An Afternoon with Evening

It is sometime since Martin Evening, whose books I tech edit, and I have met up; the last being when he kindly offered me a ticket to join him at this year’s Festival of Speed at Goodwood – sadly on that occasion he had been unwell and so I ended up going down alone and feeling guilty as if my being there was under false pretences. He came to visit for two reasons: I was lending him a US Army Sargent’s uniform for the Goodwood Revival Meeting and giving him the first glimpse of my new home in Marston Moretaine.

After a brief tour we both then gathered some camera gear and I took him on a tour of the local environs by first heading for the Brogborough Lake, but any intention that I might show him where the windsurfers hang out was dashed by the gates being closed as we passed by and by a severe lack of wind and any potential windsurfers!

I parked up just beyond the entrance and we took a stroll along the water’s edge beyond, chatting and taking the occasional photo of dragonflies, and in Martin’s case the receding pylons walking across the landscape and disappearing in the distance. The wind then did pick up a bit and this blew away at least some of the cloud cover. Our time there was brief and we soon turned back and I then drove towards Lidlington then left in the direction of Marston so that we would be approaching the Nature Reserve before reaching Marston Moretaine, we drove in and parked up so Martin could take some shots of the rusting brick-making machinery that stands by the entrance to the Visitor Centre and Restaurant; I had left my camera in the boot, but decided on reflection that I would take it out so returned to collect it.

We then headed for the walkway through the reed beds and on up to one of the hillocks where Martin watched a small sailing dingy in the distance and I took a single shot of the view across to the chimneys of Stewartby from the peak. Martin had a menagerie of his neighbour’s animals to feed before supper, so we then headed back to the car and my place where we had a brief closing chat before he journeyed back to Berkhamsted. It was good to know that the uniform fitted perfectly and that we had managed to catch up, and I do so hope he does not have a too exhausting and stressful time before the next Goodwood trip, so that we can do that together.