Thoughts on my pics

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My trip to the Historic London Town & Gardens (aerial photo) was a very pleasant experience. The day started overcast with a thin layer of clouds. Because of my great luck with bright direct sunlight I was hesitant to go but decided to give the lighting a chance. I discovered that this kind of lighting has some benefits over direct sunlight in that there are few or no shadows and the lighting is more even and not so harsh on some types of subjects. However, the clouds burned off before long and the day was brighter than I expected.

Admission to both parts (The William Brown House, which is the main feature of the town, and the Gardens) is $7. One or the other is $4 each. I bought the $7 tour which also provided me with two brochures, one containing a map of the grounds with the trails shown and markings of features of interest and the other a brief history of tidewater trade and travel. These are both very nice and enhanced the experience.

The Historic London Town & Gardens is split into two parts as suggested by the name. The garden is where I spent most of the 4 hours on the site (open that day from noon to 4). The flower gardens cover less space than it seems to. It has trails that wind around and the number of attractions are packed in fairly well. This is a terrific place to spend some time. I got the feeling I get from some places of peace and well being here. I seem to get this most often when I am alone in a beautiful place. In fact, I am not sure words can really describe this feeling. There are a wide variety of flowers and plants in the gardens. There is also a small pond where I found two mallards taking a mid day nap. I only posted pictures of the female because the male was fairly well hidden in some tall plants. I think the photos of the mallard came out pretty well. There were also some Osprey and Gulls flying over head and I got a few pictures of those. I got a pair of pictures of an Osprey carrying some lunch but the camera didn’t focus fast enough (and I wasn’t patient enough to let it) so the pictures are slightly blurry but I posted them anyway. I think they came out well enough.

There is a guided tour of the William Brown House which lasts roughly an hour. Photography was not permitted inside the house so I am not able to provide any photos of the interior, but I did post a couple photos of the exterior to the album. The tour is very interesting and the guide described life during the era the house was being used, the various items in the house and some stories of some of the individuals that lived in or passed through. There are also other buildings on the property as well as an active archaeological dig in a tent which I was able to enter and see the cut lines in the dirt and some of the items in the layers. No one was doing any digging on this day, however.

Outside the house I was able to get some great photographs of a groundhog. There is also a “tenement”, a tobacco barn and some other structures of interest on the property. There is a dock on the river near the house with a bench next to the water’s edge. The bench is placed a little too close to the edge for comfort as far as getting in and out go, but it is a great place to get a view of the river and some of the critters in the area. There is quite a bit of boat traffic up and down the river, but you can’t really hear it when you’re not right on the river’s edge.

This is a quiet, beautiful and peaceful place and I am glad I live only a few minutes away from it. It is very likely that I will be returning to this place at least a couple times more this year.