Lash, Bridgewood, Deer, Boscobel, BBB

Posted by Tanos on Wed 19 May 10, 7:24 PM

It's turning out that mia and I have weekends that are either very busy or quiet. This weekend was very busy, with Club Lash, visitors to Bridgewood, a stay overnight in the Midlands, a visit to Boscobel House and then the BBB.

Club Lash was as enjoyable as ever, with a Science Fiction theme. Unfortunately my initial idea about going as Tom Baker's Dr Who got intercepted at the transmat beam stage The costume prize was won by shy_sarah's hilarious cardboard-box-and-foil "bite my shiny metal ass"-labelled robot.

On Saturday we went down to Bridgewood and set up for the day's visitors. I took these pictures before anyone else turned up. The first picture shows the picnic tables in the Glade along with a tent-gazebo in case it rained. As you can guess from the sunshine - it didn't, although it wasn't as warm as that all day.

Next is a photo of the signpost that's in the middle of Glade - almost at the very centre point of the wood. It's similar to the one at the T-Junction, and is part of my ongoing effort to change Bridgewood from some land into somewhere that is a place, with names and clear locations within it.

And at last I have some sunny pictures of the Cage Pit, showing the mound now greening over and the interior still dry and cool and very very secure.

During the day we had a mixture of socialising in the Glade, and people going off to make use of the space or the equipment. At the end of the day, mia and I made a first very brief use of the new Holding Pen and it has a lot of potential if the wood ever hosts any hunts or POW style events.

But for me the high point was seeing a deer. One couple had gone off on the South Ride and startled it, before it ran through the undergrowth all the way to the Glade, where the rest of us saw it crossing the continuation of the Middle Ride, about 20m from the picnic tables.

I've seen their footprints and heard they were in the area, but never seen one in the wood itself before now. I don't hold out much chance of photographing one unless I find a pattern in their visits though!

After staying over in the Midlands, we went to Boscobel House in Shropshire on Sunday morning, the location of the famous Royal Oak in which Charles II hid after losing the Battle of Worcester. The original oak is long gone, having been stolen piece by piece by souvenir hunters in the years after the Restoration in 1660. Its sapling is still there but now it's badly damaged by storms and decay. Left to its own devices, an oak takes a hundred years to reach maturity, and a hundred years to rot away once it finally dies. Nevertheless, it's one of the most famous trees in England, and its new-found stark asymmetry is more interesting photographically.

After Boscobel we went back towards Birmingham and to the BBB fetish market. It's still busy after all these years, and it's always interesting to see what's on the stalls

Edited Wed 19 May 10, 7:43 PM by Tanos