Houghton – Broughton – Stockbridge

I discovered that some of the walks I’ve been missing on the Walkingworld website are not as long as they seemed.  They are listed under the number of miles they are, so as some of the 5-6 mile walks are taking around 3 hours I hadn’t even looked at some of the longer ones.  However, as I decided to search for a walk with river views last week I found one that was nearly 9 miles long, but also only around 3 hours.

So Stef and I headed off on Walk 4896 last Sunday.  The first part of the walk is along a well used path along the Test Way from just outside Stockbrige.  There were lots of families out walking and cycling along the route.  A little disappointly the walk barely sees the River despite being right alongside it for most of the first mile and a half.

It then turns and does cross over the River tributaries via small pretty bridges.  At one of the bridges there was a herd of cows who were deciding to take a drink and bath in the water.

The walk then heads across farm land, past a pig farm and alongside fields before eventually heading back through Stockbridge town centre.  It was a pleasant enough walk in the countryside, especially as the weather was nice and sunny, but would have been nicer if it went nearer the river.

More photographs on my Flickr set.

Shawford – Fishers Pond – Hensting – Twyford

On Friday I did another lovely walk from the Walkingworld website. I have been wanting to do walk 43 for some time as it sounded nice, but as it was over 8 miles I wanted to ensure it was a good day.

The walk starts in Shawford and follows the River Itchen and Itchen Navigations all the way to Brambridge.  I drive over the bridge at Brambridge almost every week and have always thought the river looked really pretty and it was.  The river was clear and there was lots of fish to be seen, and a swan family about half way along.

After Brambridge the walk heads off towards Fishers Pond, passes the back of Marwell Wildlife and then goes through Hensting village before returning via Twyford to Shawford.  There are quite a few places you could stop to eat and drink on route.  I can recommend the Fishers Pond pub which has a lovely view over the large pond, and good food.

The walk was nice and varied with plenty to see.  It started along the river, went through fields, villages and woods and there was plenty of animals to be seen.  There were lots of fields of horses along the route and they all came over to say hello, and I even caught sight of a deer in the woods near Marwell.

I’d highly recommend this walk – it is not for a total beginner as  it is over 8 miles long and took me nearly 4 hours (including quite a few photo stops along the route).  However, the way is almost all either flat or downhill – which surprised me as I kept expecting to have to pay for the lovely views by climbing a hill, but I didn’t!

More photographs from the walk on my Flickr set.

New Amphibian Ark and Wildebeest

There always seems to be something new at Marwell Wildlife – whether it is baby animals, new enclosures or things to do.  Two of the more recent arrivals include a pair of Black Wildebeest, or White Tailed Gnu as they are also known.

These can be found up at the top end of the park, near Coati Roundabout.  On arrival they initially had some green fencing up around their new enclosure whilst they settled in, but this has gradually been taken down as they get more used to seeing the visiting public and the road train going by.

The other thing I am pleased to see up at Marwell is the arrival of some amphibians in the new Amphibian Ark.  Almost half of today’s amphibians are endangered, and so conservation organisations around the world have come together to build a number of these Amphibian Arks.  These arks are looking after species of amphibian’s in special protected environments, to help preserve them from becoming totally extinct, and until such a time that more is known about what is causing their demise and prevention methods can be introduced.

This is one of the pretty Amazon Milk Frog’s that are being cared for by Marwell Wildlife.

Wicked

Last weekend I went to see Wicked in London with my friend, Joy.  We’d managed to get a really good offer from LondonBreaks.com which meant we got tickets and a 4* hotel, including full English breakfast, for around £75.  We stayed the night at the Kensington Close Hotel, which is the hotel I stayed in with mum earlier this summer, as it is easy to find, quiet and well placed to get everywhere. 

After checking in at the hotel, a quick look around Kensington High Street, and a cup of tea in a café, we headed off to find somewhere to eat for dinner.  The theatre is just by Victoria station and there was a few restaurants nearby.  We chose the Bella Italia as it seemed popular but not too busy, and had reasonable prices – we paid just under £40 for 2 course meal including a large glass of wine.  We arrived about 5.30pm, which was good timing as by 6pm they were turning people away.

On arrival we went to head for our seats, and just as we headed to the stairs I saw we were standing right next to Gok Wan.  Joy didn’t notice and then later teased me saying he’d wouldn’t be sitting down with ‘the masses’ but it turned out he was in fact sitting just in front of us. I felt a bit sorry for him though as he just got hounded by people wanting autographs and photographs – but I guess that’s what you get for being famous!

The stage was really elaborate with a map of Oz and a huge dragon above the stage.  During the show the dragon’s eyes light up and he moves his head around.  It was very cleverly done.

The show was excellent.  It is based around the story of the Witches from the Wizard of Oz and tells the story of how they grew up together.  It is really clever how it is written to tie in with the Wizard of Oz, and kept me guessing as to how they would end it!  It’s certainly a show I’d recommend and like to see again.

Milestones Museum

Last weekend I went on a low light photography workshop and really want to get out and practice a little more now that I’d had a chance to see the results from the day on the computer.  The weather for my weekend off wasn’t supposed to be good so it seemed like the perfect excuse to find a local museum.

After a bit of a search I discovered Milestones Museum in Basingstoke.  It is a living history museum set all inside a massive modern building, so everything is undercover.  I gave them a quick call to check it was okay to do photography – no problem – and then head off there on Wednesday.

Once you get inside Milestones everything is laid out like a little village, with streets full of little shops.  On arrival you can pick up one of their information sets which you carry around with you, and play at various points to learn more about the artifacts.  As I was busy taking photographs though I didn’t bother.

In addition to the shops there is a pub, village green, warehouse representing the Thornycroft factory and a few exhibition areas.  Currently there is an exhibition on the Red Cross and an area displaying different house interiors through the years.  There is even a place where people can have a go at dressing up in period costumers to have their photographs taken.

It turned out to be the perfect place to go take some photographs – there was so much to see, all indoors away from the rain and I had no problem wandering around with my camera and tripod without getting in people’s way.  Quite a few things are behind glass windows in the little shops but I found little problem with the reflective glare from the glass.

I am really pleased with the results from the day.  I’ve got some really interesting photographs, totally different from my normal landscapes and animals.  I am getting the hang of changing the exposure and ISO to get the best shot and generally getting more familiar and comfortable with my camera.

Lots more photographs from the museum can be found on my Flickr set.

Trotton – Iping – Stedham

Mum and I went for a walk over near Midhurst today - Walk 4276 from the Walkingworld website.  The walk starts across heathland towards Trotton, before crossing over the A272 and then returning via Iping and then Stedham.  Part of the walk is also alongside the river, and there is a pretty bridge at Stedham. 

Compared to other walks I’ve done from the website this one didn’t stand out as that memorable.  It was a nice relaxed walk, taking about 2 hours to complete, but there wasn’t the nice views that some of the others I’ve done recently have had.

Earnley Butterflies & Noah’s Ark

Yesterday we decided to visit Earnley Butterflies and Gardens near Chichester.  I see the brown tourist sign every time I head along the A27 and thought it would be a good opportunity to get some nice butterfly shots.  Alot is under cover too so thought it would be good in case the weather didn’t hold out.

On arrival in the carpark we had a feeling it didn’t look promising inside as the outside isn’t that well presented.  As we entered it got worse!  The reception area and shop looked a bit like an old charity shop.

The butterfly room was pretty tiny and there wasn’t very many butterflies at all.  It was rather sad, as the room they had at Epcot wasn’t much bigger but had been presented so much nicer.  I don’t think it would take too much work to make it nicer, but it just felt neglected.

I did manage to capture a few nice butterfly shots but overall I was really disappointed – as after all it was supposed to be a butterfly place!

After the butterfly room we went into a bird room.  This felt slightly better – it looked a little better kept.  Many of the birds are rescue birds so it was nice to see they were taking care of them in their new home.

After the bird room we wandered into the gardens, and wished we hadn’t bothered!  Maybe at a different time of year it may look pretty if there are flowers out, but at the moment it was a very sad excuse for lots of interlocking areas with hedges and not much else.  The Japanese garden only differed from every other part by the fact someone had stuck a Japanese style ornament in one corner!

Finally we wandered into the Noah’s Ark Animal and Reptile rescue.  This seemed much better kept.  The animals all seemed happy and well looked after and there was plenty to see.  There was a variety of animals from farmyard – goats, chickens, rabbits – to reptiles such as snakes, lizards and tortoise.

There is also a nostalgia centre there but it looked like a dark, dingy and run down museum so we didn’t waste any time going in there.

Overall I am happy to have spent the £6 entry fee (normally £7 but they have a voucher on their website for £1 off) as I think the money will go towards a good cause of caring for the animals.  I was very disappointed with the butterfly enclosure – which is after all the reason I went in the first place.  The whole place is in need of some care and attention and I wouldn’t go again or recommend it unless you were going for the Noah’s Ark rescue centre which is nice enough.

Hambledon

The only place to be on a beautiful Bank Holiday is outside, but I wanted to avoid the crowds and traffic so went out for a lovely walk around Hambledon.  (Walk 2360 from Walkingworld)

It was actually a very pleasant drive over to Hambledon as you leave the motorway onto country lanes with some stunning views of Hampshire.  The walk itself starts and ends in the village centre and then heads off in a circle around the countryside.

The first part of the walk  takes you to see the Murder Stone, retracing the route taken in 1782 by a murderer, John Taylor, and his victim, James Stares.  John started by beating James around the head with a mop handle before slitting his throat and robbing him.  I expected the Murder Stone to be slightly more interesting than an old unmarked gravestone almost hidden in the bushes after reading that!

The route then continues on through the countryside eventually heading along the Wayfarer’s Walk and Speltham Down.

When I returned to the village I spotted a sign saying that there was a local garden open as part of the National Gardens Scheme.  Many private gardens open their doors for a day to raise money for charity.  I decided to go and take a look as it was still early and the sun was still shining.  It cost £3 to enter Hambledon Garden. 

It was quite a pleasant little garden with different areas of shrubs and flowers, and a vegetable garden.  I just had to take some photographs of this elderly couple I saw enjoying the garden – I love her sun umbrella! 

Finally I headed off for a wander around the village and look around Hambledon church.  They have some beautiful stained glass windows.

More photographs on my Flickr set.

Low Light Photography

I’ve got to know my camera reasonably well having had it a year now, but I typically seem to take the same sort of photographs – countryside and animals.  Mainly because I have the opportunity thanks to working at Marwell and enjoying countryside walks.  However, I really wanted to try something a bit different.

Later this year a friend has asked me to be the photographer for their civil ceremony, and as most of that photography is likely to be indoors I thought that learning some more about low light photography would be interesting and prove useful.  I booked myself on the Low Light and Fill-in Flash workshop with Going Digital.  These are the same people I did the Explore your Digital Camera workshop with earlier this year, which I thought was very good and worth the money.

This course was run at Pitstone Green Museum in Buckinghamshire.  It is a small rural life museum run by volunteers, and only opens a few times a year so we had the place to ourselves.  There was only 5 of us on the workshop, which meant a good chance to get some one to one help and pick up some tips from the tutor.

The first part of the course was spent inside one of the rooms in the museum learning about how we can change exposure, ISO, aperture, shutter speed and flash settings in order to change the lighting of the photograph.  It was surprising how differently the camera sees a situation to what we can see with our eyes.  We then experimented with different situations to get to know how to change the various settings in our own cameras to get the desired effect.

After lunch we went out into the museum.  We’d been set a series of exercises to get us trying out what we’d learnt.  We tried close up shots in low light situations, wide angle shots with different light settings and backlit situations with and without the use of fill-in flash.

The final part of the day was to get back together in the classroom to review some of the photographs people had taken and see what effect the different settings had.  It was amazing to see how people had managed to take the same shots but producing very different effects.

I really enjoyed the day, but it went very quickly!  Having had a chance to review my photographs I’d like another practical session with similar situations as it isn’t until you get back to the computer you can really see if things have come out the way you wanted.  So I’m now on the hunt for some more local sites where I might get a similar opportunity.

The rest of my photographs from the day can be found on my Flickr set.

Walderton – Stansted

I met up with mum in Walderton yesterday for an afternoon walk in the countryside.  I’d picked Walk 2418 from the Walkingworld website as it sounded like exactly half way between where we both live.

The walk starts in the village on Walderton, where there is parking in a layby big enough to hold around 8 cars.  There was a house with a basket of free apples outside – looking much nicer than any that have ever fallen off our apple tree!

The route is mainly flat and nicely varied through countryside and lanes, through fields and past a river (which doesn’t flow in summer!).  The paths were all quite good so it is probably a walk which could be done all year round.

At the half way point of the walk you reach Stansted House and Park.  This made a perfect stop on our Friday afternoon walk.  They have a lovely tea room which is open all year round in their walled garden, so we sat and enjoyed tea and home made scones in the sunshine.  You can also visit the house and chapel a couple of days a week for a small fee, but the grounds and gardens can be enjoyed for free all year round.  There is also a garden centre and miniature railway there.

After our rest we set off on the second half of the walk which takes you through the grounds of Stansted Park and on into the countryside heading back to Walderton.  After a while you reach Racton Monument which is an old monument built for Lord Halifax in 1772 as a gazebo.  It is pretty ruined now, and has sadly been tarnished with graffiti too.

I’d recommend the walk, especially with the perfectly timed tea rooms!  More photographs on my Flickr set.