Zoo Day

Just had a whim to go to Chester Zoo. Haven't been for ages and decided it was time for a return trip! 
It was a beautifully sunny day on Monday, can't believe this amazing autumnal weather we have been having, hope it lasts a while yet! 
It costs £20 to get in, but I intended to spend the day and its funny that it doesn't seem so expensive when there is just me and not a family of 4 or 5!

So first stop of the trip are the warthogs!

Is he not magnificent! There were a few in the enclosure, plus about 3 much smaller ones but he was the show-off. He would take a few steps and then stop and pose, look at me as if to check if I had got his right side, then step and pose again. Hours of fun!

There were some wonderful animals, but the biggest "aawww!" came for the baby elephant. So incredibly cute.

The elephants were great to photograph as they weren't rushing about. There was a wooden fence I could lean on to steady the telephoto and I was very pleased with how they came out.

The zoo was really quite quiet, there were a few school parties (nothing cuter than a couple of 6yr old girls walking along hand in hand singing "all about the bass") and a few lone photographers, so I wasn't having to fight through crowds to get a shot.

Next visit was to the butterfly house. Incredible. Worth the entrance fee just to go in there. You are standing in a greenhouse made up like a tropical garden and the butterflies are just fluttering free around you.

Not a huge amount of varieties, think only about 5, but it was amazing. Tried to capture a few in flight but failed dismally at that, need to practice that one. But managed to get a few shots when they stopped briefly.

It was spellbinding. And hot, very hot. After removing as many layers as is socially acceptable, I stood in there for about 20 mins, just watching.

The main problem I had was that the lens kept misting up, so many of the shots were through fog! Not sure how to overcome that, but I suppose its like glasses, going from a colder environment into a hotter one will make the glass misty.

Then off to the section I had been most looking forward to: Big Cats!

One of the main problems that I faced was shooting through obstacles, be it fencing or glass. The fencing in some ways was easier as you could get really close to it and it often blurred into almost nothing. The above pic didn't quite do that, but I still really liked the two lions together so I am putting up with it. I am sure if I was really clever on photoshop I could get rid of them, but I'm not, so I haven't.

However, because I zoomed in really close to the lioness, the fence has gone and it almost looks like I am in there with her.

Many of the animals were being very kind to the visitor, and were just relaxing in the unseasonal sunshine. The cheetahs were no exception.

There is however something a little unsettling about having something so fast and dangerous look straight at you. It's almost as if he is working out just how fast he would have to run to jump over the fence to get to that live buffet just standing there, watching him. I didn't wait for him to work that one out!

This next photo has got to be one of my favourites, taken in the jaguar house.

I think there is something very soulful about his expression and it makes me feel sad whenever I look at it. They have really big enclosures in Chester and I don't know if the Jaguar has ever known life in the wild but you can't help but believe he is thinking of a different life.

Talking earlier of fast and dangerous animals looking right at me, here is another.

I was the only person walking along the path and his eyes followed me every step of the way. He was a real beauty and absolutely massive. There were a couple of walls and a large ditch between us, but somehow that didn't quite feel enough! So moving swiftly on!

There is a lot of redevelopment going on at the zoo. They have built a series of themed islands and I must say have done a fabulous job of it. Its not just enclosure after enclosure, they have created it like a series of African villages and it is splendid. Not finished yet and they are in the process of moving the Orangutans, but when it is done, it will be fabulous. There is even a boat ride! The new tiger area is here, but they were the only creatures not feeling sociable so I didn't even get to see one, never mind photograph it.

Most of the monkeys were behind glass which was a devil to shoot through, especially as it was so sunny there were a lot of reflections. It was either that, or being so far away, but I did like this one shot.

Last but not least, giraffes. Another baby, again very cute.

However, achievement of the day has got to be the bat cave. We have been coming to the zoo for about 20 years and I have always refused to go in the bat cave. The idea of it being dark and having things flying around my head terrified me. However, as regular readers will know, I am doing all sorts of things now that I used to flee from, so to the bat house I headed.

I took a deep breath and walked in, behind a sobbing child who wanted to be there as much as I did!

It wasn't completely dark, you could see a bit and at first it wasn't too bad, but when I got to the bit where the ceiling was lower and something flew past, brushing my hair, I will admit that I nearly lost it! But kept my head and got to the exit. Didn't rush out, made myself stay and look around. OK then, done that, never doing it again!

Lessons Learned: Bats are evil. Although I am assured they would never ever get caught in your hair, they can sense who is scared and like to divebomb them just for the sheer hell of it. OK, that might not be strictly true, but that was certainly what it felt like. But at least I did it, so one more thing crossed off the list!

Diet Diary: Due to lack of demand, diet diary has been temporarily suspended. (too much cake recently!)

Cheltenham and Bristol

I am so sorry it's been ages since I have blogged. Just don't know where the time has gone. I haven't actually done an awful lot blogworthy recently, just trying to get back into the swing of things and reclaim my mojo.

So, just when I needed it most, we decided to have a weekend away. It was Beth's 21st birthday so we headed to Gloucester to spend some time with her.

We started off in Cheltenham, a beautiful city. It has some wonderful architecture and a very eclectic mix of shops. Plus a small street market selling the most gorgeous flowers.

The Cheltenham Literary Festival was being held as well and we had a wander around some of the marquees and nearly saw Salman Rushdie. He was about to go into the Waterstones tent to sign copies of his new book, so we thought we might wait. But then it occurred to us that none of us particularly like him or his books, so decided not to bother. Headed outside and took a photo of Neptune instead. I didn't have the tripod with me, so kept it on a short shutter speed which I think works ok with the fountain which was behind him.

Because of the Festival, the city was buzzing and it got very difficult to take photos without hoards of people in them. Hardly took any that I was pleased with, so will return another time and try to do the architecture justice.

Day 2, headed to Bristol Docks.

Much better, so much to photograph here. We avoided the city centre and just headed straight for the docks. You can do a circular sweeping walk around them, about 2-3m which is fabulous. The old cranes were completely amazing, and reminded me a bit of those snow-walker things in one of the Star Wars movies.

We went to a lovely, quite artisan looking place for breakfast. The menu was fabulous, eggs benedict, smoked salmon and poached egg, but I went for the buttermilk pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. A plateful of heaven!

So all the food came and it looked amazing, apart from mine. The pancakes were burnt so I had to send them back and waited for a replacement. And waited. And waited. 20 minutes later, after everyone else had finished their breakfast, they reappeared, as burnt as the first time! Not a happy bunny! So we left, not prepared to wait again. Got the promise of a free breakfast next time we went, but I think we may have made it clear that there won't be a next time!

Anyway, back to the main order of the day, photography, no sorry, that should read spending time with the family!

Just loved this boat. The day was quite dull so it was great to have a splash of colour on the water. Just loved the teeth!

I suppose one of the main attractions on the docks is Brunel's SS Great Britain. It is a wonderful ship and you can go around it, but at £60 for the 5 of us, we decided to do that another time! Although I think I may have found my next challenge, climbing the rigging anyone?

Boats are still made and repaired on the docks and it was fascinating to be able to see into some of the workshops. The smell of woodshavings was so evocative of my childhood, spending time in the garage watching my father make fabulous things with wood, my doll's house for one.

I would really have loved the chance to have a rootle through the workshops, but unfortunately they are privately owned and that was not possible. 

The dockyards have seen some amazing refurbishment happening. It is lined with beautiful housing and fabulous restaurants, well most of them are :-( 

I loved these rows of houses looking down, I thought the colours were amazing and together with the sails on the boats, added a fabulous splash of summer colour to an otherwise quite dull day.

Since doing a lot more photography, especially with the need to blip something every day, I am finding that my view on what I am seeing has changed. I find myself looking for the different and unusual that might not necessarily make a pretty picture, but will certainly make an interesting one. Saw the mural of the Girl with the Pearl Earring, with the earring actually being the burglar alarm

I am finding too that textures now excite me in a way I never thought possible! I know, sad isn't it! But I loved the rusting paint on this gate, with the fencing in front of it and the wonderful added bonus of a spiders web.

So all in all, with the exception of breakfast, a completely fabulous weekend. Wonderful to spend some quality time as a family and also be able to take some photos of something new.

Promise I won't leave it so long next time!

Lessons Learned: Pancakes are apparently very easy to burn!

Diet Diary Well the fact that I didn't have pancakes probably helped, although having pizza for tea might have outweighed that one! Struggling a bit to get back into the diet mindset. Need to get back to some proper regular hiking!

The Watkin's Path

So, today, first major hike to a new place in ages. After brief stop at Misty Mere (see previous post) I headed for Snowdonia. 
After the obligatory coffee, but no cake:-( at Cadwaladers headed for the Watkin's Path. This is supposedly the hardest walk to the summit of Snowdon but I have been told (thank you Adrian) about a beautiful waterfall there, long before it starts to get really hard going. Plus, it's been ages since I have been anywhere new on my Snowdonia App!
After the Summer, my fitness levels have dropped, so will work up to the top another time.
On the way there I pass Llyn Gwynant, and as ever distracted by something pretty, I stop to take a couple of shots.

I took a few of just the lake, the reflection and the hills, but felt that they were lacking something, so gingerly crossed some swampy ground to get a different angle and something in the foreground and I think it works so much better. The water was quite still and the sunshine just lifted all the colours so I am really pleased with this shot.

Headed then to the Watkin's Path. The walk starts off gently through some beautiful light dappled woodlands and over a small waterfall. 

The sun was out and quite strong by this time, so it was lovely and cool in the woods. However, at the end of this part of the walk, the vista opened up and the scenery was breathtaking. To one side of you the waterfall, to the other valleys and mountains. With the sun shining and a beautiful blue sky, it was heavenly. 

Something I have found with my photographs is that they can't capture a magnificent landscape adequately. You don't get the true feeling of distance and depth, so I am not happy with most. This one is actually near the top of the path, after the water fall, but gives an idea of the view.

As I approached the waterfall, the path seemed to veer away from it, which was not good. So I jumped a wall and headed down through the undergrowth to get closer. OK, maybe not jumped, more inelegantly clambered over. But it was worth it.

It was so beautiful. The water cascaded down into beautiful crystal clear pools and the noise was deafening. I decided to forego the path and follow the waterfall to the top, crossing over the "bridge" pictured above. Being a bit accident prone of late, it was with some nervous trepidation that I slowly walked across it, but luckily emerged unscathed and more importantly, dry!

As I climbed further up, more waterfall appeared, there were layers upon layers of beautiful pools and wild flowing water. It was a sight to behold.

The pools were deep and clear and thought they would be ideal for this "wild swimming" I have heard about. It was so hot, I was tempted myself. Even got so far as taking off a boot and sock and dangling my foot in the flow. It was really, and I mean really, cold. So I went no further as blue isn't a good look for me!

As you climb higher, there are the ruins of slate quarry buildings, including the quarry managers house. Apparently, during the war, the fighter pilots used to use this house as shooting practice, and you can see the bullet holes along the walls. The quarry manager had moved out by this time of course.

It was one of those days and places where I had to keep stopping and looking around and just let it all sink it. The weather was perfect, the scenery staggering, the waterfalls so powerful and best of all practically no one else around! 

The waterfall seemed to flow from a small windy stream and it was hard to see how such a small amount of water could turn into the raging torrent I had followed.

Now the walk turned serious. I climbed up to the slate workers barracks and followed a very steep path towards Snowdon. It was hard going and very hot. I had filled my water bottle a couple of times from the waterfall, so at least I had plenty to drink. There is something very special about drinking fresh mountain water at source!

I paced myself and got quite high, with the top of Snowdon tantalisingly close, on the left of the following picture.

Wasn't the sky amazing! However, it got to the stage where I was having to rest and recover for longer than I was walking, so decided that was probably enough for one day. 

This is now my favourite walk ever, it has replaced the Precipice Walk in my affections, I'm afraid that I am fickle like that! Always looking for something new to tempt me!

This will be revisited often, and now that I have the replacement adaptor for my tripod (£9.99 for something the size of a pound coin!) I will go again soon and play around with some silky water shots.

I now have a companion on all my hikes who will be featuring in their own page. Look out soon for the Chronicles of Bert.

Lessons Learned: Know when to stop. Don't want to risk causing damage or injury to myself or the poor soul who is sent out to rescue me!

Diet Diary: Not been brilliant. Had a good week, bad, bad weekend. Hope the hike has helped.

Misty Ellesmere

It's been ages since I have posted, many apologies. Just seems to be so much to do at the moment, and blipping is quite time consuming too!
Anyhow, managed to arrange a long day out on Monday as the weather promised to be gorgeous.
The day started with a dense mist which the sun was beginning to burn off, so first stop on my travels was to the Mere so see what it looked like there.

It was so beautiful and really ethereal, just rising off the water and just leaving the trees opposite in faint silhouette.

It was gorgeous to see, but the sun was getting warm and the mist was fading, so it was almost split second timing to get shots.
I have temporarily misplaced (lost) the camera attachment for my tripod so all pics had to be handheld. 

I would have liked to have a play with some long exposures with the mist and water, but maybe next time.
Didn't have a lot of time anyway, as I was off on an adventure! See next post!

100 at 100mph

Drum Roll please, this is my 100th Post! Can't believe I have done 100 blogworthy things in the last year. Its obviously been an exciting one.
So this blog post had to be a good one and I think the timing is just perfect.
Today, Beth and I went to Zipworld Velocity in Bethesda to tackle the longest zip wire in Europe and the fastest in the World!
Regular readers will know that I have done Titan twice this year, which is not as fast and you go down in a sitting position. Velocity is anything up to 119mph head first and face down. Scary stuff!
Got there in plenty of time but the facilities are really basic at the moment so we sat with our coffee in the car watching for zippers coming down. There were none. For over half an hour. We found out later that there had been an issue with the braking systems and a technician had been called out. Not the most inspiring of news to those about to launch themselves off a mountain!

It did give us plenty of time to admire the scenery. Quarry and slate lake in the front, mountains to the side, and the Sea behind.  Even if we didn't get to zip, it was worth the trip for the views!

Finally we were ready to go and get strapped in. I must warn anyone deciding to have a go to leave their dignity in the car. Not only is it the bright red jumpsuits and harnesses again, but the strapping in positions are extremely unseemly! Basically a push-up position with your bum in the air and someone faffing around you looking for straps!

There are 2 zips in total. The first, Little Zipper, takes about 30secs and you dawdle along at about 45mph(!). Just really to get you used to the position. 
We are then transported to the top in an open backed truck. Given a fabulous history lesson about the quarry on the way up via an audio tour recorded by a retired quarry worker. The trip was hair raising enough with very steep tracks and hairpin bends!

Finally we get to the top and the views are completely staggering. It is very cloudy, but dry and not too cold which is all we could ask for.

The next picture is the view down. The little white dot I have etched into the picture shows where the zip ends, a long way down and a long way away!

This isn't Beth or me, but the person before us ready to be launched. You can see just how high we had got and how fantastic the views are.

So we are strapped in and launched. It is difficult to find words to describe the experience.

 

 This was the landing strip on the left, with the starting point being the white square top centre. You can just see the zip wires coming from it.

It was scary. You have no idea just how fast 100mph is until you fly it! The wind completely takes your breath and you feel that your stomach is trying to find a way out through your feet. But the overriding thought is "OMG I can't believe I'm doing this!" The lake is 100ft below you and you can see your shadow skimming over it and the trees just a blur as you rush past. It is breathtaking, astounding and quite simply the most amazing and terrifying thing I have ever done!

Worthy of a 100th blog post methinks!

Lessons Learned: I am fearless and I can fly! I don't know where this new and improved Sharon has come from, but I like her!

Diet Diary: Not going to end on a down, so not going to talk about it!

Macro

Trying something new again. Macro. Played around with it a bit but without a huge amount of success. So inspired by Tiny Tuesday on Blip, thought I would have another go.
I have macro filters which have a factor of +1, +2, +4 and +10. The higher the number the closer you can get to the object you are shooting. I bought them cheaply on Ebay to try it out. You can stack them on top of each other to make almost any factor up to 10.
So this is the first attempt.

I was quite pleased with it, but there are areas that are out of focus and some of the central bits aren't very sharp. So I posted it on blipfoto and asked advice, and the wonderful blippers out there obliged.

First observation was that I need a smaller aperture so more will be in focus with a bigger depth of field. The way I explain it to myself is that a small aperture is like the camera squinting and when we squint we can generally see details a bit clearer.
Second was a tripod. This eliminates any movement and when you use a long exposure, also turn off the Image stabiliser and use the timer delay.

Second attempt using all the advice. Not as close but the boat is only about an inch and a half tall and I was pleased with the amount of texture and detail picked up on the sails.

Next attempt getting up really close. This is part of the front of one of my vintage cameras. Got as close as I could with the camera, mounted it on my gorillapod (a small flexible tripod that looks like an instrument of torture) and played around with shutters and apertures, finishing touches added in Lightroom. By Jove I think she's got it!

So last attempt to get it completely sorted.

This is my late Father's pocket watch and the workings are actually tiny so it was lovely to be able to get in close and see just what a work of art an old watch is.

So its all been a bit trial and error, but so far so good, just got to keep practicing!

Next post will be my 100th, have to do something very exciting for that one!

Lessons Learned: One of the most gratifying things about all the wonderful advice was that it was getting quite technical and I was actually able to understand most of it! I'm not the dummy I thought I was!

Diet Diary: Finally got back to Slimming World last Tuesday. Had put on a pound or 5 over the summer, so back on it now :-(

Liverpool

 I think the biggest problem many of us have had this summer is what on earth to do with the kids when its raining. I have managed to get the family out and hiking on a few reluctant occasions but I think if I tried it in a downpour I would have a mutiny on my hands. Shopping gets very expensive and we have done Blue Planet to death, having done the "there's a fish, there's another fish, can we get ice cream now" whirlwind 15 minute tour on several occasions!
So Carl came up with the brainwave of Liverpool. Only been once many years ago (remember buying Maisie the cutest pink hat and frilled poncho. She was a baby then, 14 now). The idea was to visit Liverpool One, the new shopping centre which I have heard great things about, then visit the Albert Docks perhaps.
The day started off well with us having coffee and cake in Thorntons Cafe. Didn't know they did cafes but will search them out again. Really, really nice choice of cakes and you get a free chocolate with every drink.
Apart from that, Liverpool One is like any city centre shopping. Its big and has all the big named shops, only unlike the Trafford Centre, it is all outside which isn't so much fun in the rain. So then we headed for the Albert Docks.

 This was more like it. The buildings are fabulous and you get some wonderful reflections in the water. There are loads of boats in the water and there were many photo opportunities. Had to keep dodging showers tho. I really do need to get some sort of waterproof case for the camera.

Around the Albert Docks are loads of wonderful restaurants serving a huge variety of food where you could sit outside and watch the ships. We wimped out as it was pretty darned chilly but as we were in our restaurant waiting for our lunch, one of the waiters was putting blankets on the outside tables for those souls a little hardier than us. Isn't that a fabulous idea!

 After lunch the heavens opened and walking around outside wasn't really possible. There are some wonderful buildings in Liverpool, so I am going to have to make another visit soon.

Something I did see and like were the bikes for hire.

You paid your couple of pounds into the meter and then you could cycle around the city. Such a fabulous idea and there had obviously been a few takers as well. I've played around with selective colour on this as most of the other colour was washed out anyway, so I thought it looked better just to take it out and let the green dominate.

We then made our way to the Museum of Liverpool which is a fantastic place. Free entry, which is rare these days, and so much to see. From early industry and Liverpools part in the slave trade, up to modern music, of course with a large part about the Beatles. There was something for everyone.
And of course it helped that you could look out at the horrible weather from the warmth of being inside!

On the way back, walking by the Mersey, came across the Love Locks. Hundreds of inscribed padlocks adorning the railings. Beautiful to see.

Lessons Learned: Yet again, Carl has had a good idea so I might just have to keep him!

Diet Diary: Still got a few days to go before I rejoin Slimming World so am making the most of it!