Gathering storm over bare, low brow hill

About the Day
Great day today. Full of activity to keep my mind off things. Rain threatened at lunch and dropped a little around tea time, but otherwise bright and cheerful. Saw M&D in the morning and told them I had started rowing. This was of particular interest to D who had rowed back in his navy days. He gave me a good tip about rolling the blade and then skimming the spoon along the water when bringing it back to begin another stroke. Thinking about this later, that might be OK in a single, but I'm not so sure in a crew. Dad also showed me his redundant Coolpix 3.2 MP camera. The beauty of this litle mouse is that it comes with a viewfinder. I might have to pinch this off him.

Later, While Cath was at her mum's, I went over to where the guys fly their model aeroplanes near Hampton in Arden. Nearby Patrick's Farm has changed since I was last there. Saw one chap with a model, bring it into land. But nothing else doing.

In the afternoon we went over to Charlecote and, instead of sticking to the house and the adjacent gardens, we walked the perimeter meadow. You could feel the heat of the sun on your back and there was a pleasant accompanying breeze. The butterflies reminded me of yesterday, though there were considerably less pesky critters.

By the time we left for home, Hamilton had won the F1 and Federer was 2:1 down to Djokovic in the Wimbledon's mens singles final. We arrived home by when it seemed Djokovic was on the cusp of taking the championship, but digging impossibly deep, Fed went from 5:3 down in the fourth to level the match 2 sets each.

Come evening, around 7:30, unable to settle, praying for time to stand still, I drove off intending to recky that patch where the Blythe runs into the Tame. Unable to find a decent pull in off the road, I ended up parking at Shustoke reservoir, another place I am sure I have never bothered with. The reservoir has a battlement like ridge walk, offering views to Coleshill and Birmingham in the west. I walked the full perimeter and tried to get as low to the water as I could to create cloud reflections with the spire of Over Whitacre in the east without contacting the icky blue-green algae and scum the warning signs allude to.

The homeward bound journey took me through Maxstoke where at 9:30ish, unable to help myself, I pulled in for another brief wander and into the fields adjacent to the priory. Once light for phones had all but vanished and realising the time, I headed straight for the Vs.

About the Blip
Any of a number of shots today struck me as worthy contenders, but with 13 minutes left for an upload by when I got back from the Vs, there was no time to go through any of the day's later pickies. So here is a field adjacent to the model aerodrome when perhaps the sky was at it's grumpiest.