Website Update: Chatham Dockyard Pictures – September 10th, 2006

Upper Mast House, Historic Dockyard, Chatham

Yes, the heading on this post does say 2006! It has taken me this long to get these pictures online. They date from a visit Stephen and I paid to the Historic Dockyard at Chatham which coincided with a Heritage Open Day. We got a free additional tour of parts of the site which aren’t normally open to the public – but we had to pay the normal entrance fee, and were also free to visit the rest of the site, which we did – apart from Upper Mast House, which is at the top of this post. There is an audio-visual display in there which describes the history of shipbuilding. I’ve seen it before, but Stephen hasn’t, so we must get back one day and “do” that part of the site. 🙂

The index to the pictures I took during our visit is here: Chatham Dockyard Pictures – September 10th, 2006 – Index. The pictures are laid out over six pages, which cover the special Heritage tour, the Ropemaking tour, one page each for the three vessels on display – the sailing ship HMS Gannet, the warship HMS Cavalier and the submarine HMS Ocelot; and one miscellaneous page for everything else! 🙂

Here’s a taster of what you can see:

Margate Lifeboat

Along with Upper Mast House, this and another lifeboat picture, you can also see some images of the paddle steamer Kingswear Castle, a helicopter; and all sorts of other things here: Chatham Dockyard Pictures – September 10th, 2006 – Miscellaneous

Rope Loft

I liked the rope loft, which Stan, our heritage guide showed us. You can see Stan, and some of the other places he took us here: Chatham Dockyard Pictures – September 10th, 2006 – Heritage Tour

Ropemaking

Apart from taking a couple of pictures of the ropemaking machines, I spent most of my time on the ropemaking tour taking portraits of the waxwork figures which illustrated the work carried out in this part of the Dockyard in times past. You can see these pictures here: Chatham Dockyard Pictures – September 10th, 2006 – Ropemaking Tour

Ships wheel, HMS Gannet

HMS Gannet is a beautiful sailing ship with some lovely features, including a gannet as a figurehead. However, the area below deck was largely empty, so she wasn’t as interesting to tour as the other two ships. I suspect that the empty space is because HMS Gannet can be hired for functions, and the people have to go somewhere! I hope that as there isn’t quantity on this page that at least there’s quality… 😀 Chatham Dockyard Pictures – September 10th, 2006 – Sailing ship HMS Gannet

Rum ration, HMS Cavalier

HMS Cavalier is very sleek. I thought about putting the sleek picture here, but decided to go with the rum ration instead. 😀 You can see the sleek picture, plus various pictures on board here: Chatham Dockyard Pictures – September 10th, 2006 – Warship HMS Cavalier

Diesel electric power plant, HM Submarine Ocelot

HMS Ocelot was interesting to tour. Due to the cramped conditions, the tours were guided, but there was enough time to have a good look around – and having a guide meant that what I was seeing was being explained. I seem to have steered clear of putting external ship pictures in this preview, and for HMS Ocelot, I have decided to show her large diesel engines, although I could equally have decided to show her cramped conditions on board. You can see it all here: Chatham Dockyard Pictures – September 10th, 2006 – Submarine HMS Ocelot

I’ll just restate that the index to the pictures I took during our visit is here: Chatham Dockyard Pictures – September 10th, 2006 – Index. This index will lead you to all of the areas I’ve described.

Website Update: Visit to RHS Wisley Gardens, Saturday 9th May 2009

Stephen and I wanted a day out to enjoy the beauty of nature and maybe find some water to sit and look at; and we went to the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens at Wisley. Although there was water there, the ponds weren’t as interesting as some that I’ve visited, but the spring flowers were lovely and we had the sort of day out that we were looking for.

The pictures I took during our visit are now up on my website here: RHS Wisley Garden Pictures – May 9th, 2009 – Index. They are spread out over three pages linked from this index, and have been grouped as indoor plants, outdoor plants, and everything else. The everything else includes buildings, statues, water features and fish!

Here are a few of the pictures you can find on the page linked above:

	The main house at Wisley, which forms the backdrop to the major water feature at the front of the gardens.
	Fish in one of the small ponds further into the garden.
	Wisteria. This one was growing on a rustic bridge near the fish, but there was wisteria in bloom anywhere that it had something to climb up.
	Rhododendron flowers. We visited during prime rhododendron time and saw them with flowers in a variety of colours throughout the central section of the garden.
	Our favourite peony. This flower was massive.
	Orchid. There were numerous varieties in the Greenhouse.
	A rather pretty pink flower in the Greenhouse, whose name I didn’t write down. (Or photograph. The name, that is.)

You’ll have to visit the link provided if you want to see the rest of my pictures!

Website Update: Secret London Walk Pictures, Tuesday 7th April 2009

Last Tuesday evening, I went on a “Secret London” walk arranged by the Sports and Social Club at work.

We did a loop past the Lloyd’s Building, through the Leadenhall Market, crossed Eastcheap, where we looked at camels and a pig’s head on the buildings there, and then we went down to Lower Thames Street, taking in the garden in the ruins of St Dunstan in the East on our way. Then we turned to the west and looked at the recently refurbished Monument – Sir Christopher Wren’s memorial to the Great Fire of London. From there, we went behind Gracechurch Street. We crossed Lombard Street and admired the hanging signs, and then looked at the rear of the old Barclays headquarters on the corner of Lombard Street and Gracechurch Street. After that, we looked at the exterior of St Stephen Walbrook, viewed One Poultry and the nearby Temple of Mithras, and headed north to view the exterior of the building where Benjamin Disraeli served as an articled clerk, before arriving at the end of our walk at The Guildhall.

The pictures I took during the walk are now up on my website here: “Secret London” Walk Pictures, 7th April 2009

Here are a few of the pictures you can find on the page linked above:

	This is Bulls Head Passage on the periphery of Leadenhall Market. The blue doorway was painted black and used in some of the Harry Potter films as the entrance to The Leaky Cauldron.
	Camel Caravan relief by William Theed II above the entrance to Peek House.
	The garden entwined with the ruins of St Dunstan in the East. This is the picture most people like best from my evening’s photography.
	The Monument.
	The old Barclays headquarters. This is my own favourite picture from the evening.

You’ll have to visit the link provided if you want to see the rest of my pictures!

Website Update: Snow Pictures, February 2009

We had a significant snowfall in London at the beginning of February.

It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally edited the pictures I took over the course of the first three days of snow disruption, and they are on my website here: Snow, February 2009

Here are a few of the pictures you can find on the page linked above:

	This is one of my signature night shots, and was taken with the aid of a tripod, as it was an exposure which ran into seconds. I had to clean up the colour balance in the raw file because the sodium street lighting rendered everything a rather uninteresting orange.
	Here’s the same house the next morning by daylight.
	By the time this picture was taken, it was the next day, the sun was out, and one of the cars had been dug out.
	There were many snowmen. I even saw one on the roof of a bus shelter! I don’t know how it got up there: maybe there was enough snow up there to build it in-situ. This one was on the footpath of a village street.

You’ll have to visit the link provided if you want to see the rest of my pictures!

Website Update: Christmas Pictures

I’ve put up a couple of pages of Christmas pictures on my website.

The first page, Christmas Pictures, Biggin Hill, December 2008 contains pictures taken at Biggin Hill. Most of them are of the shop window of the Harris HospisCare shop, which is always beautifully dressed for Christmas.

Here’s a picture of the shop window as a taster:

The second page, Christmas Light Pictures, Hayes Lane, December 2008 contains pictures taken at a much-decorated house and garden in Hayes Lane, Bromley. I also visited two years ago, and those pictures can be found from my Christmas Index, along with various other Christmas pictures I’ve taken over the past few years.

Here are a few of the pictures I took of the Hayes Lane house and garden this year:

Website Update: Jessie’s Album 2008

I printed off a collection of pictures for Stephen’s Mum (Jessie) and gave them to her for Christmas.

This year’s collection wasn’t quite as personal as in past years, as events have conspired this year and we haven’t managed to go to places together where we would want a photographic record, so apart from portraits of some of the cats and some flowers from her garden. most of the pictures are simply ones that I hope Jessie will enjoy looking at rather than pictures which have any greater significance.

The whole album can be viewed here: Jessie’s Album, 2008

Here are a few of the pictures that you will find in the album:

April snow

Parrots from “Pollys Rescued Parrots Road Show”, photographed at the Wrotham Steam & Vintage Classic, which was a rather waterlogged affair this year, so the vehicles weren’t at their best, but the bird displays weren’t so affected by the soggy conditions, and turned out to provide the best photo opportunities.

His Gorgeousness, Bruno the big grey cat

An oast house at a property where my wind quintet performed during the summer

There are plenty of pictures in the album which have already appeared on my website, but this one, although it appeared in my blog last February, hasn’t previously made it to my website. The sky really was red for that sunset!

The Bulls Head pub on Royal Parade, Chislehurst. We do pass this in the car, so this is a picture that Jessie will recognise.

Website Update: Chislehurst Rotary Fireworks 2008

It was that time of the year again: Guy Fawke’s Night. The Chislehurst Rotary Club put on their local fireworks display on Saturday 8th November this year, and we managed to take it in without getting too wet.

We’d hoped to go to the Knockholt display last weekend, but the rain was tipping down on Saturday night and we elected to stay home, even though we had bought tickets. We considered going to the Hop Farm last Sunday, but that was a huge display and probably would have been very crowded, so we gave that a miss. Then I made noises about going to a free display in Swanley, but Stephen wasn’t sure where we’d park, so we didn’t do that either. That left last night as our final chance to see some organised fireworks for Bonfire Night and we spent the past several days anxiously watching the weather forecast. Even yesterday, we were glued to the forecast, particularly as there were two bands of rain crossing the UK with a dry place in between. Fortunately, that window in the weather coincided with the display.

I’ve written lots more about it on my website, and you can view it here: Helen Stephenson’s Chislehurst Rotary Fireworks Pictures, 8th November 2008

Here are a few of the pictures you will find there:

The guy atop the bonfire, with the cloudy sky reflecting the many sodium vapour lights in the locality

Once the bonfire was lit, the guy was surrounded by the flames which were shortly to consume him

Some of the fireworks

The only funfair ride I managed to photograph before the rain came down

Website update: Holiday Pictures – October, 2007 – Dales, waterfalls and a floodlit church

I’ve been busy editing my holiday pictures from last year and have now completed and uploaded the rest of the pictures of our Wednesday activities and all the pictures of our Thursday activities.

We visited a waterfall on each of those days: on Wednesday we saw Janet’s Foss near Malham, which falls into a crystal clear plunge pool; while on Thursday we went to Aysgarth, where the Falls are divided into Upper, Middle and Lower, with water coloured by peat descending over limestone pavements.

Along the way, we took in the scenery in the nearby dales; we saw vibrant red creeper putting on its autumn show on the walls of the pub in Malham; and we stopped to photograph a floodlit church at East Witton.

My pictures are spread out over three linked pages, but they can be individually visited from the following links:
Helen Stephenson’s Yorkshire Holiday Pictures – October, 2007 – Littondale and Malham
Helen Stephenson’s Yorkshire Holiday Pictures – October, 2007 – Wensleydale and Aysgarth
Helen Stephenson’s Yorkshire Holiday Pictures – October, 2007 – East Witton

Here are some pictures of interest to be found within these pages:

Littondale, with its limestone outcroppings

Vibrant red creeper on the walls of the pub in Malham

The stream feeding Janet’s Foss races through mini rapids

Janet’s Foss waterfall, with its crystal clear plunge pool

Wensleydale barn with weather moving in on the hillside behind

The Upper Falls at Aysgarth, where the peat in the water has resulted in blonde cascades

The Middle Falls at Aysgarth, which cascade over a series of steep steps

The woodland trail linking the Middle and Lower Falls

The Lower Falls at Aysgarth, racing down over a series of widely spaced limestone stairs

The floodlit church at East Witton, caught at that twilight moment just before darkness becomes absolute

A stained glass panel from the east window

Website update: Holiday Pictures – October, 2007 – Nidderdale

After emerging onto Masham Moor, our Wednesday drive while on holiday last year took us into Nidderdale and past the Gouthwaite Reservoir.

We passed the village of Lofthouse and ended up in the village of Wath, which I think is where we saw a water wheel. The picture on this blog entry is of a barn high up in Nidderdale.

The rest of my pictures can be seen here: Helen Stephenson’s Yorkshire Holiday Pictures – October, 2007 – Nidderdale.

Website update: Holiday Pictures – October, 2007 – Colsterdale

On the Wednesday of our holiday last year, we went sight-seeing, starting with a drive from Grewelthorp to the nearby village of Masham, where we turned off up Colsterdale.

We worked our way up via Fearby and Healey and past the Leighton Reservoir and onto Masham Moor. The picture on this blog entry is of the bridge which carries the road across the tail of Leighton Reservoir, after which the road climbs up to Masham Moor.

The rest of my pictures can be seen here: Helen Stephenson’s Yorkshire Holiday Pictures – October, 2007 – Colsterdale.