A Tentative View

It's back. The Spiegeltent is making a welcome return to the city centre. They started putting together the building yesterday and it opens at the weekend, with shows that go on for the next seven days.

The travelling entertainment space made it's first visit this time last year. Of course I blogged about it, and you can read what I put by clicking on this link.

I will be popping in one lunchtime next week to see if it looks the same as it did in 2015.

The Red Side Of The Moon

I was quite surprised to see the Moon surrounded by a red sky tonight, as usually any red sky sunsets that do appear are in the opposite direction to the Earth's nearest planet.

But tonight, both the red sky and the Moon were both in the right position for me to get this photo.

I of course used my 40-150mm zoom lens, to get this shot, otherwise it would just be a small dot in the sky.

Up Above The Streets And Houses

People of a certain age will probably know that the title of today's post are the opening lyrics to the theme song of the old TV show Rainbow.

Which is quite apt, as while I was out gardening earlier this evening, I noticed one had formed in the sky, even no rain had fallen.  Only the bottom bit was on show, but I still got my camera out to get a photo or two.

Just as well that I did, as it soon disappeared from sight.

Well Stacked

Another thing that was good about going to Kegworth, was that I managed to get a closer, and different view of the local Radcliffe on Soar power station and it's various towers.

It must have been a quiet time when I took the photo, as there's no clouds of steam being emmitted.

Landing Gear Down

Kegworth is an unassuming village on the Notts/Leicestershire border, but it became famous in a sad way when a plane crashed on the M1, near there in January 1989.

The Boeing 737 belonging to British Midland had to make an emergency landing, and aimed for the East Midlands Airport close by. Unfortunately Flight 92 never made it and so it landed by the motorway, with the loss of 47 lives, and only a short distance from one of the airport's runways.

We had stopped off in the village, as we were on a Sunday afternoon drive out into the country, and I managed to get this Jet 2 airliner from a hotel car park, as it was approaching the airport.

The British Midland airline is no longer around, as it disappeared a few years ago. It did become BMI Baby, and did some really good cheap flights. Gail & I went on one to Switzerland a few years ago.

The Sky's The Limit

I spent several hours today in Farnsfield, taking photos at their Farnstock event at a local school. The eleventh one, held in the Nottinghamshire village.

It was well attended, and there was plenty to see and do. Pottery making, silent disco, eating, or just listening to musicians that were playing all afternoon.

It was the first time that I had been to the event, but I was asked to take the official photographs by one of the organisers, as he likes my style of photography.

I've yet to start going through and editing them. A bit of a daunting job, when I've taken over 700. It's going to take me a while to whittle them down to send the best ones off.

The weather has been a bit mixed all day. Cloudy. A little bit of rain and then some sunshine. When I was driving home through some of Nottingham's countryside, the sun had come fully out and was dazzling with its brightness, after being so dull for most of the day. 

Passing some fields, I noticed how light they were compared to the cloudy sky. So I just had to stop and take some photos. Luckily there was a pull in nearby, so I was able to get out of my car and take a couple of shots. I was quite lucky, in that the moon was in the right place to be included in the picture too.

Painting The Sky With Clouds

A terrific blue sky and whispy clouds over the Trent Building at the University of Nottingham.

It's A Great Life On The Buses

Well I've now found the time to start blogging again. After coming back from Cornwall and catching up with things at home, I can hopefully get going with the blog again, and even write about the days that Gail and I were away on our road trip around what Thomas Hardy called Wessex.

Today's story also deals with the past, in the form of a trolleybus that has been missing from the streets of Nottingham since 1 July 1966, when it was taken out of service, as this method of transport had been phased out.

To commemorate this fact, a number of vintage buses were on display in the Old Market Square today, as all this happened 50 years ago. An AEC Regent belonging to West Bridgford UDC, An Atlantean city bus from the 1970s and one from the South Notts Bus Company were all parked up for everyone to see.

But the trolleybus was getting the most interest, as a lot of people had never seen one in the flesh so to speak. Even me. Especially the one that took that final trip all those years ago.

It has been subject to a lot of restoration work, as it wasn't in very good condition when it was sold off. But now it looks brand new, even though they haven't really bothered that much with the driver's cab. It all looks so primitive, compared to today's state of the art buses and coaches.

Ding, ding. All aboard!

Abstract Sky

So here's an unusual little shot that I took near my house.

The moon and a vapour trail coloured orange by the sunset.

As we are on the flight path to East Midlands Airport, we get planes going over all the time, so the pilot flew over in just the right place, to catch the last rays of the evening's sun.

Blossoming Out

The sun seems to have got his hat on these past few days, and that has certainly been good for the cherry blossom in Highfields, as it's bursting into little delicate pink flowers.

The trees always attract lots of people who come to see them. There were quite a few students taking photos tonight on their mobile phones, so they could send them home to show their parents what a lovely place they are studying in.

Whatever The Weather

Just got back from Beeston and got caught in a hailstone storm. No, this isn't 'noise' from my camera, but the actual little white frozen balls falling from the sky.

What makes the scene even more unusual, is that there's the beginnings of a rainbow too.

Morning Has Broken

I don't usually get up at 6.30am to go to work, but this week I have to, as there's some travelling involved in getting from my hotel to the office.

The only plus I can think of, is that I can get to see the sun come up. Sadly it didn't last very long and the storm clouds appeared and the rain set in for the rest of the day.

A typical day in Wales I believe.

Smokin'

As part of the redevelopment of Beeston Square, they've recently put up some scaffolding on the roof of a single storey block of shops in the Square, so they can do some work up there, without the fear of falling off.

Whilst taking photos in Beeston Square at lunchtime yesterday, I noticed a couple of workmen had paused from what they were doing to listen to the band playing below.

One of the workmen was smoking one of these e-cigarettes that so many people are using these days, and suddenly, like a dragon or steam train, a big white cloud of smoke appeared from his mouth. I had my big lens on, so I was able to get a decent shot of him and his puff of white smoke.

The Burning Sky

Here's a Triptych of shots that I took of the amazing sky the other day., as I cycled through Highfields.

My EM-1 has the ability to create triptyches in camera and without any messing about. It's just a case of pointing and shooting, an the camera does the rest. The only thing that you can't change is the white border.

On Golden Pond

Despite the very black clouds this afternoon, there was still a golden sunset for us to enjoy.

Of course I just had to cycle through Highfields and see if I could find a different sunset photo, which I think I have with this one. The fading sun reflected in the water of the lake.

The Big Sky

Another fantastic sunset tonight, so of course I just had to take a photo.

I posed low to get this shot, just to try something different. The clock tower of the Trent Building pointing to the heavens.

Orange Is The New Black

Sorry, but here's another sunset of Highfields and the university. This one is from Wednesday.

I don't think there will be too many more before the clocks go back at the end of the month and it will dark when I travel back home. I must admit I'm dreading it. I do every year. The five months that it lasts is such a long stretch. I really think it is time for a rethink over this clock changing rigmarole.

Golden Green

The sun setting over Highfields, I think makes for quite a nice restful scene, especially with the blue sky still poking through the trees.

I took this with my fisheye lens, so there is a slight curving to the trees, but nothing too drastic or surreal.

Tuning Into The Red

A really wonderful sky tonight over Beeston as I was cycling home.  By the time I got home, the sky was glowing.

As soon I got home, I rushed upstairs with my camera & took some photos of the multicoloured sky. Of course I took quite a few, as the colours were changing all the time as the sun was setting.

I do like this one with the silhouette of a neighbouring house, with just the chimney pots and TV aerial showing. Ideally, I would have liked a plane to be flying by. But sadly one didn't even though we are on the flightpath for the East Midlands Airport.

Obscured By Clouds

There was a full moon last night, a blue one at that.

I took this last night when I got home from the Midnight Special gig.

The sky was peppered with small cloud formations, cirrocumulus, which sadly blotted out the full view of the moon.