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.

Bedford Walk & Capture

     

The sun and warmth of this Autumn day drew me to visit the banks of the River Great Ouse in Bedford, with the desire to capture the activity of some of the wildlife. On this occasion, I had my hopes set on a heron that I had photographed at the weir behind the Cinema, but it turned out to be on a fishing trip by the wider weir, offering a cooling walk in shallow water further along the path. I was to spend some time before my wish was granted on the other side of the main road, photographing some very sleepy ducks, some interesting fungi on the bark of a tree, backlit leaves, and bunches of berries, before returning to the weir and walking further.

I had chatted to some of the anglers during that period, one of whom was a photographer who ran a Camera Club, he copied my details to his phone, so we may well meet up again in the future. I noted where the heron was in passing it, but the view was both distant, and heavily obscured by fine branches, so I spent some time walking beyond, crossing a bridge further down the path, and returning to narrow the distance between us and doing my best to obtain a view that was less obscured. The heron was very aware of me, and was leisurely moving to other spots from which it could observe its potential prey without a care as to whether I might have a clear view of the action! This meant often I would have to seek a new spot every few minutes, during which I had to move considerably further round. I was however rewarded by having differing backgrounds and finally by capturing its success over a substantial meal, however it downed its catch out of my sight, but I could see a slight bulge in its neck for evidence!

Currently the bird I really wish to see at some of the spots to which I gravitate, is the Kingfisher. This year my trips to the one lake that in the past has afforded me the chance of photographing this beautiful little bird have been unsuccessful — this is the lake at Marsworth, the spot where in the past every visit by me was reciprocated with avian visits, and by that I mean not just kingfishers but several other bird species, even though my raison d’être for the trip was undoubtedly the Kingfisher.

Definitely this visit’s highlight for me was undoubtedly to see the heron, especially as it kept me on the move which to me is always preferable to sitting in a hide with a comparatively static background and on this occasion, I definitely got my exercise quota as well as a ‘warm fuzzy’ from the heron and its excellent catch!