Under the beechwood

I had to go to the Brunel Goods Shed next to Stroud station, for another photo-call this morning. We have the AGM of Stroud Preservation Trust next weekend and we are opening up the Shed to the public, to reveal the recently finished works which we commissioned. One of the local papers want to feature this event next week and so sent their staff photographer, who is recently out of college and very good. I have tried interior pictures there, but haven't worked out how to use the low light to reveal the deep shadows and shafts of sunlight, which stream in on a day like this. He knocked off a couple of quick shots, which I asked him to show me, and I saw he had recorded exactly what I was hoping to achieve. Damn!! Definitely back to school for me. Mind you, he does have all the gear, so that is obviously the answer!

Helena and I then went up to the Stancombe Beech Farm shop in Bisley to get our spuds. All three generations of the family were there. I ran around tying to get some interesting angles and thought I was doing ok in the intermittent sunshine, despite feeling rushed. But when I came home and saw the results I was miffed. I had not been careful enough and should have thought more carefully about the conditions.

Beneath the beeches, which run in a strip between the road and the farm shop's yard, is where they keep their chickens. When I first approached, they all ran away towards their huts. So Sally, who served us in the shop, gave us a couple of handfuls of bird seed to try and tempt the chickens back to where the old rotting pumpkins are lying in the chicken run. Helena managed to cajole them and threw the seeds amongst the litter and the pumpkins. I grabbed what I could in the dark spaces under the canopy, where the cock and and his brood scrambled amongst the litter.

I wish I could have included more of the beech trees, as their colour was magnificent today, and they are about to lose all their leaves completely. I expect I will have to go to Buckholt Wood tomorrow to see what is left of the majestic canopy there. It is one of my favourite woods, a classic ancient woodland hundreds of years old. Officially an ancient wood must have been in existence before 1600, apparently.