This picture appeared in print on the cover of a camping brochure and on the Tiso website as an advertisement.
UK 2011
UK June 2011 – Day 31. It was a long day. We were tired and travel weary by the time I took this picture and it shows. The total door to door travel time was twenty-one hours which wasn’t bad. It helped that the taxi arrived on time and we avoided any traffic delays on …
On the flight from Dallas Fort Worth to Springfield (365:196) Read More »
UK June 2011 – Day 30. Out of focus? Possibly, but if it is, tough. Today I showed Ginger the benefits of a working public transportation system. We started the day dropping off the hire car. First piece of good news – they weren’t going to charge us for the extra day we had, and …
UK June 2011 – Day 29. What a truly appalling picture. I could have used the safety shot I took during our afternoon walk around Farlington Marshes, but that seems like a bit of a betrayal of my family. So this picture will have to do. Tonight we had a family curry and took this …
UK June 2011 – Day 28. Yet more curry! We spent the day buying gifts and stuff to take back with us – including a trip to Gilbert’s sweet shop, which someone had told me, erroneously as it transpired, had closed. We also visited the chandlers to get stainless ‘D’ ring fixings for our kayaks, …
UK June 2011 – Day 26. Last week we were Scottish Episcopalians, this week we reverted to CofE, and made a final visit to St Margaret’s. Where (if you’ve been paying attention) I was Christened, as were my two sons, and my brother. I and my brother got married there, and both my parents funerals were …
Late at night sitting on my brother’s kitchen floor (365:191) Read More »
UK June 2011 – Day 24. Destination – the chalk cliffs of Hunstanton Jon set us up for the day with bacon butties for breakfast – who could turn down bacon butties? After breakfast all I had to do was drive to Hunstanton a small out of the way seaside town on the Wash in Norfolk. …
A full day’s driving, a walk on the beach, beer and fish and chips take their toll Read More »
UK June 2011 – Day 23. The presence of said foot probably explains the stupid grin I have. Having checked the map, worked out our timings – we wanted to arrive at Cath and Jon’s around 6pm, we decided to drive down to Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island. We’d checked and the tides were …
UK June 2011 – Day 22. Today we said goodbye to Scotland and headed South. The day started with rain, so we had to take down the tent with the fly set and pack it away wet. Our plan was to get to take it easy and get to Darlington to meet up with Flickr …
The Royal Garden Chinese Restaurant – Berwick-Upon-Tweed (365:187) Read More »
UK June 2011 – Day 21. The plan was to go backpacking in the Cairngorms. We were up reasonably early for a very nice breakfast with Russell and Chris, and we planned to get on our way and go hiking and camping in Cairngorms. However, the conversation flowed, I looked enviously at the Lenses Russell …
Gary and Ginger in the tent camped beside Loch Rannoch (365:186) Read More »
UK June 2011 – Day 20. Today I met an old friend, it was the first time we’d seen each other in nearly forty years. Russell and I had said our goodbyes back when we left school in July 1972, exchanged a couple of letters and then lost contact. Thanks to the joys of the …
UK June 2011 – Day 19. This might have been my favorite photo of the entire holiday, but the autofocus didn’t work properly so it’s a bit blurred. I’ve now worked out what the problem is, see the very end of this post for my conclusions. We were up early and elected to postpone breakfast …
Looking out over Gruinard Bay, Scotland (365:184) Read More »
UK June 2011 – Day 17. It was a long hike. Our day started early and with a choice. Hike up into the valley to the West of the one we came down last night or take the long route around by road. We didn’t know how good the other path was – it might …
UK June 2011 – Day 16. The plan was to drive to Glen Coe and Backpack up into the Lost valley. First thing we said our goodbyes to Uncle Keith and set off to Glen Coe. We had a minor problem with the trip – we kept stopping at different places to take in the …
Gary and Ginger at the saddle of Lairig Gartain (365:181) Read More »
This Larchwood path was part of our Comrie hike. I remember as a kid larchwoods being depicted as dark and spooky. They are! This is one image of three that I am thinking of printing as a triptych.
UK June 2011 – Day 14. Time to get some hiking in again After a lot of chatting last night, today my uncle took us into Glasgow to buy a gas stove, seek hiking advice and get some maps of suitable backpacking locations in the highlands. Uncle Keith is obviously in the know on these …
keith, Gary and Ginger on Dumyat, Stirling, Scotland (365:179) Read More »
Looking across the Firth of Clyde towards Great Cumbrae and Bute. Taken from near Largs, Scotland.
UK June 2011 – Day 13. Today we had a longish drive, by UK standards anyway. Birmingham to Cumbernauld (North East of Glasgow). It looked like we’d arrive at Glasgow just as the commuter traffic got heavy so we detoured to Kilmarnock and the west coast for a bit of scenery while everybody drove home. …
UK June 2011 – Day 9. A trip out to visit family We were up early to go get the hire car, pick up my sister and then go off visiting family. We had a great time with my cousin, her family and my aunt. Several pictures of cute children resulted. Back in Portsmouth it …
My first pint of real beer in over two and a half years (365:174) Read More »
UK June 2011 – Day 8. Today we didn’t do a lot. We had a ‘down day’ which involved nothing much which was very nice. By the way – I’m deliberately not the focal point of this picture, I guess I could have gone for a higher ISO setting and brought us both into focus, …
UK June 2011 – Day 7. A day out in London We took the train to London and spent most of the day looking around the Tate Modern, which is where I took today’s picture. By the time we’d finished at the Tate Modern it was too late to do much else. So we walked …
The Tate Modern is one of my favorite art galleries. I try to make time for a visit whenever I’m in London.
I wish I’d been able to seen the full installation. Unfortunately it had finished before we got to the UK. It is difficult to imagine what the complete installation of 100 million sunflower seeds would have looked like. Even more difficult to comprehend is that each seed was hand painted. I wanted to capture the …
Dinner with Robert and Mel (365:171) [6 pictures]
UK June 2011 – Day 3. To be more precise a whole day with Mick. Despite changing time zones we had to be up early to get the broken camera lens to the repair shop before my childhood friend Mick arrived to take us to meet up with his parents, who I’ve not seen in …