Horton

Amazingly, it's nearly a month since I have been beside a canal, so I set some time aside today to visit the Kennet and Avon at its nearest point to my cottage, which happens to be Horton Bridge, a little way from Devizes. I had some reading and writing to do and when possible I like to do this away from home.

Today was another beautiful spring day, ideal for sitting on a bench beside a canal with some paperwork and a camera bag. I didn't get a lot of reading done as there was enough going on along the canal to keep me entertained, including a pair of mallard who came up onto the towpath directly in front of me and settled almost at my feet. Further along another mallard was exercising her brood of chicks, and there was another pair of ducks of indeterminate species of whom the female was a beautiful apricot colour. Several canal boat dwellers stopped to chat. I did manage to finish the 2004 copy of Mojo I was reading the other day - only seven years of catching up to go.

I was going to blip one of the mallards until I realised that this would be two in a row after yesterday's River Marden snap, so instead I chose these cattle. They were in a field on the other side of the road to the one that leads to the canal, near where I was parked and I photographed them before I went down to the towpath. I don't know which farm they belong to as there is none especially close marked on the map. The nearest building is Horton House which lies behind the field they were in, possibly the one almost in view, with Horton Farm some way further east behind that, and Lower Mill Farm is a considerable way further south.

Lens: Pentax 18-55mm

Blip #403
Consecutive Blip #400

Alternatives:
Towpath Mallard #1
Towpath Mallard #2
Chick
Apricot Duck
(all Sigma 70-300mm)

One Year Ago: Calne (another in the textures&colours series)