"Cotswold Beech Burst"

"Cotswold Beech Burst", Maugersbury, Gloucestershire.

There is something about this image that I have just fallen in love with. Is it the extraordinary beech tree, whose limbs seem to burst over the traditional Cotswold dry stone wall? Is it the wall itself, that very woldsy structure formed of warm-toned Jurassic limestone and stone-age craft beginning to be colonised by ivy? It can't be the garish modern road-sign in the foreground. But perhaps it could be the juxtaposition of the three elements within one picture which I find appealing. On the edge of the delightful little rural backwater Maugersbury, itself a stones throw from Stow-on-the-Wold, this quiet country lane bears the intrusion of the modern world. In this image at least, the modern world has yet to take over completely: the enormous tree and the stone wall beneath it manage to dominate the photograph.

Tor View

The Dartmoor landscape as seen from the ancient rocks of Sheeps Tor

tor  (tôr)

n.

1. A high rock or pile of rocks on the top of a hill.

2. A rocky peak or hill.

(thefreedictionary.com)

This photo shows the view over Burrator Reservoir from Sheeps Tor, Dartmoor, Devon. The ancient granite rocks of this Tor were formed hundreds of millions of years ago as magma slowly cooled beneath the Earth's surface. These rocks have since become uncovered by erosion, but being more resistant to erosion themselves, they are left standing like silent sentinels upon this hilltop and many others in the Dartmoor National Park. Dartmoor has the largest area of granite in Britain and is full of these tors, or "rocky peaks".