So long since I last posted

Wow I really have neglected this blog, I should take more care of it.

What have I been up to, well Shumba is now a 7 month old and 6 stone dog and he has been keeping me more than a little busy! Boisterous doesn't really describe him, lunatic probably does.

The photography has been going well, see my stream for the latest of my pictures.

I'll get back to posting them here soon.

Shumba is home

So after 16 years of waiting Louise and I finally have a Ridgeback puppy. His name is Shumba and we collected him last night. He cried all night, yes all night!. But that was to be expected I suppose. It must be a very stressful period for a puppy.

today will be lots of play, sleep (for me and the dog!) and getting used to our new family.

Check out my flickr for a photographic history of Shumba the dog.

Week 2 History

2/52 – History

I wanted my 52 to reflect some local history and as such I have chosen what at first sight would appear to be just an old water tower, but which in reality is the key to a fascinating insight into the history of our railways and the growth of an Industrial Town in rural Norfolk.

This is part of the Water Tower that used to serve the railway engineering works at Melton Constable in Norfolk. Melton Constable is, in many respects, a strange oddity. It was built, in the 1880’s specifically to serve the railways that converged in this rural part of North Norfolk and was built to a plan that you would normally find in the Industrial East Midlands and North. As such it was as far as I know the first Norfolk Village to be on a mains sewer and had it’s own gas works and other services. Melton Constable became a hub, the meeting point of four railways and as such a large engineering works, covering 14 acres sprang up, in fact it became the engineering centre for the Midland & Great Northern Railway, maintaining 180 miles of track and associated rolling stock, and was dubbed the Crewe of North Norfolk.

So why did it happen, simply Lord Hastings and other local landowners wanted to break the dominance of the Great Eastern Railway and provide improved communications in rural Norfolk. The station had an 800ft platform, plus a dedicated waiting room and platform for Lord Hasting sole use.

The Beeching cuts ended Meltons Railway life, but the houses and road names remain and the engineering works are now an Industrial Estate. Much of the old railway buildings can still be seen and this tower, which bears the scars of an air raid in WW2 remind us of a more prosperous and some would say romantic past.

So what of the future, well there are moves to create a new orbital railway in Norfolk, linking historic lines and the modern railway. If it happens Melton Constable will once again see rolling stock.

I'm not sure that this picture has worked, the light is to flat and the shot doesn't have much punch. But I have to learn to work with the light available I suppose. I'll revisit this shot later in the year.

A picture a week for the year

Ok so along with lots of others I'm doing a picture a week for the year, if I can manage it!
The themes are picked at random and this weeks theme was Reflection so here goes.


This is a shot of a bike reflector, reflected in a mirror and lit by my bike light. So quite a lot of reflection going on. I'm not sure it worked as well as I'd hoped, but I'm quite pleased with the start.