Luton Hoo Walled Garden Visit

It has been some time since I visited Luton Hoo, to the Walled Garden Project, and after clearing the desks I set off via Slip End. As I was approaching Pepperstock very low overhead swept a Red Kite – what a wonderful sight, sadly it was not until I got to the Motorway bridge above the M1 could I park up and grab the longest lens I had with me!

Well, you can imagine the rest, but in case you think luck was on my side, let me say, it glid around me as I got out my 90-200mm, and then soared ever higher and more distant as I got my camera out and and focussed upon him. I waited for a while in the forlorn hope it would return, but after five minutes spent watching a diminishing speck, I gave in and drove the rest of the journey to Luton Hoo. But when s/he was close, what a magnificent bird and to see his/her full wingspan and forked tail…!

The Potting Sheds are undergoing refurbishment to the roof in part, due to earlier high wind damage that rendered it unsafe, so I made my way in via the greenhouses and into the garden, aiming for the Mushroom house to see how the handcart was faring, but as I walked along the bed beside the long greenhouse I spotted several young Allium that was an airport for hoverflies. Out came my 100mm Macro with 1.4 converter to see what chance I had of capturing these phenomenal pilots in flight. I was there, rooted to one spot for probably ten minutes trying to capture contrasting coloured backgrounds to these hovering insects and as close as I could to reveal their fascinating detail.

After that I spoke to the two men who were doing the conservation and restoration of the handcart from old oak to replace the woodworm-eaten sections, trying to capture their handiwork.

I then returned to the garden to capture some of the blooms in the central growing area. I got chatting to some of the volunteers from I learn that the week before they had a visit by a humming-bird hawkmoth, a specimen I had spotted the year before, but never managed to photograph, but with very little sunshine, it was nowhere to be found this afternoon; I did mange a cricket. There was a lot of colour today, and even here in the main growing area, an abundance of hoverflies, so they feature strongly within this gallery.