My final post for the theme ‘Trios’ (as part of the Weekly Photographic Challenge – Trio), consists of a series of photographs of inanimate objects from in, and around, Fife.
The first photo is of three boats on the Firth of Forth.
The next three are of differing views of the three cantilevers that make up the Forth rail Bridge.
The fifth image is of the three flying buttresses that are supporting the East wall of Linlithgow Palace in West Lothian (this section was built in 1430, by James I of Scotland).
The sixth photo is of part of the steps leading from Hill of Tarvit House upper terraced garden to the lower lawn. It shows three of the sculptured supports for the stone railing.
The seventh photo shows three windows on the side of a large house, in Kirkcaldy High Street. It is interesting, because one of the windows has been blocked in. This was due to the introduction of the ‘window tax’ in Scotland in 1798, which wasn’t repealed until 1926. An owner of a house was taxed for every window in his/her house, but if the window was bricked up, you didn’t pay tax on that window. Throughout the UK there are many thousands of windows of houses that were built in Georgian/Victorian/Edwardian times, which have been blocked up.
The eighth image is of three rock pebbles from Kirkcaldy beach, the top one of which, nicely shows some cross bedded sandstone, deposited in a shallow sea/deltaic environment approx 300 million years ago (part of the Upper Coal Measures). The pebble to the bottom right is also sandstone, but this time with no obvious bedding, and may have formed as a sand in the river mouth of the huge delta. The pebble to the left does not belong to the local area, and has probably been transported southwards to its present resting place during the last Ice Age. It looks like a granite pebble and may well have come from the Glencoe area of the Highlands, which would mean it is approx 420-410 million years old.
The final photograph is of a much more recent phenomena, three working swings in the park, and one vandalised swing 😦
Fantastic photos, especially I liked photos about bridge, just perfectly caught reflection!
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Thank you Ann 🙂
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Such beautiful photos! Breathtaking!
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Thank you Pernnille 🙂
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I just love the bridge pictures! so amazing and reflections on the water. The fourth picture is my favorite! Love it
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Thanks Lynz 🙂 The bridge is a great subject to photo, it doesn’t move, complain or need paying, and it’s photogenic from almost every angle!! Lol! 🙂
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hahaha yes so true! lovely!
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Wow! I love the bridge photos. Very metallic and strong looking! Great post. Yaz.
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Thanks Yaz 🙂 And I agree with you, the Forth Rail Bridge is an amazing structure!
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Thanks for these social photographs. I particularly appreciate the photographs of the Forth Bridge.
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The Forth Bridge is amazing, and social photography fascinates me, but I don’t do enough of it.
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Great selection, I love the swings and the Forth Bridge lit up, so beautiful! 🙂
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Thank you Vonita 🙂 The bridge is always popular, but I’m pleased you like the swings :-). The side of the house wasn’t a great photo, it was more to explain about the ‘Window Tax’.
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Oh, I wanted to comment on the window tax one, my grandparents married in Kirkcaldy, it was my maternal grandmother’s home – where she grew up, so has significance for me. (My grandfather met my grandmother after the war was ended, and he was waiting with some other of the troops to be taken back home by ship). They corresponded by letter until he went to Kirkcaldy, married her and swept her to Africa! 🙂
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Wow!!! It really is a very small world we live in 🙂 Kirkcaldy is quite a nice town, but I don’t blame your grandfather for taking your grandmother back to South Africa!!
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She went back with her three children when my mom was nine, grandfather to follow, but after a few months she decided Cape Town was better, so re-packed her bags and kids and left again!
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It would have been a wee bit of a culture change some 50 or so years ago, but I’m not surprised at all she went back to Cape Town. I bet your Mum and you, are happy that she did 🙂
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I think so 😊 My mother ended up in Johannesburg after marrying my dad, but she passed away when I was 21, and I am in Sydney now.
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I’m really sorry to hear about your Mum. And I didn’t realise you are living in Australia now, another wonderful part of the world 🙂
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Yes, my husband and I left South Africa in 2007, and have only been back a few times since. Though we will never be rid of our South African accents 🙂 my grandmother kept her Scottish accent, it was wonderful to hear!
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I imagine a South African – Australian accent is quite interesting!!! And the Scots do have amazing accents 🙂 Unfortunately, I’m not a Scot 😦
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Where is your accent from?
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I should have a Cornish accent, but unfortunately it’s ended up a typical English accent 😦
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Ah yes, you are from Cornwall!
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Now you know my whole family history, lol 🙂
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I certainly do, I probably know more about your family than I do about my own! LOL!! 🙂
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I never heard of window tax. Thank you for the interesting information. So beautiful stone stair 🙂
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Thank you Martina 🙂 There are blocked up windows in every street of older buildings, everywhere in Britain 😦 The stone stair is actually relatively young by Scottish standards, it would have been built about 1910. I did a post a while back about the house, the Hill of Tarvit Mansion
https://fifephotosandart.wordpress.com/2015/10/04/hill-of-tarvit-mansion-near-cupar-fife/
if you want to see a wee bit more of the place 🙂
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What an excellent selection for the challenge Andy! The Trio of cantilevers of the Forth Rail Bridge is absolutely stunning in Black-and-White. 😀
It was so interesting to read up on the windows that were bricked up to avoid being taxed. I can’t believe that people were taxed for the amount of windows they had. Wow! I would have bricked them up! LOL!
Those pebbles are just gorgeous! Beautiful colour and texture. I love pebbles and my sons always bring me interesting looking ones.
Thanks for sharing these stunning photos and all the interesting info Andy. I really enjoyed! 😀
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It’s often surprised me that there aren’t more bricked up windows, I know a fair number would have been unblocked after 1926, but it only ever seems to be one window blocked per household. I think I would be like you, and would have lived in darkness!! LOL!! 🙂
I’m pleased you enjoyed the pebbles, a fair number of people have no interest in them whatsoever, but to me, each is like a book, and has a fascinating tale to tell about it’s history 🙂
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Indeed and believe me, I would have bricked in those tax people as well. hahahah! They can be glad I didn’t live in those times. They would have had quite a difficult time with me. LOL!
I love pebbles. My sons always bring me strange or interesting looking pebbles and I’ve got quite a collection by now. I also love gemstones and you’re right, each is like a book and have their own story to tell. If only they could talk. 😀
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I would imagine your son collects some interesting pebbles, I have no idea of the geology of the area where you live, but if the wildlife is anything to go by, then the geology would be fascinating too 🙂
I’m actually fairly thankful the pebbles can’t talk, they would probably tell you how wrong I am about their interpretation! LOL!!! 🙂
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They sure do as they know I love it.
Hartbeespoort does have a long geological history and there are a few mines in the surrounding area. Something I don’t like very much as they tend to destroy everything, but if you are interested you can read about the Geology here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magaliesberg
I love the fact that the Vervets come down to visit us. Mostly because they don’t have enough food in the mountains and of course we took over their habitat. Some people don’t like them at all but the few of us that do love them, stand up for them. 😀
hahahah! I bet they won’t keep quiet for a minute as well. Let’s be thankful they can’t talk. LOL!
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That is the problem with any type of geological extraction, money and greed always takes over, and the environment is an afterthought. I love the subject, but I don’t love what all the big mining/exploration companies do to the landscape.
Thanks again for the link, I’ll have a proper look later, but I can see it is a fascinating area 🙂
I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t love the Vervets, but I think that about all animals and bugs. But it’s great that at least some of you care about them 🙂
Aye, going to the beach would take on a whole new meaning if the pebbles could talk!! 🙂
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I totally agree with you. If they rehabilitated the land it would be a totally different case, but they don’t.
You’re welcome again and it sure is.
Oh, believe me, you do get them and I think the same way. Luckily the few of us that do care, put those that doesn’t in their place and remind them that they were here before us. 😀
Whahahaha! I can only imagine! LOL!
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Excellent Sonel, that’s a phrase I often use, telling people that all these different animals were here well before humans came on the scene 🙂
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Love all these, Andy! Particularly Linlithgow – amazing buttresses – and the Forth Bridge, breathtaking no matter how many times you see it. And the pebbles! How lovely. 🙂 That banded sandstone pebble is very nice indeed. I do admire your ability to be able to recognise them!
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Thanks Jo, I thought you may well like the pebbles 🙂 And like you said, you can’t go wrong with the Forth Bridge!! I must get around to sorting through my photos of Linlithgow, and do a proper post, it is such an amazing place 🙂
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Every time I hold a pebble in my hand I wonder at its phenomenal age. Love your bridge photos.
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Thanks Gilly 🙂
Pebbles do each have a fascinating tale to tell, over the millions of years they have been in existence. The two sandstones were formed in a large delta not dissimilar to the present day Mississippi delta, but at that time, Scotland and northern England lay approximately on the equator!!! 🙂
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Love the Forth Bridge, especially the first one. Great reflections.
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Thank you Anabel 🙂
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All the photos are wonderful, but the second blows me away~
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Thank you Cindy. I’m chuffed you like the second photo so much 🙂
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Really neat collection of images for this challenge. I especially liked the bridge images.
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Thank you Deborah 🙂
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mp 🙂
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Reblogged this on Bampots Utd.
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Some fantastic photos, Andy. Needless to say, I love the old stone buildings – the palace buttresses, the steps and the windows. But your bridge photos with the lovely reflections are excellent, too. And as for those pebbles… That’s a great granitic one. The pink feldspar reminds me of Shap granite. And is the banded one some kind of gneiss?
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Thanks Millie 🙂 The pebble at the top was cross bedded sandstone, it kind of looked layered, a wee bit like a gneiss. At first I thought the granite pebble was a gneiss, the photo originally had far more pebbles in it, mainly to show all the varying colours of the beach 🙂
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Thanks for explaining that. Some wondeful pebbles on that beach. 🙂
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Lovely photos. My favorite is the colorful one of the bridge.
A window tax? – what a silly thing. Next, they’ll tax the air we breathe, if they can get away with it. I hope that silly tax has since been repealed. 😉
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Thank you Judy 🙂 Don’t worry, the window tax was repealed in 1926! But it wouldn’t surprise me if the government now started taxing the air we breathe. In fact, to a point they do, we pay tax on crisps. popcorn and sweets, some of which are almost totally made up of air!!! 😦 LOL!
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The bridge trios are beautiful, especially the monochrome shot. 🙂
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Thank you Ruby 🙂
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Great selection. I love the bridge photos
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Thank you Andrea 🙂
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Those flying buttresses really have done their job Andy ! Great selection and – reminders for me – of some history long forgotten . Lovely beach pebbles .. far too many noughts to contemplate on a dull monday morning 😉
Have a good week !
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Thank you Poppy 🙂 I hope you are having a good week too, despite the not so good weather 🙂
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A most imaginative selection of trios. I especially like the first picture of the Forth Rail Bridge, that’s a cracker.
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Thank you Lorna 🙂 I was quite happy with the reflections in that photo too 🙂
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Fantastic shots… the ones from the bridge are my favorite!
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Thank you Noortje 🙂
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Wonderful selection! I especially liked the trio of “working” swings.
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Thank you Cathy 🙂 I’m pleased you liked the swings, most people went for the bridge, which was fairly obvious, it being so grand.
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The swings brought back memories and I noticed right away there were 4. I thought it was creative that you said a trio of working swings.
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Thanks Cathy 🙂
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I love this topic :))
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Thank you Emma 🙂
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I like those buttresses and the sliver of curved light across the lawn.
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Thank you Susan 🙂 The buttresses are quite impressive, especially because they are approx 600 years old!!
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