Bromham Afternoon Visit

          I had not visited Bromham Lake for some time, and felt it was likely worth a visit, and it was obviously a good spot for visitors to exercise their canine companions, as only when I came across a couple of ladies did I meet anyone without a dog, and on this visit, not a single man. Perhaps the male population is now returning to work, which seemed to be borne out by the large number of male drivers I encountered on my later return trip home, in dense and painfully slow traffic.
          The day was warm, and the sun for the most part was uninterrupted by clouds, except towards the end of my stay within the park, this therefore gave me the opportunity to capture the detailed textures of some of the leaves, from both backlit or textured but oblique front lighting. There were still signs of lush greens as well as rich reds and golds, and once again an abundance of red berries. I also saw ladybirds. However, although I heard the occasional birdsong and fleeting glimpses of birds, they do not feature in this gallery.
          Autumn is here, but in transition, in that there is still an abundance of lush greens to be seen. The day was warm, and the sky bright with some large clouds. The light was strong and clear, offering me the chance to capture the texture of leaf structures, and give shadows to add further depth. I have this fascination for Teazels, because of the conflict of textures, the complexity, intricacy and uniformity of the pattern, set against the freedom of the surrounding skeletal cage of curves and twirls. Beyond the boundary hedge I captured the gantry stark against the blue sky, and the enigmatic orange square symbol surrounded by twin segmented white plastic rings, whose significance eluded me.
          The recent wind and rain means when I am next out in woods, I will see far fewer leaves, and these will carpet the ground beneath these trees, and much that are presently green will be on the turn, and give way to gold.

Autumn 2021-Forest Centre

 

          It is immediately apparent when you look through this latest gallery of images from a walk I took in the Marston Centre Park, which I am lucky to have, almost on my doorstep, the woods do have some greens. But, there is a vast preponderance of reds, russet and gold, and pale yellow. It is therefore no surprise that my eye and camera feature these colours predominantly; I was lucky in that the sky was a rich blue with only wispy, high level clouds. Although the sounds of birds was underwhelming, the insect life did not disappoint, and I was soon alerted to the short darting flight of a Dragonfly; it was very unsettled and would land, then leap into the air within seconds before returning to almost exactly the same spot it had just left! Bees were equally restless as they rarely alighted for long on the abundant orange and pink clusters of flowers in one garden close to the main building. 
          I suspect that this spell of clear skies is due to close as the mornings are beginning to take some time for the mist and overcast to dissipate, and reveal the wispy, high-level clouds. I was therefore making the most of the current colour palette before the golden tones and russet of Autumn take over, the abundant red berries are already beginning to show signs of dying back, so I did my best to capture them before the coming frosts took their toll.

          I was pleased to find the end of my walk passed a cluster of high pale gold reeds and some wonderful roses in good condition and lush red bloom.

Bright Winter Saturday Sun

Late morning, and I gather my camera gear and head off into bright sunshine blue sky and wispy high clouds. I am going beyond the Lower Luton road heading towards Tea Green and I spot a kite soaring high, but I soon lost sight of it, and have to content myself with landscapes with trimmed bald hedges. In the narrow lanes it is not possible to avoid the flooding from the recent heavy rain, but I drive calmly to ensure I am not forced to drive through them by oncoming cars.

Am I alone in observing that four-by-four vehicles force me into taking to the mud, potholes and soft verges as they leave a full two feet clear of any such hazard? It would seem that unless they are farm Landrovers, the ‘almost saloon’ four-by-fours seem to consider that it is infra dig to get their wheels dirty, and that I must be a ‘Towny’ driving a saloon car, and should therefore expect to dirty my wheels and be scuffed by hawthorn branches! I was driving with consideration, yet these same drivers rarely held up a hand in thanks, yet every saloon car that I either slowed or stopped for, waved in grateful acknowledgement.

I was never to see a kite or buzzard for the rest of the day. I captured landscapes in the main, before passing the River Lea at East Hyde where I decided to stop as the bridge was thronged by stopped vehicles and people gazing across the fields. I spotted the heron in the far distance, and later a Little Egret, and I took a chance to change from my 70-200mm to the 100-400mm and was lucky enough to catch sight of him beyond a pair of swans, and on the second occasion of it flying, managed to get two shots before bad light stopped play.

As I climbed the hill beyond, the sun was setting behind a large tree, and a father and son pair of cyclists stopped alongside for a refreshing drink after the climb, which meant a nice silhouette or two to round off the afternoon.