Sparkie's Junkyard » Photos

Fowlmere RSPB reserve

Sparkie — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:26:19 +0000

A freezing cold afternoon in the Cambridgeshire countryside. Not necessarily the best time of year to go birdwatching, but a heron put on a good show.

The Rest of Christmas

Sparkie — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:50:37 +0000

Slight oxymoron that one, as Christmas was very busy for us both. Boxing Day saw me blast up the A1 to Huddersfield to meet Sonya’s cousins, catch up with Andy from her lab and meet up with some of her schoolfriends, then it was back to Loddon for another round of dinner parties. We made it to the New Year, when we staggered to a little cottage near Bury St Edmunds to recover before going back to work. I can definitely recommend The Old Manse Barn if you’re looking for a comfortable and well-looked after break.

Christmas Day wildlife

Sparkie — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 22:41:09 +0000

It’s hardly a secret that I like taking photos of animals. My parents have been carefully feeding the garden birds for several years now, and that makes my life easy. Standing at the back door I managed to take quite a collection of pictures. There are captions for those who need their memories jogged, or who don’t know their great tits from their blue-footed boobies…

Lanzarote Photos part 2

Sparkie — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:11:06 +0000

Lanzarote photos part 1

Sparkie — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:41:21 +0000

Port tasting

Sparkie — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:21:45 +0000

10 ports, and a port cocktail. This had the potential to ruin me for several days, but by carefully holding back until a late charge into vintages older than me, I managed to wake up the next morning remembering how I made it home.

Settle to Malham

Sparkie — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:40:02 +0000

A weekend hike in the Yorkshire Dales, finishing at the beautiful limestone pavement and totally-unexpected cliffs of Malham Cove.

PS: here is my route

Downing Oldies Dinner

Sparkie — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:26:03 +0000

Right, that’s it. I’m starting my eighth year at Downing now and even the MCR freshers are starting to look like schoolkids. To celebrate this we had a wine-drinking, ham-eating, grumpy-old-men dinner at Erika’s house, accompanied by some really good chicken and chorizo casserole. Photos are all with the 50mm f/1.8 lens, no time to edit but they look pretty good straight out of the camera.

Montpellier

Sparkie — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 11:23:53 +0000

Scientific conferences: everyone thinks they’re just glorified booze-ups but more often than not you spend nine or ten hours a day sitting in stuffy rooms in a concrete box located in an industrial complex in the suburbs of a city you would never have visited if you had the choice. Luckily I spent last week in Montpellier, where they have beaches, sunshine and 30C. Yet somehow I still managed to spend nine or ten hours a day being bored, confused or, occasionally, inspired. Now Last week was the Euromat conference, during which I pretended to be a materials scientist and learned about composites, hip replacements, solar cells, railway line degradation and hundreds of talks about carbon nanotubes. This week, I’m doing it all again. Geology replaces materials, but the rain of Switzerland replaces the French sunshine. More on this later, once the freezing cold and shocking prices have properly kicked in.

In the mean time, here are some photos from Montpellier.

Prague

Sparkie — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:05:17 +0000

A weekend break after the Goldschmidt conference allowed for some gentle sightseeing. Whilst you can charge round most of the city in two days, we took a leisurely four and had a great time, recommended.