New Camera, New Inspiration!

Two posts in a week!  Can you believe it!!

I am back to report that I have a new camera, and I am all inspired to take more photos again!  My old Nikon SLR is over 10 years old now, (and it was an old model when we bought it!), and is so heavy to lug around over my shoulder.   I wanted a lighter camera that was a bit better than a 'point and shoot'. My new phone has a fairly decent camera for that.  So we went into Jessops, and had a really lovely assistant who spent ages with us looking at the small mirrorless cameras.  I chose the Panasonic LX100, as it has a decent size sensor, and lots of dials and buttons for manual adjustment.  It looks a bit retro in the silver too!

It has its first outing up to London on my birthday on a really sunny Sunday in March.  We  were headed for lunch in the Shard!  Here's some photos:

The Shard is the tallest building in London.  We were headed for the 32nd floor for the restaurant, about half way up.

We were so lucky with the weather!  Bright, sunny and clear.  Here's a view towards the financial district with the 'walkie talkie' and the 'gherkin', other iconic buildings.

Looking to the East, with Tower Bridge in the foreground, and Canary Wharf in the background.

That is St Paul's Cathedral in the centre of the photo.

We had a lovely lunch, lovely food, well presented and brilliant service.   I thoroughly recommend the restaurant.  It was so lovely to spend the day with my family on a day out!

From left ro right, Danny (Lucy's boyfriend), Lucy, Nicholas and Maurice.

Finally, here's me and Maurice by Tower Bridge.  

So now I am all inspired again, can you suggest photo memes or challenges that I can join in and post on  my blog?

Scavenger Hunt 2015 - A rather pathetic attempt!

Oh dear!  I don’t seem to have done very well with this year’s scavenger hunt!  I offer you a rather pathetic attempt, just half of the items.  I offer no excuse, except to say that my mind has been on other things, ie Barney the puppy!

Anyway, I thought I would show you what I have.  All are taken with my phone, which is very handy as I have it with me all the time, but the quality is not up to usual standard.

1 Bouquet of flowers – picked from my garden back in August. Don’t you love the grass that explodes like a firework!

 

3 A person walking a dog – an easy one to get!  Here’s Maurice walking Barney on the beach and in the countryside

7 A turtle – one of Barney’s squeaky toys!

9. A tent – a play tent at the Hampton Court Flower Show.  Reminds me of the one in the film ‘The Holiday’ so cute!

 

14. A traffic signal – a really bad phone picture from the car!

15 A flag pole with 3 flags.  This is perhaps my favourite picture!  5 flags, Scotland, Wales, the Union Jack, England and European Union on Worthing seafront.  The memorial is for soldiers who fought in the Boer War.

16. A panoramic view from the top of the Portsdown Hills overlooking Portsmouth Harbour, with the Isle of Wight in the background

17 2 or more people wearing uniforms.  Here are a samba band that were playing on the front at Littlehampton on the August bank holiday weekend.  Looks like fun!

18.  An overloaded truck or car.  Another bad photo taken out of the car window!

19.  A natural body of water.  The river Arun at Littlehampton again at the bank holiday weekend.  You can see how grey the weather was!

20. A ticket booth.  I give you 2!  One is the entrance to Hampton Court Flower Show, and the other is at the fair on the seafront here in Worthing

 

I did have ideas for the rest of the photos, but just didn’t get out to photograph them.  For example, we have a metal footbridge over the railway just down the road, along with several mobile phone masts!  And I really should have got a photo of our local college with its colourful window shades!

Thanks to Rinda for coming up with such a great list again, and I look forward to doing better next year!

Scavenger Hunt–The bike show

We went to a vintage motobike show at Ardingly back in July.  I was hoping to tick a few more things off my list, maybe a horn, or a person with a tattoo?

So without further ado, here’s a horn!  In fact, this was the only horn I found, as most of the bikes from the 1970s and 1980s, and don’t have such an elegant looking horn.  This was on a bike from the 1930s.

On the other hand, there were plenty of tattoos!  Look at these arms!! Quite a work of art.

How about this mascot – another work-of-art – on the petrol tank of a Honda Goldwing.  It is beautiful, and the bike is pretty splendid too!

Finally, here’s a parade of motorbikes in the car park.

I still have a few to get: a sign welcoming people into my home town, a juggler, a photo bomb, and me holding something representing the season. 

I’m linking up with Rinda for August Scavenger Hunt.

Scavenger Hunt Part 1: The Day Out

It’s always fun to join in with Rinda’s Summer Scavenger Hunt!  I’ve written down this year’s list in a little notebook that I carry with me everywhere.  I have made a start on that list today, as we’ve been on a motorbike ride over to Rye, a historic town to the east.  Incidentally, it’s the first time I have been on the back (except for round the block) and it feels OK.  Just as well, as we are motorcycling up North next week!

 

Lamppost

Plenty of nice lampposts in Rye.  Got a feeling I might be taking a few lampposts, I know we have some pretty ones in Worthing with hanging baskets full of flowers at this time of year.

 

Sign in a language other than English

Rye is not so far from the channel port of Dover, so I was hoping for some signs in a language other than English.  Here’s one about the Norman Conquest of 1066 translated into French.  The ‘Mind Your Head’ sign has been translated into French and German.  We saw this sign as we were climbing the tower of St Mary’s Church.

Birds on a Wire

I am thinking that ‘Birds on a Wire’ could be difficult so how about A Bird on a Post?  This black-headed gull had it’s beady eyes on my sandwich!  Is this a cheat?

while it’s friends showed off on the pavement in front of us:

Rye is a very pretty historic town,full of really pretty old houses and cobbled streets. Here’s some more photos that are not part of the Scavenger Hunt.

I was fascinated by the front doors:

We climbed the tower on the church for wonderful views:

and were interested to see the preparations that were being made for the filming of ‘Mapp and Lucia’, a drama to be shown on BBC.  The author of the original books lived in Rye.

Hop over to Rinda’s blog for more info on the Scavenger Hunt.

A Weekend in Canterbury

We are having our kitchen refitted at the moment, so decided to go away for the weekend while we have no kitchen.  Here it is freshly plastered ready to dry out over the weekend.

 

We went to Canterbury, which is famous for it’s cathedral.  It is the  Mother Church of the Anglican Communion and seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury.  We were lucky enough to have glorious weather, and spent our time visiting the cathedral, and wandering around the quaint old streets:

On Sunday morning we went for a little boat trip along the river:

We had a lovely picnic by the river, then made our way home.  A lovely relaxing weekend!