Ebley Mill on the Stroudwater canal

We got home yesterday evening from our west country holiday and after a long and busy day down in Devon, the drive home took it out of me. Today I could hardly get back into gear and the various bits of work that I needed to do seemed to take an age. But while I was away the first public event of the neighbourhood plan initiative seems to have been very successful.

I have been thinking about the four blip days that I need to catch up on, but couldn't face ploughing through all the pictures yet. After I picked Helena up from work, I stopped the car at the bridge over the river Frome where we often look for swans to blip. On the way there I had seen a heron standing in the river bed and luckily it hadn't moved. I hadn't brought a camera but Helena always has hers and she managed to get a picture before the heron flew away which she has posted today.

I dropped her at home then went shopping for some food for supper and a treat for Bomble who wasn't very happy with his rations while we had been away. I went to the Sainsburys on the edge of town and then as I was about to go home I decided to stop by the canal on the west side of town. I wandered slowly for a few hundred yards between the canal and the river Frome, towards Ebley Mill, on the off chance of an interesting blip arising.

I was quite intrigued by the various birds I saw, including various odd ducks and their young, moorhens and their chicks but sadly there was no kingfisher. A white pigeon started to walk along the towpath towards me, and then I realised it was actually probably a dove. It walked right up to me as if it knew me, and it was only then I realised that it was probably a trained pigeon used to human contact. I saw it had four separate rings or tags around its feet, each with a number on it. But just as it reached my feet a runner approached on the towpath and scared it into flight. I would have liked to have had a close view of it.

Instead I turned around and looking towards the setting sun I took this picture looking along the Stroudwater canal of Ebley Mill, the local District Council offices. they moved into the old converted water powered mill, astride the river Frome, and beside the newer canal, with its chimney dating from later times when steam power became dominant. I thought I might use it for a Mono Monday blip, but on checking that just now, I see it has to be conveying the notion of 'Motion' today, which my image is wholly lacking. Ah well. Perhaps next week.

I hope to do some back blipping tomorrow and maybe adding some other images to a Flickr holiday gallery. We shall see.