The Flying Lesson - Part 1

On Friday Dom finally got the introductory flying lesson that I'd bought him for his birthday.  It had been postponed 3 times due to the awful weather we'd been having recently.

We took off from Lydd airport in Kent and flew to Beachy Head and back.  These pictures are for the first half of the journey, we flew up to about 4½ thousand feet.

Taking decent photos was quite difficult due to dirty windows, reflections, glare and movement. After about 45 minutes I was feeling a bit queasy, but apparently I did well. The pilot said I must have a very strong stomach, as looking down a camera lens whilst flying make most people feel ill.

We've had three more wet days and today was the worst.  On Tuesday when I opened my front door the sun was shining, but 5 minutes later it had started drizzling and a fog had come down.  I had another day's leave, but I decided to go back to work a day early.  It's so muddy in the country park far - worse than it's been all winter!

Tuesday started well!

But it didn't last!

Today was so wet and windy I took the little Fuji.  The stream in Ecclesbourne Glen was a raging torrent...

 This isn't a stream it's run-off from the meadows above...

When I woke up the sky was a funny blue colour and there was a strange bright light. By the time we got out with the dogs it had returned to normal, but at least we had a rain-free walk.  Over to Warren Glen again and up through the Chestut Wood. Flori squeezed under 2 gates to chase some rabbits, but couldn't squeeze back again and Dom had to lift her over the fence....... grrr that dog's a nightmare!

I tried out my new extension tubes on the 50mm lens and was pleasantly suprised.  It will be nice to try them in better light.

Yet another wet morning!  We walked through Fairlight Glen and then up along Brakey Bank in Warren Glen - even the bluebells look subdued.  Met a lovely bunch of bullocks on the way - I think they were Devon Reds.  The sun looked like breaking through as we arrived back home, but it failed and it's been grey, damp and cold all day :o(

Another grey, wet day and with NNE winds it was cold too! I feel really down - I suffer with SAD and I'm not getting my fix of sunlight! We wandered up alongside the ghyll in Fairlight Glen and then headed home, as we were very wet and miserable :o(

It's hard being a photographer's model when Flori's about ;o)

 

    Ishmael agreed to model to give a sense of scale, Flori was busy hunting ;o)

Today dawned grey and drizzly.  Ishmael was wrongly accused of stealing another dog's ball, but he'd dropped it
in panic when he saw Ish bearing down on him. Ish means well, but has no idea of the effect his size can have on
other dogs.  Two women walking their terriers came across me crouched in a stream, taking photos of the water. 
"It's for a photography project" I said, "Yes" they replied....

It was raining when I took the dogs out this morning and I'm getting quite depressed with all the grey, damp weather we've been having since drought was declared.  I'm on holiday this week and I hoped to get lots of washing, spring cleaning and gardening done and even a bit of sunbathing ......Ha!  We only met two die-hard dog walkers this morning, so at least Flori was able to roam without causing any mischief.  I amused myself for a while by taking photos of raindrops and the water running in the little stream in Ecclesbourne Glen.