In their never-ending (and as yet unfulfilled) quest for images that capture the imagination, stir the spirits, and evoke thoughts of other places, other times… basically, photographs that are quite nice to look at… the other day the PhArtists found themselves transported to Salcey Forest in Northamptonshire.
Transported by a mutual friend in fact, who’d come along not just as the driver but also in quest of photos. And to help us all get lost… repeatedly!
The Forest lies between Northampton and Milton Keynes and is a remnant of the medieval royal hunting forest. Nowadays there are a number of well-tended trails, including a fascinating “treetop walk” that we had explored on a previous visit earlier in the year.
On neither of these occasions though did the Forest really live up to the expectations we had in terms of photographic potential. Or maybe we just weren’t in the right mood.
Certainly this time around the weather didn’t help very much, starting off quite grey and overcast and later turning to rain. Which eventually saw us beating a somewhat hasty retreat back into Bedford and the comforts of our favourite haunt, The Bear pub.
The rather meager harvest of the day photo-wise was underlined by our discovery that the Forest Café appeared to have changed hands… gone were the really friendly ladies that we’d encountered on our first visit, as also the even more friendly dog. Not in the least mitigated by a seeming drop in standards of the fare on offer.
Although the café did offer some compensation:
“Nice place, lots of trees” describes Darren’s day at the Forest whilst Mike, clearly not quite getting into the spirit of the adventure, talks of “Apple pie and custard please”.
