Extra Pic spam... empty buildings and empty space.

[curiouswombat]

I mentioned yesterday that I had taken some pictures of scenery, but would leave posting until today. They were taken last week, Wednesday I think, on a warm day that was not quite as clear and sunny as most this past few weeks. I was travelling from Port Erin, in the South, to St John's - by the more coastal route, known as The Sloc road.

I stopped to take some pictures of a deserted farmhouse, and then took a few more along the way. It is surprising, sometimes, how much empty space there is on our small island.



So - these pictures are of an abandoned farmhouse in an area known as Lingague.




As you can see, it is past redemption -




And I took this because I liked the lines and shapes-



These two are simply taken in the hedge where I stood to take the first picture - I'm guessing it is clover, but I'm not sure - it really was this colour -



And with added bugs...



In the field alongside there were two horses - this one was more interested in the camera than the other one -



I think you can get an idea of the day from that one - warm, but a bit grey.

A few fields away there is another farmhouse, still inhabited. You can see that it is built to the same, traditional, pattern as the abandoned one. This is, in effect, what the derelict would have looked like maybe twenty years ago -



Oh - and a foxglove just coming into flower -



I drove a little further up the road - and I do mean up - it rises slowly, climbing higher and higher; it got brighter as I climbed, too. These are taken where I stopped to eat a, rather late, lunch. As you can see, it is a remarkably empty - you can just make out the line of the road climbing up and away -



The sea is just over the edge of this hill -



And finally - just beside the wall I perched on for lunch - simply because I liked the effect -





Taking pictures reminds me how fortunate I am to live somewhere where it is still possible to be so alone, in such beautiful (well, to me) emptiness.



Oh - and... today the weather broke - about 3pm, whilst I was in clinic at the hospital, unable to get home to take in the washing I'd hung out at lunch time... I've just left it out; it'll dry again, sometime, I guess!

Also I must share D-d's text message from Italy - "Ate Pizza. Saw Colosseum, Forum, Vatican and THE POPE!! Going to Pisa and Florence. Getting on really well with everyone." Sounds good!

Comments

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Once a sudden rainstorm drenched a wool blanket I had draped across the rail to dry, and I simply left it out there to dry again. It had the most marvelous, fresh scent afterward. Now I actually hope for rainstorms after I've hung out things to dry!

Lovely pics!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The forecast for tomorrow is fine, so they'll dry - but they'd have smelled nice and fresh if it had just been a bit windy without my jeans getting drenched again! They are literally dripping, much wetter than when I hung them out at lunch time.

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

Amazing, LotR-like pics as usual!

This may seem like an odd question, but how do people from Man feel about the Pope? Is there a significant Catholic population on Man, or is it all Anglican like the rest of the UK?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Ummm - we aren't part of the UK - just one of the British Isles...

Britain, generally, is by no means all Anglican. Only about 45% of the British population are Anglicans - and that includes the ones who never go to church!

For example Scotland has only a few Anglicans - in fact the differences between Anglicanism and the form of Protestantism followed by most Scots was one of the roots of the Civil War (the English one, not yours) - had Charles been more equable towards the Presbyterians (not really much like American Presbyterians...) then his Scottish subjects would have supported him against the English, but they didn't as he was too Anglican! The Church of Scotland is still their national church - it is a Presbyterian type not an Episcopal type like Anglicanism.

The protestantism in Northern Ireland is a type of Presbyterianism rather than Anglicanism as well.

In Britain generally about 10% of the population are Catholic. The figures here on the island are slightly higher, for a variety of reasons, just as the number of Methodists is slightly higher too.

However - D-d is a very definite low church protestant, so the Pope is not really important to her religiously - more as a fascinating historical figure, just as if she had seen the King of Spain had she been there.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

I love the third of your ruin photos - it looks like sculpture or an engraving, somehow not quite 'real'.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I liked that effect too, when I got so close that the house filled the camera screen - it became a study of shape and line, rather than a building.

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Beautiful pictures! The ruined farmhouse is so stark against the lush greenery; it's a really interesting contrast.

And hee! to D-d's email.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I like the contrast too - somehow it makes the building look even more stark.

As for D-d - pizza and the Pope - what more could you want?

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I love that abandoned house! Your shots beautifully capture its sad and somewhat eerie mood. And, of course, horsie!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I occasionally post on the group rural_ruin - mainly because there definitely is something sad and eerie about empty farm houses.

The horses seemed very content with no company except each other and passing traffic.

[keswindhover.livejournal.com]

I am very suspicious of the concept of blue clover. Purple, yes and white, yes - but blue? You have a very handsome insect sitting on it, anyway.

I agree your third ruin picture is rather symmetrically pleasing and generally fascinating.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I am very suspicious of the concept of blue clover. That's why I'm not really sure what it is. Any idea?

I'm wondering, now, about cropping that third picture - it is exactly as taken, but could it be even more interesting if cropped, I wonder...

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

A very nicely rural part of the world, always something interesting to look at and admire.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I am inordinately fond of my wee island, I must admit, and it does pose nicely!

[pfeifferpack.livejournal.com]

Every time you post pictures of your island I want to move there! Just lovely.

I think the abandoned house is marvelous and must be kept intact!

Thank you for sharing.

*hugs*
Kathleen

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The abandoned house will slowly become more ruinous and gently sink back into the landscape - it is the natural way of things.

There are bits of abandoned buildings hundreds and thousands of years old dotted around the landscape here and there - mostly in the higher places. Dwellings in more human-friendly spots tend to be rebuilt and rebuilt in the same place.

[winsomeone.livejournal.com]

I'm so jealous of your ability to be completely alone there. Here in this crowded metropolitan area one is never alone. I've been out and about in the wee hours of the morning and still see traffic or someone walking along the road.

The flowers are lovely as usual. You're right about the mimimus-I looked it up and it can't handle our sun. You shall have to post more pictures again so I can enjoy them vicariously.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I sat on the wall, beside my car, and all I heard was the birds apart from a couple of other cars that passed. It was about 3 in the afternoon...

You could actually grow mimulus in a pot as an indoor plant - but I guess it's not the same, really.

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

I love the photos of the abandoned farmhouse. The lines are lovely and haunting. It makes me wonder about the people who lived there and what became of them ...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

If it is anything like others I have known over past years, the last one or two of the family grow old, doing nothing to maintain the house, so when they eventually died, in their eighties, it was not really considered suitable to their needs by the the next generation. That next generation probably already had their own home, and so either farmed the land but living elsewhere, or sold the land.

That was the way, thirty or so years ago, when our population was falling. Nowadays they would have put the farmhouse, without running water or decent sewerage etc., on the market for a ridiculously large amount, and someone would snap it up, renovate it, make it about twice the original size and enjoy the sense of isolation!

The one across the fields is interesting in part because it looks as if that hasn't happened to it - it still looks like a traditional farm house.

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Very pretty. The still-inhabited farmhouse photo is especially nice; with that haze hanging in the air, it looks a little spooky. The horse looks a little angry.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I always feel as if that whole area has a slightly spooky air, although I'm not sure why.

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

You are very fortunate to live somewhere with such wonderful open spaces. It's a very photogenic island!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The people mainly live huddled together around the edges leaving a surprising amount of empty space, considering that about 80,000 of us live on a place which is 32miles on the longest axis, and 12 miles across the widest point.

[ukamikanasi.livejournal.com]

Beautiful shots! I love ruins. That wall is awesome too.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Are you a member of rural_ruin? There are sometimes some very photogenic ruined building pics posted there.

I'm glad that you like that wall picture, too.

[melegyrn.livejournal.com]

I'm in love with that clover. I'm a sucker for any blue flower, and I find this one very intriguing.

I like your pics of lonely places. A breath of fresh air. There aren't any places like that that I can get to easily during the work week, and it takes a concerted effort to do so on the weekend...pics like this help a whole lot. Thanks!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I'm fortunate, in that my job requires me to drive around the island - a real perk of the job.

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to get some idea of the size of your island. You've shown so many different views and interesting sights that it has grown into epic proportions in my mind: a land of fields, gorse, glades, wooded areas, beaches, cities, wallabies, palm trees, mountains... When I started to formulate just how large Isle of Man was, it surprised me that it is over three times smaller than our little county! When I drive to and from my doctor's appointment, it's like crossing the longest part of your island about six times! And, yet, in your photos, it seems to be endless rolling hills. Isle of Man must be like the Tardis!

With the abandoned buildings and homes you've shown, it brings to mind some of the farmsteads in our rural areas. The family farm is becoming extinct as it becomes harder and harder to make a living from it. Is this also the case there? We also suffer from "brain drain." Our college graduates often leave the state for better jobs. When Bojojr graduated, he had to move if he wanted to utilize his degree to the fullest. He works in Missouri, but he manages to still live in Kansas!

I totally envious of your daughter! Such history. I'd love to see Florence.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We aren't so much like the Tardis as that we live life on a small scale! Google Earth gives a good idea of how everything fits in - I even found that very ruin on it last night.

The family farm is becoming extinct as it becomes harder and harder to make a living from it. Is this also the case there?

We have had exactly the same thing happen to our farms - and, often, someone with money made in some way other than farming will eventually buy up a farm, rent the land out to another farmer, or just leave it lying fallow, and turn the original farmhouse into a small mansion house. Whereas, when this one would have been abandoned, there weren't even people wanting to buy them up to 'upgrade' them, as we were losing population. That very brain-drain you speak of, in fact.

When I was a teenager it was presumed that anyone who was bright enough to go to university would never come back. Then, in the late 80s, some of us actually began to return as the financial sector began to expand, bringing work, and also bringing a rise in population so that there was more work for those of us trained as doctors, dentists, advocates, and so on. But I was still expecting D-d to be unlikely to return - so it is really good that she hopes to be able to get a placement in a major law firm with offices in Douglas.

[debris4spike]

I love those pics - that house would certainly be lovely to live in ... although I do think it needs a coat of paint ... or something!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I think I'd settle for the one across the fields with a roof and other odd and ends...

[spikereader.livejournal.com]

Our rain came in the middle of the night, and today is much cooler thank goodness.

Love the pictures of the abandoned farmhouse and am very envious of your scenery and empty space. I've been thinking of WILD and everywhere I look all I see are houses.

Glad D-d is having a good time (and that the Pope was obviously impressive!).

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It's good drying here again, now - thank goodness.

Pictures of houses are interesting too...

And yes, I was amused at how impressive THE POPE must have been.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

What gorgeous photos!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - ruined houses make better subjects than you might think!

[diachrony.livejournal.com]

You take such beautiful pictures!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you, it really is my pleasure.