Neil's Stuff

Did a trip to Welney WWT with parents. Thought we would have to go the long way because the road would be flooded but saw signs for Swan feeding and tried the short way. Turns out the floods had receded recently.

Wood Pigeon, Rook, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Black-headed Gull, Comorant, Magpie, Pheasant, Mute Swan, Mallard, Collared Dove, House Sparrow, Red-legged Partridge, Lapwing, Wigeon, Coot, Kestrel, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Pied Wagtail, Reed Bunting, Shelduck, Pochard, Whooper Swan, Redshank, Moorhen, Herring Gull, Greylag, Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit, Tree Sparrow, Dunlin, Great Crested Grebe, Starling. (36)

If you are travelling from Luton on EasyJet then here is a tip for you. After security pass straight through the crowded main shopping area and head down towards gate 1-9. At the end of the corridors there is a quiet area with a coffee bar, and no people. Most EasyJet flights go from that end so when the flight is called you can quickly get to the required gate and be at the front of the queue.
A while back I realised I was not the only person, a few weeks on the trot I noticed a captain sat there staring at the departure times then when the gate was displayed he would jump up and walk in a hurry to the gate, he always beat me. One week I positioned my self near the exit and raced him to the gate it was a close thing. Turns out he flew for Whizz air and was from eastern Europe.

I installed lightbox 2 on the blog server recently. At first it proved difficult to use, but the answer seems to be that you need to resize your pictures before you post them, which can be a bit tedious. Below is a test picture of the Anthony Hall in Aston Clinton. Click on it and you will see the picture open in line of the blog. Great feature to add to a site, looks good but easy to use.

Went for a walk locally. Field Fare, long Tailed Tits, Redwing, Starling.
On the way popped in to Ridge for a cheeky pint and what do you know they sell Adnams. Here is a random picture for you.

Helen saw the first one as we drove back the morning after an evening at Ian and Rosie’s. Later that day I went for a walk from Edlesborough round “Pulpit Hill” and Chequers. In the field that runs next the the village hall about 10 Sky Larks.

Walk runs from the village hall carpark, up the road toward Checquers take the footpath across the field, toward the church, then up round the hill, now public access. Up through some over grown privet, then down and across the drive of Chequers. Up to Coombe hill down the other side to the golf club and along the road back to the village hall. (1 YTD 69)

HDR is a photographic technique that uses several bracketed images to extract and use a bigger range of luminance than would be available in a single shot. Here is a wikipeida link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging. Also here is an embeded picture in Flickr

Google reader is an RSS feed reader. It is a great way to keep track of multiple websites. The real benefit is that you don;t actually have to visit the websites themselves, and you can keep track of what you have read and what is new. To use it goto http://reader.google.com signup with your gmail account and add some feeds.

Started at the Old Swan again. Yellowhammer, Magpie, Wood Pigeon, Red Kite, Rook, Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Robin, Great Tit, Pheasant, Redwing, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Blackbird, and finally Fieldfare. Weather was superb, blue sky and the clouds were fluffy.

After a month of waiting I finally found a company that had a Lumix LX3 in stock. I ordered it on Friday and it arrived this morning. It has some great features including 24mm (35mm equivalent) wide angle lens and max aperture of f2.0! The manual is going to take a good read but at first glance the features are endless. No doubt you will be seeing some pictures here later as we are off for a walk with Abida and Connie. Perhaps I should sign up for a Flickr account, and intergrate into the Blog. Here is a picture of the beast.

Throwing caution to the wind I decided to cook mussels on Friday 13th, unlucky for some. I’ll let you know tomorrow if I survived.

We survived and I thrashed Helen and Angie at Mario Sonic Olympics.