Pukka chukkah

On Sunday, tressillian, Sara, Nat and a few of her Aussie/Kiwi chums went (in some style) by stretch limo to the Polo at Windsor Great Park. It was some sort of celebratory fixture between England and the All Blacks. This was too good to be true - an excuse for our eclectic bunch of Londoners and Antipodeans to engage in an all-day bout of social interaction with Britain's finest Hooray Henrys and Hooray Henriettas.

Now Sara, in her inimitable style, did some pre-event research about Polo. Apparently (and I quote), "..the sport is eager to encourage greater participation and open access for all..." Fantastic. "Hoorah! Let's buy a pony and get stuck in...". I hear you cry. By the way, a (cheap) polo pony costs around £30,000.....oh, and one needs 3 or 4 of them to play a whole match. Drat, maybe we'll have to stick to something even more accessible like knitting.

The weekend reminded me of that other great accessible British sport - hunting with hounds. Some of you will know that this has recently been banned in the UK to the great consternation of the country folk. Interestingly, we had a charge-pass by some ragged pack of hunting hounds - accompanied by the obligatory chaps in red jackets. The crowd were whipped into a braying frenzy of blood-thirsty anticipation.....especially when one of our number (Smurf) pointed out (very publicly and loudly as only Aussies can) that hunting was illegal and it shouldn't be flaunted in the presence of HRH and Prince Harry. Thankfully the hounds had passed us before they could pick up Smurf's scent. It could have been messy....

More clouds

OK, so tell me if I'm boring you with cloud-stuff. This is a recent photo from Turkey (again) - this time with an interesting shaped cloud. Sort of a wavy Cirrus?

Cloud Appreciation Society - photogallery

I was scanning the internet for some inforamtion about the cigar-shaped cloud shown below - and stumbled on this site....

http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/

It's the photogallery of the "Cloud Appreciation Society" - straight-up. The photographs are absolutely amazing. Check it out

BTW, the cigar one is "lenticular".

Car identity clue?

I know it's a bit fuzzy - but this is a close-up of the bonnet of the car (see below). The emblem is obviously long gone - but the mounting might give us clue to the identity of the car? Who knows.....

Blog drive....

I’m on a mission - to boost the number of people visiting this photoblog. The catalyst has been a counter on the blog (left hand side at the bottom) that maps where people are viewing from – the farthest flung viewers so far are from Australia and Peru. As Tressillian Road is virtually on the Greenwich Meridian – I’m keen to get somebody from the South Pacific – preferably on the International Date Line. If you like the site, please comment on the articles and pass the link on (especially if the recipient is Tongan or Tuvaluan).

Garden ornament

Sara and I found this rusty old car in the garden-cum-forest of one of the hotels we stayed in in Scotalnd. Not sure of the make - answers on a postcard, please.

The shots were taken on the 5d at an ISO setting of 800 - a bit grainy up close, but I didn't have a tripod....

Big sky - over Loch Lomond

Sara, Caroline and I spent last weekend in Scotland - Edinburgh and the SW highlands. Edinburgh was Sara's auld stamping ground when she was a student - and the Highlands were mine when I was a rookie consultant.

These shots were taken during a boat trip tour on Loch Lomond. I'm sure there is a particular name for the cigar shaped cloud (above), but I can't remember what it is.

More big skies left.

Finally! The web galleries are on-line.

I've been promising it for some time now - but here they are (finally)! Four galleries in total:

• Plantlife photo collection


• Riverside photo collection


• Cornwall fishing photo collection


• Cornwall coast photo collection

Please have a look and let me know what you think.

Narrow boating

I'm still playing blogging catch-up - as May and June were not particularly productive in terms on numbers of posts (zero). Anyway, in June we went narrow boating with some old friends Andy and Jo and their friends Malcolm and Di. Oh, and Barnsley the dog was there too.

We did a couple of days on the Stratford-upon-Avon loop - and seems to have a disproportionate number of locks to do (perhaps that's why Andy and Jo invited us for the end of the loop).

Glorious sunny weather (like today, but not so hot). See photo.

Hardship posting

When I started at the DWP nobody mentioned that it was a "hardship posting" - to use Civil Service-speak. Our office is like an all-day sauna - and with the temperatures likely to hit the mid 30's today and tomorrow I'll be rooting out my safari suits and pith helmets....

Fluorescent green

Irritations

Now, I'm not known for my deep, insightful political analysis and commentary, but a couple things irritated me this last week (apart from Lewisham Borough Property section, un-air-conditioned offices and England's late 2nd declaration in the first Pakistani Test). They were:

1 The extraditon from the UK to the US of the Nat West chaps involved in the Enron thingy. Now, I thought that the special extradition treaty (unilaterally enacted by the UK and not the US, interestingly) was all about terrorism - not financial malpractice. Actually that's unfair - as these chaps (however odious they may be) did nothing illegal in the UK so there's nothing "mal" about it. When are we going to get a Home Secretary who will stand up these US bully-boy tactics?

2 The obvious cover-your-arse tactics by the Metropolitan Police over the execution in the Tube last year. Hmmmm... isn't that the Home Secretary's portfolio too?

Here endeth the rant.

Panoramic format - Turkey snap

Anyway - a nice shot of a boat and jetty in Turkey. Comments welcomed.

Damselfly - "Colour in Nature" competition

I've entered my first photographic competition - "Colour in Nature" - with a couple of shots. The first is opposite; some damselflies shot in a wooded river valley in Turkey in May. Sara and I took 100's of shots - they were flightly little blighters. This is the best of the lot.....

The second shot is the licheny rock shown in an article below. Comments welcomed.

Photo copyright David Morgan, 2006.

DTI finally over

I had my last bit of work at the DTI earlier this week - doing the OGC "Gateway" review. This is basically a closure report drafted by an independent set of assessors. I suspect that the assessors will assess the programme as successful - as we hit every target and are saving the department a bucketful of £££ every year.

I have subsequently started on a new programme at the Department of Works and Pensions (DWP). Only a short one this time - through to end of September - helping them transition to a new organisation as a result of a major finance function programme.

Sara is in the process of finishing at the DCA - looking forward to the end of the summer in the garden. And supervising the builders. And sorting out the social workers.

Exhibition 2006 - a red-hot success...

Overall this year's exhibition was a success - despite 1) Clashing with England in the World Cup 2) ditto Wimbledon and 3) it being a stifflingly hot weekend. Not many people were out-and-about on the Saturday particularly.

Despite all that, we had about 200 people through the doors - and I made 16 sales. I still think I'm underpricing my "art", but I'm just chuffed that people want to put it on their walls.

I promise to get my web gallery up-and-running sometime.

Photo copyright David Morgan, 2006.