Stanford Hall Founders Day

24-07-17

An old friend of mine (whom I’ve known since I was 8 years old) and his wife very kindly took me me on a visit to Stanford Hall, Leicestershire for the annual Founders Day motorcycle event on the 23 July. It must be 20 years or more since I last visited, and that was for the Classic VW show. I had a thing about Beetles at that time, wish I still had one. The weather has been a bit patchy over the last week or so but we were lucky yesterday, it kept dry and we even had some sunshine. I took my Olympus EPL1 with me to get a few shots of the bikes, didn’t take too many as it can be quite boring for people who aren’t taking photo’s.

Stanford Hall

BSA Golden Flash

BSA V Twin Sidecar Outfit

The BSA was immaculate

3 Wheelers

I would love one of these !

Indian

All in all a great day out with good company.

Ruddington Trains

03-07-17

I’ve been sorting out some digital files on my portable hard drive and found some images taken at Ruddington, Great Central Railway, Nottingham about 3 years ago. I had only just bought my Olympus EPL1, and thought it would be a good location to test it out.

 

Thursday Doors

29-06-17

Here’s my “Thursday Doors” contribution for the excellent Norm 2.0 blog.

I went into town today to meet up with my photo walk buddies not really intending to do a door walk. The weather was cold and drizzly (nearly turned the heating back on) so not that good for taking photographs, but after a cup of coffee and a catch up we made our way to the old castle area of the town and the Newarke Houses museum.

Museum Gateway & Entrance

I used to visit this museum as a young kid, mainly to see the Daniel Lambert exhibit, he was once the heaviest person in England. Next Friday they are having a talk about historic Leicester so we are going to combine this with another photo walk.

Museum Door Detail

Castle Gateway


They think the gateway dates from the fourteenth century. The furthest building you can see through the gateway used to be a courthouse, when I was at printing college we went to the public gallery to watch a hearing as part of social studies.

Houses Through The Gateway (and doors)

St Mary De Castro Church

There’s some interesting history about the church here. There used to be a spire on the church but it had to be taken down when it became unsafe.
After this shot the battery in my camera gave out so I had to use my mobile for the next few.

Around The Graveyard

The walls are part of the old castle and apparently the holes are where they used to point canons (armory not ecclesiastical) through.

Grave Monuments

Gateway

Finally I couldn’t resist this gate at the side of the museum.

A Few From My Garden

28-06-17

I’ve been meaning to post these images for a little while. The weather is back to normal UK summertime at the moment, raining and quite chilly.

I took these on my Olympus EPL1 with the old Russian Helios 58mm lens and an extension tube.

First Rose

This was the first Rose in full bloom in my garden, it’s has a lovely scent.

Along Came A Spider

Peony

I only have one Peony in the garden and it’s flowering always seems to coincide with blustery rainy weather, so sadly it doesn’t last very long.

In The Garden

Well it’s taken me a long time to shake off my man flu but I felt much better yesterday, the weather helped, it was actually sunny and quite warm for a change. So a catch up on the garden chores were desperately needed.

I read a few weeks ago much to my disbelief and dismay that garden plants from many DIY stores and nurseries have been treated with insecticides that can be deadly to bees. I really don’t understand this, one of the reasons I buy plants is to attract wildlife, not kill it. But it makes money for big chemical corporations I guess !!!!!!!!!!!. The film “Idiocracy” comes to mind. The good news is one of the biggest DIY chains in the UK is no longer going to sell plants treated with insecticides, hopefully the others will follow their lead.

After the lawn was mowed and shrubs were pruned I took the camera into the garden to get a few images of some of the flowers, they have had a hard time this year with the cold and rain.

In The Garden Today

Thought I would spend the day pottering around the garden, having a slight hangover I thought the fresh air would do me good. It was a lovely sunny day but the wind was cold.

Reason For The Hangover!

 I really enjoy seeing this band they are called “The Moonlights”, and the venue had 2 beers I hadn’t tried before, well that’s my excuse.

Lavender Bud

Bluebells

Grape Hyacinth

Corn Flower

Rhododendron

Forget Me Not

Lavender

Clematis

Clematis

It’s a bugs life

I used my Olympus EPL1 with an old Helios 58mm lens and extension tube. It was quite tricky getting the shots because of the breezy conditions and really narrow depth of field. It’s lovely to see the signs of spring well underway in the garden, not so good to see the amount of work I need to do.

Thursday Doors

13-04-17

Managed a short visit to Oakham in Rutland this week, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutland) the weather forecast was reasonable and it’s only two stops down the line from my hometown. It’s been a long time since I visited Oakham for sightseeing, used to go there 2 or 3 times a month for business when I still worked. It’s a lovely old market town and most importantly has a fine selection of doors for my contribution to the excellent Norm 2.0 “Thursday Doors” Blog.

Oakham Cemetery

You can see the cemetery from the railway as you enter Oakham, it looked interesting so went straight there from the station. I know it’s not really a door but it’s a lovely building and entrance way. The lodge is Grade-II listed.

Oakham Cemetery Chapel

On the High Street

Partial selfie !

The Dentists Door !

Can’t have too many Blue doors.

All Saints Church

The Post Office

From The Side Streets

There are some lovely cottages along the side streets, a lot of them are constructed from the local stone and many have thatched roofs. Really enjoyed the visit to Oakham.