Some sunny stuff to cheer us up!

Hello All,

I hope that everyone is well. Seems the rain is still continuing here in the UK; as I know that there are some people who visit from abroad, I shan’t presume that you know this. If you are and your country is quite dry, please feel free to have some of our rain, we have too much!! The thing is, though we expect it this time of year, this isn’t “normal” rain as such, this is driving horizontal stuff in great bucket-loads that soaks you in a split second. Well, let’s hope we have a decent Spring and Summer…although I doubt it.

Well, I hope that the pictures, simple as they are, cheer people up. I have quite a few coming from the garden when everything was a lot greener so I hope you look forward to those too. First, the Mischief was caught doing some “gardening”…..

If anyone is worried whether the pigeon was killed, don’t worry, he’s nowhere near that fast

Poor little beggar is really not getting on with this wet weather. Dad even thinks he is depressed in a feline way as he is off his food, refuses to go out unless it’s for important tasks and such. Can’t blame him, we get fed up getting wet and blown sideways and he can’t wear a waterproof and weighs much less!

Next up is a nice cloudscape from the back garden during Summer. Not just clouds though, look a little closer in the middle left……

Like I keep saying, it does you good to look up once in a while on days like this

On my travels on the new bike, although I have a feeling this far back, this was the old bike, I had a good few pictures of the local fields as they became nice and colourful too. In this image, some colour, some cirrus and, in the middle, the Moon….

Some ripening crops on the edge of a village called Rosebush. No, I haven’t got pictures of any roses

Those of you who worry about my safety will be pleased to hear that I have got a new, fancier bike and am currently zipping all over on it. Got some proper muscle building going on I reckon. I took a ride to Haverfordwest on the cycle path the last weekend to buy a helmet and a lock…nearly didn’t get there on a fast bit but it’s all good. Would have been ironic to crash on the way to buying safety gear really. Done a few long rides (20 miles or so) around the local area when it’s been decent conditions so maybe this Summer, I will discover more lovely landscapes.

Moving onto some good stock stuff now, a good load of high coloured cloud with the grassy bank acting as a foreground in the field not so far from the end of the garden…..

Ooooooh, very arty. I think I could frame this one once I sharpen it

And lastly, yup, more colourful clouds. Judging by the fact that these have no border or foreground, I suspect it was as I rode or walked back after the previous picture and glanced up! Sorry about that….

Real colours as ever, hence the darkening in the corners as the lens struggles to cope with the light…nice, even though that happened

Apologies for the lack of in depth subject matter this week, I promise to have some things with a little more interest attached to them next time. Looks like the rain is stopping here now, I might be able to get out on the bike again. Sweeeeeeet.

Well, until next time and with all hopes that I’m not run over on the road (even though I wear a bright orange jacket, this has nearly happened more than once) have a good week. Here’s hoping for dry weather!

Take care and thanks for dropping in!

A mysterious red rock

Hello All,

Well, well, well. I do some of my viewers who came along last week keep coming back. It seems a few days back I got a massive 54 in one day. I suspect it’s my Dad and a good friend in Plymouth using different computers and visiting to boost my ego, but thanks!

I did recently go out in the inclement weather to take a few pictures, but I’m not posting them as yet as the tinterweb is saturated with them and it would be in bad taste following the injuries sustained by people doing it in a foolhardy manner.

You may have seen my favourite beach on the national BBC news, Newgale, as the shingle (well, large pebble) breakwater to the beach which is directly next to the road to St Davids was washed wholesale inland and covered the road to a depth of a few feet. This subsequently let all the water from the stupendous high tides through and flooded one of my favourite coffee shops, dagnammit. If anyone wants these posted, let me know and I’m happy to do so, just pop me a comment. I also have images from Cenarth where the river was a record level flooding the car-park which is usually a good 6 to 10 foot above the water!

But, on to this weeks images and the first one, which inspired the weird title which you see below….

Red? This is not a sandstone red either…it was BRIGHT red

If anyone can account for a moss-covered rock which is this red, I’d love to hear it. I say moss-covered as I have removed from the equation that this may be due to chemical in the water from the fields in the Preseli Hills as some may think as surely moss would not settle. I did this by the time-honoured prodding and scraping of the surface and nowt came off. If anyone reckons it’s expensive, I shall return…..with a hammer.

I am quite proud of a few of the pictures in this entry as I manage to have nailed the use of the shutter and polarizer very well with some of the water shots, not least this one….

Makes for a relaxing wallpaper doesn’t it? Don’t nick it though, I can send you the higher res version if you want!

Bear in mind the water at the extreme right of the image is at least 6 inches deep and you can still see the rocks on the bottom, there’s some skills there I think (I have one two awards you know). A nice scattering of foliage adds to the hues as well.

Now this isn’t a macro, just a zoomed shot but I think it should be entitled “The Silver Curtain” as it looks just like that to me. Again, using a polarizer to cut down reflections and such, you can see the water behind the water and the reflection from the rock isn’t too bad…..

This a little mini waterfall; you can just see the main body in the upper left

I was spoilt for choice of which of the two I had taken in a similar place to post but I decided on this one. Pretty good eh? The sun shone through the trees just at the right time to put rays right into the water which were exaggerated by the longer exposure time I had set; makes for a quite ethereal image…..

Sunrays and water, what a nice combo. Alas, I haven’t seen many of the form lately

As ever, if anyone wants the originals of these pictures, please feel free to ask and I am happy to send them however you want them.

Now the last image, which isn’t as nice as all the others I admit, but is here as a reference point for some more recent pictures I shot after the storm. Basically all the stepping stones you see here have either been washed downstream or toppled over!

All those block probably add up to the weight of a small car and they don’t look like that anymore. Amazing

Never underestimate the power of water. All I will say is that I am glad I don’t live nearby or was anywhere near when the water was that powerful, as those blocks look damn heavy.

Well, that’s your lot for this week as I am back in work tomorrow. Not that I’m complaining, as it’s warmer and drier there than it is outside. Both Dad and I were lamenting earlier of the state of our cars! It will dry out some day.

Cheerio! Thanks for stopping by.

Happy New Year

Hello everyone

Happy New Year 2014 to you all. It’s all been a bit mad here so apologies for the delay and what will probably turn out to be quite a short post this time. As ever I am working through the cards I’ve downloaded, which aren’t in any particular order….so I’m still working on Summer 🙂 

To give you an idea of whats coming up, it would appear that I had a few runs out so there is a trip to Blackpool Mill, my favourite waterfall (which I really must visit again sometime with all this rain we have been having), some flowers, loooovely cirrus, a few storms and such. There will also be a star appearance by the only feline in my life, Mischief the cat, who decided to be very photogenic this Summer as he loves the sun.

Firstly, back to Summer and away from this blooming awful weather. It was a very good season for optics in the form of sundogs, arcs and some lovely high clouds. Don’t ask me why, as I am no expert apart from a little knowledge about refracted light in ice way up high; but they look pretty.

Some good strong colours of this arc mixed in with clouds here, very nice

Next up is the rumble through the hedgerows I seem to do on occasions; in this instance, I found a very handsome bunch of thistle family flowers in the sun. Seems the bees have busy on these as you can see traces of pollen here and there over the flowers which I picked up pretty well I thought. Ironically growing in Wales, this is the national emblem for Scotland. I suppose I should have sought out some daffodils or leeks instead! Bit of a rotter this plant, grows all over and no particular use that I’m aware of apart from being quite well defended by umpteen prickles.

Looks nice, but squint and look at the stem covered in spikes!

Thankfully the next subject stayed still long enough for me to get a good shot with it (mainly) in focus. A hoverfly. With a passing resemblance to a wasp or bee, this poor little thing gets batted away by many people at barbecues during the Summer, but is actually very useful and eats aphids and such by the shedload. Hooray! Ask anyone who likes roses, aphids = bad medicine. Shame the sun wasn’t directly on the flower for this picture but hey, that’s life.

Not sure of the flower, but just managed to snap this hoverfly resting before it nipped off. Busy bee!

Next I’m branching off to the local Summer animal inhabitants around me. Most Summers we get a small collection of cows in the fields behind us, although this Winter we currently have some very hardy (and extremely wet/windblown) Welsh ponies. There always seems to be a leader in the group of whatever is around and this black cow is one of those examples. As I took the pictures, it was striding up to me with no problems whatsoever, so he got a tickle on the nose and a handful of nice grass from the other side of the gate.

“Oi! Get out my blooming field, weird two-legged cow. Oh, you have grass, that’s fine”

Well, here he is. Mischief. So named because, frankly, he is just that. he causes no end of headaches with his demanding nature when it comes to meals and has an annoying habit of rushing off (running slightly sideways as he always does) and creating chaos in the living room when he doesn’t get his way. Mind you, I’m not sure the house could be without a cat as they do inject a certain something to the environment. More of him to come…..

One of the few moments of not running around like a nutcase that Mischief does, once the sun is out.

At the moment, he is bored stiff. Even though he looks like  a bit of a moggy bruiser here, he hates wind and rain so most days of late he is having a good kip on a bed or the top of my fish tank. Well, why not, it beats working I suppose.

Well that’s that for the first post of the year. Hope you enjoy, thanks for dropping in and keep tuned for the next load in the future. Happy hangovers!