A blue and green post

Well yesterday, me and my fiddle teacher went to Bristol to buy vast qauntities of sheet music and to window shop. I love Bristol. Lived there for a year or two in my post student days and still love the hills and cobbles and the suspension bridge. And the shops are pretty good too.
We (she actually) spent a small fortune on music and then we trailed up and down Park Street looking at nice things and then we went to the Bristol Glass shop.

Isn't it just dazzling? I promised to give it a plug because it's so gorgeous and bought a small pair of earrings. Ooh, blue glass!

So, inspired by all that reflection and colour, when I got home, I bravely cornered the Gamekeeper in his cottage and asked if I could go and take pictures of the overflow pond from the reservoir for the bore hole where we get our water. (None of that Thames water for us...the lanes round here are riddled, literally, with springs and our water is privately owned and tastes a lot nicer than Newbury water!)*

He said that was ok as long as I didn't disturb the pheasants or the deer and even promised to take me to see the kites if they nest on the estate again next spring! Wow! Nice man, I haven't met him before. Much nicer than the previous gamekeeper who was done by the RSPCA for shooting and trapping owls and buzzards.

So this morning, I actually GOT UP EARLY. (6am looming for you Frangelita) and laden with tripod and camera, wandered up to the pond and took pictures. About 250 of them. But these will have to do for now. (well I had to wait quite a while for the sun to get through the clouds and the woods are very gloomy so a lot of the earlier pictures were a bit nothing)

The woods are not very inviting and the pond is quite filthy and stagnant. It's only when the sun comes through that the reflections bring it to life. And the whole place is a tangle so the reflections are quite weird and baffling.
The gamekeeper told me I might see a heron and there was one when I arrived but flew off as I was unwinding myself from camera etc. Tomorrow I'll have it all ready before I go into the woods.
This pheasant on the other hand was lurking through the trees and though deeply suspicious, stayed long enough to have his pic taken.
And then this afternoon I had a fiddle lesson and we played some of the Bristol music and it was very nice! All in all a very good few days.

Have a lovely weekend.

*The downside is that when there's a power cut, the pump for the bore hole stops working and it takes a good couple of days to get the resevoir filled up again. And the cattle get their water before the houses which is fine except when they trample through the pipes and all the water rus away into the fields!