Weather walk photos

Just put a few photos from yesterday's Weather walk together into an album.

Link to Weather Walk photos

Funny old day

Good intentions - if only I had managed to follow my good intentions this morning. I intended to set out early and call in at Hexham for petrol and to deposit all the bottles in the boot of the car into the bottle bank at the Wentworth. Didn't manage that. Set out for Rothbury - definitely enough petrol to get there, but would need to fill up at the Rothbury service station. This turned out to be a figment of my imagination! No petrol in Rothbury. I was in good time so started to drive along the Morpeth road, but no petrol station and both time and petrol were getting low. Asked someone in Rothbury who said there was petrol at Thropton - just 2 miles - so set off there. "To take immediate effect, this petrol station and shop are closed on Sundays in the winter months" Had to go to start of walk. Seemed the nearest place for petrol later would be north on the A697, about 10 miles away.

Lovely walk. Took lots of photos. Gathered a few mosses and lichens for tomorrow's class. Learnt a lot about clouds and weather.

Then set off north. Gauge now reading 0 miles before filling up. Drove carefully. Following fire engine. Wondering if it would have been better to head for Otterburn - or was the petrol station there also a figment of my imagination? Fire engine was going to car crash - followed my 3 ambulances, police cars....... Most cars in the queue turned around and headed south. I could not risk it. Listened to Tinker Tailor on Radio 4. Alison came and chatted and said she would stay to make sure I was OK. Delayed by about half and hour. Then to petrol station - no credit card in purse (on desk), but had £20 to buy petrol.
Have you ever felt that you were in one of those dreams where you cannot achieve your goal??
And so to bed.......

Weather Walk

I'm going on a Shepherd's Walk from Rothbury led by Richard Holmes today. He get's the opportunity to talk about clouds and weather and suchlike. At the moment it is pitch black outside and the forecast is for rain, clearing at lunchtime. We'll see. Full wet weather gear definitely.
Maybe some photos to share later.
I'll be glad to go walking today. Yesterday I stayed at home and cleared the garage to make space for my car to be housed for the winter nights.  No more ice scraping in the mornings! I was busy all day and then caught up on some of the tutorials on Photoshop from lynda.com. This is an excellent resource, but not free and I've paid for a month so I need to pack in as much as I can.

Thursday

Pretty quiet day today. Went to Hexham to go through the Christmas music with P who plays for our group.  I think we have plenty of material now and it should be a good show.  Lots to do in the last rehearsal on Tuesday.  Messed around with homework photos this afternoon.  Have to have 2 holiday photos. Of course mine are mainly holiday snaps, but I've found a couple to work up. Here is one of them converted for the web.  I took it on holiday in Slovenia when we visited Lubjliana

Christmas party for Rings Walkers

Today was a brilliant day for walking and 47 (yes 47) walkers set out from Sainsbury's car park in Haltwhistle for a short walk up the burn to Aesica and back via Cawfields Quarry. (NB Looks like a good route for the Singing walk in April.) It was a fine, sunny day and so much nicer than yesterday.
We had a short coffee stop at the penny altar and were back in town in good time for our Christmas "do" at the Comrades Club.  There was a lovely cold buffet as usual and a great buzz of conversation.  By now our numbers had risen to 62!
Maureen and I had made photo presentations which I showed on the computer as people queued for lunch - a great success to do it that way.  Then we had a poem from Lesley, a caption competition organised by Maureen and Brian, and then awards given by Brian W and Tony, leading up to the presentation to Colin and Audrey to celebrate their Golden Wedding.  We gave them vouchers for the Centre of Britain and an original painting commissioned for them. (Mum did the painting and people seemed genuinely to like it.)
It was a delightful day.

1st December

Very frosty this morning with a glorious sunrise. I was still in bed - too late to use the camera to good effect. Busy rest of morning with website and with music for Singing for Pleasure. Needed to lift car bonnet to fill up water reservoir, but the release handle did not work. Delayed me for a while, but then I went to Haltwhistle to deliver the painting to M and B ready for the presentation tomorrow to C and A. They seemed pleased with the picture so that is great.
Just in time for U3A lecture on wild flowers in China. Arrived on 2pm, but the computer and projector were not talking to each other so spent 20 minutes sorting it out.  Finally got the speaker underway. He was not pleased. The images were overall very good, especially the close ups of the flowers. I'd love to go.
Came home but decided to go out to Wall Garage to see if the car could be sorted. The lovely man there looked at it immediately. It wasn't straightforward but he managed to get to the cable release which had come apart.  Now I can top up the water and put screen wash in ready for the next icy day.
Just in time to make the meal and get out to Photo Club where we had the annual auction. I love auctions and there was a lot of gear available for very low prices. A lot did not sell and we had to take all our goods away again. This was tricky because I'd bought lots of things to! C kindly helped me carry my booty to the car.  I started the bidding for a metal camera suitcase thinking that was all I was doing - but it was soon mine.  Also bought a set of goblets from the Isle of Mull brought in by HS. And so it went on.  Found a great monopod, brand new, and a small printer for Mum to use with the laptop.  Even bought a biography of Wainwright I'd been wanting - disappointed that it smells musty......
And so to bed.......

Monday

Funny old day.  Started with trip to Freeman with Mum to pick up her new hearing aid moulds. They are much more obvious than the last ones, but are hypoallergenic. Sadly they are not comfortable and she could hardly hear when they were in.  Back to square one. We were there for about 2 hours.
The to the Metro Centre and M & S. It took ages to find a parking space - everyone is Christmas shopping - and then the queue in Marks for lunch was very, very long. We ended up with a picnic on a bench outside Boots - sandwiches and drink from Boots. Even that took ages to buy due to queues.  It all reminds me of why I don't go the the Metro Centre in December!
Back to M & S where we found a pale blue twinset for Mum and I tried on loads of trousers with no luck. I'm just not the right shape for their trousers - but at least I'm a lot thinner than last year.
Then to picture framers' to choose mounts and frames for 2 embroideries. Mum's commission was taped into its frame.
Home very happy, and just had time to eat before going to the Hexham Art Club preview for the selling exhibition. It's a lovely exhibition with some very good prices.
And so to bed......