Category: Family

Family related posts; generally only of interest to fellow members of the Brown Clan and relations by Marriage into this mad house.

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Hit and Miss – Frustrating Bird Photography

Wildlife and landscape photography can be a frustrating affair.  Saturday was our last day at Whisby Nature Reserve on our Bee Keeping Course.  We have now finished all the theory and soon will start the practical sessions once the weather is better and the hive activity picks up.

After the lesson, I headed out to one of the main lakes to check out what I could find.  With spring now underway I had taken with me my longest lens and my Nikon SLR together with the big Gitzo tripod.

As you can see, nesting in the reed bed I spotted a nesting coot, and when it moved I spotted it even had eggs.  Unfortunately when it moved and showed the egg, I was not ready for it and had too slow a shutter speed set and ended up with a blurred shot.

Disappointing but those are the breaks.  For every good shot there are thousand of bad ones.  Research, planning and knowing your subject are key to improving your chances.

Hopefully I will have better look next time.

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Your Local Bee Inspector

As most of the family are by now aware, we want to start keeping Bees and Chickens.

To that end we have been attending Bee Keeping Classes every Saturday Morning held at Whisby Nature Reserve.

Well tonight we had the chance to meet up with some members of the Lincolnshire Bee Keeping Association at a talk being given by the local Bee Inspector.

If you do keep Bees its well worth introducing yourself to your local Bee Inspector and also registering your hives.

You will get advanced warning of any crop spraying and diseases in your local area. If you think you may have a problem or just need advice they don’t mind coming round and giving you the help and advice you need.  This is a free service that all Bee Keepers should make use of.

Useful Links

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a Busy Weekend – Bee’s, Macro and Motorcycling

What a busy weekend its been.  Saturday saw us again at Whisby Nature Reserve for the morning, attending our Bee Course.  We are now over halfway through and have fully enjoyed our Bee Keeping Course hosted by the Lincolnshire Bee Keeper Association.

As its a half day course and the day was so nice, I decided to spend the afternoon practicing my flower photography.  Unfortunately it was a little too windy to get any really good shots.

Sunday we jumped on the bike and spent the day exploring the North Yorkshire Moors.  All in all, we spent over six hours in the saddle, finding minor roads and fords to cross.  For lunch we had a break at the very nice but extremely busy Magpie Cafe in Whitby.

The wonderful warm sunny weather on the Sunday really brought out the Motorcyclists and the Photographers.  I took the Nikon V1 outfit with me and a freshly charged battery, but I was having far too much fun on the bike to stop much and take pictures, but I do have some lovely memories of the beautiful scenery and a number of locations to head back to with the Medium Format Camera.

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Changeable Weather

I find it hard to believe how changeable the weather has been recently.

Last Sunday was cold but bright and a great morning’s Photography was had.

The first half of this week has been dull and overcast but temperatures have been gradually rising, culminating with Thursday being one of the warmest days, a record for this time of year.  Not only that but we had bright blue skies and lovely sunshine all day long.

With the week just getting better I started to make some plans for the weekend. Possibly a long motorcycle ride to the North York Moors, with camera in hand of course for the Sunday.

Instead the weather is looking decidedly dodgy in the forecast.

We have another day at Whisby Nature Reserve on Saturday for Day 3 of our Bee Keeping Course, which we are looking forward to, so if the weather is nice we will try some more bird photography and hope for a nice Sunday.

One of the joys of living in the British Isle, the weather forecast can often be wrong.

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Signs of Spring

You can certainly tell that spring is on the way now.

The Photographer in me has started to spot the Crocus and Snowdrops raising their heads into flower. Thoughts of Macro Photography start to fill my mind.

This bright and sunny Sunday morning saw myself and Caroline pulling on our running shoes and going for a run out of the village. The signs of spring were very much in evidence.

We saw Coal Tits, Chaffinches as well the usual Wood Pigeons, Black Headed Gulls and some very noisy Black Birds.

The fair weather motorcyclists are also starting to make an appearance, they can be spotted on their overly loud Japanese motorcycles, sporting garish one piece leathers. Power Rangers on Rice Rockets is the colloquial term.

Though as a rider of a BMW Motorcycle, that makes me a Pipe and Slippers man, obviously too old to have fun and should be a paid up member of the Advanced Motorcyclist Group, who never go over 50 mph.

Here’s to Spring.

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Snowmen, Superbowl and Sleep

Well the snow arrived as promised.  First job on Sunday morning was to clear the drive, with the excess snow we made a couple of snowmen.  Silly I know but fun.

Unfortunately it was foggy so I did not go out and get my landscape shots, but hopefully there will be further opportunities this winter.

As most Americans will be aware, Sunday was also Superbowl night.  Superbowl XLVI between the New York Giants and New England Patriots.  I had arranged a free Monday so Sunday night I stayed up and enjoyed the game with a bottle of rather nice Orkney Malt Whisky, a fine 1989 vintage.

I am a Bears fan but was hoping for a Giants win.  It was a great game and will go down in history with the most reluctant touchdown ever scored.

Monday I spent catching up on my sleep.  Now to look forward to the Rugby, with England off to a great start in winning against Scotland on Saturday.

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Bee Keeping Course

I am sure that many in the family think we are mad, but this weekend we started a Bee Keeping Course being held by the Lincolnshire Beekeepers Association.  This weekend was just an introduction, but it was lots fun and we learnt a lot.

We even made some bee frames for a hive.

This together with our interest in Chicken’s and Cooking and Baking, I think the family think we will be trying to live the ‘Good Life‘ soon.

 

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Bikes & Bread

Today we have had the day off and have enjoyed ourselves just being able to do as we pleased.  This meant a pleasant motorcycle ride round parts of Lincolnshire, and included a trip to Wisteria Patchwork.   They had a sale on this week, so some fabric indulgence was a must for Caroline.  Then we headed further North to Kirton in Lindsey, the weather had turned colder at this point so we stopped at Mount Pleasant Windmill and enjoyed some of their warming soup.  I also took the opportunity to stock up on some fresh flour for my own bread making.

We then went home as dark clouds were heading our way.

Once home I proceeded to make some fresh bread while Caroline did some sewing, making some more quilt tops.

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Forgive the poor quality shot above, low light and shot with my phone, never conductive to good photography.

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Stormy Weather

Well its been a few days of really stormy weather here in the UK, its always tricky riding a motorcycle in high wind.

I have mentioned it before but its worthwhile mentioning it again.  On days like always give motorcyclists a wide birth and plenty of room.  A sudden gust can push a motorcycle easily in to the next lane.

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and the Heavens Opened

Today we were back at work.  The British Isles were being beaten today with 100mph plus winds, but here in Lincolnshire it was more like 40 – 50mph so we risked the bike on our commute.

Once we were safely in the office the heaven’s opened and it rained so hard you could nearly near swim through the air.  Glad we were indoors.