Riverside Garden Life

            Light, Life, Textures and Colour are the features that entice me to use a camera to record; and on this particular warm afternoon a short distance from the River Great Ouse becomes the record of what I found and as I filled a quiet afternoon. The insects at one stage completely covered the flowers as they sought out the bounteous gifts on offer, and played out their reproductive cycle amongst the colours and scents of their environment. Light captured the silky threads that bridged the seed heads as if to form a high wire for insects to perform gymnastic feats for the audience of roses beyond. The supporting plant pillars seemingly offered by outstretched fingers from seed heads. It almost seemed as if the plants were offering their generous support to the web-spinning insects by holding index fingers as pylons — is this fanciful to consider there are links formed over aeons between animals and plants?

             Certainly, there are the very obvious examples of pollination aided by the the enticing provision of nectar. Nearby a small butterfly was undoubtedly providing a service for flowering plants, and ultimately ourselves in the provision of nutritious honey from those natural activities of bees and flowers. I could also see amongst some tall stems the structures at a greater scale; the heads of tropical palm trees.

            A repeating theme of the pictures I take is often the capture of textures and, some leaves caught my eye by the sunlight finding and highlighting the surface of a single lush, heart-shaped leaf amongst the flowing curves of grassy leaves. In the shade of overhanging leaves, a finger of still water by the river’s edge was caught in a pool of sunlight with lace-like golden threads of roots, backed by the reflection of blue sky and silhouette of the shading tree. I did not have a polarising filter to hand which might have better captured what lay beneath the reflecting surface water.

            All the pictures in this small gallery were taken several days back, but I have not had the opportunity to process them, due to a mix of pleasurable time spent with my elder daughter, and frustrating, unproductive time that hopefully is now behind me.

Earlier Images at Goodwood Festival

            Although the images in this gallery were taken before any of the last entry on my blog, they were not processed because I was too hasty in selecting the card that was still in the camera! There is now a further apology for me to make — I have run out of time if I am to get these images out with any sense of timeliness! To get them out at all, I could waste no more time in cutting even more from the overall total.

            Please therefore accept my apology, however in my defence to a small degree, I did make an effort to do justice to some of the participants where a sequence conveyed the level of skills of some of the participants taking to the air on bikes — PEDAL bikes! I have to say that I spent more time shooting these particular participants, because it was a chance for me to attempt to master the skills of keeping them in frame. I find that using a mirrorless camera less easy to track moving action than a reflex camera. So, my interest was two-fold — admiring and recording their skills whilst honing my own.

            My day at Goodwood was spent very enjoyably, both from having the full day with my elder daughter, and in being outside in glorious grounds with no shortage of different and interesting activities. I did not shirk the opportunity to climb to the top of the hill to visit the Forest section, but my timing was poor in that regard, as there was a lull at the time we spent there. It was interesting to glimpse the future direction being taken to attempt to mitigate our damage to our environment.

            In my earlier entry regarding this day, I mentioned that all the pictures were taken using just the one very versatile lens from Sigma, I still feel it worth a mention in relation to the images in this gallery, as I was really pleased with using the EOS R6 on my lightweight monopod with this impressive Sigma lens — the 60-600mm, and impressed I could heft it with comparative ease for the entire time! The versatility of this lens is impressive, so all credit to Sigma, especially since I have also found it’s performance with either the 1.5x Converter, or the 2x when the light is favourable, put this lens in a league of its own.

Festival of Speed, Goodwood

            Catherine, my elder daughter got up at the crack of dawn to be with me to drive down to Sussex, and enjoy a long day in the grounds of Lord March’s Goodwood House. The weather did not look too promising, as we drove south, but although at one part of the journey a few spots of rain fell on the windscreen, surprisingly it held off for the entire day!
            By the time of our arrival, the car parks were already well-filled, suggesting either those visitors came from nearby, or they were even more diligent than us, and had little sleep! Already, as we prepared ourselves, the air was alive with happy and animated chatter all around us and a long queue of happy and animated chatter filled the air from every direction. We selected what we felt we needed for the trek to the track, ensured our tickets were all ready to hand and set off. Catherine took a good look around, and made a note on her phone’s map as to where I had parked the car, and we both walked in the general direction of all the earlier groups.

            Neither of us took much note of the time, we chatted, occasionally taking note of the vehicles we were passing, we eventually lined up to be checked, presented our tickets and eventually, we were taking the steps up and over the bridge into the area with a few vehicles to glance at, then we spent some time taking in some of the ideas on show giving indications as to what the future held for us and more importantly what my daughter’s family and my grandchildren faced as we glimpse several facets of life in the coming decades.

            We both spent time trying to assess what the future held in store, and I felt that the present situation with regard to Covid ensured that visitors were very likely to be more receptive to the message than many have been a mere year ago; I certainly hope so — for all our sakes.
            I felt that the tone of the message was more informative than threatening, which I felt was a balanced message; warning rather than frightening, however, I am yet to be convinced from personal observation, that our population is fully on board with how vigilant and careful these next few months need to be? From past visits to this early show centred on vehicles, what was on display was very much a mix of the Past, Present, and a glimpse of a possible Future — in the case of the latter, it was very much a mix of both Optimism and Caution, and those in attendance there was an air of happy optimism, which I felt was indicated by the weather; it was warm, fresh, but cloudy, the atmosphere was one of relaxation and enjoyment, without excessive excitement; very British!
            For this meeting, I have always made the effort to head for the Forest section at the top of the hill, but anno domini had certainly had a sapping of my energy for the uphill exercise, and I was very aware that at times I was falling back in relation to the progress my daughter was making, but from excessive care not to draw attention to my stamina, she would pause awhile every so often to look around before heading forward once again. For my part, I was definitely not going to pause too often as this would have made the upward trajectory far harder. I certainly did not take it to masochistic levels, just measured effort. Also, I valued the effort to keep the cobwebs away! We spent some time within the wooded section watching a few of the rally cars, but possibly our timing was awry as we saw very few competitors, hence nothing to show.
            During the periods inside, much time was spent looking and reading rather than taking an abundance of images, however, what intrigued me was how using this mirrorless body with the Sigma zoom attached to my monopod was how well this combination worked without undue exertion on my part.

Yet Another Garden Visit

            Good Day to whoever is visiting at present, I apologise for the hiatus in publishing anything to the blog; it is that I have been down to Goodwood for a splendid day with my elder daughter, courtesy of Lord March for whom, many moons ago, had sought help from his retouchers, The Colour Company, with whom I shared space in Clerkenwell and doubled as their salesman, and provider of their Delivery and Collection service!
            Charles March had asked the partners, Tony and John, for Photoshop and Mac Help, to which they owned that that would be the ‘Blind leading the Blind’, and suggested he contact me, whom he had often noted being in and out of their premises on his visits. The rest is as they say: History! — as Charles kindly asked whether I would mind coming down to Goodwood House to stay the night, and be ready after Breakfast to then sit down and lead him through the intricacies of the program. The response was prompt and positive on my part, and not only did I leave with a cheque that evening, upon learning of my keen interest in Motor Racing, (as at that time I was the Deputy Chief Pit Marshal for BRSCC at Brands Hatch) — I have been the recipient of invitations each year, since then!
            However, the reason this gallery is so late in arriving on my blog is that Life supervened, in that it’s preparation gave way for my visit to Goodwood, for which the gallery has yet to be even started! I shall begin in a couple of days, in the meantime, please enjoy the colour and life that abounds when looking close up within a garden.

Another Garden, Marston Moretaine

               Marston Moretaine is a village that has been expanding with ever more houses being built on land that was scarred with the need for clay for bricks, and this once excavated and exhausted, in turn provided lakes that provided opportunities for recreation, such as sailing and fishing. More recently, it gained nationwide news coverage from local hero Captain Tom Moore, who walked his garden to raise millions for the National Health Service. The Wartime slogan: “Keep Calm and Carry On” has become the resilient answer to the current epidemic situation brought about by the Corona Virus, and has meant much time spent in gardens, and I have taken the opportunity to walk around capturing the efforts of several house owners lavishing much effort on their gardens, which in turn raise the spirits of those who pass by whilst walking either to the shops and Post Office in one direction or the Forest Centre and allotments in the other.

               Currently, the pipe-laying at the junction at the top of the road, which has inflicted long waits for drivers, whilst willing for traffic lights to allow their flow to resume, has meant many more eyes have had the opportunity to gaze on the blooms that brighten the front gardens of many of the houses. On two recent occasions as I took just such an opportunity to bring my camera to bear upon the front gardens from the path, the owners have generously allowed me closer access by inviting me to cross their relative frontiers.

               This gallery is a record of the most recent acceptance of such an invitation, and I hope that my pictures allow others to share in my enjoyment of the photographs I was fortunate enough to take.

Beautiful Nearby Garden

               The countryside of Bedfordshire has been giving way to ever more homes in areas that were dug for its clay, with much of that excavated land giving way to lakes. Marston Moretaine, in the short time that I have lived here has had numerous housing estates spring up. The lakes formed by removing that clay have become popular for water sports; for craft such as sailing dinghies, powerboats and windsurfers, and other leisure areas devoted to fishing, walking, or birdwatching.

               Many of these activities provide subjects for my photography. From time to time I simply take a walk to capture flowers, shrubs, and insects in the gardens that front the roads of the village, and yesterday whilst capturing flowers in these gardens, I was offered the chance to cross the boundary from the pavement to take photographs within both the front garden and the enclosed garden behind the house.
               It was a treat indeed, for the owner has obviously spent many hours bringing an abundance of beautiful plants, and flowers that provide colour and varied textures to her garden, and the bees were making the most of the bonanza! It was a privilege to be offered the chance to photograph the results of her hard work. I hope the two pages of pictures I was able to capture will give her some of the pleasure it gave me in their taking, and subsequently those who visit this blog. I also hope that my photographs do justice to the hard work that has gone into creating the result I was witnessing; I feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to capture the beauty her efforts have achieved. I feel sure that those who visit my blog will share the joy I had in recording the pictures I captured.