Stockwood Discovery Gardens – Windy Yet Quiet

There always seemed the threat of rain from the clouds, ever on the move, yet sharing the time with bright sunshine. The light when bright tantalisingly transient making the taking of photos a challenge, yet the gusty winds driving the swaying Pampas grass, offering curving shapes to their height. Overhead, to a background of scudding clouds, the aircraft ferrying passengers to foreign lands, whilst the children sit in schoolrooms with dreams of their summer holidays past and their renewed focus now on lessons fresh.

I had set off for the gardens for a postponed visit to meet up with friend Jan a recent gardener for Stockwood. Upon arrival in the Car Park, I had not spotted a nearby car with someone aboard till, after opening my door and gathering my camera bag, a familiar voice called out; Jan must have arrived mere moments before me. Her car door was open, and she  glanced up from looking at her phone to greet me. On hearing her voice, I remembered I had brought three booklets relating to the camera she had earlier had from me, and brought them over for her, since I knew that had I not given her then, I was almost certain to be later leaving with them still in the back of my car!

We both chatted whilst collecting our camera bags and walking into the Discovery Centre. Upon arrival, Jan was greeted from all the gathered staff at the Reception Desk, all welcoming her and obviously pleased to see her and chat, before we both moved off and into the gardens, where there were several other staff all happy to see her and catch up. It was very obvious here was a very popular lady, so I soon had my camera out to see what I could record. I stayed nearby not wishing to interrupt, and looked around at the very definite signs of the passing season until Jan was free to lead me to where we might find interesting subjects on which to focus, and every so often making observations thus adding snippets of useful information that I hoped I might later recall.

Jan led the way pointing out items of interest, but we did not shoot either specific leaves or flowers, or even from the same viewpoints, but I did offer suggestions and reset some of her camera controls and explained why. I did on occasion suggest alternative viewpoints to help in separation of subject from background, and different orientations, such as vertical, to emphasise the length of a stem; I was only offering guidance not rigid rules. In return, I was trying to glean names and other facts, such as why the plum trees suffered a particular infection due to the adjacent Pines.

At one stage in our meanderings, I completely lost Jan, and went around the entire gardens searching, before returning to where we had last been when my phone rang, and I learned Jan was wondering where I was! She described her location where we met back up and after a short while of further shooting we headed for the cafeteria. There were far more people in here than outside. We sat and chatted, and Jan showed me some shots of hers on a tablet. When you consider how sparse are fresh new blooms, it is still amazing just how much there is still to see and capture. 

It was nearing the time to leave, and after a short last trip around and a farewell chat at Reception, but just as we headed for our cars, sadly I started seeing a blindspot in my field of vision, and recognised the onset of a Migraine. I asked could I have a glass of water and took a couple of Paracetamols and headed for the car where with closed eyes I sat till the episode was over and the pills had taken effect. I did however thank Jan for the afternoon and bade her farewell. Ten minutes went by as I sat in my locked car with eyes still closed before I opened to check whether full vision was restored – it was, so I got out, locked the car and returned to Reception in case I had not thanked them for the glass of water and having apologised finally headed out and before leaving, phoned a lady who had once worked with me on a part-time basis to see whether I might visit. I chatted with Shirley and her young grandchild, Tom before finally heading home.

May 4th Gardens Visit – Stockwood Park

I had the chance to go down to the Stockwood Discovery Centre, despite the forecast showing only a slight chance of sun; what I did know was that a lot of growth would have occurred since my last visit, and I was unsure when the next opportunity might arise.

I made good time, though on arrival the gardener I was hoping to catch up with was nowhere to be seen, so I simply set to taking photographs initially with the 24-70mm lens with its macro facility, but after a while I realised that I could do with the 100mm, so I swapped over and carried on till the end wit that lens, using the 5D MkIII body.

I had taken quite a few shots when I heard Jan talking to someone else, and it was Bridey whom I had not seen for a while, I showed both some prints I had of the Grebe and its crayfish meal and the recent Kingfisher and its meal, then some of the shots I had just been taking, Jan kindly offered to unlock the greenhouse for me, and I went back to shooting, it was fully half an hour before I went inside the greenhouse, then started making my way out, Was able to thank Jan and it was not long before I felt it was time to make tracks, but no sooner than I had made that decision than a bush resplendent in white flowers caught my attention due to the amount of interest shown by bees.

I therefore spent some time trying to get up close and personal with these busy pollinators, and on shot which could be the parting shot was a bee who climbed away from a flower and came straight into my focus – shame he was flying away not towards me, but I am not complaining! I took a couple more shots on the way out and made tracks to Caddington hoping to pick up a snack to eat on the way back.

First 2017 Visit to Stockwood Gardens

Having recently acquired a new lens, the 24-70mm with Macro, I needed to give it a good test, and photographing flowers in the Gardens and Greenhouse at the Stockwood Discovery Centre was the ideal opportunity to see how effective this one lens would be in a real situation. Unfortunately the current spell of English weather was less than ideal – for most of the time it was drizzling gently with spells of slightly more continuos rain. There was also a sporadic wind which meant composing a shot was often fraught.

Also, sadly for several weeks one of the leading gardeners, Jan was off having damaged her hip whilst moving a large compost sack, and this was to be her first day back, and it was my last chance this week to get down to the gardens. Naturally at this time of year there is not exactly a profusion of pristine leaves and flowers, but I have never been completely bereft of subjects on even the briefest of visits, so I did do a good deal of walking.

I came across Jan whilst she was being brought up to speed with what were to be her priorities going forward, and I just said a brief ‘hello’ and asked whether it might be possible to take a look in the greenhouse, and she replied that would be later, and her briefing continued as I turned once more onto my tour, I did take a detour into the Fernery for a spell when the rain got heavier, which allowed me to dry my camera and take shelter for a spell.

Altogether using the lens proved very successful and despite the low light levels and my need sometimes to up the ISO to 3200˚, the 5D MkIII was able to handle that with comparative ease with just a minimum of noise. Later Jan’s briefing tour was over and we walked the length of the greenhouse as she took in what was needed and pointed out a few flowers she thought might be of interest, by which time she was off till the following day leaving me to lock up when I had finished.

Stockwood Discovery's Last Hurrah 2014?

Needing a break from the pressures of the family helping to upgrade our house to improve its chances of selling, and seeing blue skies and sunshine beckoning me outside, I fell to the temptation of grabbing my camera and heading to the Stockwood Discovery Centre Gardens in Luton. I had not visited for some while and I did want to catch up with the gardeners there.

I did not completely neglect my responsibilities towards the improvements; I did take a brush and ‘brick acid’ to limescale in the shower tray and the loo bowl, so that it could be working its magic whilst I was out! Arriving in the car park, it was not as crowded as it might have been, presumably because there was a decided nip in the breeze when I got out, so I donned a jacket. I headed straight through reception and across the gardens, heading towards the far end of the long greenhouse along the wall, and caught sight of Jan and Bridey the gardeners, who were coming out having presumably completed the first watering of the day and some general pruning.

I enquired whether there were any items of interest either in the greenhouse or the gardens in general and learned there were some special plants in flower in one area beyond the Victorian greenhouses, but apparently little of especial interest, but both did say I would likely still find something because I would be looking more closely.

They were right. I took off the jacket the moment I entered the greenhouse for I could probably been still warm were I only clad in swimming trunks! My biggest problem was going to be my glasses steaming up, making the taking of photos less than totally straightforward. I had barely taken two steps from the entrance before finding some tiny flowers that to all intents were miniature roses to look at, though no roses I knew naturally formed a circular clusters of flowers. I was able to work my way through the greenhouse, turning from side to side to capture examples of either leaves, flowers or cacti at almost every step.

A while later as the gardeners lunch break came Bridey came back to eat hers by the work she would be returning to once her break was over. Later Jan returned too and enquired whether I had spotted a particular plant, but no even though I had been on the lookout, I still had missed some she thought would have attracted my interest, I made good my mistakes and then headed for the trellis-enclosed space that had been mentioned earlier and along the way found other plants of interest; in particular one set of leaves that had every autumnal hue from pale greens through yellows to red and golds and some stark white berries on leafless branches, I also spotted to new water feature that had replaced the tiled fountain.

Bumped once more into the two gardeners before leaving, wishing them all the best for Christmas should I not pay another visit in between and headed for Reception to see whether I could speak to Ian Haswell, Jan’s boss to whom she had mentioned my blog that often covered exhibits within the Discovery Centre. Sadly he was not in his office, so that contact will have to wait for another occasion.

Very Speedy Visit to Discovery Centre

I thought that since it was Wednesday and the weather was clement, I would take a quick visit to the gardens in the Stockwood Discovery Centre. As I set off I had no idea just how brief it was likely to be.

I had come to the junction and was about to turn right on to the main road when my mobile phone rang; I hastily pulled into the bus stop lay-by and answered – it was BBC Three Counties Radio.

Sarah Jenkins was at the other end of the line and asked whether I might be able to contribute to a phone-in this very afternoon, on the subject of the morality involved in retouching women in advertisements that would be promoting the idea that all young girls should be size zero stick insects, if they ever hoped to look beautiful and attractive, and she even said someone had commented that retouching should become a criminal offence!

She asked a little bit about me and asked whether I had actually done any retouching of that nature, to which I replied that I had retouched photos of numerous actresses and personalities for other photographers and publishers, but not to specifically alter their bodies to conform to skinny and tall, as opposed to natural. I briefly mentioned a few subjects to establish that I could genuinely respond from my experience and said I would be happy to be contacted by the Roberto Perrone Show at 3pm.

I now had even less time to reach the gardens, take some photos and return to get a gallery of them up on the blog! An irony was that as I had set off initially, the wind was chilly so I dived back in to pick up and put on a sweater. Arriving at the centre, the wind had died and the sun was gaining strength and as I went around, I became quite hot and sticky, but I did mention to two gardeners: Jan and Bridey whom I meet there that I was taking part in the phone in, and let on what the subject was – I am not totally without vanity!

I rushed around hurriedly and as I was leaving one of the two, Bridey was sitting in the shade of an arbour unbeknown to me and I heard a familiar voice say: "I think someone maybe in a bit of a hurry!" I turned around, chuckled and grabbed two more shots before I reached the exit.

Although some shots had variants, I used all but one image and the number precisely completed the grid, so no waste, I felt reasonably pleased with the result and had started on the processing as the phone call came through at three o'clock.

Discovered a Late Autumn Surprise at Stockwood

I rarely travel anywhere without a camera or even cameras! Such was the case when I returned from a meeting at the University of Bedfordshire, where I had been demonstrating the opportunities offered by Camranger. I decided to pay a visit to the Stockwood Discovery Centre to say thank you to Jan one of their Gardeners, for providing the earlier opportunity to photograph the Aston Martin Virage.

Rather than leave my camera bag in the car, I took it with me and found three gardeners working in the main greenhouse, amongst them Jan, so I was none to surprised to learn from Bridie that there was not much left to photograph. However, it was Jan who proved me wrong, by pointing out some berries which I had failed to spot, and having taken out the camera and the Tamron 90mm macro, I found there was yet more to be found if I troubled to look, so both Bridie and I were wrong!

After a brief chat with all three, Sam the trainee being the last of that number, I took my camera around and found enough material for some sixty shots that came into view illuminated by the low-angled sun, and the surprisingly bright, and clear blue sky. The contrasting hues on individual autumn leaves and the sharp edges of variegated holly leaves was simply hard to resist. The earlier rains had flattened the grass so individual golden leaves provided an interesting colour counterpoint as did the shades of brown with their strong veins against the blue of the sky, and the backlighting of green leaves against the deep shadows of beds beyond.

Jan had also pointed out the early catkins, which by being fooled by the recent mildness were likely to become victim to the frosts that would come long before the Spring that they would normally herald. This deviation to give thanks was rewarded handsomely by what I managed to capture in the short time I had spent.

Stockwood Discovery – Autumn

The gardens are being prepared for the next season, but this afternoon did not seem like autumn, it was like a warm summer’s day, and I felt hot rather than cool, in part due to the relatively high humidity, but also due to carrying a fairly weighty camera bag then running back and forth while trying to check out further use of the CamRanger. I am still facing re-registration issues, but I am now directly in contact with the ever-helpful developer, Dave Pawlowski, as he has invited me to beta test the product, and somehow I will endeavour to help him cure this irritating recurrence, he also says he is working hard to help me overcome a related missing component related to WiFi. This is already a very polished combination of a hardware device and app that allows both the capture of images remotely from the iPad, or in the Client mode allows the iPad to show the shots on its screen as they are taken remotely.

It was in this mode I was trying to gain further experience by allowing others to see what I was shooting as I went around with just the camera and CamRanger, moments after I had taken them. I want to be able to use both the Remote Control facility where the camera is on a tripod and aimed at either a landscape or wildlife, or close-up on some insect, so I do not represent a distraction, or I am simply trying not to cause camera shake yet able to focus accurately and appropriately for a landscape. In other situations similar to a recent networking event, where it was handy to leave the iPad in view as I took photos of the attendees, I use the Client mode. I was asked at that event whether it were possible to send the images to the large screen they were using, to which I responded: “Not presently; but that I was hopeful”. A further use is to facilitate post processing by reviewing the small Jpegs on the iPad alongside the Mac and doing the culling that much quicker.

Going around the gardens at first there seemed little on display to create a worthy gallery of images, but on closer inspection, both literally and metaphorically I was pleasantly surprised. There were no less than three specimens of the striped red, gold and green beetle resembling a bejewelled ladybird on the last of the lavender being cut back by Jan and her apprentice gardener, Sam. Seemingly it was not an insect they had come across before whereas I had seen some before, though I cannot recall precisely where. It turns out it is chrysolina americana. It seemed a shame to be evicting some of the established insects and losing the wonderful aroma that pervaded the air where they were working. I did later spot a lone clump in isolation.

I also spied a lone and careworn butterfly, some funghi, some still lush ferns, some sunflowers and bright red, and bright white berries of differing species in the gardens, before insanely visiting the greenhouse sauna to see grapes and the voluptuous leaf shapes and cacti. When I came out I was as if I had been caught in a monsoon – I was sodden!

Stockwood Discovery – June 6th Visit

Thursday comes with its forecast cloud cover, and promise of warmth, so I get email read make phone calls, some which actually connect. I also have numerous books collected which will help add to the stock available at the Allotments Library, and I load this into Helen Turner's car as she will be opening the Library shortly. It is a new venture opening every other Thursday for a couple of hours since the Mobile Library has been withdrawn.

Once the desk is clear, I opt for visiting Stockwood Discovery Centre to see how the gardens are coming on. By now the sun is out and the sky is edge to edge blue with a slight but pleasant breeze, and this has brought all the mothers and their toddlers, and seemingly some of the local primary schools with their charges, or should that be chargers? The sounds of happy children is occasionally interrupted by the new season's aircraft movements seemingly overhead every five or so minutes.

I soon meet an apprentice who works with Jan the Gardener and check she is in today and learn she is working in the Sauna, for that is the best way to describe that particular greenhouse, but I am happy to leave that visit till later! I note that one of the other greenhouses has been completely surrounded by a fence and black polythene sheeting as it is going to be restored to hopefully its former glory. The task is going to be mammoth as all the glass is now out and the extent of the damage to the woodwork is all too evident. The work is going to be ongoing for several months.

It was as I was on my knees obtaining some close-ups that Jan came on the scene and after a quick chat with me she asked the workmen whether I might be allowed to take some photos of the work, knowing I would relish the opportunity. They acquiesced and led me inside the enclosure and I took a few shots in the hope that later I might continue to cover the progress of the work. In that short space of time I learned that they had found that the original design incorporated a series of holes to take condensation from the inside glass panes out the gutter outside to avoid the wood suffering from the retention of that water. I therefore took two shots of these details for the future.

After a period outdoors, I entered the greenhouse sauna as Sam and Jan took their lunch break (seeing the juxtaposition of those two names reminded me of an old song: "Sam and Janet Evening" but perhaps I should keep such trivia to myself!

Although I did manage to capture a bee or two at work, I was disappointed at the scarcity overall. It was a reasonably worthwhile visit and it was good to hear that Jan is now seeing more brightly after her ops on both eyes.

Sam, Jan, Stockwood Discovery Centre, Gardens, flowers, leaves, greenhouse restoration, Luton, Bedfordshire

Afternoon Interlude at Stockwood

Desk clear, sun intermittently shining; Computer screen or Camera viewfinder? – Camera and Macro lens wins! A short drive to Stockwood Discovery Centre, a wander around the gardens, looking for subjects and one of the gardeners who I had heard was back after a spell in hospital. Nowhere to be found, so started taking photos, and then Jan turns up, I was then invited like royalty into the greenhouse. Bear in mind it was none too warm outside despite the sun as the wind was chilly and I had donned a pullover. Foolishly I did not immediately strip this off so I soon realised this was a bad mistake as saunas can be less hot and humid than how it was in here!

Jan introduced me to her apprentice, a tall lad called Sam, who was obviously keenly learning with a good mentor, I took a few shots as we chatted, and she suggested Sam look at what I had shot, and he seemed happy with my efforts. Jan also showed me some shots of her own of a simply magnificent frog they had seen in the greenhouse. I do hope that his recent non-appearance is not down to being overcome by heat as I have never seen such a varied number of colours on a frog, it was truly fantastic, and Jan had some very good shots of it. I hope I get a chance at photographing it.

Boxing Day at the Holmes

I travelled to Burnham to my sister-in-law Glory and Richard’s house to celebrate Boxing Day with Virginia, back briefly from Mumbai, Alex once again on dry land, my mother-in-law up from Dover, together with assorted friends: Grace, Alex’s current girlfriend from Korea, Rechna from India, briefly Anders from all over the world, Ursula from nearby and Jan and Norman from London.

A more eclectic group is hard to imagine. It was a time of much catching up, reminiscing and jollity with some splendid food and wine. Sadly Renee, my mother-in-law was in pain and confined to a wheelchair and it has been a tiring time with all the necessary preparation for the holiday period, and Catherine chose to lessen the burden by not coming over at this time, so my time with her was to be the following day.

I hope I will get to see Virginia before she heads back to India, but I think it unlikely, but perhaps I might at least see Alex.