Tag Archives: hampshire

Spying on the Trout

On a few occasions, when we have been in Stockbridge, I have spent a bit of time watching the trout swimming in the river where it runs under the road and alongside the pavement. This has got me thinking about how to get some good video of them. I figured the Insta360 X3 might be something to try. The invisible stick is pretty long which would allow it to go into the water and the camera itself is waterproof. I was too sure how the image quality would work out but, when we went to the Trout’n’About festival in the town, I took the camera along.

Initially the arrival of the camera spooked the fish which was not a surprise but leaving it there for a while meant they got used to it. It didn’t hurt that some people were throwing food into the river which the fish were way more interested in. I wanted to use the app to control things, but the connection was lost when the camera was under the water. Instead, I just started recording before putting it in the water. The images are not great, but they do give a good view of the fish moving around. Check out some video below.

Not the Oldest Tree I’ve Seen, But…

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A walk we took through the New Forest brought us to the Knightwood Oak. The New Forest is an ancient forest, but this tree is older than many that are there. Supposedly, there were laws enacted long ago regarding the practice of pollarding trees. The fact this one was pollarded suggests it will have predated this time which suggests it might be 500 years old. That is not the oldest tree I have come across. Our travels in California did bring us to some extremely old trees too. I can’t recall exactly how old but possibly older than this. Even so, 500 years old isn’t bad for a tree.

I suspect if I had come here when I was young, you probably would have just walked up to the trunk. Now, the need to protect the tree means that an enclosure has been set up around it. The good news about that is that it keeps people out of many possibly photos you might want to take. (Funny how, when you are interested in getting photos, you are “focused” on different things to other people.) I had a wander around the perimeter of the enclosure to check out the whole tree before we continued on our walk.

Wherwell Looks Like a Postcard

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Since moving to Hampshire, one thing that has struck me repeatedly is just how picturesque all of the villages in the area are. It feels like every place is a combination of thatched cottages, a pond, a little church and probably a nice-looking pub. When you say it that way, it doesn’t sound too bad. Nancy had found a local walk that seemed like it might be interesting, so we decided to try it out.

It started out in a village called Wherwell. Wherwell does its very best to fit in with the profile that I outlined above. The pub is currently being refurbished and there is a river instead of a pond but otherwise, it ticks all of the cuteness boxes. Here are some images of the village from our stroll. It is a linear village, so everything is pretty much along the one road and that means you have to be conscious of vehicles coming through.

The Lambs Might Be Bigger but They Are Still Cute

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Our visit to the rare breeds farm included some not very rare breeds too. They had a bunch of lambs in one of the barns. These lambs were clearly a little older than some of the others I have photographed through the spring, and they were growing quickly. This hadn’t impacted on how cute they were, though. Adult sheep are not the cutest of the animals out there but, like many creatures, the youngest ones are just cute. From a photography point of view, I appreciated that these have not yet been marked up with ownership markings. They look more ideal as a result.

Interesting Hull Shape on the Pilot Boat

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I don’t know the proper term for it, but it is very common these days for large ships to have a bulbous extension to the bow just below the waterline. The first time I ever saw one was when, as a small kid, I had a kit of the QEII, but they are everywhere at this point. However, I haven’t really thought of them as a thing for small boats. While heading across the Solent, a pilot boat came zipping past us. Not only did it have such a hull shape, this one looked a little different to the average. I wonder how significant the benefits are and whether they are worth it for a vessel like this.

The Wheat Is Getting Ripe

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There is a field near our house that I often walk by. When I first moved here, the field had been ploughed, and I wondered what the crop might be. Now it is clearly a field of wheat. As I recently strolled along the edge of the field, it was interesting to see how the middle of the crop was turning golden while sections along the edge or near some of the vehicle tracks were still green. I imagine that they will soon be turning golden too but something about their location had delayed them compared to everything else.

Cygnets at the Pub on Friday Evening

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Friday evening and we headed to The Willow Tree, a pub in Winchester. The river runs either side of the pub and the garden narrows to a point as the river comes back together. While there are plenty of birds around, it isn’t often that you see anything swimming in the river. The occasional duck perhaps. We were quite surprised, therefore, to see a family of swans come swimming up towards us. The adults had four cygnets with them. They would go off exploring but then, one of the adults would make a few low noises and you’d see the cygnets head straight back to their parents. I figured video was more fun for this so that is what you have below.

Washing the Posh Boat

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As the ferry was leaving Portsmouth for the Isle of Wight, I saw this small boat moored up at the marina. Clearly some people like to have larger boats than I have chosen to get! No idea who it belongs to or whether it is one that you charter for events. Either way, as we pulled away, I realised that there were a couple of crew members suspended on the side of the boat cleaning things up. Clearly a nicer time to do this when in port rather than underway. I hope they got everything looking spiffy before the boss showed up!

Roses Almost at Their Peak

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We took a trip to Mottisfont to see the rose garden. At this time of year, it is supposed to be at its best, so we made the short trip there one Sunday. We weren’t the only ones, which was no surprise. Even early in the day, the overflow car park was in use. As it turned out, we were all a bit late. The blooms had peaked early this year which, given how warm the spring has been is probably not hard to understand.

Even though the peak might have passed, there were still ample flowers to see, and they didn’t look too shabby. Getting shots of the larger garden with so many people in it wasn’t really going to be easy. Instead, I figured it was just a case of minimising the significance of the people where possible. Then you can go for some of the close ups of the individual roses. So many people were taking tons of photos with their phones. I wonder how many of them will ever be looked at let alone shared.

Cobwebs With Morning Dew

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If you look at an empty field, you might be forgiven for thinking that there was not much alive out there. However, the ground is teeming with life. What more of an indication of how much is passing through do you need than the huge number of spider webs that are on the grass. That many spiders must have a lot of food to catch and that means even more that doesn’t get caught. Anyway, early in the morning, the dew does a great job of showing the cobwebs up. This was a local field near our house as I took an early stroll before work.