Derelict Shed

On Thursdays there is a special challenge on the Blipfoto site, called Dereliction Thursday. I had never entered before but today I suddenly decided I wanted to find some dereliction even though it had to be within walking distance as the weather conditions are still far from ideal for car expeditions. On top of the snow and ice we now also have thick fog which is not the best thing for photography but I had set my heart on taking part and thought about where I could find dereliction at it's best.

I then remembered the munition sheds I pictured a few days ago. To get to them I had to venture into a multi hazard area (their words, not mine!) i.e. a peat field. But in fact the conditions were on my side for that. The ground is frozen which means you can't sink down into the peat. I entered the moors from the old railway path and followed in the footsteps of hares, rabbits, deer and birds thinking that they must know the best route to follow. And although I did hear the ice cracking under my feet occasionally I managed to find one of the sheds by peering into the fog, and then climbing over the stone wall.

The shed looked beautiful in it's derelict state, looming out of the fog. These sheds (there are 3 in total although I only visited one today) were build during the Second World War to store munitions which were then transported using the old railway line which still had the rails at that time although it hadn't been in use for many years. It was brought back into commission just for moving the munitions to where they had to go. Now only cattle and sheep go there as well as crows as I can testify. They gave me a fright when a crowd of them suddenly lifted off as I approached. Wish I had had my camera at the ready for that!

It was all a bit spooky, what with the fog, the crows and the fact that no other human footprints could be seen in the snow but mine.

And then when I ventured inside I saw these ropes suspended from the ceiling. Something shivered down my spine!

 The windows were both broken and frozen.

I had a good mooch about and took lots of photographs, not just for the Derelict Thursday challenge but also for art inspiration.

When I left I couldn't find my own footsteps again which was a bit unnerving but I could discern the stone wall in the distance so made my way back there to follow it back to the old railway line. Conditions like this make it easy to understand how disorientating fog can be.

The fundraising yesterday went astonishingly well. We managed to achieve our target of  raising $10.000 dollars in about 2.1/2 hours! I became a donor as well as a provider of one of the artworks and I will keep you up to date with where my piece is going as well as with which piece I will receive just as soon as I find out. It was all very exciting and despite some e-mail hick-ups, lots of fun.