Awesome shots of an awesome Vee ... and furthermore in front of a derelict building that holds rather strong memories for me! The Firepool Pump House!
The early Victorian pump house is an obvious landmark near the locks and weir, and pumped water from the waterways up into a massive tank on the roof for use by the steam trains on the adjacent railway. It's a listed building, but totally and utterly knackered. Importantly the pumps are still in situ, hidden away in the basement.
I was down in Taunton literally 3 years ago today on business as a guest speaker at an evening business event. Given that later start time, it gave me an excuse to get down early and spend a bit of time exploring. Had a couple of targets, and first on the list was a quick mooch around the Pump House! Rocked up; parked the Vee down by the canal; decided that because it was busy area I'd just slip a bit of hi-vis and a hard hat on (social-engineering-101) and stroll in; didn't change anything else and off I went.
This is where it went tits up! I decided to take a self-timer to show the large scale of pumps. My camera then had a ten second timer. The tripod was balanced precariously on a wonky step. I started the timer, rushed across the f*cked floor (which includes at least one visible syringe on my shots), looked at where I was supposed to be going and so took my eye off the floor, before promptly standing on a very large nail! It literally went "womph" through my trainers and my foot. I pulled my foot off, and turned round in time for the shot but wasn't really smiling or keeping very still hence the motion blur! The inset zoom shows the bastard of a nail just in front of my left foot, though it was my right foot I impaled!
Went down hill from there ... I only took a few more shots before heading out, and so never got to do the frankly death trap floors above. Anti-bac'd my foot. Then I just got on with the day. Even explored another site (Sandhill Park for the locals). Was killing by my keynote in the evening. Drove home late night very carefully. Next day I got my tetanus re-boosted, and some antibiotics but it was too late and they weren't strong enough. Couple of days later ended up in A&E as the infection spread up my leg and it took multiple courses of various antibiotics to sort out.
And yes I know that it's not big and clever to explore in trainers but I always had up to then. Ever since I've
always explored in steel mid-soled safety trainers

.
Thus why today, on the 3rd anniversary of my worst exploring injury (which indeed suggests I've had others

), your pictures bring both a smile but also a wince to my face [cmilie=iconcheers.gif].