May 2022 - Avenue Des Images

Could I have a rarity?

This May may have been the warmest on record and it’s taken it’s toll on the lawn. It’s also meant that I’ve had to water some of the plants that I have planted. My potatoes, strawberries and tomatoes in particular. However there are some other plants that I never see normally that are thriving. Most impressive are 2 plants in the middle of the dry grass that must get mowed every year normally.

I am not an expert but a bit of research leads me to think they might be Pyramidal Orchids ( Anacamptis pyramidalis) Apparently, quite rare if it is. You can read more about it on Wikipedia (opens in a new tab).

Touring the garden

Having may curiosity piqued by such a find I set off to tour the flowers in the garden on a random May afternoon. I have planted tomatoes, fuchsias, geraniums, honeysuckle and roses. But there are many others. The hot sun kept the daisies closed but below are the others.

There are chives, some sort of tiny pea, wild strawberries and climber in amongst the honeysuckle.

Hopefully I can get as much pleasure from the natural garden, maybe save some time, money and back ache at the same time give nature a boost which in turn should help us all. Some of the wild flowers are discrete and you need to taker a closer look, but small is not necessarily less beautiful. We shall see how the garden develops. In parallel I will continue to look after my potatoes, strawberries and tomatoes.

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It doesn’t matter what the size and scale is, waterfalls always impress. It may the noise, the spray, the pull of the rushing water or the sheer scale of the waterfall, in the end waterfalls always impress. I realized looking through some photos that I have visited 4 different size waterfalls and in each case I loved the visit. Why? Is it the overall experience, the beauty, the context and the feeling of power?

Big or Small, Which do you prefer?

Let’s start small; I have posted a blog post on the smallest and closest waterfall earlier, you can see it here where I was discussing shutter speeds. It still has a lot of charm and makes this small park a lovely place to visit.

The same stream continues to a smaller fall maybe 50m downstream

It is clearly not the size of the river or the height of the fall that makes these waterfalls always impress.

Yorkshire, UK: The Dales

I visited Yorkshire and in the Dales came across 2 falls of significance. They are a big step up from those discussed above. The West Burton Falls. The Cauldron Falls, on Walden Beck, pictured here, were painted by Turner and are just a short walk from the village. Nearby there are the Cray Gill falls but I didn’t get to see them. Maybe next time.

Instead I drove a short distance to the Aysgarth falls. These are on the River Ure (W3W location) and have also been painted by Turner. They consist of three stepped waterfalls and are easily accessed by a footpath. They have featured in the cinema blockbuster movie Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.

Mortain, France

Mortain-Bocage is situated in Normandy, in the Manche department of France. There are 2 waterfalls in Mortain. I talked about my weekend in Normandy in this blog post. The larger falls are 25m tall and are impressive and the tallest in Northern France.

Quebec, Canada

Parc de la Chute‑Montmorency, the Montmorency Falls in Quebec are in a totally different league. They are located on the Montmorency river just before it joins the St Lawrence river. In the past there was a power station here. The most impressive aspect of these falls is tehri height. The falls are 83m, over 270 feet, and that is a significant 30m more that the famous Niagara Falls.

There are several things to see here besides the thundering falls, the suspension bridge, the panoramic staircase (which was closed when I went in April) and the Via Ferrata (opens in a new tab) which is only for adrenalin mad people. The panoramic photo I have here was taken from the cable car station at the lower car park. I don’t feel I missed much by not taking the car, it soon becomes expensive when you are not travelling alone and that cost is outweighed by the fact that the car park fee covers both car parks. The lower one by the station and the upper one by the Manoir Montmorency.