Good Day for a Walk

Had a bit of work to do writing the press release for my next exhibition that opens on Friday in Lancaster, at the Storey Gallery. Then after a few odd jobs Jan and I managed to go out for a walk, eventually. I needed some exercise in preparation for walking across the Lake District in 10 days time.

We made sure that we ended up at the Old Hall Inn in Whitehough for a meal. The food there is jolly good and there is always a good selection of 6 to 8 real ales. Tonight I was on the Moorhouses Black Cat and it was excellent; I had 3 pints to check it so I'm pretty sure of this.

Then it was a walk in the rain over Eccles Pike to finish. In total we walked about 10 miles.

New Mobile Phone Arrived

My new mobile phone arrived today to replace the faulty replacement Blackberry Curve. It's an HTC ChaCha Android phone. Jolly different to anything I have had before.

Will take a while to get used to it but this is my first blog from it and it is so easy compared to using BB!

I switched to Google from Outlook for calendar, address book and some email. That was easy too. Now I just need to sort the remaining emails and I'm sorted.

Replacement Mobile Phone Arranged!

I should up and running with a new mobile phone on Tuesday. Vodafone agreed to an early upgrade to replace the faulty replacement phone they supplied on Monday.

I have had some problems with the Blackberry browser in the last year so I am going to try an HTC Android phone. Fingers crossed it turns up on time and works as they say it will.

Blackberry Curve Died Tonight

I was just using the web browser on my replacement Blackberry Curve 8520 when the dreaded white screen returned. The only way out of this is to remove the battery. This forces a reboot each time. As the reboot finished the white screen reappeared. Having tried and failed 3 times I admitted defeat and have consigned the Blackberry to the scrap heap.

I rang Vodafone twice today to try and sort but didn't get very far. I also didn't realise it was this serious. I'm now without a mobile for phone and emails, probably until Wednesday at the earliest.

New Colorado Snowy Images

There are quite a few new images taken in late December and January now on the web. We did a trip around several ski areas and also snowshoed around Rocky Mountain National Park and Indian Peaks Wilderness. It had been very cold with fresh powder snow, then the wind blew! There were several areas of ice footprints formed by walkers, snowshoers and skiers compressing the powder snow before the wind blew the surrounding loose snow away. This left lines of tracks standing above the snow and ice that we were walking on.

Snow Footprints on Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park

Ski Tracks on Lost Lake near Nederland in the Indian Peaks Wilderness

Old Tree Stump at Lost Lake near Nederland in the Indian Peaks Wilderness

View from Snowmass Ski Area near Aspen

New Images of London

There are some new images of London on the web site in the Recently Added Gallery or you can find them through the Cities - London Gallery. Just click either of these links to find them. They are mostly panoramic as this was the format requested by a London hotel that is considering my photographs to decorate their walls.

I also re-edited some other London images that were already on the web site to panoramic which may be of interest to you. I use the 2 to 1 panoramic format rather than anything more extreme. They are all sized to fit a 1 metre by 0.5 metre frame without a border but can be printed to pretty much any size up to this.

More to come!

Tower Bridge from Southwark, near HMS Belfast

Canary Wharf from Rotherhithe

Shad Thames near Tower Bridge

Blackberry Woes

My Blackberry Curve has been using the battery at an alarming rate over the last month or so. Changing the battery for one from a previous Curve improved matters for a couple of weeks but in the last day or two it is back to eating the battery again.

Vodafone technical support agree that I have a problem, well at least with the Blackberry, and are sending a replacement. Should be here tomorrow but since we are away it will be Monday before I start using it. In the meantime I am carrying a Powermonkey in my pocket which can recharge it several times through the day so I'm never without it.

I also mentioned the problem I am having trying to blog from the Blackberry, click here to see my previous posts, and it isn't getting any easier. Since my blog is with Google and the Blackberry web browser is the main problem he suggested looking at an Android smartphone to replace the Blackberry when the contract is up for renewal in 7 weeks time. Android is partnered with Google which is why they are supposed to work so well together.

Will keep fingers crossed they offer something decent that makes my life easier, well the blogging bit of it anyway!

A Day to Remember

What a great day in the Peak District. Blue sky and white fluffy clouds, temp over 24C but a cool breeze to stop me overheating.

I worked most of last weekend (getting my books ready for accountant) and we are running landscape photography course for 5 tomorrow and a darkroom printing course on Sunday.

I had to scan some images and ship the tweaked files to Germany today but after that I was out of the door!

I started with a walk up Eccles Pike the small hill behind the house. Spectacular views and a chat with the only person I would see until almost at the end of the walk. Clear views to Kinderscout, Chinley Churn, Whaley Moor and Combs Moss.

Then down to Chapel Milton and Wash (a small hamlet, nothing to do with personal hygiene). Then along the stream and up the hill to Shireoaks. On the edge of Kinder now.

Next it was along the Pennine Bridleway and a short diversion up South Head. I stopped for a cereal bar before heading over to the neighbouring Mount Famine. Strong breeze here so I made sure my sun hat was secured properly.

Quite steep descent from here and then down the quick way to the pretty village of Hayfield. The first pub is the George and it has changed to Marstons Brewery so a good one to stop at.

I called Jan to let her know where I was (she offered to pick me up which saved an 8 mile stagger home). Then in for a pint of Cumberland followed now by a pint of Bank's.

8 miles in 3.5 hours over 3 little peaks in spectacular conditions. A day to remember!