Bits and pieces

A visit to Valletta would not be complete without witnessing the 12 o'clock salute at the Saluting battery. Just about made it here in time. "The Saluting Battery was constructed in the 16th century by the Order of Saint John, on or near the site of an Ottoman battery from the Great Siege of Malta. The battery forms the lower tier of St. Peter & Paul Bastion of the Valletta Land Front, located below the Upper Barrakka Gardens and overlooking Fort St. Angelo and the rest of the Grand Harbour. The Saluting Battery was mainly used for firing ceremonial gun salutes and signals, but it also saw military use during the blockade of 1798–1800 and World War II. The battery remained an active military installation until its guns were removed by the British in 1954. It was restored and opened to the public in the early 21st century, and it is now equipped with eight working replicas of SBBL 32 pounders which fire gun signals daily at 1200 and 1600." WiKi

Seen in the old centre of Krokow, Poland. This old town is full of trams, lots of them blue and white like this but there are other colours and speeds too. Enjoy full screen.

Almost all of the things here that I hate about the British holiday beach resort (as the miserable oldie that I am :) ) but I must admit that I am addicted to snapping these colourful beach huts all the same. As can be seen, these huts in the Welsh town of Abersoch must be quite modern with their corrugated structures of modern materials. Seen here in the middle of our school holidays, another row of these huts sits to my right.

The siren, Loreley (Lorelei), said to lure sailors on the very narrowest section of the Rhein onto the rocks is seen here sitting at the end of the spit of land on this part of the river called The Loreley. A rather seductive view here but modesty forbade me to shoot from other angles :) Enjoy

Bingen on the great River Rhein is a colourful place with wonderful views all around. Castles abound too but here we have some flavour of the heart of the place. With these vineyards and the river as a background this simple plant pot and flowers makes up truly welcome.

A few photos prior to this here on Ipernity, I mentioned this cave in connection with the Reginald Farrer Nature trail at Clapham in the Yorkshire Dales. Well here is one of the delights I saw whilst doing the tour, which in this case was just my wife the tour gild and myself. This shows three levels, on the top the ceiling with its stalactites and the the central plain with its corresponding stalagmites. Below this there is here a deeper level with this very still and reflective pond showing the two levels above but giving an almost bottomless effect. All in all, well worth a visit. Further info: www.ingleboroughcave.co.uk

Ah, the days when our railway stations were full of luggage like this conjures up sets of families on their way to the seaside. A different tale nowadays! Taken at Bridgenorth station on the heritage railway of the 'Severn Valley Railway' in Shropshire and Worcestershire. Originally a full coloured shot and a recent runner up in the November 2018 Ipernity SPC (Secret Photographer Challenge) Valigie - Suitcases competition. - www.ipernity.com/group/2249054/discuss/191708 The Severn Valley Railway is a heritage railway in Shropshire and Worcestershire, England. The 16-mile heritage line runs along the Severn Valley from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster, crossing the Shropshire/Worcestershire border, following the course of the River Severn for much of its route. Wikipedia

Don't imagine that no sounds came from their playing -it was both very appropriate and loud along with much movement of limbs and instruments. In fact, the chap who made all this happen played along with either his fiddle or Bodhrán (bow-rawn) but was taking a little break as I snapped this. Seen on the seafront at Waterville on the Ring of Kerry road. ps The chap at the back is the accordion player. Similar music link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC9mVaRTV3k Enjoy into the New Year. Herb pips

Sometimes people inquire into my other hobby of 'Flight Simulation' and ask 'how realistic is that?' Well my friends on here will be aware that my favourite local photographic location is near my home: Dovestones Reservoir, Greenfield. So here I am flying one of my favourite virtual aircraft, the Piper PA28R Arrow, at just over 100 knots and 1090ft asl over Dovestones reservoir itself and looking up to the next reservoir: Yeoman Hey. The PiP shows the same aircraft being flown by me, over Greenfield and approaching the front of the Dovestones green earth dam wall just before I got to this position. One can see how the graphics have improved to almost life-like here. These are of-course-screen shots but I can tell you, that it is pretty life-like in many respects. Program= XPlane 11, Graphics by Orbx- Real-Earth-Britain Central, Aircraft by JustFlight. See the adjacent page to complete the story. 6x Pips, outside this plane, New York, Switzerland and Manchester in B77 at night & A10. Enjoy.

If you have never seen a patterned shot like this before one can be forgiven for asking "what am I seeing?" No, it is not a giant kaleidoscope nor big Ferris wheel but rather hundreds of bright stars in the black sky. As our planet revolves around its north south polar axis, then so looking from our planet, the stars move around the Stella NS axis too. As Cyprus is in the Northern Hemisphere, all the stars seem to revolve around our northern star: Polaris, which is aligned to our North Pole . Polaris is indeed in the centre of this circle. In practice, this shot is made up of 150 separate twenty second exposure photos of the stars, all on an unmoved tripod pointing to the star Polaris. The 150 photos are then layered on top of each other (stacked) resulting in actually seeing here the circular motion of our stars. The foreground is part of the very rocky and dried clay coastline. Enjoy full screen on black. Thanks to Steve Paxton for his invaluable help in me capturing and creating this.

Happy crocus day -well it may not be officially, but it is for me. A couple of hours of February warm sun in our garden brings out these early Spring flowers. A moment of joy in our household and maybe to you here too. Enjoy. Crocus is a genus of flowering plants in the iris family comprising 90 species of perennials growing from corms. Many are cultivated for their flowers appearing in autumn, winter, or spring. The spice saffron is obtained from the stigmas of Crocus sativus, an autumn-blooming species. Wikipedia

An aged look for a very old waterwheel at Portland Basin museum here at Ashton-u-Lyne. A short arm of the Ashton Canal flowed directly into the building through three archways so that boats could load and unload undercover.This interesting waterwheel (1839) powered the hoists that transferred goods to and from the upper floors. I wish you all, a great Easter weekend, Herb A must, on full screen black. More Info

SPC Domino effect competition May 2019 -runner up. Taken in Milan, Italy in 2013.

Taken in the beautiful Royal Palace Park in the city of Kandy during our trip to this part of the World in 2014. Whilst here we witnessed a wedding celebration and saw many giant tree bats and monkeys. Kandy is famed for sacred Buddhist sites, including the Temple of the Tooth (Sri Dalada Maligawa) shrine which we also visited.

Seen on the edge of a playground in the Lancashire seaside resort of Morecambe. Without the shadows this would have been nothing so once again light saves the day. I wish you all, a great weekend, Herb

In memory of one of Britains funniest entertainers: Eric Morecambe OBE. Bring me Sunshine A tribute! (make sure you see the very funny bit at the end of this video!) He was the very funny half of the comedy/singing duo 'Morecambe and Wise' and sadly died after a stage performance in 1984. He was actually named Eric Bartholomew but took the name of his birth town Morecambe for his great career that lasted from 1940 untill his death. He partnered up with Ernest Wiseman who was to be become a lifetime close friend and comedy partner. Their duet act was called Morcambe and Wise. In 1977 their Christmas show had an estimated audience of 28 million. Ernie Wise died in 1999. This statue sits in a place of honour halfway along Morecamb's promenade. The pose here is a very well known one and is in fact a snapshot of his funny dance as they often finished a show - lifting his back legs high and swapping this arm and leg formation in a parody of an Austrian Schuhplattler to the song 'Bring Me Sunshine'. - At any one time during the day, you can witness people here being photographed with the life-size statue mirroring the pose with smiles. So much was he held in such esteem. Enjoy along with the video in full size.

An unusual view of the stairway and fences of the newly refurbished Midland Hotel in Morecambe. This historic 1933 hotel stands on the seafront with the convex side facing the sea. It was refurbished and opened in 2008 and will shortly be joined here by a new Northern ‘Eden Project’. More Info . Needs full screen. I wish you all, a great weekend, Herb

The rather splendid Art Deco cocktail bar of Morecambe's Midland Hotel here. There are also splendid views of the sea too from these windows but with a centre of attraction like this, who needs views? See Pip