A Walk Around the Grounds
Photos: 23 January 2016
Text: 17 March 2026
It was Last Sunday that I took a walk to the Tree House on the main island and April Last Year when I did a slightly longer walk to check on Storm Damage. Today was another bright day and this time I took a walk taking in parts not see in either of the earlier trips.
It was shortly after 13:20 when I took my first photo, of the dyke separating our grounds from what has become known by us as "Peter's Field". It's not an entirely accurate description as it has various distinct areas and here you see three of the trees that are in an orchard area.
Swinging the camera through 90° and you see across to the main island the the Tree House whose main structure was Completed in September last year.
Swinging the camera still further round and you see the Duck House. Typically you see a two foot long ramp leading up to the doorway with the water level a couple of inches below the bottom of the ramp, so we are seeing the lake probably around five inches higher than normal.
It's now just before 13:30 and I've moved on to the short path leading to the lake from what we call "The Dip". It's a short area where there is no spoil piled on the ground from the diggings that formed the lake when it was constructed in the late 1990s. Perhaps, most notable here is the amount of duckweed on the surface of the lake. In most years it disappears completely over winter.
I've moved on again. The the Tree house and boardwalk is seen from what we call "The Peninsula". It's the other end of the U‑shaped area that wraps around the main island. The cottages stand on the other end of the U. It's land leased to the Ruston Reaches Property Company Ltd, a company whose shareholders are the owners of Ruston House and the Cottages.
A few minutes later and I'm back in the grounds of Ruston House looking north-east across the lake to the small reed covered island in the north-west of the grounds.
I'm back on the main island standing on the board walk viewing the area that we planted with daffodils after clearing much of the vegetation here in preparation for the building of the Tree House.
A moment later I have climbed the steps to the Tree House and am looking towards the south-east towards the boardwalk and bridge over the lake.
It's now 13:42 and I've crossed back over the bridge and turned to the right to retrace my steps away from the house. In the distance I spot a Canada Goose climbing ashore. In the picture below you can just make out the goose in the centre of the image. I am looking north up the most western arm of the lake with the small island at the end.
I continue the walk but, rather than follow the path towards "The Dip", I turn left and walk to the south-western corner of the grounds. I take a heavily zoomed-in shot along the boundary dyke back towards the house, in the opposite direction to the very first photo I took. It's now 13:46.
Stepping back from the bank of the dyke, I take two shots of "The Reed Bed". When the property was first built this was intended to act as an entirely natural maintenance-free sewage treatment plant. It seems it was a popular idea that worked well in some areas of Southern Europe, but not in the colder climbs of England. As early as 2004 The Environment Agency obliged the property management company to build a more conventional sewage treatment plant and that operated until 2015 when mains drainage was finally provided in the village.
The final two pictures were taken at 13:50 and were taken as I returned to the house. The first shows the neighbouring holiday cottages. In the foreground is what we call "The Cormorant Perch". It's the remains of two uprights that until last January supported a Fishing Platform, topped with a branch to provide a perch for any bird that chose to use it. The First Bird I photographed using the original stand happened to be a cormorant, hence the name.
The last picture is simply a close-up of the duck house. Thee's just something about the near flooded house sitting in the water and the bright green of the grass and reflections of the holly bushes that appeals to me.
