Outer Hebrides – Harris and Lewis

 Holidays, What I do  4 Responses »
Aug 142013
 
Outer Hebrides - Harris and Lewis

The last leg of our self-drive holiday was based in Stornoway, the capital of the Outer Hebrides, where we spent three nights in the Royal Hotel. Before reaching our destination, we had to take another car ferry journey from North Uist to Leverburgh in the south of the Isle of Harris. As we crossed over to Harris, on waters that were so shallow that we could see the bottom on many occasions, we could see the landscape ahead of us was more mountainous than on the other islands. We were yet to find out just how desolate and wild the [Read more]

Outer Hebrides – Eriskay to North Uist

 Holidays, What I do  4 Responses »
Aug 102013
 
Outer Hebrides - Eriskay to North Uist

The second leg of our Outer Hebrides self-drive tour began on Eriskay, and a visit to the Am Politician pub. The name of the pub celebrates the island’s main claim to fame which is the World War 2 shipwreck of the SS Politician and the consequent liberation of its cargo of whisky. The sinking of the SS Politician is immortalised in the novel, and later film, ‘Whisky Galore’. After half an hour in the beer garden, again in glorious sunshine, we started the three-hour journey through Eriskay, South Uist, Benbecula and North Uist to out hotel for the second leg of [Read more]

Outer Hebrides – Barra and Vatersay

 Holidays, What I do  3 Responses »
Aug 052013
 
Outer Hebrides - Barra and Vatersay

The first leg of our self-drive tour of the Outer Hebrides was on Barra, and its neighbouring island of Vatersay. Our arrival on Barra was spectacular, to say the least. We travelled over from Glasgow International Airport on a De Haviland Twin Otter aircraft, specially adapted for landing on a beach – yes, a beach! Barra Airport is one of the few places in the World where scheduled flights land on a beach. The airport is situated in the wide shallow bay of Traigh Mhor at the north tip of the island. The airport has three runways, marked by concrete poles at their [Read more]

Outer Hebrides – an introduction

 Holidays, What I do  3 Responses »
Aug 032013
 
Outer Hebrides - an introduction

On Thursday 18th July 2013, my wife Sandra and I went on a self-drive tour of the Outer Hebrides. The seven night holiday started with two nights in Barra, at the southern end of the islands, followed by two nights on North Uist and concluding with three nights in Stornoway in the north of the islands. The holiday was arranged by Hebridean Hopscotch, a company based in Stornoway, and specialising in holidays in the Outer Hebrides. The company chose and booked the hotels, booked the ferries necessary to travel between the islands and arranged for a hire car to meet [Read more]

Time lapsing in Herm

 Computers, Holidays, Photo galleries, What I do  2 Responses »
Jul 042013
 
Time lapsing in Herm

Since I bought a webcam for my weather station a couple of years ago, I have been interested in time-lapse photography. My weather station software uses still images taken by the webcam and makes them into a video. Every ten minutes, hour, day and year, a video is produced and uploaded to my weather site. Bracken House Weather videos page While these videos show some interesting weather events, I have recently been experimenting with creating my own time-lapse videos. For my first experiments, I chose the island of Herm in the Channel Islands. I downloaded an application called Webcam Time [Read more]

Explosion captured on webcam

 What I do  No Responses »
May 112013
 
Explosion captured on webcam

An explosion in Belper, some ten miles away, was caught on my weather webcam today. The explosion was over the horizon, put black smoke can clearly be seen on the video before it drifts across the valley over to Bracken House. Within five minutes of posting the clip to YouTube, I was contacted by the Derby Evening Telegraph, and East Midlands Today, to ask if they could use the clip. The newspaper used the clip, along with a quote I supplied them with, on an article on their website, but the television programme didn’t use the video. This is easily [Read more]

Hoisting the flag

 What I do  1 Response »
May 102013
 
Hoisting the flag

On Tuesday 7th May, I took part in a photo shoot at Nottingham Castle to publicise that the Nottingham post code has the most lottery winners in the East Midlands. Camelot produced a National Lottery flag which was hoisted up the Castle flag pole, and flew there for the day. The Nottingham Evening Post photographer was there to record the occasion and I was photographed with Maid Marian, Site Services Co-Ordinator Katie Inglis. We were photographed around the flag pole, in front of the Castle, and on the roof, but as always, only one shot made the paper. I tried to [Read more]

First taste of cricket in 2013

 What I do  1 Response »
May 022013
 
First taste of cricket in 2013

After taking a year out of cricket after a seven-year stint as press officer for Langley Mill Cricket Club, I approached the 2013 season with doubts about whether I still wanted to follow the game. Having a year out enabled me to take more holidays than I previously would and to spend more time in the garden. The appalling weather during the 2012 season meant that I barely missed the game, so I wasn’t expecting much when the start of the 2013 season arrived. During the close season, I received an email from the Nottinghamshire Premier League saying that Mansfield [Read more]

It’s been a while …

 In the garden, What I do  1 Response »
Apr 252013
 
It's been a while ...

There are two important factors to consider when writing a blog – what will I write about and will I have the time. It is now 14 days since I last put fingertips to keyboard, mainly because I seem to be busy doing other things, and when I do get a few minutes to spare, I’ve had little inspiration to strike the keys. During my two-week absence from my blog, the cricket season has started. Until a couple of years ago, this was one of the highlights of the year. After seven months of dreary weather and cold nights, the [Read more]

Volunteering at the Arboretum

 What I do  1 Response »
Apr 112013
 
Volunteering at the Arboretum

On Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th April 2013, I joined a group of 40 or so National Lottery winners and Camelot staff to help with some gardening tasks at the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas, near Burton-Upon-Trent. Before travelling there on the Monday afternoon, I had heard of the Arboretum, but I had no idea of the scale of the place. Most of the volunteers stayed at the delightful Swinfen Hall Hotel, about ten minutes from the Arboretum, but owing to so many wanting to attend the project, myself and five other solo male volumteers opted to stay at the [Read more]

A busy and interesting day

 In the garden, What I do  No Responses »
Mar 192013
 
A busy and interesting day

Today started with blue skies and Sun, although it was still cold, with a good frost. However, I decided that I would spend the day outside catching up on a few jobs I still have to do in the garden. Things didn’t go to plan as BBC Radio Derby wanted me to do an interview on what it’s like to win the lottery, as part of a piece about ‘The Syndicate’, a programme on BBC TV about a group of people who win the jackpot. Don’t ask me what it’s like as I haven’t seen it. I was interviewed by [Read more]

HS2 puts question mark over Bentinck Pit plan

 What I do  4 Responses »
Mar 092013
 
HS2 puts question mark over Bentinck Pit plan

After years of political wrangling and protests, the Nottinghamshire County Council Planning Committee gave the go-ahead to ambitious plans to create an outdoor recreation park at Bentinck Tip, just outside Selston. Local activists successfully fought plans to create a huge landfill site when the Council past plans in November 2012. 100 new jobs were planned for the site which would give a major boost to the local economy. The Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust have been involved in discussions to make sure care is taken to protect the large diversity of wildlife present at the site. Plans for the site also include [Read more]

 Older Entries  Newer Entries