No reason for this really – I just like the photo

Just thought I’d drop this one in, as it doesn’t really fit anywhere else – and thinking of birds around the house brought it to mind. I was returning from doing the Three Peaks in July, and came across this guy early morning at Wrexham Railway Station. His job was to control the pigeon & vermin population around over forty railway stations in the area. The company he works for has a range of birds for the job. Can anyone tell me what kind of bird this is?

The poignant thing about this guy’s job is that he has to work on stations before the public arrive in order not to offend anyones sensibilities! It’s a lonely job – and quite sad in many ways. But he does get to work with these beautiful creatures – and I suppose he doesn’t have to be part of the rat-race.

As an epitaph (or since it’s Wales an eppy-taff) to the old house in Swansea – still up for sale to anyone who fancies a truly wonderful view of the sea – I attach two photos which try to show some of the view from the front window on the one day of snow we had last year .

From that to something completed different. Clydach is about eight miles north of the sea, and a very different environment. A nature reserve with owls, herons,buzzards and swallows instead of seagulls.

Golwg y Lon, which I am told translates as “View of the Lane”, is set on the edge of Clydach at the foot of the Black Mountains. It is a fabulous place for landscape photography, and as soon as work stops getting in the way, I will be spending a lot more time with my camera in these hills. The pace of life is also surprising slower than that of the city a few miles away. Carol & I have been trying to think of a names for the house (in Welsh of course).”tranquil” or “peaceful” house was our first choice. This translates as Ty Tawel, but is pronounced like the English Tea Towel. We are still thinking!

If BT & Pipex can keep their act together long enough for me to create a new post we might have some new piccies!! My apologies to Michaela Strachan if I have spelt her name wrongly, I was never really a fan of children’s TV, even when I was young. For those of you who might know her from “The Really Wild Show”, or (in Wales only?) “Country File”, I had the privilege of meeting her earluer this year while filming in Swansea. She is a really lovely, genuine person – who is certainly not timid about getting stuck in. The easy bit was being filmed by the monument to “Swansea Jack”, to be found on the Oystermouth Road on Swansea Bay. Jack was a dog who famously rescued a number of people from drowning.

Our illustrious MVS Head of Unit – known as Hornblower, and Samantha (no nickname so far, but suggestions are welcome!) feature above with Michaela at the monument dedicated to Swansea Jack.

Talking of dogs…the next call was to the cold waters of Swansea Marina, where Michaela gets to meet the Newfoundland dogs. These huge dogs, with webbed feet, are bred to rescue fishermen who fall overboard. Michaela was given a lifejacket, and was assured by one of our crew – no names mentioned at this point! -that it was NOT the self-inflating variety, which promptly exploded in to action as she hit the water!

In the first photo Hornblower becomes a very shy person in front of the camera (who is this man?), and blows his chance at fifteen minutes of fame. The second shows one of the dogs aboard a RIB – it is heavier that the other crew members. … and in the third are some of the crew members with Michaela before they were returned to the ward.

… Thanks again Chris for writing an “Idiots Guide to Blogs”. Hopefully the photo is now attached

To begin with, special thanks to my Kazakhtechno guru for getting me back in action. Some of us are finding it more difficult than others to come to terms with the computer revolution.

I have amassed a range of photographs to put onto the blog – and now that I have actually got here, I have to decide whether to add them in the haphazard way they ocurred, or in some sort of theme. I decided on the theme as it is the best way of dealing with my cluttered mind and lifestyle. With special thanks to various members of the Merriman family for keeping me on some sort of reasonable path in life!

So, to the Maritime Volunteer Service, or MVS as it is more commonly referred to. A motley bunch, made up from ex-service people and those who have always had a hankering for the sea and boats. I have been a member of the Swansea Unit for a number of years, and by national standards we seem to be quite a successful unit. Our main purpose is to develop and promote maritime skills. Further than this, we provide a service to our local maritime community by providing safety boats at various events. It is hoped that we can develop more useful links with the emergency services to assist in search and rescue operations. In recent years we have been involved in several incidents, two being successful, in one instance recovering a drunk from the River Tawe who had decided to take a short cut from a bridge en route home. Pulling someone aboard with a broken femur is not funny, even if he was suitably anaethetised. The other, more rewarding was pulling a distressed labrador from flood water. He was very grateful, and all crew members were thoroughly licked in thanks. On the other hand, we have pulled bodies from the water. Unfortunately Swansea does seem to have quite a record of river suicides and accidents. Although we do not yet operate a 24 hour call-out system, we do seem to have an uncanny knack of being on the scene – sometimes even before the emergency services (but they will not thank me for saying that).

The first photo I have included is a bit unfair.At the Pembroke Sea Rally last year I passed Carol my digital camera, a Minolta Dimage 7 at the time. One of the particular features of this piece of kit is the exceptionally long delay between pressing the shutter release and the shutter actually operating. I was asked to do the commentary for the public, so I passed the camera to my long-suffering partner, Carol, and said “just keep shooting” – which she dutifully did, and it must be said the rest of the pictures were fine…but this remains my favourite. RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) races onto scene to pick up casualty, Carol points and shoots…the picture says the rest !