Ben Potts

First week in July. Swan couple and their young making a bee line for the landing stage once they spot me.

The landing stage and the pond beyond it. Mallards sunning themselves

Adult and young swans haven’t spotted me yet!

An empty pond for once

July at the pond. Now that the swan family have moved in, I keep my visits quite brief as they are not usually happy to have any company and I don’t want to antagonise them. It’s been lovely to see all of the youngsters getting bigger though. #SamePlaceDifferentDay

I don’t think I’d describe myself as a writer but I do have one writing tip for anyone whose topic is Britain in the 30s & 40s: The British Film Institute and Pathe newsreels on YouTube are your friends.

📷 mine from 2022.

The scattered stones of an iron age hut circle on a grassy patch of land, fringed by trees. At the two o clock position, a large angular stone, about 3 feet high juts out of the circle. This is confirmed as a bronze age standing stone.

Coed Aber Iron Age Roundhouse, Gwynedd - built around a bronze age standing stone. A really accessible site, near the stunning Aber Falls. #StandingStoneSunday

View entering the Cromlech, walking up a slight slope towards one of the long edges of the rectangle of stones.

A happy #StandingStoneSunday from me in Brittany this week! The Quadrilatère de Crucuno in Plouharnel, Morbihan. Either an overly creative late-19th century re-ordering of what may have been several rows of stones, or a fairly accurate restoration of cardinal point aligned arrangement of stones.

7 tall, thin grey stones run from top left of the photo to bottom right in a not altogether straight line, across parched brown grass. The sky above, a melange of blues, greys and whites which help highlight both the green lichen and white quartz on some of the stones.

At last a #StandingStoneSunday where I’ve been able to replenish my album of sites with new photos of mine! These are the alignments de Moulin at the Saint-Just in #Brittany taken last Tuesday, exactly 5 years to the day since I last visited them. #Bretagne #Breizh #Menhirs

A sketchbook page with ink drawings of dog roses with some writing about the plant.

A little bit about beautiful dog roses.

haeslwrid.com/the-dog-rose/

#nature #wildflowers #art

One of two stones discovered on the moors around Whitby and given to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society by antiquarian Canon Raines in 1895.

One disappeared, but this fantastic bit of #rockart can still be seen at York Museum Gardens. 📸 my own, yesterday.

Amazingly adaptable creatures aren't they!

A tabby cat - Nellie- sits on some garden decking, shielded by a bush but watchful....and waiting...

A good example of Cat camouflage, as shown by Nellie for #Caturday.

The Chapter House Roof at York Minster is a work of genius.

A small Norman church built of gritstone rubble, sits in a graveyard, surrounded by gravestones and trees. The bell tower contains a bell, inscribed with Latin, dated to the 14th century which reads 'John is my name'.

The twelfth century St Mary's Church at Stainburn, near Harrogate. #Yorkshire

Black-and-white photo taken from inside a moving vehicle, showing the side mirror in the foreground with a warning text: “OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR.” A white car drives parallel on the road, with overcast sky, trees, and power lines in the blurred background. The image captures motion, contrast, and perspective.

Nighttime city sidewalk near a utility box. Several people stand close together, with bottles and other items placed on the box. A pole runs through the center of the frame. Behind them is a brick wall and blurry signage. The lighting is dim, and a parked car is partially visible.

Interior of a brightly lit smoke shop at night. Shelves line the walls, stocked with pipes, hookahs, vapes, and smoking accessories. A glowing sign labeled “SMOKE SHOP” appears on the left. The space is neat and fully stocked, with products arranged in rows and clusters.

Nighttime view of a Lukoil gas station with prices lit up on a tall digital sign: Regular Cash – $3.19, Regular Credit – $3.29, Diesel – $4.59. A car is partially visible in the foreground, and a solitary pedestrian walks near the background. Streetlights cast a yellowish glow, while shadows and darkness edge the scene. The mood is stark, economical, and distinctly unromantic.

Around the way...

#Monochrome
#Photography

Janets foss waterfall sparkling water,greenery around,home of the fairies

1st of the month,yorkshire day,Lammas,from an early morning at janets foss,i like think we all have a connection to the land in our way,have a great friday

Tournai stone font,
Mid C12th,
Winchester Cathedral
#FontsOnFriday

The Lightbox is a key part of Barnsley’s Glass Works regeneration. This four-storey library and community hub features a glass façade overlooking a new public square and offers library services, flexible spaces, and digital learning areas.

The Lightbox is a key part of Barnsley’s Glass Works regeneration. This four-storey library and community hub features a glass façade overlooking a new public square and offers library services, flexible spaces, and digital learning areas.

Part of the Minoan Palace of Phaistos, Messara, Crete.

This wall dates from around 1700BC, and has survived numerous earthquakes - amazing craftsmanship. Look at those straight edges!

A section of the Psiloritis range can be seen in the background.

📷 my own.

#WallsonWednesday #Minoan #Crete

#TombTuesday A late entry, but having just returned from the ‘Sistine chapel of the Neolithic’ aka Cairn de Gavrinis, on my b’day, I’m hopefully forgiven. Quite frankly amazing, one of Europe’s finest prehistoric monuments . #Bretagne #Brittany #Breizh #NeolithicArt

'From a window at night.' (1896)
Towards the end of her life, Maria Yakunchikova wrote that her work from the late 1890s attempted to convey the fleeting preoccupations of other lives - 'the flashes of another world, the perception of which is blended into the landscape.'

Karl Popper, one of the most SENSIBLE of all philosophers, was a great pleasure to teach in my History of Philosophy classes at Tec Prepa in Culiacán. (Yes, in Mexico we quite properly teach philosophy in high school, as a required course, when students SHOULD be exposed to it.)

Sunday in August (1950), dir. Luciano Emmer: I am always struck, watching postwar Italian b/w movies, by how the combination of the light and sun, and whatever film stock they were using, contrives to create a unique look not really found elsewhere in cinema. You can practically breathe the air.

Tŷ Mawr Standing Stone in front of a Morrisons

Yeah your standing stone photos in beautiful countryside are great, but how about one that’s evocatively situated in front of a Morrisons supermarket?

📸 mine
#standingstonesunday

On holiday, I notice that there are wind turbines on the shore of Lake Garda, which very much makes me think that residents with a view of some incredibly mid Cotswold or other can put a sock in it.

Hildegard of Bingen enjoys a scalp massage from Cthulhu while she repairs a convent radiator

Something magical is heading our way this #YorkshireDay…
We’ve heard rumblings from Rombald the Giant, & now his rocks are on the move! From 1 Aug, discover Rombald’s Rocks at Ilkley Manor House, created by Keighley Creative & artist Leonie Briggs with artists & communities across Keighley.

Yellow slime on a rotting trunk scrambled egg

A mossy trunk covered small fungi i believe are fairy inkcaps,happy to know if other

Been a couple of weeks since in here but its always changing and evolving a bit of #sundayyellow and always something tiny making it more magical🍄

A hip height grey pointed standing stone stands on purple flowering moorland overlooking a deep blue lake with a small tree-covered island. Beyond, distant craggy mountains rise to a cloudless blue sky.

The Cregennan lake stone for #StandingStoneSunday - from a sunny and still evening walk yesterday with hardly anyone else around (apart from the fishermen and some geese).

Excavated in 1846, the Grubstones circle on Burley Moor revealed a cremation and flint spearhead.

It has been disturbed by grouse shooting butts and, bizarrely, a reported 'orgone accumulator' mound.

It is a short walk south of the famous Twelve Apostles on Ilkley Moor.

#StandingStoneSunday

Happy birthday!

A photo of a slab of rock with the engraving of a crude face and two lozenge-shaped eyes.

It has some of the finest rock art from the Neolithic period. Including this, one of the few representations of a human face.