Bloody cold at funerals

Why is it always freezing cold at funerals? I was at a funeral earlier today (a work colleague's mother) and it was well attended so a group of us stood outside in sub-zero conditions because the funeral parlour was overflowing. The graveyard was equally cold. Naturally this is to be expected in January, but it often isn't that much warmer in summer at graveyards. Strange, eh?

Getting an education (sort of)

Had to kill some time in Belfast this morning while my son was at Queen's University library getting some books. I was lucky enough to find a parking space nearby so I had a little wander through Botanic Gardens. Unfortunately the Palm House was closed so I decided to pay the Ulster Museum a quick visit instead. I'll go better prepared next time (ie Nikon D200) as they now allow photography in the museum.

Here's a photo I took with the Coolpix of the sculpture thingy at the front entrance



I'm still having problems getting good photos out of the Coolpix. Because it's so small and light I have trouble holding it steady and the colour balance seems a bit on the cool side giving my pictures a sort of blue tint. I'll have to play around with the settings a bit, maybe I'll even read the manual.

What I'm listening to

The Journey of a Feather by Ancelin. Never heard of them? I'll bet you haven't


The River Blackwater at Verner's Bridge

Update time

Time to finally update this blog. I've updated the links and included one to the new website. The template I use for the blog has been refreshed and I even have one of my own photos (Norfolk buzzard) as the page background. So far it all looks as if it's working as it should and all I need to do is put a backlink to here on the website. I'm not too worried if it's not 100% perfect as it's only a means of keeping in contact with family and friends so that I can avoid the social networking sites

Motivation

It has been a really long time, and I had been thinking I'd like to recommence posting the odd little item here, but the motivation was somewhat lacking, so maybe a 'photo-a-day'/online diary type thing would get me into the swing of it again?

Moving House

I'm in the process of moving house to a new web site at www.phenry.co.uk

Hello , its me, I'm back!

Clandeboye Wood Snow Scene

Hmm, it really has been a long time since I updated this blog of mine, so here is a nice picture. We had some snow a few weeks back and I managed to grab a couple of shots. It was a bit of an effort as I was on my way home from a session with the orthodontist and the anesthetic had started to wear off

Long time no see

I've been on holidays, busy with work etc. etc. so I suppose it's time I posted a picture

Albufeira, Algarve

Not enough time

Martyn with his brace of Pheasant

I've been very busy with work lately and Martyn has been studying for his end of year exams at Queen's so we haven't had any walks, resulting in a distinct lack of pictures. He has now finished for the summer so come hell or high water we hope to get out and about again soon. This is a photo I took a few weeks ago when we were given these pheasant - made a lovely Sunday dinner

Prehistoric

This is Goward Dolmen, located near Castlewellan in The Mourne mountains. It's miles from anywhere, up a dusty farm track, and it's not the sort of place you'd find unless you were actually looking for it. Unfortunately Martyn and I didn't get a chance to pick the day we travelled and the light was crap. There was really strong sunshine backlighting the Dolmen making for a very contrasty picture. It looked bad in colour, but converting it to black & white helped slightly

Having a 'Senior' moment

Just looking back I noticed my very first blog post was 6th March 2006. Oops, I forgot my 1st blogging birthday. I'll put it down to a 'Senior' moment (If I had any hair I could maybe have got away with the 'Blonde' excuse)

More North Coast

I was off work this week and so decided to have another photo trip. This is a photo of Ballintoy Harbour, one of those places you would pass often enough, but never think of stopping for a look. So I did stop for a look, and a walk, and I got some nice photos

The Dark Hedges

This picturesque country lane is near the village of Armoy in the Glens of Antrim (on Bregagh Road leading to Gracehill Golf club). It is known locally as The Dark Hedges

New website

I finally got around to updating my website, which now serves to point people in the direction of this blog and my Cranley Photos gallery at Photobox. Hopefully this will make things a lot simpler to maintain so that I can spend more time actually taking photographs and less time trying to keep my websites up to date. The new website is here

Who ya gonna vote for?

Almost without exception, none of the muppets we have currently 'working' for us in Stormont are any use at, or for, anything at all [nor indeed are any of our local councillors in North Down come to think of it]. But 'you voted them in' I hear you say. Unfortunately that is true but as usual we can only vote for the same old faces. My vote will go to whoever takes the time to call at my door and explain their point of view to me. So far none of them have bothered, though I have enough of their leaflets to fill my blue recycling bin. I'd like to vote for one of the 'new' faces that are appearing but they too seem content just to shove a leaflet in my letter box, though one or two of them seem to at least have some fresh ideas. Anyway, I have an idea! Maybe we should get the chance to vote for who we don't want in, rather than who we do - that'd shake a few of them up

Glenoe Revisited

I was travelling back from Larne and I happened to have my camera in the car, so I stopped at Glenoe to get this picture of the waterfall in full winter flood

No Snow

I was heading to Newcastle early the other morning and the nice weather people had said we may get snow. Unfortunately we didn't however the Mourne Mountains looked nice with a little dusting of frost

New website

I've decided maintaining a website, keeping a blog updated and trying to look after my hundreds of photos is all too much like hard work, and I would rather spend the time out walking with my camera, so I have decided to create a new 'static' website which won't need updated often. It will have links to this blog and to my most recent photos. Watch this space!

Christmas present

Minime had fun on Christmas Day playing with the boxes and wrapping paper

Minime

This is the latest addition to our family. We call him Minime because he is a mini version of our other cat Mars. Minime is a hyperactive nut case as you can see by this photo. All my other photos are blurry because he will not sit still long enough for me to take his picture