I was contacted recently by Derek who had ussed my panorama of Manchester City Centre to create a Tiny Planet or Polar Panorama photo which is created using the Polar Coordinates Filters found in Photo Shop and GIMP, so i thought i’d give it a go myself.
Using a panorama i’d created of Sydney Harbour and one of Longnor (Peak Practice on ITV) i had a go too and here are my efforts!
The grey one is the one sent to me by Derek.
I got the instructions from here
We were off to Oxfordshire for a few days in August and thought we’d pop in to a National Trust house on the way, now that we’re over 40 and have recently spent £60+ joining the National Trust ( it’s like bailouts but for the gentry – run out of money? no problem we’ll take on your house) and we want to get as much value for the money as we can out of the annual fee, tho we did get some binoculars for joining, when was the last time you used binoculars? think i was 8.
Anyway, We found it on the website before we set off.
It’s described as
Honey-coloured stone house with exquisite plasterwork and fine landscaped garden
Nestled in the heart of rural Warwickshire, surrounded by elegant lakes and fine landscape gardens sits Farnborough Hall. Made from the locally quarryed Horton honey-coloured stone, this country house shimmers in the sunlight.Inside, the finest 18th-century plasterwork, depicting natural beauty and wildlife, adorns the interiors. On your way around you’ll spot many treasures that were collected during the Grand Tour, as well as sentimental family items and photographs.
Sounded quite nice, looks a sizeable place, that will kill a couple of hours we thought.
We thought wrong. We were met at the door by an elderly woman who was a cross between Margot Leadbetter and Barbara Woodhouse who barked instructions at us and made us buy a book for a fiver. On the whole it was looking good, a nice size book, must be a lot to see. Off we went in to the first room….
It used to be a courtyard but the owner wanted to display all his Canalettos so he made it in to a room and hung them on the wall, except these on display weren’t the real ones they’d been sold years back to keep the estate afloat. nice room tho.
next room was a dining room laid out which adjoined a sitting room, both quite pleasant and then you were back in the hall ready to go up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs was a little old man ready to tell you all he knew about the place. I asked which way you go next and he said “this is it, it’s just the stairwell, you come up here to look at the busts – the finest collection of busts and some of them genuine roman”
And that was it. Less than half an hour in the place, 3 rooms, a hallway and a stairwell and you were done. done? we bloody well were.
Apparently the family still live there and use the whole house, just letting the public see three rooms on a couple of days a week.
How, if a place is owned by the National Trust can the family still expect to live there and not let the public, who pay for pay for its upkeep, have a jolly good poke around? its why we joined the National Trust, well mainly so we didnt have to pay £20 to get in to Tatton Park a while back, but at least there you get most of the house to see.
Another disappointing National Trust Property, thats 2 out of 4 so far, but I’ll tell you about Gawthorpe Hall another day.
I’m not an Eco warrior, I don’t wear tie dye or patchwork well, but it does worry me that we (inc me) eat fish that’s travelled all the way from Ghana. Ghana!
Who decided that tuna was the fish that we should all be at and that we should fish it to virtual distinction and then send cans of it half way across the world?
What’s wrong with the perch? Or carp? Mackerel? Or even the eel. Well everything is wrong with the eel, but my dad used to catch loads of em when I was a kid in the 70′s. It’s local, it’s native, and almost edible. Can’t imagine it on my pizza tho.
There’s talk of local foodstuffs making a return, cow heel for one. Doesn’t sound great but I bet if Delia patronised us in to it and Nigella rubbed herself over it we’d be down the farm like a shot, lopping off odd bits of cow.
Me? I fancy a bit of heart. Oh you are offal!
Shop local and buy UK food. Ireland is quite far enough for my steak to have travelled thank you.
Must dash. My tuna pizza is ready. Well enviro-warrioring starts to tomorrow. Once I’ve knitted some trousers.
This is a montage of photos i took from each side of the Clock Tower at Manchester Town Hall and have then merged together using Microsoft’s Image Composite Editor. The centre of the image is Number one Deansgate and the block with the curved roof just right of the centre is 82 King Street.
Download it for a better version (its over 10,000 pixels wide) right click save as here
we went to Richmond Tea Rooms in Manchester’s Gay Village today, and it was excellent.
besides the fact that i had two puddings whilst everyone else had sensible sandwhich things, i had a great time! started off with a Berry and Apple Pudding (looked like a pork pie, made from suet) and then had the best Chocolate Fudge Cake i’ve ever had, and generally i have it at every available opportunity, obviously not around the house, but whilst eating out! it was rich and moist with white and milk chocolate oozing out of it. (def get it warm!)
10 hours on i’m still a little high from all the sugar, and if the truth be told, feel a little bit sick. perhaps two desserts was a bit much…..
Took some great pictures whilst in Donegal at the end of feb 2012 for a family birthday. Most of them are taken around Moville, Malin Head and Mamore Gap.
Always wanted to drive a tractor and finally got the chance in Ireland in feb 2012 after drunkenly asking In-Laws with a farm.
I didn’t get out of first gear mind and the person following me couldn’t keep up cos she was walking and more interested in the cow in the barn……
There’s a great app on the iPhone called Path which is yet another social networking platform but it has the ability to post to tumblr, Facebook, twitter and foursquare automatically and some great camera effects built in. This picture has the Loko effect applied.
There aren’t many advantages to getting up at 5am on a Saturday morning to work but this was definitely one of them.
I took this photo this morning in altrincham, Cheshire from the 5th floor of an office block looking South East towards Manchester Airport and the Derbyshire Peaks towards Buxton.
Had a stroll along Blackpool prom today. It’s come along way since I was last here 4 or 5 years ago. The front is being remade and there’s some great bits of public art, and some strange wobbling columns that look like arrows fired in to the ground.
The best bit has to be the comedy pavement opposite the Tower. A large area paved with quotes from great British comedians of the past and present. Well worth spending an hour chuckling at in the cold on a November afternoon. There are more pics of the pavement here
Tho one improved sea front doesn’t mean that grotty chip shops can charge £1.95 for a tray of chips that were pre made in a factory in Grimsby from the arse and elbow of some battery potato long past it’s best.
I took this pic with my iPhone and fiddled with it on the camera+ app.
Always nice to see blue skies over the peak district, especially on an autumn Sunday. I dont think we’ll be getting many more for a while! I took this pics using the Photostitch App for the iphone between Wildboarclough and the Cat and Fiddle Junction on the A54. Not the roads they used to be since they put up the average speed cameras. Fond memories of the cars i’ve driven along there over the years……. SLKs, Golf GTI’s, Beetle V5, Audi S3, Passat W8, MGF, Alfa 147, Mini Sprite and various Metro’s and a few Citroen AX’s and many more.
Gorgeous colours as the sun shines through the thinning leaves on an autumnal Saturday afternoon at the end of October.
This is Erwood Road at the side of Cringle Fields Park.
