07
May
Views Of Aberdeenshire
50 reasons to come visit 
More photos, and bigger versions of the above here.
07
May
06
May
Highland Holiday
‘Twas a Bank Holiday in Scotland yesterday, which just means we get a free day off work so we headed off into the highlands up to Braemar, favourite Scottish spot of our beloved Royal family who, thankfully, were nowhere to be seen!
Incredibly for the UK in general, Scotland in particular and definitely for a Bank Holiday it was sunny and really quite hot. You can find more of my landscapey shots either at my photo blog and/or on my Flickr account, but here’s a shot of Braemar Castle, which is now owned by the village itself and has just opened after some lengthy restoration work:
As you can see, it’s under attack…… It was a nice friendly place and well worth a visit if you’re in the area.
The boys wore themselves out as you can imagine, and I’ll leave you with the full horror of them charging towards you: just scroll down quickly for the full effect. 
08
Apr
Ninja Warrior
The Japanese are not only mad, they’re double hard so & so’s a swell as this game show proves: Ninja Warrior.
Those of you in the UK can pick it up on Challenge TV where the undead Stuart Hall provides classic commentary reminiscent of It’s a Knockout from your dim & distant youth. In this clip Mr Octopus enters his 6th tournament never having got past the first stage - can he make it this time? If you catch the full programme you’ll see some genuinely fit people climbing sheer ledges supported only by their fingertips and such like: it’s enough to make me go to the kitchen for another beer……
26
Mar
An Egg-cellent Break
Ouch, terrible pun sorry. The last few days have been spent doing an 1100 mile circuit of the UK heading back down to Northamptonshire where we used to live, to see our ex-neighbours and (current!) friends Andrew & Caroline.
Although the traveling was OK, the weather was generally awful, with strong, cold winds and driving snow & rain.This meant that my camera had a nice ride in the car without coming out much, but it was still a really nice break. Despite not having had any snow in Northern Scotland, we were greeted by this after driving 500 miles south!
Thankfully it didn’t last long, and despite us eating them out of house and home, Andrew & Caroline were fantastic hosts as usual. The boys love them to bits, and rarely gave them a moments peace - Steph & I nearly slipped away on several occasions!
The boys got to see their first ever football (soccer if you will 
) match on Saturday, watching the mighty Kettering Town defeat Nuneaton Borough 3-2. It was actually a good match despite the frequent blizzards that swept the ground, followed by sun & blue skies. The boys enjoyed it, and Pat in particular got into the spirit of things by telling the Referee that he needed glasses (which he did).
We went on to the National Space Centre (in Leicester of all places!) which despite being a modern museum (i.e. lots of flashing screens, little hard information and a confusing layout) was quite enjoyable and had some cool stuff on show:
We also went on a simulated ride to Europa, getting shot out of a magnetic tunnel before crash landing, which was impressive, but a little rough. Despite the following photo, the boys don’t want to be astronauts anymore!
The weekend was over all too soon and we headed home via a night in the Lake District. We were still pursued by snow, so most of it was spent in the car, but it was very beautiful and amazingly busy given the weather. Still, I managed to get out of the car for this shot at Castlerigg stone circle:
Incredibly cold, but I wish I could have stayed longer!
All this and not a chocolate egg in sight - how was your Easter then?
