Unbridged Ford, Shotesham

It may still be warm, but the autumn smells and colours are certainly drifting in.

Early

The UEA Broad, Norwich, early last Sunday morning.

April Waters: Sparham Pools

The flooded site of former gravel workings in the Upper Wensum Valley.

The Vinegar Pond

The Vinegar Pond, on Norwich's (in?)famous Mousehold Heath. A dew pond formed from old gravel pits and wartime manoeuvres with military vehicles which supposedly packed the earth down tight enough to facilitate standing water.

As I took these I had a fairly random conversation about graveyards with a guy who looked like Alan Moore. Started to rain soon after. Good for the pond, I suppose.

Floodlands

After days of rain, sleet, snow - not to mention the small fact of last year being the UK's wettest on record and leaving much of the ground totally saturated still - the woodland and marshes around the University of East Anglia grounds have flooded quite beautifully.

Arch: Forgotten UEA Bridge

In the woodland grounds of the UEA, somewhere behind the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. Off a track that mainly seems to be frequented by dogwalkers is this little bridge, curving over what is barely a stream. I think in the summer months this pretty much dries up completely. I couldn't tell you its age or anything about it: at a guess, I'd assume this little site was once part of the grounds of Earlham Hall.

Whatever it is, I like this little arch. Equal part fairytale, equal part romantic.

The Norfolk Loch: Loch Neaton, Watton

Initially glimpsed on an OS map and the cause of a sudden burst of bafflement and excitement - a loch? In Norfolk? - yet the reality wasn't quite the hidden, ancient, Celtic-magickal body of water I had been imagining.

The creation of Watton's Loch Neaton is traced back to the 1875 extension of the Thetford - Watton railway line to Watton - Swaffham. Massive earth excavations were needed to build the track up over the low-lying land of a nearby hamlet - Neaton - and the area of the excavation would become an entire leisure park by the early twentieth century, the craters being filled with water from the River Wissey. During its history, the park has hosted tennis courts, a bowling green, fishing, boating, swimming, even (when winters were winters) skating.

Today, of course, there remains little of any note. A picnic area. Beer cans around the charred remains of (prohibited) barbecues. Dead pigeons. Signs warning against swimming, unlicensed fishing, rats spreading disease. The weather didn't help my mood: heavy grey skies, greasy late-spring drizzle, lake water the colour of cold tea. Other, more photogenic, images online suggest the lakeside can be as picturesque as anywhere else, but today, the magick was definitely lacking.

Oh, and the 'loch'? In honour of the Scottish labourers who excavated the site all those years ago.