Thursday 26 June 2008

An interesting diversion on The Web

One fascinating feature of the internet is the number of get-rich-quick schemes that pop up everywhere you look. Are these just the latest incarnation of the old pyramid selling scams, or is there really an opportunity to make money by imparting knowledge?

Well - only one way to find out and that's to set one up !

A bit of research (admittedly probably influenced by too much red wine) and I've registered my domain www.sunglassesforless.co.uk and bought a hosting package (PHP & MySQL) with the cheapest UK provider I could find and also signed up with Build A Niche Store (or BANS as it's nicknamed).

So the site is up and running - let's see what happens!

Tuesday 17 June 2008

A walk from Bolton-by-Bowland

With rain forecast for the afternoon, I made a (relatively) early start and parked up at the information centre in the village.

The walk is another from the Hillside Publications "Walking Country - Pendle & the Ribble" - an easy circular route heading North from Bolton-by-Bowland, then circling clockwise to return to the village.

Bolton-by-Bowland is a very pretty spot, the village green and church both being extremely attractive:


The walk took around 2 1/2 hours, with plenty of stops for photographs - that of course is the great excuse for the unfit walker!







One interesting area was near the end of the walk which went past Bolton Hall. Now a rather luxurious set of residences created from the old stable blocks. The grounds of the hall are still pretty extensive and have a lot of rhododendrons which were in spectacular bloom on the day I passed by.











Friday 13 June 2008

Walking near Pendle

With my new found leisure time, one aim is to get back into walking in the countryside. So armed with a new guidebook "Walking Country - Pendle & the Ribble" from Hillside Publications
I chose walk no 7 - Rimington and set off for the car park in Downham.

The walk was easy going but well planned taking in some great scenery and a fair bit of industrial heritage - mines and lime kilns as well as mills and farms.

Being June, buttercups were out in force and rather suprisingly (to me anyway) a lot of large fungus on trees.

I said it was well planned and with a carefully chosen start time and leaving plenty of time for photo-opportunities I contrived to arrive at Rimington, or more specifically the Black Bull just in time for lunch. A Thwaites house with properly hand-pulled cask beers and an excellent range of sandwiches - thoroughly recommended.

Some photos taken on the way, this is Ings Beck.

Everywhere on this walk, Pendle Hill imposes it's looming prescence














These two were taken after Rimington on the
walk towards Hollins & Ings End.










The clouds really were threatening, though thankfully it did not really start raining until the walk was almost finished.

Looking in the other direction from Pendle there is a terrific view towards the giants of Ingleborough and Pen-y-Ghent.

Sunday 8 June 2008

Sunny Sunday In The Peak District

9:30 am, the sun is shining so having met up at the PC World car park in Bolton we decided on heading towards Buxton, then over to Carsington Water.

Graham is back on two wheels again riding his newly acquired Gold Wing, the sounds of Radio 2 wafting from it rather spoil the Hell's Angels image!

Breakfast was planned for the Grouse & Claret Inn at Rowsley, but due to traffic and us being pulled by the police at Doveholes - "inspecting tax & tyres sir" we were 10 minutes late so we had to stop for lunch instead.

Now I'm all in favour of our brave boys in blue catching criminals, but the copper who stopped us was ONLY stopping bikers - don't car drivers evade tax & have dodgy tyres too? Anyway we were all judged fine upstanding citizens and allowed to continue our lawful passage along the queen's highway.

Through Matlock & Matlock Bath then parked up at Carsington Water where fun abounds and ice cream is served very slowly.









Some visitors - two wheeled and two winged!

Then off towards Leek and Rudyard Lake. I got the satnav to take us the pretty route and apart from wanting us to go through a ford that looked rather too wide & deep for my liking, it did take us down a series of country lanes before putting us on the A roads.

One photo opportunity arose so here it is:

Saturday 7 June 2008

Taking the Family Flying

Having revalidated my licence, I was able to fulfill a long standing request to take my grandchildren (and along for the ride my daughter and son-in-law) for a pleasure flight.



Although they have all flown on commercial services, only Caroline had ever been in a light aircraft, so this was quite an adventure. I gave a stern safety briefing, majoring on avoiding propellors (which was a little underminded when Seraphina voluteered that she didn't know what a propellor was) - but suitably warned, both children behaved impeccably.

We booked out at the tower, then checked out the aircraft and got everyone strapped in, then off and heading out towards the north west, loooking in at The Reebock, then over towards Southport.

On the way we climbed to about 3,000' on top of the clouds, then a turn for home, descending to be under the Manchester TMA and back to Barton.






I think Quinn may need just to be a little taller if he ever wants to be a pilot!











Not at clear just why Rod has his eyes tight shut, I'm sure my flying wasn't that bad!






Flying Again (and Legal!)

After a couple of years not doing enough hours, my certificate of experience finally ran out so the decision whether to renew or not became rather pressing. I still love flying, so the choice became a little academic and on Tuesday this week, I booked an instructor and planned a little navigation exercise.

All went perfectly well, a mid-point course correction and about 1 minute early we found ourselves bang over the destination without ever having switched the GPS on! Then off for a license skills test - a few steep turns, a practice forced landing, fully developed stall with the aircraft clean, then approaching the stall in the landing configuration. Although feeling a bit rusty, it all came back to me and I coped well (at least I think I did).

Back to Barton, a flapless approach for a touch and go, then a practice EFATO on the climb out with neither me nor the instructor warning the tower that it was a practice - they seemed quite relieved when we acknowledged their radio call as we were climbing away. Round the circuit and in to land and there it was - all done & I can legally fly VFR for another two years.

Now - should I renew the IR ? Yes of course I should :-)