Sunset - Burnham (1)

Took this from the back window of Claire's parents house.

Sunset - Burnham (2)

Took this from the back window of Claire's parents house.

Sunset - Burnham (3)

Took this from the back window of Claire's parents house.

Erin - 1st week (2)

Erin - 1st week (1)

Leanne

Erin 2 months (1)

Claire

My lovely and wonderful girlfriend

Erin 2 months (2)

Wow - that African fertiliser is working wonders check how big she's got in two months.

Hamper from Mum

The lovely hamper mum sent Claire and I for Christmas this year (2004). It contains oat cakes, shortbread biscuits, duck pate, fudge toffee, fruit loaf and a bottle of wine.

Col

Fire in A Barrel

Burning parts of an old garden shed in a steel barrel

Closer Fire in A Barrel

Burning parts of an old garden shed in a steel barrel

All the Boxes

My Mac Mini and new screen in the boxes they came in ready to be unpacked and setup.

Mini Boxes Closeup

Apple boxes are so slick and simple.

Messy-ish Desk

This is how I initially setup my desk, but it didn't last...

Tidy Desk

The ulimate in minimalist desk space usage. Everything has been carefully wired and positioned for maximum spaceav availability.

Buzzing Dell

This was taken by a Dell employee from their car park. Nice one Sun.

Sunrise This Morning

It's getting light later this time of year, but it does mean I get to see to pretty cool sunrises, like this one this morning.

One of Our Neighbours

A cute little hedgehog that was wondering on the grass outside the block of flats across the road.

Big 5 Puzzle

It took about a year to actually get started and then nearly another year to finish it, but I finally finished my Big 5 jigsaw puzzle.

Cooked Mince Parcels

And here are my mince parcels fresh out of the oven. They look a bit like sausage rolls.

Raw Mince Parcels

I'm not a big fan of the pastry mince pies are made of, so I thought I'd make my own with puff pastry. And, just to be different, I thought I'd make parcels instead of pies.

Sunflowers (1)

This summer we grew our own sunflowers in a pot on the balcony. They didn't grow huge, but flowered beautifully.

Hungry Hedgehog

I've finally worked out who gets to our bin bags before the birds do.

Sunflowers (2)

Sunflowers (3)

Sunflowers (4)

Funky Caterpillar

Who says you need to go to Africa to see wild life. This beauty was found in our bathroom in sunny England.

Found the Spot

I found the

Free Dinner

Don't you love Air France - these are the sandwiches we got as part of our dinner when they let the plane to South Africa go without us. Notice how the competion is to win a holiday to South Africa - I think someone is taking the p**s.

Find the Spot

I can't remember who the artist is (let me know if you do), but I've seen this on TV before. These lines appear a bit randomly placed and also Photoshopped in, but the idea is to find the

Sacre-Coeur from the Bottom (1)

Sacre-Coeur from the bottom.

Sacre-Coeur from the Bottom (2)

Another of the Sacre-Coeur from the road at the bottom.

Sacre-Coeur from the First Level

Sacre-Coeur from the first level once inside the fence.

Claire and the Sacre-Coeur

Just a bit further up the stairs. I think I need a bit more practice with the aperture settings :-)

Sacre-Coeur - Closer Still

Near the top of all the stairs.

The View From the Sacre-Coeur

This is the view out over Paris from the top of the stairs in front of the Sacre-Coeur.

Notre Dame (1)

Notre Dame (2)

Notre Dame (3)

Weavers Nest (1)

Mr Weavers obviously wasn't too pleased with just sticks and grass. She wanted some lovely green leaves in her nest too.

Purple Carrots

I found these in Sainsburys today. Carrots as they originally were before the Dutch changed them to orange.

Weavers Nest (2)

I think we have a bit of

Weavers Nests (3)

Completed Rubiks Cube (1)

I can now say I've successfully solved a jumbled up rubiks cube - without resorting to peeling the stickers off.

Completed Rubiks Cube (2)

I can now say I've successfully solved a jumbled up rubiks cube - without resorting to peeling the stickers off.

Snow - 24 Jan 07

Wednesday morning we woke to a lovely dusting of snow outside. I took this just before I headed off to work on the off chance it would come out, and I'm pretty impressed with the results.

Snow - 8 Feb 2007 (1)

This is what we woke up to this morning.

Snow - 8 Feb 2007 (2)

Snow - 8 Feb 2007 (3)

Snow - 8 Feb 2007 (4)

Snow - 8 Feb 2007 (5)

Snow - 8 Feb 2007 (7)

This Much Snow

I think this gives a good indication of the amount of snow we received. This is on top of my car. It's a little blurry and out of focus as I was freezing my arse off and shivering like crazy.

Snow - 8 Feb 2007 (6)

Snow - 8 Feb 2007 (8)

Snow - 8 Feb 2007 (10)

The Car Park At Work

And yes, those are horses in the picture. I have no idea where they came from, but they weren't there when I left work this evening.

Snow - 8 Feb 2007 (11)

Lunar Eclipse - 20:46 GMT

No occlusion yet.

Lunar Eclipse - 21:36 GMT

The first sign of the occlusion is starting to show.

Lunar Eclipse - 21:50 GMT

A little bit more occluded.

Lunar Eclipse - 22:24 GMT

A little bit more occluded.

The Eiffel Tower

If you get into just the right place, you can even see the Eiffel Tower from the Sacre-Coeur. Not really surprising though.

Lunar Eclipse - 23:19 GMT

Total eclipse. It's a little blurred due to "shutter shake"

Chasing Flies

I really hope for the neighbour's sake that this cat has 9 lives. I regularily see this cat on the roof across the drive whilst I'm sitting at my desk, but today was the first time I've seen the cat being

Snow - 8 Feb 2007 (9)

You get to see such pretty sights when stopped in traffic. I took this through the car window, hence the slight blue hue.

Cat's Playground in Perspective

That's a long drop if the cat misses a step whilst chasing flies on the roof.

How To Substantiate Owning a 4x4

What better way to substantiate owning a 4x4 than to dig up your driveway and still park your 4x4 on it. It's a little blurry as I had to perform a drive-by.

HMC's New Recruits

Henley Management College (where Claire works) has a new set of recruitment criteria - cuteness is a must. I think these little guys are suitably qualified.

Heron on the Waterfall

I took this later in the day. The heron was still hanging around.

Heron on the Moat

Look what we had wandering around the office this weekend. A heron. I took this first thing on Sunday morning as I was arriving at work.

Golf GT (Close)

My new car.

Golf GT (Front)

My new car.

Golf GT (Rear)

My new car.

Golf GT (Side)

My new car.

Getting the Deco's Out Early (1)

Two little girls in our block of flats are making 100% sure Father Christmas knows where to stop. The decorations have been up for a week already. The inflatable Father Christmas is new this evening.

Getting the Deco's Out Early (2)

The same pic without the flash. Excuse the lack of focus - I don't have a tripod

Squirrel (1)

A squirrel basking in the spring sunshine on the lower branches of a tree outside the flat.

Squirrel (2)

A squirrel basking in the spring sunshine on the upper branches of a tree outside the flat.

Neighbourhood Spring Flowers

I happened to noticed the vibrant colours of one of our neighbour's front garden today. A true sign spring is in the air.

Snow to the Left of Me

Snow in spring, looking down our road.

Snow to the Right of Me

Springtime snow up our road.

Snow Snow Snow

Snow Lavender

Our poor lavender plant. I hope he's snow resistant.

Snow Sweetpea

I hope our sweetpeas are snow resistant too.

Someone's Been Playing in the Snow Already

The only indication that anyone has been playing in the snow today - bird foot prints.

Just over an Inch

Probably not the most scientific way of measuring snow depth, but it'll do for me. Looks like just over an inch.

Snow Out Back

Our back "garden" covered in snow.

Pretty Dead Plants

Who'd have thought a bit of snow could make our dead pot plants look pretty again.

Snowy Trees

Snowy Tree (1)

Snowy Tree (2)

Feisty Snowman

This snowman just won't give up the ghost. We've had 3 days of glorious sunshine and he's still hanging in there.

Red Kite (1)

You don't want to be a rodent in Earley/Wokingham at the moment. We've currently got a lovely pair of red kites in the area. I'm not sure where they are nesting, but I've seen them circling for several weeks now and even saw one go "in for the kill" (came up empty handed though) on Wokingham road near The George pub. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, but it was pretty amazing.
(Blogged)

Red Kite (2)

Here's a stunning picture of one of the red kites currently in the Earley/Wokingham area.
(Blogged)

The Patio

As seen from the doors out to the garden.

The Old Mill

The Old Mill part of the building houses the bar and this is the side the evening reception took place.

The Mill Room

This room was cleared of all it's furniture and used for the dancing area. It's nicely sectioned off from the rest of the Old Mill.

The Garden Room

This is the room that is licensed for civil ceremonies and overlooks the River Blackwater. It's a little cluttered in this picture in preparation for an event taking place that evening.

The Front of the New Mill

New Mill From the Garden

The Bridge

Claire made her grand entrance in over this bridge. It leads to the court yard outside the Garden room.

Garden Room Court Yard

Bridge From the Garden Room

This is the view everyone would have been looking at whilst waiting for Claire to arrive.

A little bit of the snow jung around for morning.

Snow in October in the South of England

My First HDR Image

This is my first attempt at HDR and I'm quite impressed with the results.

I used a single RAW image and then exported it at three different exposure settings from Lightroom. I then used a trial version of Photomatix (hence the watermarks) to create the HDR image.

I'll need to do some more playing before I decide if it's worth shelling out, but for the moment, I'm quite impressed.

My Second HDR Image

My Third HDR Image

Christmas on Courts Road Looks like someone's bucking the credit crunch this year.

Trees At Sunset

No Kite Flying

Reflections

Flapping Duck

Swan

Tree At Sunset

Tree Silouette

Geese At Sunset

Half Moon

Sunset Pylon

Pylon

Pylon on Blue

Hungry Spider (1)

This is what happens when a fly isn't watching where he's going and stumbles upon the web of a hungry spider. I got to witness this first hand thanks to the spider building his web right in front of the bedroom window.

Hungry Spider (2)

Hungry Spider (3)

Hungry Spider (4)

The Braai Kit


In the beginning we had a shiney new Weber braai, firelighters, starter and briquettes.

Firestarter (1)


Looks a bit like a jet engine when you first start the fire in the fire starter.

Firestarter (2)


Then the flames start to die down and settle.

Firestarter (3)


Then the coals start to get nice and hot.

Firestarter (4)


Once they're lightly grey all over, they're ready to empty out.

Emptied and Piled


Once the coals were nice and hot, I emptied them out and piled them up.

Getting to Temperature


With the coals very hot, it was time to put the lid on and let them cool a bit.

Raw Wors


Time for the wors. The scewers make it much easier to flip and doesn't cause a loss of moisture either.

Beer Time


Well, the wors is on, so time for a sit and have a glass of beer (homebrewed ale for me and Bud for the lady)

Cooking Wors


Hmmm, starting to look good.

Done Wors


Done. Hey, someone's pinched a piece!!!

Weber Bed Time


Time for bed, once the coals had cooled of course.

Braai Ketts


Look what I found at the garden centre down the road. I didn't buy it just to be patriotic either - it was the cheapest too.

Parking

How's this for brilliant parking in out street.

Dirty Anya Salad Potatoes


Our first ever crop of "balcony potatoes" fresh out of the ground. We grew our potatoes in a 1 cubic meter lined cane box in the corner of our balcony.

Clean Anya Salad Potatoes


Look how good these guys look and what a brilliant return. 12 seed potatoes produced 1.75Kg of potatoes.

Homemade Tomato Sauce


The last 1kg of our balcony tomatoes went into this gorgeous bottle of homemade tomato sauce (in a reused Mrs Balls chutney bottle). All Gold, watch out.

Neked Crimbo Tree


Our first fake crimbo tree in all it's neked glory.

Crimbo Tree in Lights


Now with some white LED lights.

Partly Decorated


This year we're taking the progressive approach to dressing our tree. We've started here and hope to add as we approach Christmas.

The View From Above


The view out our bedroom window this morning. Absolutely magical.

Mini Christmas Tree


Sol Jol Park In The Snow


Our local park, Sol Jol Park, with a thick layer of snow.

St Peter's Church


Neked Birch In The Snow


Sled To School


"Come on mate, give us a lift".

Chocolate Box House


This house looks like it should be on a box of chocolates or a Christmas card.

Snow Clumps


Cold Doves


Blue Tit


Snowy Dove


Snow Laden Trees


Where'd the Road Go?


Snowed In


Heavy Snow Fall
Sadly the slow shutter speed doesn't do this shot justice, but hopefully it give you an idea of the rate at which the snow is falling.

At Least 2 Inches
There is at least 2 inches of snow balancing on the railing and more is falling.

Neighbourhood Snowman
At the current rate, this chappy will be covered by a thick blanket of new snow by morning.

Up Our Road


Top of Our Road


Coconut Blackberry Slice - Fresh Out The Oven


This is what I did with all those blackberries Claire and I picked in the summer. Here is the tray fresh put the oven (after a bit of cooling).

Coconut Blackberry Slice - 2 Slices


A simple presentation

Coconut Blackberry Slice - Like the Picture


It looks a lot like the picture too.

Coconut Blackberry Slice - Close-up


Aurora Borealis or Just Green Clouds? (1)


Is this the Aurora Borealis I see over the south of the UK or just unexplained green clouds? Maybe it was a UFO.

Aurora Borealis or Just Green Clouds? (2)

Aurora Borealis or Just Green Clouds? (3)

Aurora Borealis or Just Green Clouds? (4)

Aurora Borealis or Just Green Clouds? (5)

Aurora Borealis or Just Green Clouds? (6)

Barefoot Cufflinks


Look what my lovely wife got me for Christmas. These are brilliant and I love them.

Footwear Must be Worn


I don't believe it: the Wheatsheef Pub in Virginia water expects you to wear tops AND footwear at all times in the garden and inside. Inside I can understand, but must wear shoes out in the sunshine in the garden? You must be joking. I took my Vibrams off as soon as I saw this (I put them back on whenever I went inside).

This is what it looks like outside our bedroom window right now.