Stewartby – A Warm Autumn Walk

Monday, afternoon, and I find I have cleared my desk, and since it was very warm considering we were now in November and Autumn was coming to a close; it is often a time of cold winds and rain. I decided it was too good a an opportunity to miss as the light would definitely soon be departing as the clocks have now gone back bringing evenings ever closer.
I drove a short distance to Stewartby Lake and decided on a walk around the lake anticlockwise toting the 5D MkIII and the 24-70mm with its Macro facility. There was a milky sun which occasionally was almost completely occluded by clouds, and always when I really wanted the direct sunlight to break through! There was no human activity on the surface of the lake, so if I were to find subjects it was going to either be leaves or possibly some avian subjects, so I wandered along the path occasionally diverting down smaller paths that led to the foreshore to see what I could find.
Some of these were tunnel-like with the sun if out, reflected on the water amidst dark foliage, The ducks on the water soon paddled out of sight due to the narrowing view I had and their sense I might offer danger. I found that the ivy clinging to the branches of trees seemed very fresh presumably at the expense of the host trees whose branches they clung to and climbed.
In one of the clearings on the opposite side to the lake I found an abundance of apples, and there seemed to be way too many to be simply windfalls, but I could be mistaken. When photographing the foreshore it is always obvious who the previous owners of the land were, because of the abundance of bricks with names such as London Brick, or Phorpres stamped in their frogs. These lakes such as nearby Brogborough owe their origin to the London Brick Company's excavation of the local clay. They have now become lakes and been acquired for more leisurely activities such as powerboating, sailing, windsurfing, and fishing and the enclosing land has cycleways, paths, grasslands and picnicking areas, and is home to birds, butterflies, and insects in wide varieties.
In my walk of a mere sixth of the way around the lake I met some really interesting people with whom I chatted, one who had two wonderful dogs he was walking, a man who worked nearby at a local engineering business, who showed me a super quality picture he had taken of a dragonfly that landed close by to him, and a charming young lady who who had just settled down to rest on one of the many seats provided, with lake views that take the stresses out of workaday life. This lake and its paths are wonderfully peaceful and friendly places, which every so often can be somewhat less peaceful when this quiet gives over to the exciting sights and sounds of powerboats.
I am guilty to photographing both the peace and the roar of life in this park, the Forest of Marston Vale; it caters well to a lot of Community activity and it has a large Wind Turbine that even powers the Visitor Centre and its power surplus is fed back to the National Grid.