A LITTLE BIT OF LUCK (21/04/10)

I was woken by the cold at four thirty this morning. Freezing, I tumbled out of bed hunting for a pullover, fired up the heating, had a coffee and went back to bed. It was no good I was well and truly awake.

I decided to strip the front of the camera, again. I gave the lens mount a couple of gentle taps and tried it against the window glass it seemed better. Fiddled around with all the wee bits, got it back together, gave it a test and it focussed. Time was to prove that it is still far from perfect, but another vast improvement.

What with Molly’s constitutional, breakfast and the site manager collaring me for money it was half nine before we set out. Yet another bright sunny day and a pleasant wander into town.

The Boer War Memorial, the first time I’ve noticed one for the Boer War.

There is something about the diversity of War Memorials that I find appealing. The fact that so many lose their lives in conflict, most of them through no altruistic motive is also something I find poignant.

Wheelie bins may save the refuse collectors backs but they just don’t have the charm of an old galvanised bin.

A small corner of Bellingham. this is HDR.

On we wandered towards Hareshaw Burn and the waterfall. I’d forgotten the map. To a navigator of my skill and experience it wasn’t a problem. Signposts everywhere ‘To The Falls’, we followed them.

  The first thing I encountered was this old dam wall, it is all I could find of the Hareshaw Iron Works, there must be more. Within half a mile of here there are Ironstone deposits, coal and limestone. With the water, all one needed in 1829 to manufacture pig iron. I’m here till at least Saturday so will visit the Heritage Centre and find out more.

   There already…….No, a way to go yet but I stopped for a coffee at a picnic table and heard this little waterfall.

As we clambered back up the bank, something caught my eye.

      Here it is, hardly daring to move I had to get to the rucksack and change lenses. Have you ever changed a lens by feel whilst exhorting a terrier to lie down and shut up all the while gazing into a tree. Of course you have. Hard to do isn’t it? Worth it in this case.

A Red Squirrel, six days tramping round Kielder where they are purported to be ten a penny and I find one while waterfalling and the longest lens to hand was 200mm. Still a grand little rodent.

  Vain devil, moved up the branch a few feet to show another profile. Absolutely fantastic. Another first for me. It also seemed unperturbed as long as I moved slowly and kept about twenty yards away and twenty feet beneath it. Then the ramblers from hell arrived, why does the one at the front carry on a conversation with the one at the back?…. What are you taking a picture of that tree for?……. There’s a Red Squirrel…………Never seen one…….You haven’t this time either…….Noisy buggers!

         Thirsty work this squirreling. She only chases squirrels and pheasants. Oh! And deer. She was as good as gold, all I could hear was the odd whine as she willed it to fall from the tree.

Hareshaw Linn, this one off the camera, the next two are HDR, bracket shot over 4EV and blended in Photomatix. No tripod as there were quite a few people about by this time.

   Downstream from the Falls.

The Hareshaw Linn Falls. Be good to have a bit more water and an overcast day, it’s well worth the walk if you are around this way. What with the squirrel and a woodpecker it took us the best part of two hours from the bottom of the burn, walking back down into the sun thirty minutes.

Now the manual focus on the camera may not be shifting it could well be new specs time. Before I recount this promise not to mock. OK.

Just before the bottom of the gorge a raptor about half the size of a Buzzard flew over, I saw it land in trees next to a golf course, there it is, zoomed in fired off a couple of shots of…..A flag on a stick!!!

Tomorrow is laundry and cleaning day, if i get finished early then we will go for a wander.