Caddington Front Garden – Riot of Colour

I returned to Caddington on my way back as I needed to get a bite to eat. The village is suffering badly due to ongoing diversions that have cut off the normal route north via Chaul End, and to avoid the worst section by the shops I parked a long way back, and as I walked along I spotted a couple of gardens worth grabbing a few photographs in, once I had collected some food. As I came closer to my old house, I spotted a familiar face, and Phil, whose name he mentioned whilst we talked, hailed me with: “I thought you had moved to Eaton Bray!” That brought me into conversation and the lady who had been with him took the opportunity to take her leave telling him she would catch up later. He was correct I had been looking initially in that direction, but I brought him up to date, and we chatted for ten minutes or so before I went for my food.

I put my food in the car, picked up the camera and returned to the two gardens and the majority of the shots were from this one front garden which simply looked as if someone had opened a hundred seed packets and spread them liberally in the front of the house, then taken a hose and sprayed them with liberal amounts of water and possibly fertilisers! I had simply never seen so many brightly coloured flowers in bloom in such a small area – it could only be described as a “Riot of Colour’! It cried out to be photographed,

I obliged.

Mainly Tulips, and a host of others to which I could not put a name, so now that I have managed to get the Stockwood Discovery Centre gallery up, I have put these up as a follow-on. I hope they will give others as much pleasure as I derived from capturing them.

Caddington – Short Stroll

It was unforgivingly muggy and I had been at the screen for several days, so as my daughter and her two children were coming over, I decided I needed a break, so grabbed my camera and strolled down the main road through the village, taking a close look at flowers and any pollinators that were busy at work.

It was not long before I found subjects for the 100mm macro lens on the 7D. I diverted down one arcing road which starts and finishes simply further along the same main road, and in so doing was rewarded by two displays of a flower I had never seen before – it vaguely resembled a cluster of fibre optics lit by LEDs! I have tried searching for a similar looking flower on Google to help find out its name – to no avail.

All too soon, I had to make tracks back to welcome my grandchildren to the house, but despite a few owners' comments that the displays were not that brilliant I think I captured some reasonable pictures.

The most prevalent species were hydrangeas – quite obviously a favourite of many and there was a variety of colours on display, the first to catch my eye being all white.

I also found several people were more than happy for me to venture into their front gardens, but mostly I only took shots at the boundary.

The Cricketers, Caddington Fire Pics

A minor fire develops in a chimney at the Cricketers Public House to which the Firefighters attend with some serious Fire Appliances, because it had to be tackled from above. The men put up an impressive and colourfully lit display with a tall extending platform from which to tackle the fire.

I had come across it by pure chance as it occurred right outside my front garden, and I spotted the bright and flashing lights and was fairly assaulted by the loudspeakers as Control were speaking to the firefighters over the appliance radio. Had I not come down at that precise moment from my office, I would have missed the show entirely, so it was a bit of excitement to end the day so I grabbed my widest lens, the 12-24mm Sigma and popped it on the Canon 5D MkII and set it at 3200ASA and grabbed me some shots!

So here 21 shots later are what I captured.

Caddington’s Flowers after the Rains

When Britain experiences a heatwave, there always seems to be a sting in the tail, we generally pay for it with heavy downpours and in some areas flooding. Nearby in Caddington certainly, one of the drains regularly becomes overwhelmed in such scenarios, and today was no exception, we had several short sharp showers and claps of thunder, but Manor road was only awash for a few minutes, but in some of the showers it fell with a vengeance and as I later walked through the village with occasional spits, I did see some flowers that had taken a battering, but overall I was pleasantly surprised, and I captured evidence in the main of a lot of colour.

By one of the road name signs the nearest resident had planted lavender and despite looking slightly forlorn, it was pleasing to see numerous bees taking their nectar fix, but that was rare during my observations, in fact it was a wasp that I caught sight of doing some pollinating.

Despite the drizzle I experienced as I looped round Elm Avenue, it was the birdsong I mainly heard rather than the hum of bees at work, which has been a notable feature for this year sadly, also I do not see too many butterflies or hoverflies, all of which used to be a common sight in and around the village. There was one very vociferous female blackbird that came close and I was hoping to get a shot of, but she kept to nearby trees finally flying to a nearby rooftop, so I imagine originally I was close to her nest and the calls were to make me follow her away from her chicks.

There must be a good few hardworking gardeners because I came away with eighty useable images.

Caddington Stroll

The Day had been cooler, and the threat of rain was forecast for the end of the day, so with email and work up to date, I took a look in my own garden, and finding that the lone peacock butterfly had taken its leave, I took a stroll with the 100mm macro lens along Manor Road.

I found some interesting variegated hydrangea, and a few bees working their magic, and went along Elm Avenue and on into the Crescent, taking the occasional shot, before a few raindrops made me consider whether I should head back, but it stopped after a few more desultory drops, so I continued slightly further before heading back, taking a few more shots along the way, on my return I also decided I should do something about the windfalls from the Bulis tree in the front garden which the wind had blown along the pathway for pedestrians to crush under foot, making a sticky mess, so before I could take a look at my images, I did the decent thing and cleared the path. Tomorrow’s rain can do the rest.

Caddington Leaks

In just over a week the village has sprung two Water Mains leaks, the first outside the Fish and Chip shop, the second right outside my front garden. I was working when the Balfour Beatty two-man team arrived to trace it, but they had yet to find it when I started to make a photographic record of the work. The sun was low on the horizon, and fortunately it had stopped raining.

When I spoke to ask whether they minded my taking photos, I got to learn that it had been they who had last year repaired my stop cock, and they had no objections so long as I ensured that if they transgressed Health & Safety regulations would I warn them and make sure I did not attempt to take any photos until they once more complied.

For being allowed to photograph Joe and Ivor at work, they were duly rewarded a cup of of tea and coffee midway through the evening! By the time they had found the leak and capped it, it was dark, and they had three more jobs to complete, all in St. Albans, before they could call it a day. Fortunately they told me all were far simpler than this one. I bade them good night to offload what I had taken.

The picture story is in the galleries to the right.

Planing Manor Road

Planing is the process where the top few layers of a road are cut off to allow for a new Tarmacadam surface to be laid together with a top dressing layer.

I was too late on their first day to capture this aspect of the work, so I decided to remedy that today and so this is a smaller gallery that contains shots of this process and many more detail shots that show the level of control these men have over their machines.

It was gratifying to learn that several of the men had taken the trouble to visit the blog to see just what photographs I had taken, and their response was favourable.

I hope everyone enjoys these last few shots.

Manor Road Resurfacing

Manor Road suffered badly from the snow and frost earlier this year, and a fortnight ago the village of Caddington were notified that there would be road closures to carry out major resurfacing work. From my point of view I saw this as a minor inconvenience and a great opportunity to take a series of photographs as the work was under way.

And so it proved. Naturally I could not cover the entire operation, but I have tried to capture enough of the mechanics of what went on to tell a story of the men and machines involved. I found them an interesting crowd, and during the course of conversation learnt of one man who even had his sons working alongside, so some of these shots represent pictures in his family album!

I sought the men's approval for the shots I took, and was accepted willingly, which made my task of creating an accurate report of the proceedings that much more easy, and enjoyable. The one operation I have been unable to capture so far is the initial 'planing' – the removal of the original top surface.

I am hoping that I may be able to take shots of that procedure tomorrow, my last free moment. Also, one of the men has promised he will let me know when they next carry out that operation at night, so I can get some more dramatic shots. That was an act of generosity that showed an understanding of what I was looking for, and showed that they appreciated what I was doing, for which I am grateful.