Bowood 2016 #12: Woodland Walks (Tuesday 5th May)

The solar panel people came in the morning to fit the panels to the outbuilding roof and connect them to the rest. Shortly after 1400 hr they went live and began generating power again.

Later on I drove over to Bowood intending to walk down to the Lake. There was quite a queue at reception, people buying family tickets or season tickets, each group taking several minutes to complete their transactions. As a season ticket holder I would normally be waved on by the friendly and helpful staff.

Unfortunately, I couldn't catch the eye of the lady in the booth and the entrance was guarded by a jobsworth I hadn't seen before who rather than letting me through insisted that I went to the back of the queue so that the plastic ticket I had shown him could be passed through the machine reader, a process taking a few seconds but which would involve a likely 20-30 minute wait. Instead, I returned to my car and drove off, and haven't been back since.

I went to the Woodland Walks, which has a separate entrance a mile or two away, and was beckoned in straight away by Sam, who used to work at the House but now runs the coffee van franchise with his partner Ellie and doubles as the gatekeeper. He offered to mention my treatment to those in charge later on.

I sat in the Jubilee Garden with my coffee trying to regain a good humour and then went in search of a pond I remembered seeing at the other end of the Rhododendron Gardens. I was still getting to know my K-1 and fired off a few experimental shots in different modes. I found the pond and took shots of waterside bluebells, cowslips, bluebells and marsh marigolds in front of the pond's water lilies.

Edit: I've now changed the marsh marigolds image for this view of one of the walks as it appeared less sharp in Blip's software than it really was. The view of it in Extras seemed unaffected so I have reposted it there.

The marsh marigold file seems to have been too large for the Advanced Editor and I had to use the Basic Editor that doesn't let you edit the thumbnail to use it as my Blip. I wasn't able to see the thumbnail for the Caen Hill swans either and had to settle for an unsatisfactory crop.

L.
7.5.2016 (2045 hr)/8.5.2016 (0952)

Blip #1826 (#2076 including archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #025
Day #2233
LOTD #1060 (#1184 including archived blips)

Taken with Pentax K-50 (Yellow) and Pentax smc P-DA 17-70mm F4 AL (IF) SDM lens

Bowood 2016 series
Bowood series
Bowood 2013-2016 (Flickr collection)(Work in progress)
Bluebell series
Flora series
Spring series
Landscape series

A Visit To Bowood's Woodland Walks, 5 May 2016 (Flickr album)

Now posted, for anyone interested:
A Trip To Shrewsbury, 24 April 2016 (including The Dingle)(Flickr album)
A Visit To The Woodland Walks, Bowood, 29 April 2016 (Flickr album)

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Radiohead - Burn The Witch (2016)

One year ago:
Smokey 1626 hr