Category: Photo

Meet Pippa


We are looking after a friends pooch while she is recovering in hospital.

Meet Pippa

Her name is Pippa and she is a Shih Tzu . Pippa is on the go all the time, follows anyone who moves about the house. So far she is settling in quite well considering the many feet that have been passing in and out of our house over the last couple of days. It must seem quite daunting to her as her normal home is a lot quieter than ours.

The nice thing is that she doesn’t bark very much. The reason I mention this is that when we are visiting her normal home she barks at us continuously even after we have been there for a while. So far the only barking she has done is in reaction to people at the door or something she has heard in the back garden. Absolutely perfect.

This morning I had her sprinting round our garden. I’m guessing she doesn’t get to run free very often so I wound her up and off she went doing circuits and every time she came past me she gave a little rumbling growl as if to say “Look at me go !!”

Anyway, we have her for about a week, all things being equal, then she will be back home with her mum.

I think we might miss her when she is gone.

Cracking Up


Tuesday was not a good day for me. It may yet turn out to have been an expensive one too.

I dropped my camera !!!

It landed right on the end of the lens. Although the lens cap was on, the Skylight filter was smashed.

Ouch !!

It actually took me a while to get the lens cap off to discover the broken filter. Now I am wondering if the lens mechanism is damaged. It seems to be working but who knows how the optics are working. I have cleaned out the broken glass but have found it impossible to remove the actual filter ring.

This is bad news as it indicates that the filter thread on the lens is damaged and this will prevent the fitting of any other filters.

I will be looking into claiming on my insurance but cannot remember if we specifically mentioned camera gear.

Watch this space.

Opportunist


Opportunist Cat

Opportunist cat decides to settle down on the mats from my wifes car. I guess the black rubber had absorbed some heat from the autumn sunshine that we are experiencing today.

Bonfire Night


Spent last evening at a firework display held on Stockheath Common, Leigh Park. This is the annual display that is put on by Havant Borough Council. As this was the first time that I had attended this event I really didn’t know what to expect.

Given the weather we have experienced over the last few days we were granted a dry but chilly evening. Temps down as low as 2degC. However the common was very squidgy and with the many hundreds of feet tramping around the fun fair the grassy ground was rapidly transformed in to mud.

Jungle Fever

However, despite the conditions underfoot the event was well attended and the council provided a good display. The following are a couple of shots, my first attempt at taking pictures of fireworks.

Leigh Park 2012

The images are not quite what I was expecting ………

Leigh Park 2012

but I am quite pleased with the overall results.

Leigh Park 2012

Taken using my Canon PowerShot A570 and all hand-held …. next time I’ll have a read of the manual and a practice before going at it for real.

The Inn On The Beach


Today I had lunch at The Inn On The Beach , Hayling Island.

The Inn On The Beach, Hayling Island

Along with my wife, grandson and a longtime friend over from Australia we spent an enjoyable few hours reminiscing and catching up.

The “Inn” provides good food in nice surroundings with a beautiful views across the Solent to the Isle Wight and along the coast from Portsmouth to the West to Selsey in the East. This a great venue regardless of the season.

When we arrived the weather was cold and quite breezy. By the time we had finished eating the wind had dropped and the clouds had rolled away. The sun was dropping rapidly and illuminating the shoreline beautifully.

The following view is to the west and in the distance you can see the Portsmouth skyline including the Spinnaker Tower, the floodlights at Fratton Park and it is just possible to make out St Marys church.

Hayling Beach Huts in the Autumnal Sunshine

This view is to the east and when viewed full size you can just see the Selsey shoreline merging with the horizon.

Hayling Shore view towards Selsey

I believe that, when the conditions are right, the south coast and especially Hayling is as good as any mediterranean location.

Staunton Park


Saturday and we had blue skies and sunshine following several days of mist and murk. We paid the price of course with a chill wind blowing strongly.

I have my grandson over from Australia for a few weeks and he has a new camera to play with for the trip so we took the opportunity to get out and visited Staunton Park situated between Leigh Park and Rowlands Castle, near Havant.

We were hoping that the trees would be showing their autumn colours but we were somewhat disappointed. I think we were too early. However, we did enjoy the walk and took some photo’s.

A selection of snaps follows for your delectation, the first of which is a view over Leigh Lake.

Leigh Lake viewed from the site of William Henry Stone’s house.

The following photo shows part of the countryside that will over the next few years, planning consents permitting, become a fairly large reservoir
Although Stones house has long since been demolished there are many signs remaining of the old buildings. Not the least of which are the arches below.

Underneath The Arches

Of course the main reason we were there was to partake of the natural beauty. One aspect of the natural world which offers so much variety is that of the fungi.

Fungus
Grey Fungus

These cattle make for a quite peaceful scene even though the wind was blowing quite hard.

Longhorn Cattle

The following photo is of part of land which will eventually end up under water as part of a proposed new reservoir.

Site Of Future Reservoir

In the woodlands there are a number of items which are I believe intended as both art and education for children. There is no description near this but I believe that it is intended to let children hear magnified sounds of the woodland. It can be rotated through 360 degrees. I, for want of an alternative christened it “The Mukkinese Battle Horn” after the famous short film featuring Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. Nearby there was another item which is a concave / convex mirror. We had much fun with it which I am sure the children would too.

Mukkinese Battle Horn ?
On Reflection

And to finish our walk, as we returned to the car park, this chap came to see us off. It was a shame that he was disappointed by the fact that we had no food to offer him. This is probably why he didn’t display his tail feathers.

Peacock

View From The Conservatory


I hung this feeder a couple of weeks ago, loaded it up with bird feed. So far they, the birds, have ignored it. I’m guessing that they have plenty of other food sources which is why they haven’t touched this seed. With all the wet weather the seed has sprouted. I thought it would be worth a photo.

I guess the birds aren’t hungry. Hence the overgrown feeder.

View From The Conservatory


I haven’t posted from the conservatory for a while. But here are three items to make up for it.

The first is a shot of a Red Admiral, a typical summer visitor who was making the most of our Buddleia or Butterfly Bush. At least in this case it was living up to its name. Most years we have hundreds of flowers but the butterflies don’t come until the flowers have turned brown.

Red Admiral - Vanessa Atalanta
Red Admiral – Vanessa Atalanta

The next is of a Green Woodpecker. Not such a regular visitor to our garden but a welcome one all the same. We do see them in the area and this is the second time in recent months. This was taken through the double glazing so I consider this a lucky shot considering that I had the 300mm lens on as well which makes it a bit more difficult to keep the camera stable.

Green Woodpecker - Picus Viridis
Green Woodpecker – Picus Viridis

And finally a bit of humour. I was just mowing the lawn and popped indoors for a cuppa tea. When I cam back out my mower had all but disappeared. I blame it on this mixed up summer weather that we have had this year.

I only popped indoors for a cuppa

Ducks


I’ve been messing with some old photo’s. Just experimenting with the digital tools on my puter. I quite like the effects so I thought I would share.

I believe these two pretty birds posed for me at the WWT Arundel Wetland Centre back in 2009.