Everything But What I wanted
July 30, 2009 by Bird
Filed under Blog, Good Stuff
Summer is moving on apace and as I don’t want to waste a single sunny day when it crops up, I grabbed my camera and binoculars and cycled up the River Lee after the first good forecast this week. The idea was to go dragonfly spotting, something I’ve been aching to give a whole day to, but the day itself had other plans for me.
I had a particular spot in mind, Gunpowder Park, near Waltham Abbey. I’d been there many years ago and had a vague memory of myriads of dancing insects, so having for once a specific destination in mind I set off at a brisk pace.
The towpath was deserted, surprisingly so for such a lovely day. I usually cycle the towpath slowly, mindful of pedestrians and dogs, but on this occasion there was not another soul to be seen, and I sped along. Due to my haste I will have missed a lot – I know it – just from the tantalising things that I only glimpsed like the plums glossy and ripe and good spilled across the gravel as windfall, the skulking herons, the bright flash of wildflowers. The horse meadow with it’s bright garlanded hedgerow coaxed me to pull up and drink in it’s beauty, the scent of buddlea and wild sweet peas heady and intoxicating.
Usually I’d stop alongside those pylons to search for Little Owls (at one point I was seeing so many and so regularly there that I just called them “pylon birds”) but this time I was on a mission, and thinking that I could easily stop there on the way home I hurried by. A bank of honeysuckle flowers tempted me to pause, but I was uncharacteristically hasty in getting back in the saddle.
Ever feel like you’ve jinxed yourself? All those things I told myself I’d stop and look at properly on the way back never did get looked at after all, which proves to me that being in a hurry to get anywhere is just a great big waste of NOW. Hurrying discourages curiosity, blinkers us to the unexpected. And on I sped, intoxicated with the swift breeze and the scrunch of gravel under my tyres. The towpath finally emerged from beneath the roaring M25, ducked under one more road and rolled out into parkland. Was this Gunpowder Park? I wasn’t sure, and a quick rummage in my saddlebag confirmed that I’d forgotten to bring a map. No problem! It would surely be signposted and besides, I could always ask for directions.
I got off the bike and strolled slowly along the riverbank in hope of spotting a dragonfly or two, but the wind was strong and I could not find the sheltered places where the dragons and damsels would be patrolling. Still, the river was beautiful, a slow, sinuous dancing river, and the weeds under the water swayed slowly like mermaids tresses. So many wildflowers I did not recognise! I got down on my belly to take pictures, to the mild alarm of strolling families who couldn’t see anything special about the clump of weeds I was prostrated by. I’m truly glad I spent a bit of slow time here, because when I got up and got back on my bike in search of Gunpowder Park and dragonflies, I realised something wasn’t quite right. Oh no – no WAY. I had a puncture. Normally this would not be an issue but I think you can guess what else I’d forgotten. That’s right - I’d set out to cycle miles out of London over relatively rough ground and not even brought a pump with me. And as I’d forgotten my map, I had no idea where the nearest train station was. Where was everybody? Now that I needed to ask directions the park seemed suddenly deserted. In search of directions or even a sign I followed the nearest road and stumbled upon a very unfriendly looking gated community on the edge of town; big ugly houses with big ugly cars parked in all the drives, completely sterile and unhelpfully deserted. But here I found a genuine and lovely surprise.
A flowering ornamental shrub was by some magic growing wild at the side of the path, and on it’s flowers danced an astonishing number of Painted Lady butterflies. The nectar laden flower heads tossed in the strong breeze and the insects clung to the blossoms determinedly, everything moving back and forth as if being pulled by a tide. Bees hummed industriously between the butterflies – everything was so intensely involving that the mystery of how I was ever going to get home seemed very far away.
I know most people in the UK have been seeing these lovely butterflies in great numbers since their mass migration here earlier this spring, but I’ve been singularly unlucky and seen hardly any. To find dozens of them all in one place was plenty consolation for the lack of dragonflies and the long, hot, unpleasant slog home.
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Sounds a bit like the last unsuccessful walks I had. But there’s always something positive Mother nature has for us, that makes up for the unpleasant things, no?
Lovely Photos and I love that butterfly!
You know what Nicole, I’ve realised that there is no such thing as an unsuccessful walk – just finding things in the wrong order
I went looking for butterflies and saw dragonflies. I went looking for dragonflies and found butterflies – I guess you just need to be open minded about what you are going to find!
Really enjoyed sharing your adventure! So much fun! And those photos are stunning! Of course, I am rather partial to those butterfly photos!
Hi Gemma, and welcome! Glad you enjoyed the trip
The butterflies were quite a highlight I can tell you now. If I could have photographed what the whole thing looked like with all the butterflies just dancing…. now that would be a photo!
What a wonderful adventure you took me on! You really have a nice way of writing and I felt as though I could picture the whole scene!
The photos are lovely!
And I am happy that you had a nice surprise of butterflies after your flat tire?
So how did you ever get home?
Oh Dawn I was so lucky about getting home. The security guard at the gated community was really nice and helpful – he gave me detailed directions to the nearest railway station which was only a fifteen minute walk. And luckily it was on a line with a stop half an hours walk away from where I live – so I still had to do a bit of walking along busy main roads, but at least it wasn’t nine miles of walking! Carrying the bike over the railway bridge to get to the London platform was no fun at all mind you
I’m glad you enjoyed coming along with me, it was a lovely day despite the puncture!
Love it
…well apart from your puncture! I love the way you wrote this, it sums up so much. The number of times i go in search of glodfinches and find lovely damselflies instead. I am glad you saw the painted ladies, I saw one of the newly hatched ones this morning and almost went running back for my camera…but thought that perhaps I chould consider myself lucky to have seen it and get on my way to work!
Btw, I went on an organised walk last week, never again! I missed loads of things I know, I like to dawdle and sit in the mud if necessary to look at things. Rushing is no good….;)
It’s like you can’t hurry the good stuff – or choose when it will appear! I wonder if my Painted ladies were newly emerged – they did all look very fresh, wheras the one or two I saw earlier in the year were all raggedy. Oh and I know that feeling – seeing something wonderful when you have to dash – well at least it’s there in your memory and sometimes those snatched discoveries are really exciting to think back on.
“I like to dawdle and sit in the mud if necessary”….YES! I think we share that habit ;D
Hi Bird ~ So I guess you must have walked home, pushing the bike?!
When I was little, I used to love lying on my tummy, with my head as close to a pond as possible. I loved the gurgling and bubbling and the insect life. Naturally my favourite insects were water boatmen.
Your descriptions of your adventure are a pleasure to read.
“being in a hurry to get anywhere is just a great big waste of NOW.”
that’s a great quote.
xhenry
Henry, I was pretty lucky! A kindly security guard directed me to the nearest railway station, so although there was a fair bit of pushing the bike (and at one point carrying it across a bridge) it wasn’t anywhere near as hard as it could have been. I should have learned my lesson before now – furthest I’ve had to push a bike before was six miles, and that was six miles too far
And were we separated at birth? I LOVED ponds as a child, and I will still spend all day peering into any body of water if I’m left to my own devices! One day when we own our own home I will have a pond in the garden. I’m almost looking forward to the pond more than the house
Found you on Robin’s blog. Nature has incredible healing power. You can bathe in the power of whatever weather Mother Nature offers, and absorb the energy and wisdom of profound silence. To open the heart enables you to sense more than whispering all around you. It is another version of the language of love.
Hello Liara and welcome! I find the natural world healing, fascinating and at times a really tough teacher. And it’s all around us, always.
What a beautiful place to photograph. The butterflies were great but so were the other shots too. That would be worth a long slog home. I’ve had a lot of dragonflies at home this year and almost caught a pair mating but I must have embarrassed them because they separated and flew off before I got the shot. Good luck finding dragonflies next time but you certainly had some great sites to photograph even without them.
Hi Carver! Riding along the river Lee towpath has to be one of my favourite things to do, there are so many beautiful things to see that you really can’t fail to have a lovely time, I mean, I even had good weather too.
You are so lucky, I would be blown away to see dragonflies mating – I have to say I did get lucky too fairly recently and caught some damselfiles mating earlier this year – that was incredible. Thanks for wishing me luck on my next try at dragonflies, all I need is some proper sunny weather and a chance to get out in it.
Oh, what a great story, Bird. There are so many things here I could go on and on about…plums and sweet peas and getting down on one’s belly and flat tires. I’ve been meaning to get out on my own (sans Lucy and W) to nature search and you may have given me the inspiration to do it. I’m glad that you found the mother lode of butterflies to make your trip worthwhile, despite your flat tire. As usual, your photos are exceptional!
Holly, we could do a road trip and have such a lot of fun if we were not so far apart
Although my cycling probably isn’t up to your standard and I’d really have to learn not to leave important bits of equipment behind! If you got out there on your bike for a nature expedition I’d love to read about it and see the pictures, you have such a wonderful eye and hey, look at my chest puffing out with pride cause you say I’m helping you get round to the idea!
Your photographs are beautiful. I especially like the butterflies. I try to “shoot” them but they never seem to stay still long enough for me to get the focus just right. There are very few butterflies up here in Perthshire this year, although more than last year. So far I’ve seen lots of Whites, a good few Painted Ladies and a few Peacocks and Tortoiseshells. I’ll keep looking. No dragonflies though!
Hello Pyatshaw, and welcome! I think the lousy weather we had during the last two summers made it really hard for the butterflies all over the UK, I’ve definitely noticed more this year and I’m glad you have too! I haven’t seen any peacocks so I’m envious – though I did see a lot of their caterpillars earlier in the year. Butterflies are really hard to photograph, they are so fast and unpredictable! I don’t have that much luck really but I keep trying till I get something and sometimes I’m lucky. One hint I’ve picked up is never throw a shadow on a butterfly – you will make it fly away for sure! Good luck with the butterfly spotting
I really enjoyed this Bird..well aside from the flat. I read the comments and see that you didn’t have to walk all the way home. I find that if I set out to see something, I don’t find it. I wanted to take a walk around the pond to see any dragons or damsels and it was too windy, but when I got to our yard, I saw a mating pair of damsels…It just goes to show that Mother Nature wants to have it her way…Lovely style of writing you have…Michelle
Michelle thank you, and I know just what you mean about things just turning up when they feel like it – you can’t time these things can you? Mating damselflies are fantastic to watch, I guess with living close to the water you must regularly get lucky with things like that!
“Hurrying to anywhere is a great big waste of now” … I think we should all needlepoint that in capital letters and frame it. You are SO right.
I really enjoying going along with you on your outing and seeing the beautiful sights. Your photos are gorgeous. Sorry about the flat, though.
It’s always fun to see what’s buzzing and blooming in other parts of the world.
Hello Vicki and welcome! I’ve gone and neglected my comments so apologies for not answering you till now. It is indeed one of the best things about blogging that you get to see what is going on in so many parts of the world, it’s one of my favourite parts of blogging in fact.
I think many things don’t turn out as we plan, but the rewards of going with it and seeing the other beauty. (But what fun to have a whole day to spot dragonflies. May you get that one day!)
Hi Louise, I do love it when things don’t go quite to plan and yet come out just as well in a different way. Now that summer is on it’s way out I look back on that day as a beautiful, perfect summers day despite the puncture and lack of dragonflies. Sadly I’ve probably missed my chance of seeing many dragonflies this year but who knows, maybe some will still be flying in September when I return from my travels?