Neil's Stuff

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.

My brother lives up North where they have real weather. He was snowed in all last week and look at the icicles that he has on the side of his house. Proper weather!

Here is how to access data in an excel spreadsheet, from a SQL login.

SELECT * FROM OPENROWSET(‘Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0′,
‘Excel 8.0;Database=c:table.xls;HDR=YES’,
‘SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]‘)

You can also link the spreadsheet to a table.

SELECT * FROM OPENROWSET(‘Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0′,
‘Excel 8.0;Database=c:\update_asms.xls;HDR=YES’,
‘SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]‘) x INNER JOIN   invoices o on x.invoice = o.invoice

This means you can update tables based on data in spreadsheet without having to do the import into a table malarky.

After breakfast packed and loaded up the cars, and then headed off down the foot path to Minsmere sluice. Always on the look out for Bittern flying up out of the reed beds. The weathewr was bright but not as sunny as saturday. Spotted some black ducks out at sea we claimed them as Common Scoter. Visited East Hide where we saw a Smew and a a bloke in the hide (new to bird watching) got very excited about a duck we could not figure out, turned out to be a female Smew.
Headed round and along the Northwall back to the visitors center where we had the obligatory coffee and cake. Then headed back to the pub via Bittern Hide (no sign of Bittern). All things considered a fantastic weekend.
On the way back we stopped at Auntie Anne’s and had more cakes and coffee, all home made and yummy. Had to depart all too soon and head  up the A12 followed by M25.

Final list for the weekend: Robin, Wood Pigeon, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, GS Woodpecker, Dunnock, Stonechat, GC Grebe, Herring Gull, Treecreeper, Coal Tit, Goldcrest, Jackdaw, Green Woodpecker, Wren, Kestrel, Magpie, Siskin, BH Gull, Song Thrush, Dunnock, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Cormorant, Lapwing, Shelduck, Mallard, Dunlin, Gadwall, Teal, Wigeon, Pheasant, Marsh Harrier, LBB Gull, Shoveller, Starling, Curlew, Rook, Bearded Tit, Canada Goose, Moorhen, Collared Dove, House Sparrow, Goldfinch, Crow, Little Egret, Coot, Common Scoter, Smew, Pintail, Sanderling, Marsh Tit, Greenfinch, Redwing, Long-tailed Tit, Jay. (60 YTD 68)

A picture of the ice. makes a good desktop back ground.

Got up for breakfast at 9, excellent fry the landlord had got up early to get us some Quorn sausages, we had mentioned the previous evening we are all veggies. Drove to Minsmere RSPB reserve then walked over to Dunwich Heath via the north wall. Saw a suspected Osprey that turned out to be a Marsh Harrier, but no Dartford Warbler. After coffee at the coast guard cottages we headed back down to the East hide where there was not much to see the usual ducks, lots of Lapwings, and just a couple of waders (Dunlin). On the way back to the visitors centre we got superb views of 5 Bearded Tits. Back to the pub to change then off to Southwold shopping. We saw a field of Curlew on the way. Bought some almonds and a Heidi Pie from the foodies shop then back to our accommodation to watch the rugby. Ireland won and as I write I we are in the pub drinking best bitter!

My window at work, it’s a crap picture but I decide what goes up and what does not. Only a handful of people made it to work today. Off to Eastbridge later hopefully if the conditions allow. A41 is apparently shut between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead, so fingers crossed.

Allow your friends to see where you are http://google.com/latitude It installed OK on my Blackberry, just need to find some friends!

Snow has not stopped me getting to Luton. Road over Whipsnade pretty dodgy car seemed to be close to not gripping the road going up the hill. Snow not affecting flights.

It is very cold this morning. The roads around the estate are very icy, but when you get to the main roads they are generally clear. It was a bit tricky slowing down to get off the A41. Picture shows there is no work going on at the Aston Clinton dump.

The worst since 1991 according to the BBC. A41 is partially covered and we are expecting more later on. I decided to walk to work it took about 45 minutes I went the back way down through Buckland. Might try it again it again, a nice way to start the day. Saw three Bullfinches.