Foxhangers (Wednesday 21st July 2021)

With Refna having quite understandably cried off because it was far too hot for her to cycle over, I suddenly had a free day to plan out and I calculated that the best way to defeat the heat was to drive somewhere with the fan and air-conditioner at full blast. I was wrong; it was still boiling hot.

I arranged with C. in Trowbridge to end up there in the mid-afternoon, took some shots in the garden, which I then processed, had an early lunch and set off in Archie at two.

I did a grocery shop in Devizes and then parked at the bottom of Caen Hill to look for the swan family I'd learned were probably on the stretch between where I'd parked and Foxhangers. I'd also learned that none of the eggs of the swan pair at the top of the flight had hatched. An angler told me there were swans four locks further along, so I walked further than I might otherwise have done and found them near lock 23. A pile of feathers at a gap in the reeds gave them away. The family were spread quite widely apart so I didn't get a shot with all of them together, but the two parents had five cygnets, all grazing among the water lilies.

Since I had last seen C. the previous October she had acquired two kittens, Mika and Loki. They came from a farm near Pewsey and were completely feral when they arrived. They had never been fed or been inside a building beforehand, but had clearly adapted to the life of leisure they now considered their birthright and seemed very happy.

My red Pentax's lens had become gunged somehow, unbeknownst to me, so many of the shots weren't helped by the harsh overhead light flaring and refracting all over the images, which also suffered in sharpness as a consequence.

I drove back in the evening and found myself driving down Spout Lane, which goes over the Kennet and Avon at Sell's Green, so I stopped there for a cooler half-hour stroll. Someone showed me a spot where herons fished and someone else told me about a local all-white magpie that had become something of a celebrity there. I did see a canal cat that was too hot to be bothered by my attention.

Thursday 22.7.2021 (1623 hr)

Blip #3488 (#3238 + 250 archived blips taken 27.8.1960-18.3.2010)
Consecutive Blip #003
Blips/Extras In 2022 #143/266 + #080/100 Extras
Day #4136 (902 gaps from 26.3.2010)
LOTD #2631 (#2431 + 160 in archived blips)

Caen Hill series
Canals series
Swan series
Kennet and Avon Canal series

Taken with Pentax K-5 and Pentax HD P-DA 55-300 mm F4-5.8 ED WR lens

In The Woodland Garden, 21 July 20 (Flickr album of 7 photos)

Kennet And Avon Walks, 21 July 2021 (Flickr album of // photos)(Work in progress)

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Dana Gavanski - I Talk To The Wind (2020)
Although this comes from a King Crimson album, written by Ian McDonald, the version I always play is the sixties demo that preceded it by Judy Dyble, the former Fairport Convention singer who was Ian McDonald's girlfriend at the time. Dana Gavanski sings this so beautifully and purely.

One year ago:
Front Yard