Quainton Visit — After Such a Long While

I pay a welcome visit to my younger daughter for the first time in a long while, and it was good to see her husband Tim and the two children. Their home is in the small village of Quainton, home of the eponymous Railway Museum and the very visible Windmill.

Soon after my arrival I joined Lizzy for her trip to the village store and a walk up the hill past the Windmill, I was hoping to take a few shots of its sails in motion, but after a single press of the camera's shutter, it ended that day's motion a second after I took my single exposure! I had been hoping for a few frames of the sails in subtly different positions, 
from which to choose the ideal position!
Lizzy needed to buy food from the local store, so we walked in towards there first, then took a path that took us up the hill beyond, so we could see the whole plain below, but if I had hoped to catch sight of the engine pulling the train, I was to be disappointed as though I could see the carriages and puffing cloud of steam, I was too late to glimpse the engine because it was amongst the trees!
We climbed quite high and found ourselves in a series of tumuli which I imagined were the sites of early dwellings, from where I saw matchstick figures crossing the landscape in the distance, so rather than the more conventional view of the windmill from below, our view was from above, with the plain beyond and the distant hill at Waddesdon Manor. Sadly, on this day the sun was mostly shrouded in cloud, though for a couple of shots a small sliver of sunlight appeared across a sloping distant field. Later in the afternoon, I was able to take a few shots of some of the flowers in gardens that bounded the green.
Later still we walked along Station Road and spent a while watching the end of the day activity at the Station from the bridge over the line. The range of differing scenes from close-ups of a bee's activity to the distant hills and wide vistas of the valley is a testament to the versatility of this small LUMIX fz10002 camera and the range of its integral zoom lens, which due to its light weight is an all-day handheld camera.

Oakley Bridges – In Passing

I wanted to check out the Harrold-Odell Country Park, and before I arrived there thought I would stop off at the Bridges over the Great Ouse at Oakley, despite the sunshine rapidly fading behind the oncoming clouds.

Fortunately there was a tiny place to park at the far end of the series of bridges, with the church at the opposite end of the straight. The sound of bird song had attracted me as I parked, since I had been driving with the sunroof open. Although I did manage to grab a couple of shots of the songbirds, they had retreated to a distance once I had  got out of the car and fetched a camera – I had some birdseed with me, so I put some out in a few spots that might prove to be both lower and with clearer backgrounds, but my subjects were obviously wise to that subterfuge and happy to collect that reward once I had departed!

Now that I had a camera out silence reined for a while and when some birds returned they kept their distance, and the sun all but disappeared, but nevertheless I persevered a while longer and got a shot of a distant windmill which I had not remembered from an earlier visit to the weir here.

I continued on to the Country Park, where I took a cursory look around outside before going into the Visitor Centre where I picked up a few leaflets to look through later, but on leaving the restaurant area to return to the car, I had not noticed how drastically the weather had changed for the worse, it was fairly tipping it down and in the short dash back to the car I was drenched – putting a very definite end to any more photography, unless there was a submarine nearby! It took the entire trip back to dry myself out, and I was very thankful I had not set up the camera here, but simply taken a walk to the water’s edge, before looking for any pamphlets. The rain did ease on my way back and was only spitting as I took the gear from the boot, and back inside. It was not a wasted trip in that it had impressed me as a worthwhile location for another occasion.

Birds, Tractors, a Windmill

An Indian Summer comes to the Home Counties, giving us warmth, blue sky and in the late afternoon strong low light on Wotton Underwood cottages and Quainton Windmill.

Actually the partridges which were very well camouflaged against the newly tilled field and the red kite were taken on a different day from the gulls following the tractor, even though the rich red soil looks similar. The second bird, which I believe was a buzzard seemed to be carrying either an egg or a stone as it buzzed the red kite. It is not unusual to see gulls following tractors, but the numbers were far greater than I have seen before.

Quainton is home to a railway museum and its popular attraction, Thomas the Tank Engine, and has this splendid windmill and sports a popular pub just below it. I just loved the bright low light on the yellow cottages in Wotton Underwood, so had to stop and capture it.