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!

Just Not Cricket

Not being interested in sport at all, I have never been to the two football grounds that Nottingham has, or indeed the cricket ground near Trent Bridge in West Bridgford.

This changed today, as I had to visit the cricket ground for a job interview. I don't think it went too badly, but we will see.

Before I left, I thought I would take a few photos of the cricket pitch, which was being got ready for the new season. It was strange to see all the empty seats, as whenever I've seen it on TV, it has been packed.

But cricket to me is slow and boring. There seems to be a lot of hanging around after the ball has been chucked, and someone tries to hit it and then there's a bit of running around. Maybe they could speed things up a bit, to make it appear to be a bit more exciting than it is a present.

The design of the floodlights is quite unusual, as they look like giant lollypops, and you can see them from quite a way away.

Spring Is Almost Here

We popped over to a local garden centre near West Bridgford this afternoon, to look at plants, as Gail was especially keen on getting some rhubarb plants for presents for some friends of ours.

It's a very big garden centre and they sell practically everything to do with a person's outside space. Looking around, I noticed a trolley full of resin birds and animals.

There were dogs, cats, pigs, chickens and this very cute spring lamb. A shame that he is made of hard plastic, rather than soft wool, as he would be really cuddly to touch.

Centenary Bus

There's a specially decorated bus travelling around the city centre at the moment. It has been painted in the colours of the old West Bridgford Urban District Transport bus company to commemorate 100 years of service.

I rather like the colour scheme, as it looks welcomming and much better than the assortment we have at the moment. Green for one route, orange for another. This colour coding might be easier for people to get on the right bus, but it does make for a uncoordinated fleet.

Green

You may remember a few weeks ago me mentioning that we went to West Bridgford to see an exhibition of photographs by Tracey Whitefoot.

Well this afternoon she gave a talk about where, how and why she took the photos. And very interesting it was too. I'm not really a landscape photographer, probably more of an urban one, so it was nice to hear someone enthuse about how they got up at 3am, drove to the location and waited until the sun came up and hoped that it would make an appearance.

The talk and slideshow was at the library and next door was a park. So I had a little walk round to see if I could capture some autumn colour. Bu sadly most of the leaves were still greenish.

The Reading Room

It was a lovely sunny day yesterday, which for early October must be a bit of a record breaker.

After we had been to see Tracey's exhibition, we sat out and had some lunch at the romantically named Mud Crab Diner in the town centre.

Before we left the library, I took this shot of an area that had been laid out like a reading room that you would have at home, with some comfy chairs, a good selection of books and some sun streaming through a big picture window. All that is missing is a glass of whiskey.

Snapped

One of the great things about being involved in photography, is having the opportunity of meeting other photographers and seeing their work.

Gail and I have had that opportunity today, when we met up with local photographer Tracey Whitefoot, in West Bridgford library, where she is has an exhibition of some of her excellent landscapes.

I have known Tracey a while now, as we often bump into each other at events across Nottingham. But as Tracey is a professional photographer, we often only manage to say a quick 'hello' before she's off looking for her next shot.

So it was nice to spend some quality time with her, and look at her prints in real life, rather than a computer screen. And Gail hadn't met her before, so it was a good opportunity for introductions.

If you fancy popping along to the library in West Bridgford and seeing Tracey's exhibition, it's on between now and the 17th of November. Yes, a library that is open on a Sunday. How great is that.

There is also the opportunity of saying hello to her on the 19th, 24th, 29th October & 10th November. She is also giving a small talk on her photography on either the 10th of October or the 6th November. Or if you are unable to get, here's a LINK to Tracy's website. And of course she is on Facebook and Twitter.