100 Strangers : Round 2 : No. 183 : Ray by phil_howcroft

100 Strangers : Round 2 : No. 183 : Ray

It was Heritage weekend in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire this weekend. Various organisations, buildings, museums, churches etc. open their doors to the public.

One place that caught our eye was the St Anns Allotments, Nottingham.

The St Anns Allotments are the oldest and largest detached town gardens in Britain. The site is a Grade 2* listed site. The allotments are more than 600 years old. The gardens are still in their original 1830s layout, with 670 individual gardens, many with Victorian summer houses. The site is only a short distance from the city centre, yet remains tranquil an beautiful.

It was a dull and grey day today, with rain showers (some heavy), quite a difference to yesterdays all day sunshine and 24C temperatures.

One of the gardens we visited way Raymond (Ray), whose garden was a mixture of flowers and vegetables. His garden also had a beautiful brick out building. The building was Victorian , but a few years ago a tree fell on it and destroyed it.

It was rebuilt by local apprentices who were learning building skills as part of their training.

When we went into Rays garden he was picking some tomatoes in his green house. He gave us and another family some tomatoes to try, they were deliciously sweet. Ray is a retired roofer, but has been “talked into” returning to work. He visits his allotment every evening in the summer months to water it and spends several hours on a Saturday in his allotment. “Sunday I usually spend at home with the wife” Ray joked.

Ray showed us a photo of a visitor who had visited his garden. It was JB Gill, former singer of boyband JLS, who gave up singing for farming. He was really proud of the photo.

As Ray showed us round his garden he told us it costs about £150 pound a year for the allotment, which included a water tap too. I thought it was a bargain price for the size of the plot and the Victorian outhouse. One lady in the other family with us was admiring Ray’s beetroot’s at which point he pulled some out of the ground and gave us some to take home. Ray also told us to help ourself to his giant marrows as he had had such a big crop.

Ray spoke enthusiastically about his garden and was a really nice man. He seemed really pleased when I asked him for a photo to be part of my strangers project. He told me he had just started a photography course at the Indian Centre but wasn’t that good a people photos, but did like doing landscapes.

I gave Ray a card and he said he would contact me for some of the pictures I took. I hope Ray likes this photo when he sees it. I really like the colours including the pink flowers and bokeh of his hanging basket.

Thank you for being stranger number 183 Ray.

Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page

https://www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers

My own strangers can be seen here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/57144254@N08/albums/72157657822400168


A fav, Love to read your stories and see matching photo. The eyes....sharp. Well done.
September 23rd, 2019  
Nice to meet Ray ! Love the story behind the portrait.
September 23rd, 2019  
Fav for an accomplished portrait of Ray and I love your write up. I am too physically lazy to be a gardener (besides I don’t want to upset my Ray!) but I love being in a garden and seeing fresh produce.
September 23rd, 2019  
@quietpurplehaze thanks haze, i am really pleased with the quality of the portrait and Ray was a great stranger :)

@cocobella thank you so much corinne, so pleased you like this , merci :)

@sdutoit thank you sylvia , i am pleased you read the stories, they take quite a bit of writing :)
September 23rd, 2019  
You paint such a wonderful picture of Ray and his allotment garden. Lovely to see such a strong portrait of him.
September 23rd, 2019  
Good to read about Ray and his story as well as his face!
September 24th, 2019  
I love how close this is...I feel he is right in front of me.
September 24th, 2019  
Yet another great capture Phil ,
September 24th, 2019  
You chose a lovely background for this great portrait capture. Ray seems to be a happy man to me - who isn't with a garden he can cope with and having such abundance of produce? Loved the story.
September 24th, 2019  
Great background Phil. Fav
September 24th, 2019  
@caterina @sangwann @beryl @granagringa @maggiemae @helenhall thank you for your kind words, I sent some pics to Ray and he has been in touch to say he really likes them and the narrative on his picture is "spot on"
September 25th, 2019  
This is fabulous. Such detail and color. You really captured his warmth. And you took it with “our” camera! A fav for sure!
September 25th, 2019  
@allie912 thanks allison , i was really pleased with this shot , I always tend to shoot with the Sony A6000, but often attach a vintage lens :) This was with the Sony 50mm prime
September 25th, 2019  
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