Down at the water's edge

We got out of the house this afternoon to visit Woodchester Mansion which lies about five miles from our home.  As the crow flies it is even nearer, but there is only one way in to this rather strange old building and it requires driving to Coaley Peak on the top of the cotswold escarpment.  From there we parked in thr National Trust car park, which owns the whole wooded valley which stretches back down towards Stroud, but not the mansion which is managed by the Woodchester Mansion Trust.

I won't elaborate too much but let the first few words of their website say it for me:
Woodchester Mansion is a 19th Century Victorian Gothic Masterpiece mysteriously abandoned mid-construction in 1873. Hidden in a secluded Cotswold valley, it is untouched by time and the modern world. This Grade 1 Listed Building has been saved from dereliction, but will never be completed.

After a quick tour around the building I was keen to get out into the beautiful sunshine to explore a bit of the park and the series of five lakes which were created in the valley bottom.  We went to the 'old boat house' and then walked around the 'middle pond' until we found a spot where we could spread a blanket and sit by the water's edge.

Helena paddled her feet in the water and I took pictures.  A pair of ducks climbed out of the water onto a log just a few feet away and proceeded to preen themselves whilst I took pictures of their beautifully coloured feathers still glistening with water.  but all around us were countless common blue damselflies and I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of them in flight and at rest.  Some were mating, others fighting apparently.  But I hadn't brought my best macro lens and only had a long telephoto zoom, so I wasn't best equipped. 

It was a toss up between a strange head-on shot of a dragonfly flying towards me, or one perched on a yellow iris flower sticking out of the water or this reed with two of them soaking up the sun.