Oh for an unfiltered blonde!

I like the guy bottom left with a cone on his head!

As you say, great light, my favourite sort! Good job you had your camera, when I unexpectedly come across a scene like this I find it’s been left at home. Nice interplay of light and shadow here.

There isn’t much unspoiled accessible woodland left around here and even less after HS2 so I have been casting around for local spots, and you have given me an idea. When I was young my parents lived in Hampton in Arden, a couple of miles from where I guess you are. You convey nicely that lovely calm atmosphere of deciduous woods, I can almost smell it.

Reminds me of a Ken Dodd sketch where he describes a couple in the throes of passion, when she says: “That ceiling needs painting.....and when are you going to do something about the shed?”

The problem with housing developments is their overriding priority is to reward their shareholders which means getting the most return per hectare, not create communities nor respond to the most pressing housing needs. Estate agents determine the type and style which sell for most profit, I.e. land hungry detached houses. Housing is the only building type which is self-regulated for building standards, paying its own inspectors who just check random samples and only needing to meet the limited 10 year NHBC warranty. Obligatory minimum space standards were abolished by Margaret Thatcher in the belief that market demand would set its own standards, which it turns out have declined since. Added to this toxic mix is the need to accommodate cars to meet the local County Council standards, cars being necessary as large edge of town developments are remote from schools, shops, medical facilities and work places. The result is 70% of a site is dedicated to the motor car, a huge waste of the available land which could otherwise be used for food production. When housing was actually in the local councils’ hands it responded far better to these factors and interestingly after decades a few are starting new and imaginative schemes.

No, Defragged, it was an idealistic dream of replacing the hell of the industrial revolution, but sadly the reality has been hijacked by bureaucrats and planners who pass on the responsibility of realising their policies to developers who are by definition ill-equipped to do so.

I have been meaning to take this shot for some time showing the relentless encroachment of developers' housing into the countryside coupled with industrialised horticulture, with the irony of Blake's words ringing in my ears: "...till we have built Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land."

I love dramatic scenes like these, my personal favourites being 3 and 4. In the middle of no. 3 is a mark, possibly a bird moving, which would be best removed. The sea and beach are looking very dark in these, no doubt deliberately, but I wonder whether the surf and light on the water could be lightened a bit? Looks like the course is fun.

Nice one Gareth!