From the archives...

Sometimes it's fun to look back. Here's what I was blogging in February in previous years. From trouble in the Middle East to ancient photographs.

A year ago - The trouble was starting in Libya a year ago, just as it now has in Syria. As we thought and prayed for the people and government of Libya a year ago, so we should also do for Syria now.

COMMENT: How things have moved on! History will not repeat itself, the situation in Syria is different, probably far more dangerous internationally than the upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. We can also now pray for the development of stable democracies in those countries, it's not a foregone conclusion for any of them. Don't forget the smaller countries too - Dubai and Yemen for example.

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Snowdrops in the rain

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Snowdrops in the rain at Moggerhanger - Photo taken 20th February 2011

Moggerhanger Park has a fine collection of naturalised snowdrops in its areas of woodland. Last year I was able to capture a photo of these beautiful flowers liberally coated with raindrops.

See some other image posts (scroll down when the page loads).

Beech tree in the snow

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The beech tree in our neighbour's garden - Photo taken 10th February 2012

This beech tree grows next door but the branches cross high over our fence. With a fresh snow fall yesterday and a beautiful blue sky, what a glorious sight it is! If you enlarge it you can make out some of last year's beechmast husks still clinging on.

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IMAGE - The River Ouse

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The River Great Ouse - Photo taken 18th September 2011


Here is the river in peaceful mood, just a ten minute walk from our house. Donna and I were looking for a geocache at the time but failed to find it. I did, however, pull out some more of the invading Himalayan Balsam growing nearby.

The river footpath is a favourite of mine at any time of the year, but it was stunning just at this time with hardly a ripple on the water.

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IMAGE - Ocean Countess

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Ocean Countess - Photo taken 9th September 2011

A cruise ship docked at the small Cornish town of Fowey (pronounced 'Foye') on a misty day. The ship looms mysteriously and the land beyond is almost invisible. Ocean Countess is operated by a British company, CMV.

It was not a cold day but devoid of sunshine, and the trees were collecting the tiny droplets of mist and dripping as they moved in the light breeze.

Click the 'image' label below to see other image posts.

The TED Conference - Microsoft's mapping

Microsoft seems to be making great strides with online mapping and the integration of such things as user imagery and even live video. Fascinating to see how they're tying it all together in a most remarkable way.

Blaise Aguera y Arcas demonstrates some of this stuff at the TED conference.

Cycling to Australia - and he has time to blog

Oli Broom is cycling to Australia and blogging as he goes. He left Lord's Cricket Ground in London on 10th October and is aiming to arrive in Brisbane in time for The Ashes in 2010. He plans to teach cricket to people along the way, now perhaps that's the real challenge!

He is sharing his experiences in a blog and on Twitter as he travels and it's going to be a fascinating one to follow. The best place to start is not his current post, nor is it his first. The best place is surely the post he wrote on 26th September, an introduction.

Well done, Oli! It's a heart warming thing to see someone really going for a goal, overcoming obstacles, ignoring doubts and fears, and just doing it. Perhaps we can all learn something about life from this. This is certainly an experience Oli will remember all his life.

Cycling to Australia is not my thing, it doesn't excite me. Probably it's not your thing either.

So what will it be for you? If you could only do one thing during the remainder of your life, what would it be? And would you be willing to put everything into it as Oli is putting everything into this trip to Australia? Most of us spend our lives sleep-walking. Oli will be really living his journey.

Astronomy

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Why am I interested in astronomy? I think it's because I'm fascinated by the vastness of the Universe and the amazing variety of objects it contains - including, of course, the Earth.

I don't remember when I developed this interest. I do remember being 14 or 15 years old and saving my pocket money to buy 'The Observer's Book of Astronomy' (I still have it), and around the same time I remember watching 'The Sky At Night', a monthly TV program that is one of the longest running series ever. It was (and still is) presented by Patrick Moore whose enthusiasm was intense and exciting. That was in the days when TV was only available in black and white.

I remember being even younger and looking at a nearly total eclipse of the Sun through heavily smoked glass, it was 30th June 1954, just a few weeks before my sixth birthday. Dad wanted me to see the eclipse because there wasn't going to be another like it in the UK until 1999!

Photography, something I love

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We should all find, make, or steal the time to do at least one thing that we really, really love. Come on now, you know I'm right. In this modern age there are so many pressures on us that sometimes we struggle just to get from one day to the next. The trouble with that is simple. You will only live this day one single time, you have just one bite at it. So spend part of it doing something fun, or rewarding, or delightful. It's not decadent to do that, it's an expression of who you are, to yourself, to your family, to friends and aquaintances, and to the King of Creation too. Unless of course you think he's not interested in who you are, or think he doesn't exist. But even then, you still owe it to yourself and to those around you to express the real you.

Something I love is to capture images of things that impress me by their beauty, things that amaze me.

What on earth?

This is an amazing image for a variety of reasons. What is it? Could it be a pulsating jellyfish from deep in the ocean? An iridescent soap bubble against a black background? Maybe it's a cell viewed in a fluorecence microscope?

No, the truth is stranger than any of these. Much of the 'light' you see here is invisible, the rest is far too faint to see. This bubble is the result of a sudden event witnessed by the Saxons, although it actually happened during the Stone Age. The photograph was taken by a range of telescopes, not all on the earth's surface.

This is SN 1006, a supernova remnant. Everything about it is awesome, almost beyond the human mind's ability to appreciate. And of course it's not on Earth at all. An astonishing feature of this little corner of the universe where we live, our Milky Way galaxy.

What is Supernova 1006? How did it happen? How was the image made?

A photo gallery (SQ)

I've just added a photo gallery to the website. I could have built a gallery here on the site, but I chose to use Smugmug instead. Smugmug is just one of several good photo management tools available online, it's flexible and convenient, fast, and provides unlimited storage. I particularly value the way it automatically produces a series of image sizes, and it also makes uploading new images extremely easy and efficient.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I say it depends on the picture and it depends on the words! I hope these photos are worth something to you. I hope you enjoy viewing them and exploring them. Feel free to download them, modify them, print them, use them in websites or in any other way you wish for non-commercial purposes. Under the Creative Commons licence you must contact me if you'd like to use them commercially.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

What do you see here? (KN)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, well here's a new twist on that thought. I provide the picture, and you write some words!

It's not difficult, here's a small photo to work with. You can view a larger version in a separate window while you write your comment, or you can even download the full-size original. The photo is copyright but the terms allow you to use and reproduce it.

The idea is not just to write any old comment. Instead, look at the picture and ask yourself if it speaks to you about our heavenly Father, about the human condition, or about our relationships with him and with one another. Can you bring an encouraging message out of the picture?

Let me show you what I mean. The lower part of the picture is man-made, it rests on the earth, is grey, hard, and unchanging. The upper part of the photo is of the sky - it's not made by human effort, is owned by no-one, is not bound to the earth, and is gloriously colourful, bright, and changes moment by moment.

Where does the time go?

It seems I haven't done much here for ages, where has the summer gone? I suppose one excuse is the massive effort that's gone into scanning, organising and storing a massive pile of family photos. Back in 1961 my Dad was taking colour slides of the family, local events, people and places; and the B&W record goes back a good deal further.

Another activity involves my life as a believer, I've been pulling back from formal, organised Christianity and getting more deeply into sharing time with others when the opportunity arises. This involves a certain amount of meeting (obviously), thinking, prayer, reading, and (not least) e-mailing. There's such a lot going on out there and I want to be involved. In the end it comes down to the fact that the Almighty is doing stuff with his people, and if only we will pay attention we find that he means to include us. If we're not listening we end up being busy doing things for him when we'd be better off letting him do things for us instead!

Family photos

Old family photos - fantastic things. Karen brought some in and was showing them to us over a cup of tea. She has a photo of her great-great grandmother holding a baby, the baby is her grandmother!

I'm so glad photography was invented by the 1830s, it means we can see images of people, places and events from 180 years ago. But just consider, there was no technical reason the photographic process couldn't have been invented 150 years earlier, around 1700. If only someone had done so we could now be looking at 300-year-old images. Now that would be something!