Forest Centre Walk from Top End

 

Another Walk; Another Day. However, the destination is simply to visit the top end of the woods that bound the Millennium Park, and to do that I drive further north along the A421, and at the turning towards the station and College, I take the first turning on the right, and park up just before the turnstile to the north end of the park. Since the weather is settled, I remove the camera cover, and simply pocket the two closeup lenses, lock the car and head for the entrance.

Decisions, decisions: which way to go? — Left, or Right? The latter. Sadly, I walked a fair distance, looking right and left, up the bank, and down towards the brook that babbles gently from the recent rains an finally I find reason to switch the camera on, and remove the tethered lens cap, and take my opening shots of the vibrant green coat the tree is sporting, attracted by the curved e-shaped tree trunk that sports an interesting fungus, with a horizontal, similarly coated horizontal bough that forms the Euro symbol. Having never spotted this rich dark maroon and black fungus before, I move closer for a more detailed image before continuing to find similarly moss-clad branches.

One of the most attractive features of Autumn in the woods is that despite the general perception that this season is dominated by browns, albeit with numerous shades, the reality is that the palette is far more diverse, and never more so than when the sun is out. The next leaves I spotted and captured, makes this vividly apparent — in one image, the hero leaves are rich in both green and red, yet beyond are golden yellows, and intensely blue-biased greens. The Autumn spectrum of colours is far from monochromatic shades of brown, and as if to add further emphasis to the colour palette of Autumn, I find a lone, young white flower alongside deep maroon and thorn clad branches and dead and dying fruits.

After passing steep, muddy banks with obvious slithery attempts to climb for better views or to reach good areas from which to fish, I finally find some wooden steps that are safe for me to consider safely to reach the shoreline and get glimpses of the lake beyond. I find a lone gull perched on a small buoy, and beyond, three chimneys of this area’s past history in the Brick industry. This lake and numerous others in Bedfordshire are the reminders of the era when clay was dug to support the brick industry around this area. The county’s lakes now support wildlife, and the leisure activities from boating, sailing, water-skiing and angling to water sports like windsurfing.

Swirling, bubbling water always is attractive in photographs, and the little weir with its trapped bottle, held by the current definitely appealed, as well as affirm the quality of the lens on this camera, my handy LUMIX fz10002.

Naturally I am attracted to the colour I capture, but on walks like this it is the variety of subject matter, and often some of the details, and textures attract my attention, as do patterns that can have been formed by recognised actions, and others that surprise by the sheer oddity or happenstance — for instance the calm water at the boundary to the rippled surface which held the reflection of the chimneys on the water’s surface, and then the lack of fear exhibited by the gull when passed closely by the Grebe. Also, the textures when one part of a branch is covered in its death by new life in the form of coloured fungal growth, or the vibrant reds of berries that appear when the leaves have had their time.

The sunset that closed the day I spent out with the camera was definitely a fitting end to my walk, and to end the day, when I captured the final curtain from outside my house with the silhouette of leafless, tall willows, against the rich colours of the fading sunset.

Therapeutic Trip to Bromham

Every so often circumstances conspire to cause me stress, and I need to get relief in some form of therapy; the best I know is to grab a camera and take some images. On this occasion, I had lost time and was desperately trying to make it up getting a series of Christmas cards printed, alongside a series of emailed versions that I needed to sort for those for whom I had no addresses and so was trawling the address book to add to my master email. Hence, once this task was largely sorted, I opted for phototherapy.

I decided that a reasonable destination was the small Nature Reserve and lake at Bromham, however the SatNav was not particularly helpful with accepting a destination, so I had to opt to tap an intended destination on the map, since it consistently refuses to accept the destinations I provide unless it happens to have the specifics in its database, and even more irritating it deletes my entry! So much for the updated, SatNav! 

Upon my final arrival it was very muddy and the sun was dropping rapidly and was soon lost below the horizon of the wood surrounding the lake, and the paths through were waterlogged and interspersed along their length were large pools of water, that made it not worth my while heading to the lake itself, so I decided upon capturing shots of leaves, berries and views that at least recorded what I felt were deserving in the lowering light levels. Handily, the number of images I felt worthy of being of interest by the time I had worked my way through, came to exactly enough to create two gallery pages without my having to throw any out, and satisfied my need for the trip.

I commend them to those viewing the assembled gallery as interesting, though hardly world-shattering examples of photography, and I felt more relaxed once they were edited, assembled and these narrative words that are now complete. I only saw a lone bird, met one interesting man exercising his dog who seemed intent on inflicting wounds on itself, and needed constant recalls from danger! When I was finally leaving I met a couple who were just returning from their constitutional, and before I drove off we chatted briefly, and I said ‘yes’ in reply to the voice which greeted me asking whether I wished to head for ‘home’.

Marston Lake Woods – Signs of Spring

I decided to take a look at Marston Lake in case there was some avian activity on the water, but all I saw were a few Coot and and a couple of Cormorant, but no sign of the Grebe pair I had seen on my last visit, and even those birds I saw were distant. The walk through the woods to the lakeside which last time had daffodils in bloom, now displayed withered flower heads atop their stems looking very sad. However, the new leaves on some trees were fresh and healthy, and despite the lack of sunshine were welcoming.

Presumably the lack of sunshine meant the few ladybirds I saw were lethargic and I may be mistaken but where hawthorn are in abundance, I rarely find much birdsong, and certainly on this afternoon, the only sounds were those of cars, bikes and vans passing along the lane beyond. My walk through the woods could not be described as silent, as with every step I was breaking branches noisily underfoot, so no chance of creeping closer to an unsuspecting bird unless it was deaf!

The early leaves of the Horse Chestnut were a luscious green, hanging as if wet before they gain strength and flatten out. Many of the trees I walked past were heavily covered with what I took to be forms of lichen, and where branches had broken and the wound healed they would often seem like eyes, and with imagination you could see faces, hence why I chose to capture these. On this occasion I did not take any shots of the numerous holes I spotted that I presumed were badger setts, because none looked in any attractive as some I have seen on occasion. There was a single clump of Primula which caught my eye as there were two twigs whose juxtaposition made the whole seem like a drawing of a tree, hence why I took that shot, and I promise I never moved anything; I simply took the shot from the angle that gave me the impression.

Undoubtedly sunshine would have improved the scene, but the purpose of my visit was to take advantage of the lower angles the EOS R offered due to having the flip screen, and to familiarise myself to the new way of working with a mirrorless camera, and every shot was taken with the one lens the 24-70mm with macro facility, and the flip-out screen allowed me use a low angle viewpoint.
I have an apology to make – I slipped up with this gallery earlier, and it failed to appear – IT DOES NOW – Sorry!