Day off

A very easy day today. I took a day off as I'm away for the weekend in North Yorkshire so I wanted a day to do all the things that I normally do over the weekend. So I headed into town and had a haircut, did a bit of shopping and had some lunch. The haircut is always an experience, the young lady who cuts my hair is a real bundle of fun and never stops talking, I know her life inside out by now...I'd never go there with a headache or a hangover as she is simply never quiet...bless her!

When I got home I set about doing loads of washing and ironing ready for the weekend away. I'm looking forward to it, as long as the weather holds up. It looks like rain for much of tomorrow, bright sunny spells on Sunday and mixed weather on Monday. As someone who loves photography I can do with pretty much any weather apart from rain, in fact bright blue skies are never good for photos.

I'm hoping to get up to the Ribblehead valley and take some shots of the Ribblehead Viaduct and Penny Y Gent so a bit of cloud and mist would be great.

As for today's photo...well I think I need to get out more as these are two of my kitchen helpers, Roberto the chef and Frank the boiled-egg-holder. Roberto comes out quite a bit to help round the kitchen but Frank is quite shy and isn't seen that often. As for the other friends at the house, well apparently I'm the only one who can see those :)

Have a good weekend!

Walk round Beverley at night

I've had an odd day. Started off with some inspections before heading into the office where I was the only one from my team in. That's a mixed blessing as you can get your head down and crack on with work but it means everytime the phone rings or a new job comes in I have to deal with it. Thankfully I found time to catch up with some files and reports which are now all done and dusted.

A colleague came back from her inspections shortly after lunch which was lucky really as I had to nip out and do some more site visits. I headed over to the Wolds and then to Bridlington before finally heading home to Beverley. I seem to spend more and more time in the car these days, not good when petrol is so expensive!

I forgot to have the camera in the car with me today so instead of having lots of photos from my travels out and about today I decided to have a walk round Beverley after dark and see what I could see. I started by walking down the Beckside, this used to be a hive of industry at the beginning of the 20th Century, mainly tanning industry...but that's all gone now to be replaced by flats and plush beck side developments. It looks great, don't get me wrong, but there is no sense of what used to be there now.

Then I headed down to the Minster which looks amazing all lit up. The lighting is funded by local donations from the people living in the town. Maybe I'll look into it and see if I can fund it for a week or a night. Do my bit :)

I'm so glad I don't work for Alan Sugar!

One of my favourite TV shows starts again tonight, The Apprentice. I just think the whole thing is so good to watch. They obviously are all ego-maniacs with a little bit of business sense thrown in.

I think the problem is that the show has become so well known and gets so much media coverage that any characters will shine through and get exposure on the telly and in the print media when they eventually get fired. So many of them will see the show as a springboard to a career in show business rather than a real job opportunity with Sir Alan Sugar.

I suppose the producers know what they're doing when they pick the likes of Katy and Tre in last years show, and also who can forget the rows between Paul and Saira in 2005. In reality you'd show each and every one of them the door in the first interview, but they made for spectacular telly. Hopefully there will be more of the same this year.

The photo shows a copy of the financial times (money), some batteries (power), a bluetooth headset (yuppies), sugar (Sir Alan himself), a knife to stab your colleagues in the back with...and some fire...d!!

P.S..... you're fired!!

The end of the Daffodils?

Busy day back at the office today after the weekend enjoying time with the family...oh and chocolate too. The day started off really sunny and with a beautiful blue sky so after taking care of some air quality monitoring equipment in Beverley I took a drive through the countryside to the office, stopping on the way to take a couple of shots of the Daffodils at Hotham, a lovely hamlet near North Cave. The Daffodils were looking a bit worse for wear after the rain, wind and snow they've had to endure these last few weeks. I grabbed a couple of shots and headed off to the office, thankfully the photos didn't come out too bad.

The day at the office was spent catching up on paperwork and meetings, a good day really, productive anyway. Tonight I've got more CMS project work to do, which is coming along nicely.

I've also been asked by a reader of this blog if they can buy a print of the photo I did showing the York Minster stitched together from 59 photos. You can see it if you click here. I was really surprised as it came out of the blue, and very chuffed. Thank you Mark, I hope your friend likes it.

Sunset on the Westwood

I was unpacking and generally sorting things out at the house after a weekend at Mum and Dad's when I noticed the sky turning a nice sunset colour so grabbed the camera and went out for a walk on the Beverley Westwood. The sky was a lovely colour but way too much cloud obscured what would have been a lovely sunset.

I was freezing after hanging around watching the sky change but on the way back to the car I bumped into a friend of mine taking her dogs for a walk. She was just on her way back to the car, but as we don't see each other that often we decided to do one more lap of the Westwood with her dogs and have a catch up. By the time we got back to the cars though we were both really cold :)

Off in search of snow on Easter Sunday

We awoke to find a light covering of snow at Mum and Dads on Easter Sunday but Chris and I decided to have a drive up into the Peak Disdtrict in search of some proper snow! We went over to Stanage Edge and had a walk there, it was freezing and blowing a gale. The snow was pretty thick and kids were even building snowmen and sledging while their patient parents huddled round for warmth while they waited for them to slide down the slope. The views were amazing and after taking a few photos and getting the cobwebs well and truly blown away we headed down into the valleys.

Our first stop was the Derwent Dam where they practiced for the famous Dambusters raids. I love it up there as the scenery is spectacular. We were hoping to see water cascading over the dam due to the snow melt but we may have been a day early as the snow hadn't really begun to melt. I was disappointed as I've never seen it, other than in other people's photos, maybe another time!

We then went for a walk over the Ladybower Dam and managed to see the water flowing down into the sink holes near the Dam, I'd never seen that before and it was quite a sight. After a few photos and a bit of a walk we headed home for a hot chocolate and a seat by a radiator :)

Snow on Easter Saturday

Easter Saturday, headed down to Mum and Dad's for the Easter weekend and a bit of a family get together as Chris was there and my Uncle Billy. Great to see everyone again.

Didn't do too much on Saturday other than lounge about and read, eat and drink. At about tea time the snow started and started really heavy, but as the old saying goes "big snow, little snow / little snow, big snow" the fact that we had huge flakes meant it was short lived flurry of snow. Quite exciting though, and odd to see any snow at all over Easter!

We had a visit in the late afternoon from Chris's friend Cathy and her adorable granddaughter Nicole. She really is the sweetest baby you've ever seen, so quiet and with a lovely smile. She say and played for ages and didn't get bored or cry once. Very nice. I hope I'm not getting broody :)

Walk over the Beverley Westwood

The forecast for the weekend is pretty bad so before all the rain came I went for a walk across the Beverley Westwood, a huge park on the edge of Beverley. We're so lucky having this open space on the edge of the town, it has so many weird and wonderful bylaws which pretty much mean that it can never be built on. It has a golf course over about a quarter of it, then there is the racecourse too. In the summer months the Westwood is home to a large herd of cattle which get everywhere, even on the golf course! It's a really nice place for a walk.

I took the camera with me today but hardly used it as it was so windy and had begun to rain really hard. It's awful here now, very wet, windy and really dull. The snow clouds are forming on the horizon to the north-west so hopefully we'll get some snow later :)

Have a great Easter everyone!

Miserable rainy day

Well I don't know what happened to spring. I was out doing inspections and visits for much of the day again today. So just before lunch I decided to escape the rain for a while and parked up in a pub car park in Beverley and did some paperwork while I waited for it to open. It was The Molescroft near the roundabout on the road out of town towards Driffield and Cherry Burton.

I often go there for lunch as it's quiet and they serve really good food. It was worth the wait in the car doing the paperwork though as I had a lovely steak and mushroom sandwich :)

Got the day off tomorrow as its Good Friday. Not sure what to do yet, the forecast for the weekend is pretty awful so I'll probably make the most of the rubbish weather and get on with some of the CMS project work. Then its off down to Mum and Dad's for a big family get together on Easter Sunday...and of course some chocolate eggs :))

Food for a thank you :)

Today was a busy day with inspections this morning at a quarry then onto a petrol station. When I got to the petrol station they had closed as the power company had cut the power off to do some work, thankfully I managed to find the paperwork I was looking for and did what I needed to do. Although the alarms going off in the store were driving me mad!

Then I headed off to the office where I had a lovely surprise waiting for me. A few weeks ago I'd helped out a lady at work's daughter with some problems she'd been having with her computer. Today, Hilary, the lady who's daughter I'd helped out, brought in lots of food she'd cooked at home for me as their way of saying thank you. I was really touched, it was so nice of her to go to all that effort, even though I told her on numerous occasions there was no need to.

It's all homemade and smells delicious. I've got stew and dumplings (my favourite), lemon meringue pie and an apple pie.

Yummy!!

CMS project work, then getting ready for a busy day of inspections tomorrow

I had an OK day today really. This morning was spent getting on with the CMS group project work. I did the majority of my section and was pretty pleased with it. There are only a few more things that need to be tweaked and then added in and it's done. I then went over to the pub to meet up with the rest of the project group for lunch and to discuss the project and agree the way forward. I've opted to have each section emailed to me for collation, which I don't mind as I'll get a better idea of where we are with it all then.

After lunch I headed off to the office to make a stack of phone calls to arrange inspections under the Pollution Prevention and Control Act which all have to be done by the end of March. Thankfully most people were available for visits so I've got a few lined up for tomorrow. Off to inspect a quarry, a petrol station then off to move some air quality monitoring kit all afternoon. SO I've dragged out the old faithful Dr Marten steel toe capped boots :) Should be fun as long as it doesn't rain....worrying thing to say in March!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Its that time of year, everyone comes out with an Irish accent and drinks the black stuff :) Personally I hate it and only bought a bottle today so I could make up a photo. I cheated with the Shamrock on the top and did a bit of Photoshopping to blend a Shamrock from another photo onto mine - hopefully it doesn't look too fake.

But as for the Leprechaun, well I've no idea where he sprung from...maybe it's true, they do exist!

I've had a day off today, it's my compressed day so I've been busy doing very little. I've got some CMS group project work to do tonight ready for a meeting we're having tomorrow but most of it is done it just needs tinkering with so it shouldn't take too long.

It's really cold here today and very dull. I don't know what happened to Spring, hopefully it will come back again soon.

This made me smile

Music: All The Same, by Sick Puppies.

www.sickpuppies.net

Robin Hoods Bay

Today I headed up the coast to one of my favourite place to take photos on the North Yorkshire coast, Robin Hoods Bay. When I got there I was amazed to find a parking space in the little car park at the top of the hill so I parked up and headed down the hill. The clouds were beginning to form so I knew the weather was about to take a turn for the worse so I took a few shots looking down into the town and sure enough the rain came. I went and found a cafe and had a sit down for a bit before trudging back up the hill, stopping several times to enjoy the view, not because I was out of breath you understand :)

I headed home to Beverley and on my way I stopped at Morrisons in Scarborough for some food shopping. As I got back to the car I noticed the rear tyre on the passenger side was almost flat, I knew I didn't have a "wheel-removal-tool-thingy" in the boot as I'd cleared out most of the boot the other day so I jumped in the car and slowly set off in search of a garage. I knew it was Sunday but I hoped against hope that I'd find somewhere. The first few I passed were all shut and I could hear the wheel making more of a noise so I knew I had to stop riding around on it soon. I was just about to ring a mate I knew who lived in Scarborough for some help when, like a light on the horizon, a Kwik-Fit appeared. I pulled in, as they were open, and the chap told me they'd have it done before 4pm! Great news! So I went off for a walk to kill the two hours before 4pm and eventually my car was fixed so I went on my way. Good old Kwik-Fit.

On the way home between Driffield and Beverley I had a very pretty young lady behind me in a Peugeot 306 and she was singing along to every song on the radio, she was really animated and so funny. Thank you, whoever you were, you really cheered me up!

A very misty walk at Spurn Point

After last night I needed some fresh air so set off down to Spurn Point for a walk. I've seen so many great photos of the place but every time I go there the weather is awful and today was no exception.

The area was covered in a blanket of mist with a very light rain which didn't help.

I had a walk around and eventually settled for a few shots of the jetty. I was using my new ND grad filter which seemed to help darken the mist a little but I need more practice to make sure I can control it's effects the way I want to. Maybe it's more suited to shots with a level horizon, the fact that the jetty came in from the top corner of these shots didn't help as the filter made it very dark. I may try again tomorrow if the weather is half decent and take a drive up to the Yorkshire Dales. I enjoyed the walk though and I feel a lot more refreshed for it too :)

The final image is processed using a texture and a multiply layer. I like the effect, and may have a go at making some of my own textures.

CMS night out

I had a night out in Beverley today with a group from work. It was the whole group from the management course I've been on for the last year or so. We all get on so well together that we're sad that the course is coming to an end and as such have vowed to make sure we keep meeting up socially and professionally to keep in touch.

We had a curry at Akash in town, all in all we were in the curry house for nearly three hours and the food was superb. Then we went to a pub in town for a drink and a good catch up. It was a great night and we had such a good laugh. I took this photo before the night out, it depicts the essentials for a good night out which involves a curry...smellies to make you feel good, mints to hide horrible curry breath afterwards, and money to pay for it all :)

One of the problems with having a DSLR camera is it's not very good to take out with you on a big night out! So I made sure I had a photo in the bag, no matter how rubbish it is, before I went out, just in case I was a bit worse for wear when I got home.

Happy Birthday Lib

I went over to Leeds tonight to see my friend Lib who was up there for a few days. We've been good friend for years and but hardly ever get to see each other so it was great to see her again. It was her birthday earlier in the week so I took her for a meal in town which was lovely. We went to Ask and had pasta dishes and they were so tasty.

After a good natter I took her home then headed off towards Beverley. Then I realised I'd not taken my photo-a-day so had to park up on the edge of the city and take a walk in. It was quite nerve-wracking given that I don't know the city too well, it was pub-kicking out time, and I had about a grands worth of camera kit over my shoulder. I found the Town Hall and got a few shots as it looked lovely all lit up then walked back to the car.

After getting very lost in the Leeds city centre roads I eventually got home about 1am. I had a great night, Happy belated Birthday Lib and hope to see you again soon.

Mmmm comfort food

I was on a course at the Environment Agency today over in Leeds. It was all about the different techniques for contaminated land remediation. It was OK, quite interesting in parts, but not that well presented so it was pretty dry. I was glad to eventually get home and tuck into a turkey loaf sandwich. I'd made one for my dinner last night and had enough left over for a sandwich.

I love turkey loaf, it's so tasty. You can find the recipe by clicking here

I've got more work to do tonight and over the weekend, but it's not long now until the end of the month so hopefully the pressure will be off once the new financial year starts. So I'd better get on with it :)

Deadline day

I finally got my assignment done. This one has been a toughie and I've put it off and off and never really wanted to sit down and get it started. Consequently it got left until the last day or so before it was due in. I did take all the papers and books and laptop with me to Berwick but I couldn't face ruining a weekend away so left it until I got home.

It was all about how Management Information Systems are utilised in the workplace and what the manager's role is in ensuring their effectiveness with regards to service planning....yawn!

I hope I've done enough to get through it. Fingers crossed. It was difficult to find any papers to support my arguments and the textbooks didn't help too much.

Anyway, it's done now. I can finally relax and I'll clean the mess up by the computer tomorrow...maybe I'll have a bonfire :)

New filters

A quick blog...my new Filters arrived today from http://www.7dayshop.com/

I got:

ND8 solid

ND-grad grey

CLose up +4

All 72mm for my new lens :)

Best go...got an assignment to write for tomorrow :(

Day out in Edinburgh with Ruby

I'd been invited by a Flickr friend, Ruby to come meet up with her in Edinburgh for the day while I was staying at Berwick. I took her up on her offer and I was really glad I did. I met up with Ruby at the Scott Monument and off we headed into town for a coffee and a fascinating historical tour of Edinburgh. Ruby has such love and passion for the city and she truly bleeds blue and white Scot so she was able to tell me so much about what makes Edinburgh great.

We had a drink and a raspberry & white chocolate muffin, then off for a walk down the Royal Mile, taking in the Cathedral, hidden burial grounds, the only legal place in Scotland you can spit (so spit we did!) buried streets, ghosts, the Scottish Parliament building, and then off for lunch.

We hardly stopped talking all day and I found her great company. I hope to be able to meet up with her again as I'm sure there is more of Edinburgh to see. Hopefully she'll take her new bike out for a spin down into Yorkshire one day and let me return the favour. Although I may have to brush up on the history of the area to match her ability :)

Thanks once again Ruby, I had a great day.

Bamburgh Castle

When I got up and had my breakfast it was blowing a gale in Berwick and lashing it down with rain. I checked the wind direction and seeing it was coming from the south I decided to head towards it hoping it would blow over me and leave me with nice weather to enjoy. So I headed down the A1 to Bamburgh and went over to the castle. No sooner had I got out of the car did the wind pick up and nearly blew me off my feet. Then the rain came and it looked like my plan had failed.

I decided to kill some time by going for a look round the inside of the castle. Having paid my £7 I trudged up the hill into the wind to get to the castle. Even though it is a beautiful building I was very disappointed walking round it. It just seemed to be full of objects with no real effort put into explaining the history of the place, such a shame really as I bet it has some stories to tell.
After my walk round the castle I came out to find a break in the weather so took a walk along the beach to take advantage of the views back across the sands to the castle. By this time the sun had come out and it was beautiful.

I'd recommend a visit to the area as it is lovely, but maybe avoid going in the castle and spend your money on a pint and some food at one of the local pubs instead.

A weekend in Berwick-upon-Tweed

I decided to have a few days away so took the opportunity to stay at my aunty's house in Berwick-upon-Tweed for the weekend as she was away on holiday in North Yorkshire. I love Berwick and always look forward to spending a few days here.

I lived in the town for a few years when I was younger and my Dad's family has always lived there so its a regular holiday break away for the family.

Berwick is a beautiful town, surrounded by walls that offer great views of the town and out into the North Sea.

After I'd arrived I got some food then headed out for a walk along the walls with my camera and tripod. It was Friday night and the town was pretty busy with people out for a drink but thankfully I didn't get bothered by too many drunken locals. It was so windy though so I'm quite pleased with how sharp the photos came out. See much more on my Flickr page.

Springtime

Spring seems to be finally here. I spot loads of spring flowers on highway verges and woodland on my travels but only three daffodils so far have made an appearance in my front garden. Unfortunately one had been knocked over either by the wind or someone walking down the path so I thought I'd save it from getting trampled and make a photo out of it instead.

I took several shots of it and messed around with the lighting but when I got them up on the computer none of them looked to be any good. So I played around in Photoshop CS2 and came up with the shot I've posted here. I'm pretty pleased with it as its the first of it's kind I've ever done. I used a texture I downloaded from a lady on Flickr who makes them for other people to use and then altered several layers to get this result. I like the effect and will try it again.

As for my day...well don't ask!

Relax with a DVD

I'd had a very busy day at work today so I was shattered once I got home. I fixed something easy for dinner, a stir fry, and settled down to watch a DVD. I'd bought Saw IV the other day, more to complete the series on DVD rather than a real desire to see the film...even though I'd really enjoyed the first two.

Well, what a gory film! I'm usually OK with films like this and don't often feel too queasy but there were scenes in the film that made me want to really look away!

As for the film itself, well if you liked the others then chances are you'll like this one too. It's not great and it'll never win an Oscar but then it's not trying to.

If you watch it, make sure you leave the lights on and have a cushion nearby to hide behind!

Lunch at Betty's

I popped my Betty's cherry today and entered one of the finest English Tea Rooms for the very first time. Betty's, a Yorkshire based posh cafe/tea room chain, is a firm favourite amongst the Community Friend Flickr group so I thought it time to give them a go.

I was in Northallerton for a meeting this morning which conveniently finished just before noon so I decided to treat myself to a lunch here. I wasn't disappointed, the food was superb and the service excellent, although the meeter / greeter / seater was either having a bad day or she didn't like the look of me!

The only downside or upside depending on your point of view...was that I was easily the youngest in there by a good 35 years! and felt quite out of place with my newfangled mobile phone and camera. Thankfully I was in work trousers and shirt, as I think they'd have booted me out onto the pavement if I'd dared go in there in jeans.

Having said all that though I had the best club sandwich for lunch I've ever tasted.

Northallerton was a nice place but the parking really confused me. I pulled up outside Betty's and was really pleased with myself for getting a space only to get out of the car and see a sign saying Disk Parking only. I assumed this meant Disabled Discs so I got back in the car and went off to find another space. Everywhere I looked all i could see were parking bays for Disc holders...now I know Northallerton probably has quite an aged population but this was getting ridiculous. I drove round in circles for a little while before following signs for what I assumed was a pay and display car park set back from the main town area. Only to get there and find it was another disc area. I finally did what I should have done in the beginning and read the sign properly and found the whole town has free parking as long as you display a free blue disc which you can get from any shop or public building. Feeling a bit silly I parked up, got my disc and had a saunter off into town.

Maybe they have that system in place to keep those with a lower than average IQ out :)

I'd been away for the weekend seeing the family and spoiling Mum for Mother's Day so when I got home I had the washing to do then a huge pile of ironing. Now I'll do anything to get out of doing ironing so I set about sorting through the CDs on the shelves in my bedroom. I have about 200 up there and they are never in any sort of order and more often than not the right CD is never with the right case.

After an hour I wished I'd never started - what a nightmare!! It ended up taking my about an hour and a half just to do those 200 or so. I've got another 200+ downstairs in the living room but they can wait for another day. I tend to listen to those in my bedroom more than those downstairs so they'll keep for a little while longer....for a day when the ironing pile gets even better no doubt.

I've had an email from my friend Ruby today and I'm hoping to meet up with her this weekend in Edinburgh as I'm in Berwick for much of the weekend seeing some family so that will be nice. I've met so many cool people from Flickr and made some really good friends so the more the merrier.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day Mum. I've come home this weekend to see Mum for Mother's Day. As usually she was playing golf with Dad so I got up early and made them both an Egg's Benedict for breakfast before they left. I then got busy preparing the dinner for tonight, slow cooked lamb with carrots, parsnips, leeks and roast potatoes.

After Chris had got up and we'd had our Egg's Benedict too we went off to the Peak District for a walk and some photos. The weather was kind but the wind was blowing so strong in some places it was hard to even stand up.

Hopefully dinner will taste nice tonight, I can smell it cooking as I write this and it's making me very hungry.

Chris has made a homemade banoffee pie with chocolate brownie on top for dessert so I'm really looking forward to that too.

Happy Mother's Day Mum, love you lots xx

Visit to York with Rebekah and Daniel

I had a day out in York today with Rebekah and Daniel. It was a great day. I met Rebekah and Dan at the Minster and we went for lunch at a lovely place just round the corner. Rebekah and I had the soup while Dan had the pie of the day...all very nice and reasonable prices too. Then we went for a walk into town where we found an incredible busker. His name was Ed Alleyne Johnson and he's a former member of the New Model Army and plays the most incredible electric violin. We listened to him for almost an hour before heading off.

Dan needed a new camera so we went to Jessops where he bought himself a very smart Nikon Coolpix compact camera. I then took Rebekah and Dan to York Minster for a look round. It was the first time they'd both been there so it was nice to see their faces when we walked in as the place is truly amazing. I love the size and scale of it. We went down into the under croft then had a good look round the Minster, taking lots of photos, before heading back through town to the park and ride buses.

I had a lovely time, it was great to meet Rebekah again and to say hello to Dan. The photo for this blog entry was taken inside the Minster