Bletchley Park

We spent Monday at Bletchley Park, home of the wartime code breakers. The following day, it was announced that they were receiving £500,000 of Lottery money - and quite right too. Thoroughly deserving, as an important part of our national history, that is in disgracefully poor condition in parts. Without the geniuses that worked there, we wouldn't be where we are today. Whether that's a good thing just at the moment is a matter for debate... First up, this just made me smile - somehow I always imagined that Bomber Command would be far more impressive... This is a real, actual, proper German Enigma machine. It's in a glass case so that no nutter can nick it again. Anyway, why did they give it back to Jeremy Paxman? Stephen Fry must have been gutted. This is part of a superb slate statue of Alan Turing, father of modern computing. Without him, it is quite possible I would be doing something completely different for...
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Oxford

We spent last Friday wandering round Oxford, having deposited my mother at John Radcliffe hospital for a minor eye operation (all fine, thanks for asking). I think I've only been once before, and that was about 30 years ago when we had a French exchange boy over (well, when I say "exchange", he came over [as did his brother a couple of years later] but we never went to stay with them). There may even be photos of this somewhere in my dad's collection, but it'll take a while to get there as it must have been 1978 or '79 and and I'm only up to 1958...Anyway, the best shot of the day came from the top of the University Church of St Mary The Virgin, showing the Radcliffe Camera, with All Souls College on the right and Brasenose College on the left. No, that's not a bird above the dome, it's a speck of sodding dust on the sodding...
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Llanerchaeron

The final stop on our Welsh trip was to Llanerchaeron, near Aberaeron - a John Nash house with an enormous pair of walled gardens. These were full of more fruit and vegetable plants than you could imagine.   Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/500 @ f3.5, ISO 100 There is also a working farm, with some particularly inquisitive pigs!   Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/500 @ f3.5, ISO 100 Some of the plants in the walled garden were covered with more bees than I've ever seen - I assume they've got a hive or two somewhere. There were also plenty of butterflies - I seem to have hardly seen any since I was a child (and that's going back some way now...). I was surprised by just how close I could get to it with the macro turned on on the compact camera.     Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/500 @ f3.5, ISO 100 Having mentioned on a previous post about the fogged infra-red film at Dyrham...
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Bosherston

We also visited Bosherston in Pembrokeshire, where three small valleys were flooded in the 1800s to form a large series of lakes. These are full of water lillies, and look fantastic. Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/800 @ f5.6, ISO 100 Having walked for a mile or so along the valley, you suddenly come out at Broad Haven beach - completely unexpected and very picturesque. Without wanting to sound rude, you wouldn't guess it was Wales, would you? Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/800 @ f4.4, ISO 100 And on the walk back, we came across this cormorant, which happily sat there for ages while I took photos. Panasonic FX-37, 130mm equivalent, 1/125 @ f5.9, ISO 200 ...
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Llansteffan

We spent a few days in Wales in early September, which coincided with several days of fantastic weather. For a change, I deliberately left my digital SLR at home and shot a bit of film. I'll post those up when I get them back from processing and scan them - these shots are from my little digital compact. I'm so impressed by the macro facilities you get with them, making shots like this dead easy. Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/640 @ f5.6, ISO 100 Llansteffan was lovely - it was really quiet, and at times all you could hear was a bit of wind and some seagulls. The tide times were just right, which enabled us to walk out surprisingly far onto the sand banks. And yes, we did take care to make sure we weren't cut off. Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/800 @ f5, ISO 100 And finally, I resurrected an old family habit of drawing "DON'T PANIC" in the sand (from Hitchhiker's Guide...
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