Archie Comes to Visit

Simon and Gabi brought Izzy, Katie and Archie to lunch today.  Meredith played fetch with Archie until we had to call a halt because he was exhausted!  Child and dog in perfect harmony.

Grasstrack Bikes

At the windswept Woodwalton track today.  1/60th sec. was not really good enough to get sharpness, but the speed blur is good.  (300mm lens.)

Not In My Remit Today

I dropped in to Duxford to look for tailpipe pictures (see 10th April 2012) and while transiting between hangars I saw some pretty planes: Mustang, Stearman and Moth, VC10 and V1.  

Shooting Birds

Trying to get the birds alighting on the feeder meant pressing the shutter release well before you could see them in the viewfinder.  The Blue Tit was perched on the right-angled branch top left, and as soon as s/he left it, I pressed the release - the top three pix are taken at 1/6th second apart, and Ann's rapid shutter started up at the same time.  We were about four metres from the feeder and the Blue Tit reacted as if s/he had been shot out of the air!  The bottom frame is separate, but is another reaction to shutters.

Wicken Fen

Apart from egrets (medium and large) and a glossy ibis, the fen was a bird-free zone and we spent our time in the Clarke hide photographing feeder antics.

Sadie

August Bank Holiday was very wet, so I got out the camera.  Sadie doesn't like having her photo taken and usually reacts with exaggerated smiling.  I prefer the intensity of her glare, as if I had pulled Churchill's cigar from his mouth.  There's real steel in this look.  Once she's involved watching a video, she relaxes.

XH558

The Vulcan as we would have seen it pictured in the 1950s; as a baleful silhouette; topside detail and in the frame with a Thames barge.  It was designed by Roy Chadwick of Avro, who designed the Lancaster.

Clacton Air Show 1

Lots of traffic on the road to Clacton, to see the Vulcan and the two Lancasters.  The Sea King gave a display of lifesaving.  

Le Chateau de Fougeres

Over a thousand years old and reputedly the largest fortress in Europe, it is certainly big and extensive.  We had crepes in front of the main gate (in the reverse pic from the castle we were under the red umbrellas).  The watchtower in the two lower pictures is the same one.

Le Manoir de Keringant

Ann in the kitchen/living room of our 'give', and the view of the manor house from the door.

Perros-Guirec Places

'English' pub in Perros-Guirec with entertainments, 'The Red Dragon' cider and the obliging and ever-open (when the rest of France was shut) mini-mart.

The Abbaye de Beauport

On the coast near Paimpol, the abbey featured the usual monastic husbandry, catching fish and making wine and flourished in the Middle Ages.

Religion in Brittany

Mostly Catholic, but with some 'naive' or Gothic touches, like the chapel at Ploumanac'h and the church at the top of the hill in Lannion (why not make the faithful work for it?)

Keraduel Castle and the Radome

The castle was gearing up for a huge antiques fair that was being advertised all over Tregor (the region of Brittany we were in).   The Radome at Pleumeur-Bodou was the European receiver for Telstar back in the early 1960s.  Ann's dad worked on the project as part of the GPO's involvement (we had a radome in England, too, in case the French failed to complete theirs on time!) and Ann visited the area on holiday.