Tag Archives: hampshire

Coming Across an Old Car Meet While Out on the Bike

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As part of my prep for the long charity bike ride I undertook in September, I was doing some longer rides from home to get some miles in. On one of these rides, I headed from home to the coast. To be honest, I had planned the route on the computer, and I didn’t really know many of the places I was going through. A lot of it was countryside but I did come through some towns. As I was heading out of one of them, I passed a bunch of people and cars parked in a car park.

I stopped and went back to see what sort of vehicles these folks had brought along. There was quite a selection of old vehicles and some that weren’t so old. However, I guess it is a question of perspective because some of the cars that were there seemed recent to me until I thought of when they were registered. Then it was obvious that they were now rather old – just like me! Yes, we had some more familiar “vintage” vehicles but in the background of one of the shots you might spot an Austin Metro! I didn’t hang around too long because I was on a mission, but it was a fun break and rather amusing!

Early Morning Deer Encounter

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Whenever I take a morning walk around Barton Meadows Nature Reserve, I am hoping that I will come across some local wildlife. The most likely encounter – aside from the birds – will be the deer. I don’t always take the camera with a long lens on these walks since they are more about getting some exercise in before starting work, but I do worry that I will encounter something special when I don’t. I had seen three deer in the middle of one field so assumed I was done with deer. Then, as I came up to the corner of another field, I saw one walking along the fence line. I tried not to disturb it by staying behind the hedge and got the phone out. Eventually it spotted me and ran a short distance before stopping, turning to face me and staring. Then it ran away. Here is the phone video I got.

The Complexity of the Floor of an F1 Car

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Anyone who follows the details of Formula One is familiar with the endless efforts that go into the design of the aerodynamics of the car. Anyone that knows me knows that I love the aero side of things. The designs will be updated throughout a season to try and maximise the downforce on the car whilst minimising the drag penalty from that downforce. Taking a look at a Williams F1 car at Beaulieu gave a bit of a hint of the tiny details that are included in the design. There is a good chance that this car was not even an operational example and the aero features might not be representative of an actual racing set up, but they are a good approximation of what is involved, and the reality is that it is quite amazing.

Misty Morning in the Neighbourhood

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Barton Meadows is part of my morning routine on many days and this blog pretty often too. One morning I headed across for a walk and there was plenty of low mist hanging in the air. Sections of my loop were shrouded in mist, and I wasn’t going to miss the chance to get some photos. I hope they convey a little of how great it felt when I was there that morning.

50 Years of Popham

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This aviation moment was a bit of a last-minute thing. We don’t live terribly far from Popham’s airfield, and I have driven past it more time than I can recall including when travelling to visit family in Andover before we ended up living in Hampshire. However, I had never actually been to the airfield before. I had seen that they were having a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the first use of the field, but I did have other stuff going on at home. When I had finished that, I knew I needed to get a bike ride in as part of my ongoing (if feeble) preparation for the charity ride I had coming up. I decided to ride up to Popham and back and swing by the fly in.

The weather was really nice and there seemed to be a ton of planes that had made the trip in to join the celebrations. The road into the airfield goes right under the western approach end and I did stop there on my bike for a while to watch the arriving and departing planes. Then I rode into the airfield itself and had a brief wander around. There were plenty of people out walking amongst the parked planes and, if I hadn’t been in cycling shoes and pushing the bike, I would have had a longer time exploring. Instead, it was a brief stopover before continuing my ride. I hope they had a successful day.

This Boathouse Looks Like It Has Been Around for a While

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I was heading from Gunwharf Quays around to Spice Island before heading to Southsea to meet my mum from the hovercraft. I ended up following a trail that was marked on the pavement, and it took me around the harbour near where the old Camber quay was. I didn’t know the area but figured I couldn’t get too lost if I had the water on one side. As I got to the end of the dock, I saw this building. It has that great look of odd angles that old buildings often have. I don’t know how long this boathouse has been here, but I would guess it is quite a long time!

How Many Cameras Do You Need?

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While waiting for the ferry at Lymington, I saw this post with the various cameras that Wightlink uses to keep track of what is happening in the loading area. There are quite a few cameras here. I wonder whether they are all in use or some have replaced others that haven’t been taken down. Either way, there are a lot of cameras on this one pole!

Generations of F1 Racing Cars

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The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu has an F1 exhibit running throughout the summer. There are a number of F1 cars from across the decades on show along with some images and information displays. I imagine that a few competitors were willing to collaborate on this because several of the cars seemed to have the same heritage. For example, the Jaguar is from the team that became Red Bull, so they were probably owned by the same entity and there were some Williams cars too.

Here are a few shots of the generations of cars that were on display. It is interesting to see how much the size and look of the cars has changed as the rule structures have evolved and the technology has advanced. The 70s cars really do look incredibly flimsy, and it is no surprise that drivers died a lot in those days.

Snow Leopards Make a Highlight

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I have posted about our visit to Marwell after hours. What I didn’t include in that post was the snow leopards. They have a couple of snow leopards at the zoo and, when we came up, one was resting up on some rocks while another was more active. It headed to a hole in the rocks as we got there which had me wondering if it was going inside to avoid the visitors. However, it was passing through to another part of the enclosure where it then came right up to the glass walls and walked back and forth throughout the space.

It was so close and really looked amazing. Supposedly, the way to get their attention is to have toddlers with you. Not sure if they think they are snack worthy or not, but they do like following the kids. We didn’t have many in our group, but this one was still very active. I spent some time trying to work out where it would go so I could position for it and get a shot. Mixed results were had but sometimes the phone was all that was needed! What beautiful creatures they are.