Of course, the pictures convey none of that

Way back in October I spent an afternoon out with a new photo-chum taking pics of Bedford’s Priory Country Park and places.
And we had such a great time that we agreed we’d have to do it again if we could sort something out.

So time passes then, yesterday, we hook up for another sesh.

We’d decided to head for a village a few miles northwest of Bedford. A place named Harrold. Another of those locations in the county that I’d been promising myself to visit yet never quite managed.
The village itself (to my recollection at least) is very picture-worthy, and I was aware of the existence of a Country Park nearby that would be bound to entice us.

Hence the agreement that we’d shoot off over there (with companion fortunately providing the transport… saving me having to rely on the public variety that’s my normal mode), spend a little time in the Park, then head off toward the village for some more pics.

Yeah. Right. What’s that saying about “the best laid plans…”?

Well, to start, and throughout the day, the light was bestowing a beautiful, hazy, muted, almost mystical quality to the scenery, rendering the landscape quite indistinct in detail. Totally irresistable. An effect that, for the most part, I utterly failed to capture. No surprises there then.

What it did mean of course was that we spent far longer there just enjoying the surroundings rather than exerting ourselves to rush through so that we could also take in the village.

No complaints from me however.

In fact, one particular part of the Park seemed to possess such a curious and utterly fascinating atmosphere that we could quite easily have spent much much longer just in that one place alone.

I’ve tried to pin down, in my own mind, the “feel” of the area… yet it totally eludes me. Not quite alien, but… different. Almost as though it had been pulled out of some other time and plonked here, for us to discover. Yet even that doesn’t really describe it.
Weird, yet definitely not uncomfortable. Of course, the pictures convey little of that.

Much of the time, given the beauty of the scenery, we found ourselves shooting toward the Sun. Inevitably the foreground was therefore significantly darkened. I could have adjusted exposure to capture a more accurate image lighting-wise, or even tinkered a bit more with the pics in Lightroom, but it was my deliberate choice to not do so. Instead, I preferred to emphasise the effect where I could.

Companion, being much more familiar with the location than I, revealed that one can walk through the Park from the Harrold end and (surprisingly quickly) arrive at Odell, another little village to the northeast of Harrold. Which probably accounts for its being named the Harrold-Odell Country Park.

Where we shot a coupla pics (nothing terribly exciting alas) and stopped at the local hostelry for brief refreshment.

Then back into the Park again, following a path around the other side of the big lake there toward our starting point.

Which just about wrapped the day up for us.

Time incredibly well spent, although I somehow managed to get amazingly muddy. Not entirely certain how that happened, though it may have been something to do with my penchant for periodically throwing myself onto the ground. Hmm.

And it was all great fun too. Though I did discover one rather disturbing trait exhibited unnecessarily frequently (so it seemed to me) by companion. He seemed to have this malicious tendency to keep nudging me just as I was about to take a shot. I can’t imagine why. Its a distinctly Darren-like characteristic.

Couldn’t possibly be anything to do with him nearly falling into a pond, could it?

Well, I didn’t say he had to stand on that obviously dodgy bit of ground near the edge. Merely suggested it would be a good vantage point.
If he chose to construe that as my encouraging him to stand there, well, that’s hardly my fault now is it?
Of course, if he’d had his wits about him he’d have wondered why, if it was so good, I hadn’t snagged it for myself. And its not as though he actually did fall into the pond, after all!

Though I think it was about the quickest I’ve seen him move. And if I’d had my wits about me I would have snapped him leaping desperately for a safer footing. Oh well.

Only thing is, I’m sure I’ve missed out some of the pics I meant to upload to Flickr. Hmm.