Category Archives: News

Last month’s challenges consisted of: Creative – Blue; Technical – Contrast; and my favourite of the year. 1 Creative – Blue I started with the thought of taking a close up of the Lindor chocolate using an lens extension tube … Continue reading →

We had a wonderful Christmas Day. Helène and her daughters together. My first Christmas with her family. On a misty Boxing day afternoon we met up with some of Helène’s friends for a walk round Harrold Country Park. It wasn’t … Continue reading →

After three days of log splitting I decided I wouldn’t ask the tree guys to come for a fourth day and would cut the last few logs myself. After only 2 hours of cutting I’m beginning to regret that decision. … Continue reading →

In the spring of this year I had a very large Ash tree felled. The logs have been sitting around for nearly 12 months and at last I’ve managed to get the guys in to split them. What you see … Continue reading →

Some months ago we planned a few days in London staying with Richard and Nicola. The highlight was going to be A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Barbican theatre. To start our first day we visited Abney Park cemetery. A … Continue reading →

Helène bought me a wonderful birthday present of a days vegetarian cookery class at Lincolnshire Cookery School. We went together (I needed the moral support) and had a superb day making loads of delicious food: Emerald Isle Green Soup; banana … Continue reading →

For the first time since July we haven’t been away. August: Scotland; September: Cotswolds; October: Provence. It’s been good to settle back into a routine. I have spent a couple of weekends down in Northamptonshire with Helène helping with her … Continue reading →

Our week in Provence was in three parts – Avignon, Aix en Provence and Arles. We flew out of Stansted. Ryanair took off 45 mins late which meant our arrival in Marseille gave us only 15 minutes to get from … Continue reading →

After the excitement of the week away in the Cotswolds it would have been easy to slip back into the humdrum life of home however Helène and I decided to break the week up with a tour in the Porsche. … Continue reading →

On Thursday I collected Helène from her home and we headed for Banbury. After a delightful lunch in the Bell Plantation in Towcester we made our way to the Premier Inn Banbury. We were collected by Gary & Caroline and … Continue reading →

A lot has been going on over the last couple of weeks so this post is an abbreviated version of everything. We went to the Edinburgh Fringe for 5 days, then off to the Highlands for a long weekend and … Continue reading →

The garden continues to produce green “stuff” – weeds, twigs and flowers that are past their best. It doesn’t take me long to fill the green waste wheelie bin and so I resort to using these green bags. They’re big … Continue reading →

The themes this month have been “Getting down low” (Technical) and “Patterns” (Fun). In the technical we are required to show the original, unedited image as well as the edited version. We will then explain why we edited it in … Continue reading →

When I’m in the garden I tend to focus on the weeds and the plants that are not doing too well. It makes a pleasant change to walk around the garden with camera in hand and capture the flowers that … Continue reading →

Antipodean Visitors My Australian friends, Ian and Sue, visited for a few days this month. Helène and I wanted to give them an interesting time so we took them to Yorkshire Sculpture Park as well as a tour of Lincoln … Continue reading →

I struggled to find the time and be inspired by this month’s photography themes but I managed to cobble together three photographs. The themes were Window Light and Fasteners plus the usual favourite. The format has changed because the u3a … Continue reading →

On Helène’s birthday I met up with her and her daughters in Stamford for lunch at the Cafe au Chocolat where we had delightful savoury crepes before heading over to Burghley Estate. we strolled the grounds in the sunshine before … Continue reading →

My pride and joy has let me down… it failed its MoT due to a leaking brake pipe. I was warned about potential brake pipe corrosion last year but ignored it. The MoT garage couldn’t fix it in time so … Continue reading →

Over the past few weeks I’ve experienced a number of technology failures, some of which are in my control and others I’m reliant on others to fix. The battery on the robot mower failed (the second battery in 8 years). … Continue reading →

This month’s themes were “Leading Lines”, “Machinery ” and the usual favourites. I must confess I didn’t find the subjects inspiring. Finding something different, that would stand out from the rest, was always going to be difficult. Here is my … Continue reading →