Ibsley Common

February 18th, 2007

Neil asking if I wanted to a lift to today’s event on Ibsley Common prompted me to put in a late entry. It’s an area I haven’t orienteered on before and one club member claimed it be the most technical in (or at least on the edge of) the New Forest. How could I resist?

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Learning experience

February 18th, 2007

Hursley Photo Club had it’s first “learning” exercise yesterday when six of us turned up at work for some to teach and hopefully for everyone to learn at least something. We started with some of the basics but by the end of the morning had also covered more advanced topics such as composition and lighting. Particularly thanks should go to Richard Hopkins for not only imparting lots of his knowledge but also giving the event some structure.

Meon Valley Plod

February 12th, 2007

272It wasn’t until about 11 o’clock on Saturday night that, having consulted the weather forecast, I decided that I would head east for Portsmouth Joggers’ annual Meon Valley Plod the following morning. It was a new course this year (not that I have run the old one) which proved to be nearer 20.5 miles rather than the 19.5 that were advertised. Disappointly, the amount of road running has also increased from around 3 miles to over 5 with another couple on concrete farm tracks. I was therefore glad to have taken the advice of those at registration and worn trainers rather than fell shoes.

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Wet night out

February 10th, 2007

We went out to the SOC night event at Ocknell Inclosure this evening. Fortunately the afternoon’s rain gave way to a clear evening although this did mean waiting until after seven for it to be sufficiently dark. There was no chance of staying dry thought as the ground was pretty sodden.

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Welcome visitor

February 10th, 2007

270Looked out the window this morning to see a green woodpecker hopping about on our back lawn. On consulting the relevant text, I was heartened to read that it “uses long tongue to collect ants”. It’s welcome back any time to feast on our colonies. Sadly, as the guide book also says “if disturbed flies off revealing bright yellow-green rump”.

Narrow escape

February 9th, 2007

I was meant to spend the second half of this week up in the Midlands on work. Fortunately, on two grounds, I was only up there for Wednesday morning. Firstly, it meant I was safely back home before the snow arrived. Although the couple of centimetres we had here were gone by Thursday lunchtime it sounds like things were a lot more different further North. Secondly, it meant only having to stay one night in the Britannia Hotel Coventry. The hotel itself is pretty decrepit and the blurb seems to major on its proximity to the cathedral, conveniently not mentioning that the other end of the building is perched on top of the bus station with the road passing underneath. One to avoid in future!

Photo selection

February 8th, 2007

I’ve resurrected my Flickr account to display a selection of my photos from the Winchester Photo Challenge. There are four or five that I like the most but I need to select three before the deadline on Saturday so let me know your thoughts!

Restricted access

February 8th, 2007

My colleague Simon Kapadia informs that he can’t access this site from our standard issue 3G cards due to “Vodafone Content Control”. Fortunately if you’re over 18 you can remove the access control (which I’m guessing I must have done at some point in the past) but make sure the children aren’t watching!