Latest Images by Stefan Czapski http://www.geograph.org.uk/ 2013-05-20T08:16:45GMT text/html 2013-05-17T23:23:50GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 51.446839 -0.557522 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3464337 Growing - as is often the case - in a damp situation close to standing water. Cuckoo flower is typically in bloom at exactly the time when cuckoos can (if you're lucky, or in the right place) be heard calling. For that reason I prefer the name 'cuckoo flower' to the other common name in English - lady's smock. text/html 2013-05-17T23:02:52GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 51.446656 -0.557240 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3464330 I wasn't aware when I took this shot that I'd stood in almost exactly the same spot at the end of February - and recorded the scene as it was in late winter: [[3352468]] The body of water is said to represent part of the old, - meandering - course of the Thames. text/html 2013-05-17T22:33:08GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 51.445924 -0.556256 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3464315 This avenue of trees - along with weeping willows and plane trees - is a reminder that there was once a grand residence nearby - Ankerwycke Manor. I'm not certain, but I suspect the trees in the avenue are white poplars, Populus alba. For a view of the scene as it is in mid-winter, see [[2750132]] Ankerwycke is a National Trust property, easily accessible via Magna Carta Lane. text/html 2013-05-14T22:55:40GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 51.470163 -0.545700 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3460671 One of the fleabane species, perhaps? text/html 2013-05-14T22:40:19GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 51.467928 -0.546779 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3460645 Growing on the bank of a stream in woodland. text/html 2013-05-14T22:28:48GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 51.470294 -0.549008 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3460624 Sailing on one of the larger old gravel pits in this area. text/html 2013-05-13T22:50:13GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 51.469715 -0.545858 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3459063 Kingsmead Island Lake is a large flooded gravel pit, to the south of Horton village. It is managed for angling, and also accommodates a sailing club. text/html 2013-05-13T17:45:02GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 52.306953 0.281883 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3458522 Looking ENE from the southern (Adventurers' Fen) side of the Lode. text/html 2013-05-13T16:48:20GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 52.310798 0.287656 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3458379 text/html 2013-05-13T16:38:03GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 51.470979 -0.531852 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3458360 The wider area is a patchwork of land-uses: reservoirs and other industrial sites, old gravel pits (often surrounded by woodland or scrub), with residential areas focused around old village centres. The whole is neither rural nor suburban, though 'urban fringe' would be a fair description. Heathrow and the M25 are major presences. It isn't easy to imagine the landscape as it must have been in Napoleonic times - before the arrival of large-scale gravel extraction and (later) the huge reservoirs. The fenced-off area on the left is - I believe - occupied by a road-haulage firm. text/html 2013-05-10T13:52:35GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 52.310847 0.280469 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3453377 This is a 'digiscoped' image, taken at a range of about 400m through a friend's telescope. I have to say that though I'd heard that cranes were now resident at Lakenheath we hadn't expected to see them at Wicken. The species is said to have been widespread in East Anglia before the draining of the Fens, but was subsequently lost for a period of about three centuries. A small population has re-established itself in recent decades, and now appears to be colonising sites away from the initial base at Hickling. The main European crane population (in Scandinavia, Poland, the Baltic states and Russia) is strongly migratory - the autumn migration across Germany, Denmark and France being a spectacular event. Rather sadly, the present-day English population seems to have 'got lost', wintering in East Anglia, and not joining in the great annual movement. Regrettably (it seems to me) attempts are now being made to re-introduce cranes into the Somerset Levels. Such measures compromise the wildness of the species - and permanently so: the resulting population will always be a re-introduced one, never a truly wild one. text/html 2013-05-10T12:49:56GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 52.306294 0.278769 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3453324 View WSW, from a point close to the Old Tower Hide. To the right is the undrained fen, where the land surface is pretty much level with the bank I was standing on. Across the lode is Adventurers' Fen, which (along with much of the surrounding fen terrain) has in the past been drained and converted to farmland. When drained, the fenland peat shrinks, so that the land surface falls several feet below the level of the remaining undrained fen. In this shot the lower portions of the hawthorn trees on Adventiurers' Fen are hidden below the bank. Measures are now being taken which will allow Adventurers' Fen to revert to a state rather more like its pre-drainage condition. text/html 2013-05-10T11:57:35GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 52.308115 0.286930 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3453258 The view is WSW. On the left a narrow belt of woodland runs parallel to Wicken Lode. In the original photo it can be seen that showers are falling a mile or two away, to the right of centre. text/html 2013-05-08T19:48:08GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 51.989634 -0.190025 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3450815 The High Street is effectively a long, wide marketplace - part of the old Great North Road. Pevsner refers to the spire of St Mary's as a 'Hertfordshire spike' (Pevsner, revised Cherry, 'The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire'). The time on the church clock on this spring evening was 8.28. text/html 2013-05-07T22:42:05GMT http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19114 Stefan Czapski 51.444793 -0.273096 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3449177 Most of the trees growing along the bank at the lower end of the pond are willows - with poplars showing silvery behind them. Richmond Park is a National Nature Reserve.