Category Archives: Travel

Repairing the Beach

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There had been some pretty stormy weather shortly before we got to the UK.  When we went to Southsea to pick up mum from the hovercraft, there was some work underway on the beach that sits below the terminal.  By the look of things, the storm had moved the shingle around quite a bit and they needed to regrade the shoreline.  Someone was busy working on it while the hovercraft was on its way over.  They had to get out of the way before it arrived, of course, but they seemed to have done a decent job of it in plenty of time.  I wonder how often they need to rework the shore to keep things where they need to be for the service.

Mix of F-16s in Tucson

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Every once in a while, the Air Force moves airframes around between units.  One may have exhausted the limits on their airframes and they need to be retired or it could just be a balancing exercise to spread the usage types across the larger fleet.  The Arizona Air National Guard unit at Tucson has recently received a bunch of different (calling them new would be a stretch) jets that have come from various units around the country.  They will be marked up with the AZ tail code in due course but, at the time of my visit, they were still carrying markings from a bunch of other bases.  Getting a diverse range of tails before they all became the same was the challenge while there.  Here are some of the results.

River Test at a High Level

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The River Test really should be considered multiple rivers because it splits and rejoins as it moves across the Hampshire countryside.  You can cross all sorts of minor streams, but you do also get some larger crossings where the river is well defined.  One of these is the road to Longstock.  There is a weir across the river just upstream of the bridge and it seemed to be flowing pretty well when we were there.  We had experienced lovely weather, but I guess quite a bit of rain had preceded our arrival.  There was a single swan on the river, and it seemed to be making some effort to move upstream.

Richmond Park Scenery

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I last visited Richmond Park in 1990 in my last year at university.  I went there with a couple of friends for a day out in the sun.  For some reason, I have not been back since.  Why we never went there, I do not know.  Nancy was quite perplexed to discover such an amazing park that she never got to see when we lived in the UK.  Definitely something we missed out on.

Anyway, be that as it may, we did make the time to have a trip to the park when we went up to Richmond during our UK visit so we could meet up with family and see some other parts of the area.  I really had no idea about the layout of the park.  It was way hillier than I remembered.  We drove through the park for a while and then found a spot to leave the car and take a stroll. 

It is a gorgeous place to wander.  We didn’t have a huge amount of time so weren’t going to walk a long way but we did have a nice stretch of the legs.  Plenty of deer to see in the park but they will get their own post.  Being spring, the trees were starting to look full.  While plenty of people were around, you felt like you were alone quite quickly.  We passed an enclosure that was designed to give the deer their own space.  They didn’t seem too interested in it and were quite comfortable everywhere else!  Our route back brought us to a garden as part of Pembroke Lodge.  This was also the spot with a café which was far more important.  Next time we are back, it would be good to explore the park more extensively.

Another Robin Comes Out to Play

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We had the robins visiting the garden when we stayed in Stockbridge, but they were rather reticent about being around when we were there.  They tended to disappear whenever they realized we were watching them.  During our visit to Hinton Ampner, we came across a rather more bold member of the family.  This one was sitting in a hedge right next to us when I realized it was there.  I got a shot before it moved but it only repositioned to a perch close to us.  A brave little fella and very cute.

Family of Blackbirds Out for a Meal

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A family of blackbirds was a regular sight in the front garden of the place we rented in Stockbridge.  They were happily finding whatever they could eat in the grass.  There appeared to be two parents with some youngsters in tow.  The chicks were now pretty fully grown and seemed to have their feathers, but they were less interested in finding food than they were in having their parents do the work.  I will let those of you with children make your own comments.  The chicks actually looked a little larger than their parents, so they are probably eating well.

A Development Dash 8

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I may have a soft spot for testbeds, but development airframes are also something that will interest me.  While driving around Tucson International Airport, we were looking at the various airframes at one of the schools based on the field.  There was a Dash 8 sitting in the yard.  It had Series 200 markings on it and seemed to be a development airframe.  With Mark being a Canadian, he was definitely pleased to catch this but I was too.  It looks in surprisingly good shape.

Sunset Comes Too Soon for BA

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My Arizona trip with mark started out in Phoenix.  I got there earlier than he did and shot a little at Sky Harbor but, once we had met up, we decided to try what the evening shooting might offer there.  I was particularly interested in getting the British Airways A350 when it arrived.  Phoenix is a busy airport but does not have a huge amount of variety so this would be one of the more “exotic” arrivals.  It was due to make it in just before sunset, but the flight was running a touch late, and I wasn’t sure if it would make it.

Keeping an eye on the track of the flight was one thing, but we were also keeping an eye on the horizon.  There was low cloud in the distance which suggested that the sun might disappear from view before it actually set.  Sadly, this proved to be the case.  Things got gloomy rather quickly once the sun went behind the cloud bank and then, as it got low in the sky (out of sight) the light was fading fast.  That’s when the jet arrived.  Still, it wasn’t a total loss.  Sometimes low light can be interesting.  It wasn’t as good as the last light of the day glowing on the nose, but it was alright.  We watched the jet taxi in and then decided to see what low light shots we could make work.

A Shield Bug – Looks Like a Stinkbug

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I was out in the garden of our place in Stockbridge and was surprised by how many ladybirds and flies I saw on the leaves.  Then I saw something a bit different.  I reminded me of the stink bugs we see in Washington.  According to Ian, who was in the yard shortly afterwards, it is a shield bug.  In all my years in the UK, I had never heard of or seen one of these.  Now I have.