Suffolk Roots

I spent a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon, which was a beautiful late October day, exploring some
of the villages my ancestors lived in. I lived in Bury St Edmunds in my early years and most of these
villages are nearby in Suffolk. This is Ixworth where my earliest Buckle ancestor was married in 1713.

Indian Summer

After an indifferent summer late September and the first few days of October
have been fantastic here with record high temperatures. I spent today in
Sheringham which is on the Norfolk coast and somewhere I've been visiting for
over 30 years.

Night time photographs

I also like experimenting with night time photographs. It can be a lot of hassle, with a tripod or something
to keep the camera stable necessary. I took this shot on our recent holiday, in Ste Maxime. I didn't have my
tripod with me so used the sea wall. A bit scarey balancing £1K of camera above the water. More of my night
time shots are here.

Sculpture

I am partial to a nice piece of sculpture. My tastes mainly extend to modern pieces
of work set outside. This was part of Exposition de Sculptures Monumentales by
Nicolas Lavarenne in Cannes, there were several others too. There were also several
nice pieces by Anna Chromy on show around St Tropez. Even around Peterborough there
is a lot of modern sculpure spread around the city. All my sculpture photos here.

French Markets

The French absolutely love their markets. Every town and village has at least one a week and the locals,
and visitors, flock to them. They sell a wide variety of products and many of the french will buy much
of their fruit, vegetables, cheese, meat, etc from markets. All the stalls will have their produce
beautifully presented, this photo is from the flower market in Aix en Provence. A variety of my shots
from markets (mainly french) can be seen here

Summer Holiday 2011

We got back from our tour around France a couple of days ago. After a day in Aix en
Provence we spent a week in Ste Maxime. From there we visited St Tropez, Port Grimaud,
Cannes and Grasse. Next stop was Les Deux Alpes, our first visit in the summer. While
there we did a bit of walking and mountain biking. Final stop was in Reims on the way
home. I took over 400 photographs, they are all on Flickr, this one of Natalie sitting
on the wall at St Tropez overlooking the Bay is one of the best. She didn't know I was
taking it.

Barbecue

Got one planned tonight. This is what it should look like, unfortunately it's peeing down with rain :-(

Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare

I spent most of yesterday at Peterborough Central Park where the last day of the
Peterborough Festival was being celebrated. We spent most of the afternoon watching
the Youth Battle of the Bands competition as my daughter had several friends
competing. They were all very good too. The Hare Krishna guys were in fine voice,
and very good natured, circulating around the crowds.

Fishing!

I took the new zoom lens (Tamron 70 - 200 f2.8) out at the weekend to have a play with. I took this
shot, I think it's a Common Tern, at Orton Staunch in Peterborough. It was circling over the river
catching fish. I was quite pleased with this, I think it has come out well. I also got a couple with a
fish in it's mouth but sadly they are not in focus.

Virgin Flyer!

I was laying in bed at 7.00 am this morning when I heard a strange noise outside. Going to the window
I saw this hot air balloon hovering just above the back gardens of the houses opposite me. We get several
over here in the summer as we seem to be on the flight path but this was lower and nearer to houses
than I've seen before, By the time I threw on a dressing gown, grabbed the camera and ran outside it had
gained a little more height, when I first saw it I could only see the top half above the house directly
opposite and as it was so close (about 40m away) it looked enormous.

Fathers Day!

Well I've had a really good 2011 Fathers Day! I went into Peterborough this morning and watched
some of the Dragon Boat Racing, I took plenty of photographs and some video. Then I made my way
over to Ferry Meadows to catch the end of the 24 hour sailing race Natalie was in. We then went for
Sunday Lunch back in Peterborough. Now tired and full.

On your doorstep!

It's amazing what you can stumble over literally a few miles from home. Travelling from Thorney to
Crowland (both are only 5 miles or so away from home) this afternoon I saw this and stopped to take
a closer look. It is St Vincent's Cross, the remains of a fifteenth century roadside cross between
Crowland and Thorney, moved here in 1990 from it's original position which was only about 150m away.

Central Park

Central Park in Peterborough is a delightful space and I've spent a lot of time there over the years. I
used to play a lot of tennis there and when Natalie was born I used to push her there and back (it's
nearly 3 miles away) in her pram. It's where Natalie learned to ride her bike and played on the
swings and other rides. It's where we used to go inline skating and even setting up slalom cones to
give that a go. I've had countless cappuccino's in the cafe there over the years too,.

Peterborough Cathedral

Peterborough Cathedral really is a most impressive and imposing building. It's right in the centre of
the city but is walled along with the gardens and precinct buildings. Mainly built in the 12th century
it is well known for housing the grave of Katherine of Aragon, Mary Queen of Scots was also buried there
at one time.

Summer in the Alps

I'm looking forward to a few days in the Alps in July/August at the end of my summer holiday in France.
I'm planning plenty of walking, a morning skiing on the glacier and perhaps a day of biking. It will be
my first visit to the Alps in summer although I got a feel for it when I visited last September and had
one decent day when I took this photograph,

New Camera

First day of decent light since I got it, Nikon D90 with Tamron 17-50 f2.8, so I had to go out and take
a few shots. I saw this lovely little motor outside an antique shop in Helpston. I really would like to
invest in a little beauty like that.

Skiing April 2011

April 9th 2011

April 4th 2010


Came back last week from our annual skiing trip to Les Deux Alpes during the school Easter
holidays. The photos above which are views from our apartment show how poor late snow
conditions have been at lower levels compared to last year (and previous years we've been).
Having said that L2A is a very high resort and there was still plenty of great skiing
(and sunshine) higher up.

Sainte Maxime

Just booked the first part of this year's summer holiday, a week in Sainte Maxime which is on the Gulf
of St Tropez facing St Tropez itself. It's an area I know well having visited several times. I took this
photo the last time in 2006, it's from the port at St Tropez looking over the gulf, Sainte Maxime can be
seen on the other side behind the yachts.

First Bike Ride for a long, long time

Due to back problems I hadn't been out on my bike for a long, long time. It was quite a nice day yesterday
although a little windy so I went out for a short (only 8 miles) local ride. This is a track from my GPS.


While I was out I took a couple of photos. This one is of the bridge on the new A16 which has been built
over the Roman Car Dyke. Unfortunately it is subsiding and the opening of the road is likely to be a
year late (should have been August 2010).

St Anton at Half Term

I spent half term week skiing with my daughter in St Anton. It was our first time in Austria and we had a
great time. This picture shows her on the steepish black run leading down to the Zammermoos chair on the
Galzig mountain. There had been a fair bit of snow the day/night before and conditions were very good that day.

4 Musketeers

Not too long to the next skiing trip, St Anton, later this month. I really like this picture of my daughter (in
beige) along with the rest of her ski class in Les Deux Alpes last Easter. The other three are brothers and
sisters (inc twin boys) and we've skied with them and the rest of the family several times now.

Banyan

The Banyan Tree is really quite wierd with its aerial prop roots. They are found all over the tropics.
This one was at Waikiki Beach, Hawaii. There is a huge one covering ⅔ of an acre at Lahaina, Maui but
although we visited there the only photograph I took of it doesn't really show the scale of it.

Agia Paraskevi Church Geroskipou

Agia Paraskevi (St Paraskevi) Church is in Geroskipou in Cyprus not far from where I stayed on holiday a
couple of years ago. The 11th century five-domed (forming a cross) Byzantine church is well known on the
island. The square around it has been sensitively modernised to show it off in a large open space.