Stockwood Discovery Centre – Largely Deserted

I needed to get my eyes tested again as the cataract in the right eye had progressed further, and due to heavy traffic caused by roadworks, I was running late and turned back out of town once clear, to search for an unrestricted road to park then hasten to the opticians. Fortunately my chosen slot was not illegal! But at this stage I was just hoping.

Due to my fairly specific needs for spectacles this took a while longer than originally planned, so since I had my camera and 90mm Macro with me I decided to pay a visit to the gardens at Stockwood  before returning to Marston Moretaine and see how the season was progressing there.

There were very few visitors, presumably due to the overcast sky and threat of rain from the dark grey clouds overhead, so at least parking here was no problem! Once within the gardens I soon founds subjects that lent themselves to being photographed and I soon spotted Jan Tyson and her laden barrow and somehow she had gained a willing volunteer to help in weeding and passing the time chatting, who spotting the camera, struck a pose and invited me to take a shot of them – I hastily acquiesced and fortunately she was happy with the result, so it joins the leaves and flowers that I later captured.

It was soon to be the end of the day for Jan, but she spotted me again and suggested there was a splendid foxglove round the corner from where I was, so I headed for it. My only disappointment was that when I really need the sun to get a shot of a line of lavender, it went behind a cloud never to return, in fact Rain stopped play a short while later.