Gt Barford Trip & Chopper

          Always a good sign when the sun is up early, so a quick shot of my breakfast toast seemed appropriate, as I had just been checking the camera settings and the sun fell on my toast, and later decided it was available to make up the numbers of images to fill discreet pages in the gallery.
          My destination by the long bridge over the meandering River Gt. Ouse was fortuitous, as I had certainly not expected to be later featuring a small private helicopter to be landing so close to where I was! But, I am getting ahead of myself, I had set off initially to capture the Spring blossom and the landscape adjacent to the river. The cloudless sky with its rich blue can often be less interesting than either towering Cumulus clouds or fast-scudding small puffy ones, but it proved to be the ideal backdrop for a tree bare of its natural leaves, but with a mass of clinging ivy to its trunk.
          The weir was in full flow and the bright sun was again fortuitous in giving crisp texture to the frothy water cascading beneath the walkway that was such a contrast to the calm water surface before the drop, that barely disturbed the reflection of the Red Emergency Lifebelt on the far side. The shadows cast by the sun accentuated the various shapes of the railing; the ridges to aid good grip when operating the lock gates, and the string of green buoys to capture hazardous floating branches and the like. It was pure serendipity that a lone gull should fly into frame to add extra interest. And as if to add further interest to the bland blue sky another gull flew in to draw attention away from the flat top of the Cedar! Perhaps the gulls arrival drew a group of passers-by to ascertain whether the gulls meant this spot was a good one for human Anglers?
          Close by a currently, very stark tree set back from the river bank by a narrow green sward stood a tower that I presumed might be a test for climbers with a viewing platform at its top. The trees by the bridge were typically stark for this early season and made even more so by the cloudless sky! And a man was exercising his dog by playing Fetch and throwing a stick into the river. Then as if on cue, a boating couple paddled slowly by and seemed to acknowledge my recording their efforts! As did a braver man who stood upright on his far steadier wide paddleboard.
          My further observations of this stretch of the river captured the stark wreck of an abandoned blue, decidedly Off road vehicle and further on an even sadder sight of a seriously damaged memorial stone to some loved, passed parents at presumably their favoured spot for watching the Wood and River Life from a roofed bench.
          At this early season of the year, when the sun is shining, it brings out the textures with its harsh light, of tilled fields and stark, leafless trees and gnarled bark. And then as it looked as if I had finally run out of subjects of interest for my camera, I hear the light sound of a small helicopter approaching to land! What a splendid way to finish my day’s shooting. I hope it gives as much pleasure to those who follow my blog; all the action took place correctly chronologically, with only early mention of the helicopter providing a teaser, being out of place timewise!

Bedford — River Gt. Ouse - walk with Camera

        Combining a trip to the Supermarket for food, and an afternoon along the river seemed like an excellent way to mix essential travel with exercise and time spent with a camera covering some of Bedford’s wildlife.
        Although I had experienced a few drops of rain on the outward journey, and there were still some dark clouds, the weather held for the entire time I was out, and very few people were in the park — notably, young mothers with pre-school children and retired people singly and in pairs, taking exercise, sometimes with their dogs. Once again, I had only my monopod to support my camera, which gave me freedom in terms of weight without limiting my ability to have a stable platform. Only occasionally was the light low enough to limit my exposure. I did learn that on occasion I had failed to take this into account, so will take greater care in future to keep a check on exposure settings.
         I did observe both butterflies and dragonflies, but none settled long enough for me to take any photos despite several vain attempts, the sunshine presumably kept their energy fully replenished, as I barely had time to frame them before they flit elsewhere, but I made the attempt on several occasions, and overall their numbers were low. Whilst on the subject of observations, once again, I spotted discarded face masks, so I feel perhaps, I will arm myself with a thin rubber glove and a small polythene bag, but this thoughtless behaviour is so selfish, since these open spaces make no charges, and will be lost to us all if this continues.
         I gather we are due more sunshine, so I hope to be able to travel further afield for my exercise and mental therapy. 

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.

Another River Gt. Ouse Visit

There are times when Britain defies the idea that all we talk about is our weather, and this day, certainly in Bedfordshire, just had to be one where everywhere I turned everyone simply got on with enjoying it! There were no clouds to be seen from horizon to horizon, just clear blue. I had headed north to a place I had visited on the river that seems to wander in circles around the county, never giving a clue as to where it might be heading. Perhaps the message is: “Forget your compass, just follow me”! I did just that after taking the A421 north until I could get on the A603 and headed to Great Barford. The bridge here tells a story, it has many arches meaning it was built to defy the river and reach beyond its clutches to reach other destinations rather than be contained by its leisurely meanderings. Yes, the river provided water for growing crops, but it also gave the means to reach elsewhere to sell them and to reach higher ground to be safe from its dangers. The bridge not only has many arches, but it has history — a record of being constantly rebuilt stronger and wider over centuries — people here needed the river, and realised it had to be managed.

On this day the river gave over some of its power to the people to be enjoyed, and the sunshine brought them out cheerfully and in relaxed mood, small family groups remained in relaxed isolation, or walked with young families, or exercised with their dogs; older folk sat on some of the benches, at peace, watching others pursue their activities. People individually enjoying both the calm and the exercise in the open fields or on the paths, or on the water, paddling or tending their boats. In the air were birds flying, also with no clearly defined destination; Time appeared to have slowed down in the mild air, and even the young children appeared serene.

I spent some time at the same pace capturing what I saw, before moving elsewhere to see a pair of tractors tilling the ground and raising the dry soil in the slight breeze. I moved elsewhere to capture views of some of the houses and churches and, the ravens and pigeons on the ground or the pollarded trees, and finally I got shots of Spring blossom, fields of golden rapeseed and before leaving the area, I strolled around a lone church which remains consecrated, but like its neighbour buildings seems to be from a bygone era; in retirement.

Bedford River Great Ouse Visit

After a spell without wind, the Lake at Brogborough was not enticing excitement on water, so the need to be out prompted me to visit the banks of the River Great Ouse in Bedford, and see what activity was to be found there, for me to capture.
Fortunately finding a place to park was not difficult, and from there I was able to walk by the river in less than a minute. I noted two small jetties that I presumed were for Anglers, but this seemed to be a small lake detached from the river as there was a vast amount of green algae covering a fair part of this pool, so I made my way to the far more busy river bank and was soon fully absorbed in recording the nature of life on and by the river. It was very apparent that far more people were desperately trying to return to normality and break free from the restrictions imposed by Covid.
It was pleasantly warm, but the sun which graced the earlier part of my day, soon retreated to spend more time behind the cover of clouds, but fortunately it did not prevent me from capturing the spirit of the day as life began to show signs of returning to the earlier norm, and the season showed evidence of the journey towards Autumn.
The images from my venture, capture the atmosphere I encountered whilst I was out with my camera. The camera to which I refer is the small LUMIX FZ10002; it is small, and has a zoom lens, which covers a surprising range, which I sometimes augment further by screwing on some small dioptre close-up lenses to allow me to move even closer on small insects, or flower heads.
It did not take long for me to find subjects for my camera, the first being Swans, with their new families of Cygnets, and it was interesting that one small area, close to the water had become a bird toilet — I have no idea whether this spot has always drawn the swans to this area, or that the restrictions imposed by Covid have simply kept the area free of human interference and allowed the swans to takeover this particular spot.
I spent some time at this area as the various birds felt safe; I found one spot where some four pigeons just stayed unmoving among a patch of weeds and daisies, quite unperturbed by my closeness, as if observing a Siesta! The cygnets and a lone swan close by the riverbank either were preening if awake, or dozing eyes-closed; the scene was somewhat surreal, but  I took advantage of the unmoving pigeons and captured images of both groups.
Whilst I was by the river many of the Sculls came only so far then turned around and afforded me some subjects, and I learned later this was as far as they were able to go, so this was the area that those craft tended to turn around. This I learned from a charming young lady whom I had recorded using this spot for just this purpose and later met up with her on the towpath.
Obviously this section of the river was the place to be, for I heard violent flapping of wings resounding from the water coming from the area by the nearby bridge. As the Swan came into view, I was able to capture several shots of its takeoff, and these feature in the associated gallery of images from that afternoon, and I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
There is something majestic about Swans; if you had never seen a Swan, and were asked: could a bird as large as this fly with elegance, a bird on water that seemed the epitome of grace and serenity, your answer might well be: "No!" — However, although takeoff required brute force and was noisy, the sheer power and will, allows this bird to prove you wrong. I hope that the few images I managed to capture are testimony to the power and beauty of this bird that has Royal protection and patronage. This does not excuse their abysmal toilet etiquette!
My walk along the river was not confined to just one side, I also crossed to the other bank which allowed me to witness the protective behaviour of a rook who had found some pieces of bread, and encountered a Mallard who made a failed attempt to steal them, but despite the size disparity, the rook prevailed!
This day's gallery ended with my salute to the architectural elegance of the white bridge with its avian group taking their advantage of the commanding views from its height above the river.

Biddenham - A Long Riverbank Walk

I set off to Biddenham and the River Great Ouse to stroll along the banks to capture some of the native life to be found close by. I took a shot of the Information board, to make it easy for me to reference on the blog. I have been here before, but on this occasion I was here to explore the numerous paths leading off the main one, to reach close to the water’s edge where the subjects of my photography are to be found in fair numbers.

Fortunately, right at the beginning of the walk, there were good views of the bridge from the bank close by the Park entrance, with the river flowing fast over the shallows on the left. I took to the path that runs close to the bank, and investigated what shots could be taken along the bank side path, before finding the real images I sought; which were of the wildlife, such as butterflies, damselflies, and dragonflies and, views of the enclosing landscape of the park.

It was during the time down by the river bank, that I spotted interesting patterns in the water, so naturally they appear in the subsequent gallery of images in my blog. The River Great Ouse meanders in numerous loops in Bedfordshire, and in this area the river is often shrouded by woodland, which offers me good chances to photograph the birds, animals, insects, associated trees, vegetation, and flowers.

On this outing, there were numerous butterflies and damselflies; and the list of those, that I later managed to get shots of were Red Admiral, Brown Hawker, Ruddy Darter, Comma, and Meadow Brown butterflies, and Damselflies. One such, I had never seen before, the Emerald Damselfly. Altogether, I had a very enjoyable and productive afternoon.Later, after working through the editing I found myself with one image over a round number to fill four pages in the gallery to be uploaded to the server, so one more look through the images to decide which one is for the chop! Lastly, which image or images will head up the Blog entry, when it is ready to go online.

A Church and a River bank

Relying on my Memory is increasingly an issue, and so it proved this particular morning. I was aiming to take a look at the state of the water level, at a particular spot on the River Great Ouse, so I duly set a destination at the village that my failing memory suggested was one of the previous destinations set into my SatNav. I was way off as my SatNav confidently said that my destination was now just ahead – in 200 yards! 

Well, I recognised the spot, but certainly not for this reason! I recognised that I had in truth visited this destination on a previous occasion, but it was most definitely not the destination where I wanted to be!

I searched for a suitable spot to pull in so that I could investigate further, and in safety. This took me a further mile before there was anywhere that I would not be a problem for other drivers, and as I had been travelling slowly, I now had a queue behind me, with the lead car sitting right on my rear bumper! It was almost another mile before I could see a spot that I could accelerate ahead far enough to avoid annoying the leader of the queue behind and then park up!

I then had a further look at both my record of journeys and a separate printed map and realised my mistake, and hoped that my new destination choice was correct. It was soon after setting off, I came into Felmersham, and there was the briefest of moments, when the sun broke through the gathering clouds, so I had to choose a suitable gap in the traffic to be able to stand in the road for the best angles, and obviously miss some opportunities when the cars were then in my picture, but my patience was rewarded and on each lucky moment the light was subtly different almost every time as can be seen in the shots I took. I soon returned to the car as by now the cloud cover was almost complete, so got back on the road.

Fortunately, this time my guess of the destination was successful, though the turning to the lane did not seem familiar, but as I drove further down it became familiar. After I had turned the car round to park up facing my journey’s return direction, I tried the door of a lady I had met on a previous visit, but sadly she was not in, so I took out my camera and walked to the water’s edge, and the water level was still very high, so no chance of walking along the bank, but at least there were a couple of interesting views, though in very lacklustre lighting. As I headed back to the car, I spotted the lady with whom I was hoping to meet. She kindly invited me into her house and we spent a relaxing time chatting over a cup of tea, and biscuits. Before leaving I took a few shots of some of the early Spring flowers, and hoped that they would survive the frosts that would soon arrive.