Upton House NT Blipmeet (Wednesday 1st May 2019)

I drove up to Warwickshire on Wednesday to attend a blipmeet organised by steveng. When I arrived at Upton House he was already there with his wife Gill, along with Hildasrose, her SHH and Fitzbilly, who I hadn't met before. High winds had vetoed a previous attempt to meet there but now it was warm enough to enjoy a sociable coffee and cake outside the café, and JohnRH, who had been able to come at short notice, joined us there.

We began our tour in the Terraced Gardens and I led the tiered descent to the large pond at the bottom. I took the first batch of pictures with my LX100 with its close-up filter lens attached, including the magnolia-like tulip shown above, but later switched to the Pentax K-1 MkII with which I took the tree trunks shown in Extras.

A trio of ravens who nest in a nearby tree flew over with one calling loudly and I had a long chat with one of the gardeners who told me they had been seeing off a red kite.

The weather was expected to deteriorate in the afternoon and as I had brought a picnic with me I set off to have it at the second mooted venue, Charlecote Park, whilst the others were still at the other end of the grounds. I'd never been there before and I had an idyllic lunch in the company of a very tame and photogenic herd of deer beside the River Avon.

There were also a couple of pairs of swans on the river, including a nesting swan on the bank opposite the house. Again, I had a chat to a gardener there and learned that the swans had built their nest close to a weir the previous year and it had flooded. This year, they'd built their nest further away in a safer position a couple of weeks ago, with eggs due later in the month. The cob swan was dabbling with its bill on the water's surface just this side of the weir.

I spent two or three hours there without going into the house, but there are longer walks there that I would like to return to. I did walk back alongside the River Dene, which warrants further investigation.

The other blippers didn't make it to Charlecote in the end, having stayed at Upton House for lunch, exhibition and house tour, but I was glad that I did.

I have completed the Upton House album but am just starting on the Charlecote set. These were taken with the K-1 and my Nikon P900 bridge camera for the reach of the long lens.

L.
4.5.2019 (1545 hr)

Blip #2913 (#2663 + 250 archived blips taken 27.8.1960-18.3.2010)
Consecutive Blip #34
Blips/Extras In 2019 #90/265 + #044/100 Extras
Day #3323 (670 gaps from 26.3.2010)
LOTD #2057 (#1898 + 159 in archived blips)

Blipmeet series
National Trust series
Flora series
Macro series

Taken with Panasonic/Leica DMC-LX100 M4/3 compact

Upton House Blipmeet, 1 May 2019 (Flickr album of 25 items)
Charlecote Park, 1 May 2019 (Flickr album of 67 items)

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
The Pretty Things - A House In The Country (1966)
Phil May, the Pretty Things' lead singer, didn't want to release this single, foisted on him by management for commercial reasons during a lean time for the band. The song was written by Ray Davies of the Kinks and subsequently turned up on the Kinks' 1966 album, Face To Face. This is the version I knew and loved at the time though, so remains my favourite. Blur returned to the same theme decades later.
(LOTDs now up to date to end of April)

One year ago:
The Old Forge (Blue Tit)