Archive for August, 2007
Natalie Imbruglia: Glorious
Friday, August 31st, 2007
The beasts from the East
Monday, August 27th, 2007The weather really has been very un-Bank Holiday like this weekend, and so before the predicted rains come again tomorrow, we made the best of the sunny skies today, and buzzed up to Lowestoft, to see Mum and Ean.
We’ve not been for a while, and so made an early start, arriving as a table-filling buffet lunch was being prepared. We’ve all not had one of those for years, and as the quartered sandwiches were brought to the table, memories of early Sunday evening buffet teas came flooding back.
Everything was there, from sandwiches to sausage rolls, from crisps to crackers to crusty bread. It certainly gave us a pre-lunch appetite, especially after we’d planted four small Hebe bushes, and had sat chatting. And, maybe a little too contented afterwards with what we had eaten, we set out to find an easterly geocache, flushed with the walk and travel bug liberation from Saturday’s stroll in Loves Green.
Mum even tagged along, too, adding another dimension to the walk across the lush green fields of Carlton Marshes. Stopping en-route to take a look at Britain’s most easterly point – Lowestoft Ness – we stood under ‘Gulliver’, which at 80 metres high, is the UK’s tallest onshore wind turbine. Obviously the most easterly, too, the sound of the blades scything through the blowy skies above the North Sea was eerie, yet comforting, the white points catching glints of sunlight as they went around, casting imposing shadows over the glittery rocks.
Smile! Nik shoots Gulliver
The Carlton Marsh geocache took us back to Oulton Broad, the sound of the Regatta Day powerboats carrying across from the nearby broads. It was in complete contrast to the trek across the rutted farm tracks and fields, though (made harder for those of us wearing open-toed sandals), with the silence only punctuated by the occasional moo from the fields of inquisitive Fresians, only a few months or weeks old.
Three’s cow-pany
Finding the actual treasure heralded a first. A pair of geeky-looking fellow geocachers had already found our reward, and wouldn’t move until we had done the same. It was the first time we’d ever stumbled across other treasure seekers, and after assuring us that they were in on the game, we decrypted an additional clue that led us to the bounty. After dropping off the travel bug we’d collected from Essex only two days before, we wrapped up and hid the treasure box back away from prying eyes, ready for someone else to come and find it.
It was in many ways, another enjoyable day like yesterday, full of family fun, good food, and very nice weather. All of which seem to be a reoccurring theme, for this weekend at least.
Wings and Wheels
Sunday, August 26th, 2007
The Red Arrows wowed the crowds at Wings and Wheels 2007 with their aerobatic acrobatics
Today was all about those magnificent and their flying machines. Dunsfold Park in Surrey is the home of Wings and Wheels, the annual August Bank Holiday Sunday air show, and is where we found ourselves for a few sunny hours this afternoon.
Better known as the home of BBC’s Top Gear, the former WW2 airfield was not only alive with the purr of four-wheeled vehicles’ engines, but also the buzzing of propellers, and the ssh-ing of deafening jet trails. The name of the event speaks for itself, as modern and vintage cars take to the track, and planes of shapes and sizes sketch a gallery of smoke pictures in the sky.
Arriving just after lunch, we were greeted by the sight of the dancing Chinook, making seemingly effortless pirouettes above us. The sight of something so industrial and imposing enjoying a deftness of touch hitherto reserved for much lighter aircraft, really was spectacular, and so very noisy. It was going to be a good afternoon.
The weather certainly played its part. Bright sunlight caught the wings and polished bodies of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and everything else that took to the sky. The fluffy clouds even eventually gave in, and departed to leave a flawless blue arena for the aircraft to play in.
The Red Arrows, always crowd pleasers, didn’t disappoint. Searing through the sky at very high speed leaving red, white and blue trails, their enthusiastic, energetic, and stunt-filled display brought admiration from young and old alike.
Striding in the sky: the Team Guinot wing-walkers
Admiration of a different kind was bestowed upon the breathtaking Team Guinot wing-walking display, with the young female stars delicately balancing on the wings of the eye-catching bi-planes, carrying on an age-old tradition. Or at least that’s what the commentator thought, describing the girls as ‘chicks’ and ‘honeys’, in an amusing commentary of political incorrectness.
Other personal highlights included the Black Cat Lynx helicopters of the Royal Navy. Although much smaller and agile than the twin-rotor Chinook, they were no less impressive. Skirting around and above the runway, they scurried through the skies, before taking a final bow for the appreciative crowd.
All in all, there were around 4 hours of flying displays, with something for everyone, meaning all air fans were catered for. The static motoring displays diverted attention from the sky to the ground when the planes weren’t flying, with MGs and Triumph Stags rubbing Best of British shoulders with Astons and Jaguars.
Tales of daring-do: the Battle of Britiain Memorial Flight
With the weather playing its trump card, a family get-together, a lovely lunch, and most impressive air displays at a seemingly familiar location giving us opportunities to improve our zoom photography, it was another enjoyable day out to add to our summer 2007 show tally.
Deer Hunting
Saturday, August 25th, 2007Today, the first fine weather all week gave us the perfect opportunity to get out and about in the Essex countryside. So, we motored out to Loves Green, the scene of a previous geocaching afternoon. We weren’t there to primarily search out treasure, though.
The area is well-known for deer sightings, and it was the possibility of seeing a herd of the graceful animals that had lured us into the shaded and sometimes dimly-lit woods this afternoon. We had to wait even less time than we thought before we saw something.
As we started to walk down the sometimes muddy rutted field track, the tall wild stubble to our left moved and two heads popped up above the wavering stems. Swivelling around like submarine periscopes, they surveyed the view to the left and to the right, before sighting us some distance away down the path. We just had time to reach into our bags and retrieve our cameras before there was movement again.
The cut stubble moved gently once more, and with a ssh-ssh-ssh-ssh, the deer elegantly leapt through the field, their heads and bodies bobbing up and down, like funfair carousel horses. Coming to a clearing in front of us, they revealed themselves to be a pair of parents with a young fawn. Surveying their surroundings once more, they thought better of us and disappeared again into the gently undulating landscape.
Pleased with our first sighting, we carried on down the path, carved out by walkers and bramble pickers before us, and into the often muddy woods. Eventually remembering where the well-hidden and well-stocked cache was, we liberated a travel bug and signed the geocachers’ log. Many pages of the log told tales of lucky deer herd sightings, while others conveyed less fortunate stories.
Walking through the field which yielded a far away and fading light herd sighting when we last visited in January, today there was nothing. Vowing to come back in the summer seemed so far away all those months ago, and we did think back then that we would be luckier than we were today.
Wildlife is precisely that, though; wild and unpredictable. So, the pictures here will have to do until the next time, but, I think we were happy with what we had seen, even if it was through our zoom lenses.
I Heart Cats
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007
It’s true. I really do love cats. The thing is, I obviously already know this. But, it’s always nice to have it pointed out to you again, and to join a group of like-minded people who share your interest.
Except of course, I didn’t. It’s just one of seven spam messages which have been clever enough to beat Orange’s rogue email filter today and have landed in my inbox. Apparently, I’m also working as a bartender and need some guidance; I’m looking for entertainers; I’m waiting to hook-up online; I’m job searching (and strangely, résumé hunting); I’m a lover of wines; and am also a web player (whatever that means).
I didn’t realise I was into, and looking for, so many things.