Crufts 2016 (Part 1)

On Friday 11th March I made my annual pilgrimage to Crufts, this time accompanied by both daughters.  A great day out and a family reunion too, and the fact it was the Gun Dogs on show was simply the icing on the cake.  This is the first time I've visited Crufts mid-week, and it was far quieter than at the weekend.  Much more pleasant, in fact, and we even managed to get into the Arena for a while (of which more in a future post).

The first couple of pictures are actually life-sized (and very life-like) stuffed toys.

Then came the Pets as Therapy stand, with an assortment of different pooches all trained to work in hospitals, hospices, old people's homes etc.

We didn't have the space (or, to be honest, the inclination) to take advantage of this particular bargain...

As always at Crufts, everyone is incredibly friendly and perfectly willing to be photographed - especially with their dogs, on which they dote.  The following pictures are in no particular order, but many are from the Discover Dogs section of the show.  Let's face it, a pug (for example) wouldn't make an especially efficient or useful gun dog!

Wasn't it nice of the next two dogs to have their tongue and ribbon respectively matching the colour of the carpet?

We then found the "pampered pooches" section of the show, where various different animals were being groomed - and clearly loving every minute of it.

The final two for today's post go from the sublime to the ridiculous in terms of size.

RAF Barnham 2 (Homo photographicus)

My favourite natural history subject is, without a doubt, Homo photographicus - or, to be more exact the shy and elusive sub-species Homo photographicus (Cantabrigiensis).  There were several good specimens on the trip to RAF Barnham, some in full winter plumage, and it was a joy to take pictures of them in their natural habitat...

Pat obviously wanted something red in her picture.

Ok, some real natural history here.  Ann found a large group of harlequin ladybirds in one of the "hutches".

The final three pictures were taken from the top of one of the lookout towers.  The less adventurous members of the group stayed at ground level, whereas the "alpha males" went right to the top.  Getting down was rather more tricky, as Paul found out.

RAF Barnham 1

At the end of February a group of us from Cambridge Camera Club visited RAF Barnham - a fascinating cold war nuclear storage facility in the heart of the Suffolk countryside.  It is now a privately owned industrial estate; but, because of its history, it is supported financially by English Heritage.  Keith Eldred, the owner of the estate, gave us a guided tour around the nuclear facility, starting with a state-of-the-art computer-generated reconstruction.

Some of the watch towers have been restored, including the 1kW lamps used as search lights.

The nuclear material was stored in lots of concrete "Hutches", each with combination locks and lead-lined holes in the floor.

Much of the exterior has been left as it was when the nuclear material was removed in the 1960s.

After a rather dark and gloomy afternoon, the sun came out just as we were getting ready to leave.  The last two pictures are a view of the site over the large water storage tank.

Iceland 2: The Book!

You've read the interminable blog posts; now get the book!  Finally I've had chance to create Iceland 2 (a 240 page monster) which will be in all good bookshops in plenty of time for the Christmas rush...

Iceland 2 by Ian Wilson | Make Your Own Book