Catching up on events

It's been a while since I blogged. Perhaps that's an inevitable thing, you start with good intentions of writing a regular commentary on life, the universe and everything, but then the enthusiasm just tails off and perhaps, horror of horrors, you just have nothing interesting to say!

However, life rolls on and a number of things have happened so I feel that I should document them.

Firstly and most sadly, my mother has died - at the moment it's too raw a feeling to say much, but although her health had deteriorated to the point where she needed nursing care it still came as a shock when it happened so quickly.

A conversation I had with her just a very few weeks ago concerned the house we were buying in France - I showed her the photographs and she said how much she'd like to be able to see it one day - never now to happen which leaves me feeling rather empty. Even more poignantly the day of the sale completion is the day of the funeral.

Another event of note is the purchase of a new aeroplane, as I blogged earlier I rather fancied the CTLS (having flown a CTSW) so I am now the proud owner of G-CGRB and I'll write a separate blog entry about it.

A fun family day

Society moves on and becomes more secular year by year (and what a good thing that is), but with that comes fewer formal occasions - weddings, christenings etc. But if not a formal christening (for which of course one should be a christian, I wonder how many are?) then what?

The answer - a Naming Ceremony. And that's what was organised for Seraphina - Here are a few photos

There are more in gallery 29 on my photo site:

www.ianj49.co.uk

 

  

  

 

 

 

and then the party was over:

A Photographic Afternoon Out

It was my Grandson Quinn's birthday a couple of weeks ago, he asked for a digital camera. After much deliberation a family decision was made to pool resources and get him one which offered more than a simple point & shoot as he's expressed a real interest in photography. So Fuji Finepix in his grasp, and Olympus E-P2 in mine we set off along the Bridgewater Canal in the direction of Astley Green.

I thought I'd just post some pictures of "the snapper snapped"

Checking those leading lines!

Looking for the next shot

Photographing Grandad
















Small Chap - BIG Engine

An Afternoon at Manchester's Transport Museum

Not too much to report, perhaps the title Transport Museum is a little grand - it is in fact a Bus Museum (though to be fair they do have a tram, a fire engine, a street cleaner and two invalid carriages). The web site is http://www.gmts.co.uk/ and is informative and accurate.

So, by special request we went (Caz, Quinn, Sera and me) - here are the photos:

Ellie The Lurcher

It was Sera's birthday recently and to acknowledge her love of dogs she was given a present of a sponsorship of Ellie, a 6 year old Lurcher being cared for by The Dogs Trust at their Merseyside branch in Huyton.




Today was the day to go and visit Ellie, so in driving rain and miserable weather off we went, and spent a hapy half hour walking Ellie around the grounds.

Some more photos:




And just to prove I was there, Quinn took this one:

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!

An afternoon at Quarry Bank Mill - Styal

With the added attraction of an Easter Egg hunt, who could resist? Certainly not Quinn & Sera so off to Styal for a walk round the mill and a look at the latest addition - the "secret garden".

It's been a few years since I last visited and whilst the fabric of the mill remains, there is a definite change in the "feel" of the place.

A number of the exhibits are definitely looking a bit tatty and there seems to have been an effort to modernise the "visiting experience".




In common with so many museums today it seems we have to be challenged by multi-media interactivity rather than being left to make up our own minds.

One thing that did annoy me was the ban on photography inside the property. I can understand banning flash photography in some places with delicate fabrics and paintings - but an industrial heritage site? When was cast iron last jeopardised by a camera?



A stroll in the garden after the walk through the mill was nice with Quinn in reflective mood & Sera skipping her way through life as ever!

Mother's Day

Once more, using the new phone (Sony Ericsson K810i) to take a picture and publish it directly to the blog - suitably impressing my mother!