An angler had mentioned that kingfishers were in abundance along the canal around Hunton Bridge, and I thought he mentioned Mary Capel’s Wharf, but maybe that was a failing of my memory, as search as I might online, I found nothing beyond who she was and her connection to Cassiobury Park and her marriage to the owner, the Earl of Essex. However on my return from a long walk in both directions from Hunton Bridge, I used the phrase Lady Capel’s Wharf, and realised I had all but arrived there when I came to the White Bridge, which gave onto the Grove.
The gallery of images depicting my journey along the towpath, initially cover the distance towards Hemel Hempstead, before returning to Hunton Bridge and setting off in the opposite direction towards Watford. Rhodadendrons were just coming into bloom on the far side from where I joined the path. much of the journey was within the tunnel of overhanging trees, but in the sunlight beyond I first spotted a comma butterfly i the hedgerow, then just beyond I spotted a snake swimming leisurely from the far side, asking those I met what species it was, proved to be fruitless and despite an angler’s insistence it was an adder, it turned out to be a grass snake!
At a fork in the canal, a family of swans had settled with its cygnets, and then beyond the towpath alongside a lake was an amiable dinosaur, followed by a crane and a heron, the crane being of the species ‘mechanica’, and one I recognised from my time photographing progress work at the Foresters Development in Harpenden over the last eighteen months.
A robin was gorging itself on a worm; though spotting wings, maybe this mouthful was not for itself but possibly for its offspring. A recent set of apartments along the far bank looked extremely appealing in the pleasant sunshine, and the repetitive shapes of the flyover supports I found fascinating as I passed beneath. The locks, the curves of the canal’s travel and the bridges also have charm as do the manicured lawns of some of the private dwellings along the route, but it does disappoint me to see so much discarded rubbish alongside such amenities and I felt this was epitomised by the plastic throne in the undergrowth by the ashes of a small fire and crushed lager cans. How is it difficult to bring back lightweight empty cans when it was so easy to carry weighty full ones?
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