Anglesey Abbey, near Cambridge is one of our regular “go to” places. It’s always worth multiple visits as the gardens are very different at different times of the year.
Reach for the sky.
Silver birches
White & Yellow
Orange
Sundial. The time was wrong though – still on GMT!
Wisteria Window
Woodland Walk
The mysterious “thing”
Face to Face
Statues of fawns at the entrance to one of the gardens.
House and Garden
Front view of the house.
Hitch Wood is an area of deciduous woodland a few miles outside Hitchin, near the village of Preston. At this time of year it’s an excellent place for bluebells. Although the bluebells were out, they are not yet at their best and another trip next week is planned.
All photographs taken with a Canon EOS60D and the EF-S 18-55 kit lens. Processed using Lightroom and Luminar.
The Sikh community of Hitchin held their annual ‘Vaisakhi’ procession through the streets of the town, yesterday. Vaisakhi commemorates the formation of Khalsa panth of warriors under Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. It is additionally a spring harvest festival for the Sikhs. This year’s festival took place on the 100th anniversary of the Amritsar Massacre.
Spring is here! Priory Country Park lies in Bedford, alongside the River Ouse, containing lakes, meadows and woodland. Since our last visit, they have opened a new restaurant.
The Main Lake
Canada Geese
Mallard
Grebe
Teasels
Wood Carving
Something Fishy
The Face of the Forest
The Finger Lakes
The Main Lake
The first Hitchin Camera Club trip of 2019 was to Houghton House just outside Ampthill in Bedfordshire. The house was built in the early 17th Century by Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke for use as a hunting lodge and the ruin is now owned by English Heritage.
Front view
Rear View
Interior
Out through the windows
Side view
Who is Arthur Read?
Martin in the doorway
Lee behind bars!
Ellen and Andy
The View Through
The Entrance Path – approaching HCC members look like an advancing army in the distance!
I found this on one of the walls!
Black & White conversion using Nik Silver Efex Pro.
Paxton Pits Nature Reserve is in the village of Little Paxton, near St. Neots in Cambridgeshire. The weather was uncharacteristically warm for February and we spent a pleasant Saturday afternoon there.
We walked the entire length of the “Heron Trail” without seeing a heron and spent around half an hour in the “Kingfisher Hide” without seeing a kingfisher, but that didn’t matter as there was plenty to see.
Fence and shadows
The hide was set up for bird watching, but seemed to attract squirrels as well!
The Heronry South Lake
Abandoned machinery
The Heronry North Lake
Tree on the river bank
Swan
Reed Reflections
Aggregate Industries Works
No Excuses!
Tree Stumps
Back at the Heronry South Lake
Sunlight on Wood
Great Crested Grebe
All photos taken with a Tamron 70-300 lens, which I’ve decided isn’t really sharp enough at the 300mm end for bird photography!
We will return!
After a couple of dull weekends, I finally managed 2019’s first outing with my camera!
A Sunday afternoon walk along the river at Willington started with a cuppa at the Danish Camp. The Cafe itself was pretty full so we sat outside on the terrace. It was cold, but the view was good!
View from the terrace of the Danish Camp.
From there, we walked along to path towards Bedford, stopping off at the 16th century dovecote and stables. Both of these are maintained by the National Trust.
The Dovecote
The Stables
You can see it was cold – the horse had his coat on!
The Church
Tree reflections in the river – three separate photos presented as a triptych.
I said it was cold, didn’t I? The water on the lake was still frozen in places.
Winter Sunlight
The path back towards the Danish Camp for another cuppa before heading home.
