The first thing I did this morning was look out of the window to see what the weather was doing, and although a little overcast it didn’t look too bad considering what the weatherman said last night. So, on with the day I went, first packing all of the camera equipment for the course before departure.
I spent an hour or two setting up a presentation which I usually do before letting the students loose with the equipment, and then, after several technical glitches with the projector and laptop the students started to arrive. I had been dreading laptop problems all of yesterday and this just strengthens my love for teaching primitive life skills!
After several hours of talking and explaining the terms and methods employed in wildlife photography we ventured out into the ancient woodlands and the glades concealed within. Of course at this precise time the weather decided to turn! It started to rain, and then what can only be described as almost gale force winds started to bend the trees surrounding us. Ok, maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but believe me it was very windy and little wet for a bit.
I slipped back and forth into explaining the hidden uses of plants and trees as we walked around, but being a wildlife photography course I managed to bite my tongue for the most part.
It was a nice walk, and quite refreshing. The highlight was that we found a tiny fox cub playing in the undergrowth of a bluebell wood known locally as ‘well wood’.
On the way back we saw a little egret and several other water birds which are temporarily stranded on the water until they have moulted their feathers.
I will be back to my ‘normal’ courses shortly. Next up is a day out for the workers of a local children’s hospital, all of which fancy trying their hand at some Wild Food skills. Until then I have a few relatively quite days.
See you on the trail.
Kris
