower, Tantallon
Defenses, and view to the east
Ruined defensive wall, Tantallon
A glorious afternoon at Dunbar, on the coast of the Firth of Forth (slightly east of Edinburgh)
view of the coast at Dunbar
Exploration by photography
View at Dunbar
Panorama from Dunbar
Dust bath
We made the trip up to Edinburgh for the second of the May long weekends to visit friends (our first trip there in over a year), and while there took advantage of the weather to finally explore the lovely and atmospheric Edinburgh Castle …
St Andrews Cross over the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle - barracks
Internal arch of St Catherine's Chapel
View across the city, towards Arthur's Seat
Halfmoon battery, Edinburgh Castle
Chapel of the Scottish National War Memorial
Internal doorway in the garden, Edinburgh Castle
The elegant, sweeping, grey/green/blue leaves of a gum tree … sometimes it takes seeing a completely incongruous stand of eucalypts in a thoroughly English garden to make you realise that it’s the little things that add up to what you miss about home
A curtain of gum leaves, Kew Gardens
Where's a koala when there's food to be had?
Still more photos of the springtime blooms of Kew Gardens. I managed to ‘catch’ the start of the bluebell blooms … unfortunately I didn’t make it back in time to photograph the carpet – in full. That’s on the list for next year 
Early bluebells, Kew Gardens
Close-up, bluebells of Kew Gardens
Bluebells, Kew Gardens
