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So; this theme...
It's farm buildings!

I'm going to try changing the layout a bit here; all text appears below the image to which it refers.
It's clear from dredging back that I've always rather liked old farm buildings... I'm sure there are more and I'll add them in as I find them.


Hulvertree Barn.
OM1 Vivitar 28mm


Hulvertree Barn again.
OM1 Vivitar 28mm


Ahh... Over the Channel to Chiroubles. Strictly speaking this is in the house, but as the house is a farm building too I think it can get in here.
OM1 Vivitar 28mm


Recent! Bishop's Barn just down the lane here.
M2 Elmar 35mm


Ansty; another walk but just a few miles away from home. Thinking about this there is wonderful barn, actually a couple of them, which I must go and photograph one morning. The one I'm thinking of is on Kay's early morning mushroom forays so may have to wait until Autumn.
M2 Elmar 35mm


A walk around Laxfield and we went past these rather unused buildings, but the farm is occupied. A bit horsey possibly.
Leica 1 Elmar 50mm


Blackstone - an unused building in the middle of nowhere.
I can't remember if it's from my OM2 or the M2... I think it's the M2 Elmar 35mm.


Inside an old barn. It was pretty dark and I couldn't get in the building myself so I reached the camera in and held it against a post at arm's length and pressed the shutter. I had no idea what was in there until I developed the film.
M2 Elmar 35mm


Laxfield, up by Mr. Lings. The barn here has been bought and is going to be converted to live in, so I'm double glad to have taken these pictures.
Nikon D80 Sigma zoom.


Same kind of thing, put in here as this is a PROPER! photograph, taken
with HP5 developed in Perceptol

OM2  Zuiko or Vivitar 28mm


Same lovely barn
OM2 Zuiko or Vivitar 28mm


Laxfield, Mr. Ling's again.
Nikon D80 Sigma zoom.


I should have just put this one in, really; it's all here...
OM2 28mm somethingorother


Just down the lane, another farm which had a dairy herd and which now doesn't. I have been trying to get to the bottom of Tri-X with the Elmar, and wondered what FP4 in ID11 would be like. I rather like it and will continue this effort.
M2 Elmar 35mm FP4

Inside Mr Ling's house
Mr Ling - a man I don't know - lived on his own in this old house just up above Laxfield in Suffolk. Last year, at the age of 90-something he finally moved into a home leaviing behind a house he'd lived in more or less (if not all) his life. No mains electricity or water  until recently, and no mains sewage at all.
Sold after he left to a local builder (who is completely aware of how lovely the property is and who is spending his own money on it in order to move there with his family) I was able to go through the house with my camera hoping to capture some of the atmosphere of old rural Suffolk and, maybe, some of the sense of Mr Ling's life there.
Initially I was disappointed by my photographs, but have just found them again (and many of the above pictures are of the barns outside) and feel the effort was worth it after all. Here are some pictures, all OM2 HP5 etc;


Row of low garden sheds


The back door - or main door I'm sure. The contraption is
an ACME manual washing machine. It had a handle on the
top that agitated the gubbins a bit.


Next doorway in, looking out into the hallway from the kitchen.


The kitchen. A couple of gas cookers. No fridge, but a North-facing larder under the stairs.


My favourite. Mr Ling's living room. The house is actually
quite large, but he only lived in a small part of it.
This room is where he would have spent most time. Rather
poignantly there is a dirty mug left on the window sill where,
maybe, he stood on his last day looking at the garden?

There are more pictures, some of the upstairs but I've run out of time right now.

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