16/06/2010 by Aileen.

Well, yesterday I wasn’t too bad, but today I jumped out of bed to get ready for Birding, and it all came back with a vengeance. Norma was going to pick me up as I can’t drive, but I had to cancel her, and it’s just as well, as I’ve been feeling dizzy most of the day. It’s a shame, as we were going to a new place, and afterwards Norma and I were going to visit a former birder who is really ill and is having respite care at the moment. He and his wife are so brave. We’ve watched Steve get weaker over the year (some wasting  muscular disease I think)

Anyway, yesterday I was well enough to go for a walk, and spent a lovely couple of hours in the morning up at the Newport Nature Trail, yards from our house. Saw bullfinches, whitethroats, avocets, song thrushes and the usual suspects. Here are some photos from there and from our garden.

Posted in birds, health, photos | Print | 1 Comment »

05/05/2010 by Aileen.

We went to a new venue for Birding today. An organic farm. From the car park we saw two deer, and on setting off along the (small) River Hull I saw a trout leaping out of the water. Not sure who else saw it, as I didn’t hear any oohs and aahs, but I’ve never seen anything like it before.

We also had really good close-up views of hares. But the main focus of the morning was the heronry. Herons nest high up in trees, a bit like rooks do. I don’t think I’ll put a photo up as the ones I took showed twigs across the herons’ bodies. But it was a really interesting thing to see. I can’t make up my mind over whether herons are clumsy or graceful.

At the end of the morning we had homemade grub from the farm shop/café. We sat in a circle in the sun, and it was the warmest day we’ve had so far.  Really enjoyable.

Monday evening was enjoyable too, but it was freezing. Only four Viewfinders turned up for the Fish Trail in Hull Old Town.

http://www.realyorkshire.co.uk/thedms.aspx?dms=13&venue=2171675&feature=2

In the end we didn’t actually follow the fish trail, but wandered around snapping anything that took our fancy. Hull was a really prosperous place years ago, and there are some wonderful old buildings, but it was bombed badly in the war, and ugly new places intersperse the Victorian ones. Not just Victorian, there are some much older buildings. Can’t think of their dates, but OLD.

I’ll put up a photo of an old church reflected in the glass of a modern building, and the same church reflected in the window of a pub.

While I’m at it I’ll put up a couple more photos from the Dawn Walk, as people were saying nice things about the ones on Michael’s blog.

http://www.eybirdwatching.blogspot.com/

Here come the photos.

Hares on the organic farm

 Reflections - the old in the new.

More from the Dawn Chorus walk.

Posted in birds, photos | Print | No Comments »

26/04/2010 by Aileen.

Oh where does the time go to.Higlights of last week coming up.

On Wednesday I went to Whisby in Lincolnshire with my Birding group. After a cold start the weather turned quite spring like. We saw a nightingale, which is why we travelled so far.

Some of us had lunch there (l had luke warm leek and potato soup) and I was so proud of myself as I went off on my own, heard a bullfinch, and hung round  for ages until it appeared. Then I took lots of photos. When I got home I told John how pleased I was at staying on and being single minded about getting photos. Then I downloaded the photos. Shock horror. I had accidentally knocked the shutter dial to a slow speed and my ‘lovely’ photos were all blurred. Here are a couple for what it’s worth.Bullfinch and magpie.

At the weekend I drove to Birmingham to meet some OU people I know through Second Life. There were seven of us and we painted the town red. Well, pink I suppose. We didn’t go too mad. We had a great time and all  got on like a house on fire. Saturday evening, we had a meal in Around The World In Eighty Dishes, which was one of those restaurants where you can eat as much as you want. We then went to a Wetherspoons and drank and chatted. We got to bed about midnight. Oh, and Becky and I bought a bag of chips each on the way home.

I really liked Birmingham. Well, I only saw Broad Street I suppose. It had an air of celebration with young people in fancy dress having hen nights etc. We probably left for the hotels too early to see any real drunkenness or trouble.

On Sunday morning we had a very early lunch in TGIFs, and then made our goodbyes. I drove Groovy, Eshala and Lilac (SL names) to the train/bus station, so saw a bit more of Birmingham. I was tempted to stay a bit longer but the call of home was too great. Lovely meeting the people behind the avatars, but lovely to go home too. Phots from the weekend are on my Facebook page.

Tonight I went to Viewfinders where we had a talk by a professional photographer. One of his specialities in glamour photography and he brought along a model. He showed us how he shot her, then we had a go. Here are three of my attempts.

Posted in Second Life, birds, photos | Print | 1 Comment »

06/03/2010 by Aileen.

Well, I had my hair cut yesterday, and John and I went into York Designer Outlet for Fiona’s birthday pressie. Can’t write what it is in case she reads this.

John bought some face cream (!) and I bought a  classic blue v-neck jumper in Next for £6. We also  bought a non-stick frying pan, as John has buggered up the old one by using kitchen cleaner on it. This new one better be good. It cost over £50.

We had fish and chips out for lunch, so I used the new pan for bacon butties in the evening. I didn’t see the protective plastic wrapper on the bottom, but the obnoxious burning smell alerted me to the problem, and I transferred the bacon to our old pan. Yes, I know I should have grilled it, but I wanted to use my new pan.

We got home, to find we had just missed a call from Martin. They had intended to go to Southend today (Sat) to see their best man, who is over from Japan. Then on Sunday morning, to see Rachel, Niall’s daughter, who lives in his old house. Then  return home in time to entertain us.

Anyway, Fiona was sick all day, and Martin still wanted to see their best man, who is flying back to Japan on Sunday, so he asked if we could come today and look after Fiona and Alexander while he was away.

Action stations. I got out our lovely new leather weekend bags - can’t wait to use them  - and we sorted out what we had to do and to cancel. (My First Communion session on Sunday)

Anyway (again) Fiona rang this morning, so say she is better, so they will all go to Southend. They might stay in a hotel overnight if they don’t feel like driving all the way there and back in one day.

So we have a spare day. That’s why I’m here writing now.

I’ve got my photos down to 10, 081 and I’ve tagged more. Doing really well, butI have 6,564 photos to go through and either tag or delete. I’ll get it down to 10,000 today easily. Just 81 to get rid of.

Anyway, duty calls. Bye all.

Posted in family, photos | Print | No Comments »

03/03/2010 by Aileen.

Oh I don’t seem to be writing here much. I’ll have lots to say after the weekend, as we are staying with M,F and Alexander the Great. He’ll be 4 weeks old and I’m gonna take lots of photos.

In the meantime, talking of photos  - Viewfinders was good on Monday. We had a project called ‘Numbers’ and people  brought along their interpretations. I left it too late to do any, but was really impressed by the ones we saw. Jane had photo’ed her dad’s collection of miniature vases, David L had some wonderful closeups of weathered wood andrusty bolts on the beach. There were others equally good. The next project is ‘What is it?’ and I am determined to do it this time.

Took lots of photos this morning. We birders went to Normanby Hall in Lincolnshire, and saw woodpeckers and others. The most spectacular were the peacocks who were displaying. Snowdrops everywhere. No nuthatches though, which we were hoping to see. And just a distant view of a jay, when there were several last time we came.

John’s out at a Councilling meeting, so I’d better start the casserole.I thought he would like that when he gets home around 7pm.

I’ll just upload some photos, then say goodbye.

Oh I forgot. My laptop packed up last week. (One reason why I haven’t been on here much) and I got a new one on Saturday. Toshiba Satellite A 500-1GL. It has a smaller screen than my Vaio had, only 16″, but will be easier to transport when we’re away. Also, it has a better specification for the Intel bit (whatever that is) The Vaio was duo something, this one is i3. It has Windows 7 on, and I love it already.

Posted in computer, family, birds, photos | Print | No Comments »

09/12/2009 by Aileen.

Ooer. I looked out into the garden this morning (to check the birds) and saw a toolkit on the path near the feeders. Also, a clamp sort of contraption. Over a year ago I saw a motorcycle helmet down the bottom - I had left one of the side gates open. That same time there was some human sh   excrement in the grass smelling the place out.

I checked next door, and the toolbox belonged to Colin. The other bit was an attachment for his saw, which had gone missing. On investigating, the lock on the other side gate was forced. I wouldn’t mind, but Martin had noticed our previous lock wasn’t very strong, and had bought us a new one recently.

So someone has forced their way into our garden, stolen Colin’s saw, and made off back through our garden dropping the toolbox on the way. Weird. The similarities with the previous break-in is that our gates were used as the entry point, and on both occasions something was left.

The Crime Prevention Officer is coming round on Thursday to check our property. I think our house is very secure.

Anyway.  On to more pleasant things. I had a super day at Donna Nook yesterday with Michael and other birders. I took over 300 photos! I have deleted over half, not cos they’re rubbish, but cos they are too similar to the ones I’ve kept.

From Donna Nook we went to a nature reserve and saw a flock of shore larks.

Here are some photies.

Posted in birds, photos | Print | No Comments »

30/11/2009 by Aileen.

I had to force myself to go to Viewfinders tonight, as we were going to Cottingham to snap the Christmas Lights, and it was cold and dark. Anyway, I was glad I went. My photos weren’t brilliant, as I was using Manual and had forgotten how to change the aperture to a smaller one. (Been using the Nikon for a while, and just gone back to the Canon) Anyway, here’s one of the photos.

Posted in photos, Christmas | Print | No Comments »

31/10/2009 by Aileen.

I don’t spend too much on myself, but make an exception for my top and bottom. Hair and shoes I mean. I HAVE to be comfortable so buy good trainers, sandals, heels etc.

I have also been going to Tony and Guy for my hair for the last six years, and spending over £50 for a cut and blow dry. Well, it’s a bit of a drag going into Hull every few weeks, and I don’t always want anything else there. So I thought I’d give the village hairdresser a go. Well, Mitty has done a really nice job, and I nearly fainted when she told me the price. £15. Mitty, you have my business for life.

Off to Yorkshire Sculpture Park (in the rain) today, to take photos with an OU group. I might get one of them to take a photo of me now my hair is just done.

Posted in photos, Open University | Print | No Comments »

15/10/2009 by Aileen.

Taken at Hull Fair. Ideally I should get rid of the green stem and its distractions, but I do like this photo.

Posted in photos | Print | No Comments »

12/10/2009 by Aileen.

I did all I intended to, except I only meditated once. Did housework, and went for cycle with John. Lovely morning.

 Studied in the afternoon. Now on Chapter Two- a week ahead - and went to Hull Fair in the evening with Viewfinders. On the way to David’s I stopped to take sunset photo of Drax power station. How can something so terrible be so beautiful.

Hull Fair was so impressive. It’s the biggest travelling funfair in Europe.Great atmosphere.Several young people stopped and asked me to take their photos, and then wanted to know where they would appear! Here are a few photos, but I have so many more.

Posted in photos, Open University, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »