October Review

Actually let's start with the end of September - my birthday - and to surprise me Jude took me away to somewhere I'd never been before - the Isle of Man!

This was an extraordinary place to visit, starting with the journey there which involved flying from George Best Airport in Belfast to Ronaldsway near the southern end of the Island - in an aircraft equipped with about 12 seats and two propellors!

Here's some snaps from the island...

Sunset from Port Erin


Lady Isabella, the world's biggest Water Wheel



Jurby's Bookshop - where do you start?



Snaefell, highest point on the Island



In terms of Astronomy, October was an interesting time - the IAA held excellent talks as always including an inspiring talk about his adventures in the USA by our own Past President Dr Andy McCrea...



Observations include M15, a better looking Globular Cluster than M13 to my eye, though of course 47 Tucanae is the champ - southern hemisphere only I'm afraid!



Other observations included an early morning Orion...



A colour enhanced Moon...



And a rising Leo with Saturn below...



We also had some excellent sunsets of the "volcanic" variety - here's me at Lough Neagh...

Weekend in Sussex

We were able to spend a much too short weekend in Sussex which enabled me to visit a few places while Jude was on a course. So here's a whistle-stop tour of Sussex....

The Jack & Jill Windmills - this is Jill...



The Blackberry Season in full swing...



The Seven Sisters viewed from Cuckmere Haven...



The Big Sky, Brighton Beach...



The Harvest Moon made it's presence known low in Saturday evening's sky - this is actually a day before the Full Moon...



And an excellent pair of Sundogs taken from Woking in Surrey...



So that was an excellent trip!

Yorkshire & The Lakes

We had an excellent though somewhat wet trip across to Yorkshire for a few rounds of golf followed by a couple of days in the Lake District.

Here's just a few snaps of the excellent scenery on offer...


Rainbow over Flamborough Head


Bridlington Boats


Gull in Bridlington Harbour


Looking Down Honister Pass


Waterfall near Buttermere


Grey Squirrels can drive as fast as they like!


Waterfall near Honister Pass


Some cheekily named Cumbrian Ales

A great trip - the best advice would be to stay away from the tourist traps of Windermere, Ambleside and Keswick and seek out the unspoilt areas away from these places.

Busy May!

May was such a busy time - first off we spent an excellent week in Venice, a new place for both of us though we went with friends Phil and Carol who had been before so knew their way around, which just as well as we'd probably never have found our apartment with out them!

Having heard that Venice was an expensive city, the more so with the current strength of the Euro, we were pleased to find the local off licence which was very cheap indeed - prices here are in Euros per Litre and bringing your own bottle is appreciated!



We saw all the sights, drank Bellini cocktails at €15 a go in Harry's Bar, drank wine and beer in St Mark's Square and even went for a very short ride in Gondola just across the Grand Canal - this costs 50 cents as opposed to the €100+ for the longer trip.

A gallery of the photos from this trip can be found here:-

Venice Gallery

Also here is a five shot panoramic view of the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge.

No sooner were we back from Venice than we were off again, this time to England to attend the wedding of our friends Peter and Sally's daughter Sarah. This was held in the magnificent location of Lympne Castle in Kent which commands splendid views over Romney Marsh and all the way to the Dungeness Nuclear Power station whose location clearly underlines the strategy of building these stations as far from anywhere as possible, presumably in case they blow up!

The Noctilucent Cloud season should be starting soon - I have one somewhat uncertain sighting from 14th May though we are expecting much better sightings - the low level of sunspot activity appears to be related to good NLC conditions as seen in the past two years.

Some More from Sussex

Here's a couple more from my weekend in Sussex.....

Boats on Seaford Beach



Brighton Pier a bit before sunset



Brighton Pier a while after sunset



Speed



Speed 2



Seven Sisters

999 miles

As is usual around this time of year, we made our annual pilgrimage to Bridlington on the East Yorkshire coast for some golf, scenery and the best Fish and Chips in the country!

Here's me on the approach to the 9th at Bridlington Links short course.



We then stayed at the Cow and Calf Hotel on Ilkley Moor where I climbed to the top of the rocks to converse with a local gentleman.....



Later on we witnesed a most unusual sunset as the sky filled with Lenticular Clouds...



As the sunset progressed Crepuscular Rays joined the scene - these are the rays which appear to originate below the horizon...



I also took a Panoramic View of the Dusk here...

We went for a ride on the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Railway in North Yorkshire. Very good although the realisation that one is covered in soot afterwards makes one realise that this isn't a technology that should be reintroduced on a grand scale!



We made a little diversion to see the Ribblehead Viaduct on the Settle to Carlisle Railway - a spectacular piece of engineering in a great location...



We then headed north to Aysgarth Falls in North Yorkshire - these are the Upper Falls...



Then we stayed with a friend in Northumberland and came home through Scotland. All in all a most enjoyable trip, just under 1000 miles in a week!

One week, over 1000 miles.

We've been on our holidays over to England where the weather has been atrocious and the traffic congestion seems to get worse ever time. Still, we covered over 1000 miles visiting family and friends.

We also attended the "Concert for Diana" at the new Wembley Stadium. This is a really impressive structure although its public transport connections aren't really up to the job of getting the number of people the stadium can hold in and out efficiently. The concert was excellent though - being of the same age as Diana would have been had she lived, this was like having many of my favourite bands all together in the same concert! If one were being critical then one might suggest that having fewer bands could have resulted in less turnaround time between them, but that's always going to be a compromise.

Here's the view of the stadium from our seats....



I briefly visited my old university on the way down. Despite the passage of 24 years since I graduated not very much of what was there in 1983 has changed, though there has been much added to the place, most notably a Science Park that used to be fields in my time! Here's me at my Halls of Residence, home for the first two years I was at Keele....



Here's an example of the weather - this is July remember...



And finally, I managed to take a magnificent panoramic from Holme Moss...

This is a view across the Yorkshire countryside from the top of the Pennines with the town of Holmfirth in the foreground, Emley Moor TV station in the distance and the Drax power station even further in the distance.

England in the Monsoon Season

No, not a "Global Warming" rant, just that my recent visit to SE England consisted of rain, rain and more rain! Not that it detracted from the enjoyment of the journey - seeing family and friends is always good fun. But in the almost four years since I left the overcrowding and traffic congestion has become very obviously worse and there seems to be no solution in sight.

We visted the Brooklands Museum in Surrey. This is a marvellous collection of items from the days of Motor Racing and aviation. Here's some of the exhibits.....





I've created a couple of panoramic shots, both taken in Sussex. These are best zoomed in and panned across.

Firstly, the beach and cliffs at Rottingdean......


Secondly, Lindfield Pond.....

It was good to see that in the 34 years since I moved on, all that has changed about my last Primary School is that a fence has been erected around the Infants' playground!



I think that, like most people in the UK, I am getting roundly fed up with being told what I can and can't do. So I was most amused to see this sign in Rottingdean, East Sussex.....



The trouble is, I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm being told not to do. "Don't play Noughts and Crosses while swimming in the sea" was all I could think of!

And here's a snap from the A319 that brought us home.....

An excellent weekend

This past weekend we visited friends Phil and Carol in Leicester.

During the course of the weekend we visited several places in the East Midlands and the Peak District including the following...

The Heights of Abraham at Matlock Bath

Barnsdale Gardens

The Jungle Club - the Best Curry in Leicester!

Here's a Robin and a sample one of the thousands of flowers at Barnsdale Gardens...





And of course, the Bluebell season is at its best...



A great weekend - unfortunately I have returned with the cold from hell :-(