How Hill

As promised, here are a few of the pictures from the holiday.  The first set come from How Hill on the river Ant, not far from Ludham.  There are a couple of old wind pumps there, and a rather attractive house on a hill close by.  There's also the wonderfully named Toad Hole Cottage, which I managed to photograph later in the week.

Cold and Wet

I've just got back from a week's holiday on the Norfolk Broads: usually a firm family favourite.  When we booked the holiday, back in February, the middle of July - just before the main school holidays - seemed like a really good idea.  In reality, we spent a week in wellies, waterproofs and multiple fleeces.  Leaden skies, rain, thunder and a constant cold, blustery wind were the order of the day.  Definitely a case of "batten down the hatches and make another bacon sandwich".  I managed to take a few pictures on the holiday, which I'll post in the next few days, but here are three to give a flavour of the week.

Needless to say, it's been 28 degrees and sunny since we got home.  Typical...

What goes up must come down...

Today, at Sibson airfield near Peterborough, Izzi went Sky Diving to raise money for Magpas.  It's still possible to sponsor her here for what is an enormously worthwhile cause.

The day started with a briefing and words of encouragement from Sue of Toad's Driving School, who had organised the event on behalf of Magpas.  Izzi claimed not to be nervous, but I wasn't convinced based on the body language...

An air of resignation had set in by this point.

What the well-dressed (aerial) photographer is wearing this season.  I was pleased to see that the camera (a Canon EOS 600D) was held on with Gaffer tape and bungees.

Then it was all aboard, shortly followed by take-off and a 15 minute climb to 15,000 feet.  Then the fun started...

The following pictures are Izzi, strapped to her "tandem" instructor, heading towards the earth at alarming speed.

 All over bar the shouting now.  The only issue was to avoid being landed upon by other sky-divers.

I think she enjoyed it!

 It was then time to catch the minibus back to the airfield.  The final picture shows a very proud Izzi (photographed by a very proud father) demonstrating her achievement beside a Magpas poster.

Needless to say she wants to do it again next year, although I sincerely hope that she'll have passed her driving test by then!

A Walk along Gloucester Road

We'll start the post with a Missing Word Round, and prizes will be awarded for the most entertaining suggestion as to what might have been painted over here.

Gloucester Road in Bristol is supposedly the longest parade of independent shops in the country.  There was uproar in the area when Tesco tried (and succeeded) to install one of its "Express" stores, and the poster campaign against the development is still in evidence.

While waiting for Frances and Christopher to wake up on Saturday morning, I went for a walk along the road to see what I could find.

A bit like Cambridge's Mill Road on steroids...

Adorable Kittens

Last weekend I went to Bristol to visit Frances and Christopher in their new flat.  Waiting to greet me were two adorable kittens, Chewy and Obi, who proceeded to get inside everything I'd brought with me.  The names derive from Star Wars, as the kittens were born on May 4th.  You know the saying: May the fourth be with you...

Incidentally, Frances has adopted her married name, so the URL of her blog has changed.  It is now francesborehamphotography.blogspot.com.

Enough talk already - on with the kittens!

Wasn't it thoughtful of Frances to provide some mice to keep the kittens entertained?

Blickling Hall Gardens

Because we had Amber with us, and it was too hot to leave her in the car, we had to take it in turns going around the house.  Having spent far too much time taking pictures of the interior, my visit to the gardens was an extremely brief affair.  Given the nature of the day and the amount of foliage around, IR seemed the natural choice.

Definitely somewhere worth going back to.