I feel lucky at times for the area I live in, I don't have far to travel to get to beautiful countryside and the are I live in has monuments galore to admire. However, I've been making short films of the local monuments, but there is one that I have yet to properly film, the Rockingham Mausoleum, I've been waiting for the perfect weather conditions and for them to fall on my day off work, one day last week was that day.
(Beautiful views of Wentworth Woodhouse from the mausoleum)
On the road up to the monument is a house where one of my friends lives, or should I say lived, I messaged him the on the perfect weather day and asked if it was OK for me to go up to the monumnet, he got back to me and said that he no longer lived there and he is touring the UK, he was in North Yorkshire at the time but heading up to Scotland.
The monument is open to the public but only on a sunday afternoon through the summer, so I was in a pickle, I thought how am I going to make the final film of my monuments from my local area, I knew there was a way in without going passed the houses, but I couldn't remember where it was.
(One of four of the obelisks that was originally located in Wentworth Woodhouse's gardens before open cast mining).
I parked up the car in the small village that the monument is near and went on a little explore, I headed down the public footpath looking for ways into a field that is just before the woods that the monument stands in, seeing a gap under a tree I made a mental note and thought I'd go back to that if there wasn't an easier way in, as this was on a steep banking and the tree/bush was quite low, so would have had to do some ducking etc.
Anyhow, I walked further around the path went on the edge of a field, as I walked down it, there was a way into the other field that I needed to get into, wow, it was that easy, straight through the field into the woods, then walked up a track up to the monument, but I was not alone...
(The view of the monument from the track up to it)
As I walked up to the monument, it was abundant in wildlife, I couldn't get over how many different kinds of birds I saw there, not only that but there were also lots of squirrels, it was wonderful to see all this wildlife.
As I was admiring the sound of the birds and the peace and quite, I then started to hear shooting in the distance, I thought to myself that it sounds quite a distance away for now, so I should be ok, although I had my drone on me, I wasn't going to take it up as knowing my luck it would have got shot.
So just equipped with my phone, I decided to take a few shots, I noticed these metal things, kind of like a pointed barrel, in which I think they use to notify the shooters that the are is clear etc, so after a few shots, the one in the woods right at the side of me made a sound, as if someone was saying this area is clear, the shooting got louder, and I thought SHIT!!!, I'd better get out of here now.
Making a quick escape down the path I'd just used, so I didn't manage many photos due to this, now I've looked it up and hunting season goes on until around the end of february, so I'm not going to go back until then, so I can get my film made, but one thing for certain, I know a way in, and now I know what time of year is the best to go lol.
I don't know where you stand on this though, but I really don't like hunting, and can't class it as a sport when another creature loses it's life, it's just not right for me.
This is one of the squirrels I saw, he/she was just hanging there, thinking that if I don't move, he can't see me lol, quite comical, but great to see.
I hope you like this post, I do have a week off work this next week, so I'm hoping to get some photography sorted, due to weather and work, I've not been anywhere with the camera for a bit.
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All the best :-)