Dave’s Summer Snaps

This week, our Camera Club had ‘a member’s evening’.  As it was early in the new winter season, we were asked to produce short slide shows showing what we had been up to during the summer.  Happily, there were more than enough presentations, so mine was not required.  Just as well really, since it wasn’t very imaginative.  Having gone to the trouble to produce it though, I thought that I might as well publish it as a blog post.

 ……………………………………………………………..

Here are a few of the places that I have snapped this summer.

To me, summer starts in May. So here are a few snaps taken between May and September. They’re not my best photos from this summer. They’re just a few random snaps pulled from my Lightroom archive showing some of the places that I have visited.

My wife and I went to Cyprus for a week. It rained non stop for 24 hours while we were there, but I still managed a few snaps. Here is one of Archbishop Makarios, way up in the clouds in the Trudos Mountains.

One of a ruined village snapped on the way back to base.

The weather improved just before we came home! (This was at Latchi)

In mid May, we visited friends in Nottingham, and whilst there we went to the Derwent Valley, where the Dam Busters practised.  This is a stitched panorama of the reservoir that they used for practise.

We also visited the Papplewick Pumping Station. This is their workshop, which is a bit tidier than mine.

We also took a stroll by the River Trent.

In June, we tried Greece for a coach tour. The weather was better than Cyprus, but not always great. I also had a fall and damaged my camera on the first day. Elastoplast held it together for the rest of the holiday.

We saw the sun. (this was at Volos)

We visited museums (lots of them, all over the place).

And ruins. (This was on the way up to the Acropolis in Athens)

And churches.

Saw statues.

And mountains.

And bridges.

And lakes. (This was at Ioannina)

And monasteries at Meteora.

Back at home in June, we visited Lyme Regis (when the tide was out).

We went to a Speed Hillclimb at Gurston Down (actually, we went a couple of times).

We’ve been out on the Somerset Levels.

We were at the Merryfield Open Evening.  This is a local RNAS training airfield.

In July I spent an evening in Weymouth.

In August we went to Portland several times. I love St George’s Church.

To RSPB Arne several times.These aren’t birds but the birds kept moving!

We also went for a walk which took in Iford Manor Gardens.

And Henstridge Wings & Wheels. These two should really have been in a Derwent Valley photo. Photoshop maybe?

We were in Pembrokeshire last week, where we:

Saw some misty mornings over the water. (Cleddau Estuary)

Watched the sun set over Skomer Island. (from Martin’s Haven)

Walked some of the coast opposite Milford Haven. (Gas Tanker unloading, taken from Angle).  Another stitched panorama.

Went to some lovely beaches. (This one is at Little Haven).

Played with a ‘cheapo’ chinese fisheye lens. (Near Little Haven and the Cleddau Bridge)

Met an Artist. (at Carew Castle. He was painting the Castle and the Tidal Mill)

Oh, and we also did a few jobs around the house and garden!

That was some of our summer.

I hope that I will soon be able to start posting a little more frequently.  Please keep an eye open.

Vietnam – Hue to Hoi An 2 – Museum Of Cham Sculpture

En route to Hoi An, we passed through Da Nang, where we visited the Museum of Cham Sculpture.  It was too crowded to get good photographs.  Though nothing special, the following photos serve to give an idea of the content of this museum.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

A little more information on Champa Art can be found here.

The journey to Hoi An will continue in the next post of this series.  Please come back and have a look.

Cuba Revisited

Last night I watched ‘Cuba with Simon Reeve’, on BBC television.  Many of the places visited by this programme were ones that Dee and I also visited on holiday in February 2011.  The programme set out to look at how the Cuban economy has changed in the last two years, and I must confess to being quite surprised at how things have actually moved on.  When we were there, Cubans didn’t expect to see much difference, even though some degree of economic liberalisation was anticipated.  Now, Cubans can buy and sell property legally (see this link), something unimaginable 2 years ago.

I’m glad that we went when we did, as Castro’s Cuba certainly seems to be changing, albeit slowly.

Visually, the programme refreshed my recollection of that excellent holiday, so I thought I would take this opportunity to link back to the series of posts that I started in July last year.  Perhaps this may be of interest to anyone that wasn’t following my blog then.  The start of the series can be found here.

One photo from the original series.

Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco

Vietnam – Hue 4: The Perfume River

It’s been a while now since my last post on our Vietnam trip.  I really do need to apologise to anyone who had their interest fired up, and then found my Vietnam posts drying up.  This has been purely down to finding enough time to sort through the Vietnam archive and choose what to include, whilst continuing my busy retirement.  In other words, no real excuse.

As I had to say in my last post on the trip, it is getting increasingly difficult to remember all of the day to day details, so there will not be much of a commentary.

During our brief stay in Hue, as well as visiting the the Dong Ba Market, Tu Duc’s Tomb, and the Thien Mu Pagoda, we were also able to enjoy a Dragon Boat Cruise on the Perfume River.

Vietnam – Hue 1

My last post was primarily about Ha Long Bay.  Afterwards we travelled back to Hanoi for the night, before rising early for our first internal flight, to Hue.  All together we were to do three internal flights during this tour.  Without these flights we would have spent much additional time travelling by coach or train, rather than experiencing the country of Vietnam.  As it turned out, the internal flight was pretty quick, with little time being wasted at the airports.  We were sightseeing again by quite early in the morning.

Vietnam – Hai Phong and Ha Long Bay

My last post had us arriving in Hai Phong, en route to Ha Long Bay.  A look Wikipedia link for Hai Phong will tell you more about the history of the city than I can, but essentially, Hai Phong is now the main port in northern Vietnam and pretty industrialised.

Cape Cross, Namibia

I haven’t posted anything for a few days.  Too many distractions again.

I thought that I might toss in a few more older photos.  Here is another shot from my pre DSLR days.  It was taken towards the end of a holiday that Dee and I took to Namibia in September 2006.  Having spent time in the extreme dry heat of inland Namibia, we arrived at Cape Cross on the Skeleton Coast where it was distinctly chilly and foggy.  The temperature dropped from over 40 deg C to about 18 deg C in one day of travelling.  The fog cleared and it warmed up a bit, so here is my view of the Atlantic.

I promise to get back to the Vietnam trip soon.  Please be patient.

Vietnam – Hanoi 4 – second day, part 2.

This post is a follow on from Hanoi 3 – second day morning tour.  When I looked more closely at the times in the file, I realised that we didn’t get lunch until after the Cyclo tour of the Old Quarter of Hanoi.  That’s where we start in this post.

Cuba Libre – Varadero

This is the final chapter of our Cuba Libre tour in February/March 2011.  We are now in the ‘all inclusive’ resort of Varadero on the north coast of the island.  Our Cuba experience effectively finished when we arrived here, as Varadero bears no resemblance to the real Cuba.  We are, however, still on holiday so I should complete the story.

Cuba Libre – Trinidad

Trinidad de Cuba is the subject of most of Chapter 8 of the Cuba Libre story.

Trinidad has been a UNESCO World heritage site since 1988, so some money is being put into restoration of this rather lovely colonial city.  As a result, much of the old city is well preserved, although some of the non tourist areas are a bit run down.