Monday 13 April 2015

The 10p whopper !

A bit of a catch up more photos than words.

I recently put the SD card from my camera into my Mac and a few pics from the last few months downloaded.....

This one must have been early into my 2014 life afloat....a peaceful moonlit evening. On reflection the winter was fair to me, just a few learning points but whatever anyone tells you it is an existence and a test on your systems and sanity living off grid alone in the winter. 


This was my November trip from Chichester to Stranraer...Loch Ryan  - the peninsular on the middle left is where my friends John and Carrie live a remote and peaceful life. Elsa Craig is the mound just off the peninsular, recent sold for 1.5 million or thereabouts.... now that would be solitude !


Back to a misty autumnal south downs ... very bucolic and captivating (and expensive !!) Last night whilst loading the car for my early morning trip back to the Midlands there was a 15 plate Rolls Royce with chauffeur picking up someone from the Star and Garter pub across the lane.... some taxi ! 


A couple more of the woods I love so much




Back to an equally captivating landscape around Alrewas  - this was a nice walk up to Wychnor 


Another beautiful sunset looking across the canal with the Rugely power station outputting its steam on the right of the tree. That is a 4 hour cruise for us.



Click this one.... only a fisherman or woman would get this ....stillness and expectation....


The reason for the title.... I purchased a seeded 'Bloomer' loaf  - close to its sell by for 10p from the Coop and caught this whopper Bream (my biggest from the canal) 


My day was completed earlier by a 130 mile refresher on my Pan European motorbike . Chesterfield, Long Eaton and Stone were visited. Tempted myself with a BMW, but decided to stay with my trusty Honda


Final shot of the day.... a favourite destination for a coffee and a gongoozel !!




Wednesday 8 April 2015

An alternative viewpoint of home - and the best view in reality !

Took the quadcopter up to just short of 400 feet last night and looked straight down. Percy is the boat in the middle of the shot.



I then lifted the camera to get the Fradley Junction view.



To be honest the best view was from the back cabin doors this morning.....



Sunday 5 April 2015

Fradley junction from the air - and I am the pilot

A good couple of years ago a good friend of mine John who lives on the west coast of Scotland got me interested in remote controlled flight... not the basic stuff but the technical stuff that included intelligent flight controllers that worked on GPS height compass etc.

My aim was to build something that I could capture the canals with from height to get a different perspective. I built and crashed a few and got some good footage but not of the canals..... until now.

Today was a day off as I was full on pain mode from a few days of excess. It was not too busy first thing so I got the copter out and up she went.....

As with all my photos best click them to see them full resolution




I then tried to see how close I could get to the images that you are now seeing more and more of using Quadcopters for TV to get some decent shots. I need more practice but this will be a nice reminder of the first days of Spring later in the darker days of winter.



Saturday 4 April 2015

.... And they're off, taps open at the marinas

Well it seems there is evermore a season for boating  and it started this morning. There has been a constant  flow of boats, most being very respectful in their speeds passing us.

I ended up running to the Post Office for my Rod license after re-mooring a boat that had been pulled loose opposite us. Just getting there with 4 minutes to spare.

Seems it will be a weekend of watching and maybe a bit of fishing while all the others do their 2 weeks Easter boating