Sunday end of Feb

Since Christmas I seem to have changed my routine and especially over the last month I am doing other things rather than looking at my pictures and writing this blog. I know I have played on the Wii we got for Christmas quite a lot and other things. so I don't sit down and do things as before. I have been messing with the design of the website and am almost there with the front page. I have got a couple of colours I like and need to use them more. I have as I think I mention before begun to merge the "my pictures" and the front page as was together to make it in a way less wordy with more of what the site should be about "my pictures" easier to access and see. I hope as you are treading this to have completed this with in the next few days. so today is Sunday 28Th Feb so if I do a little target setting should be upgraded by wed ( 3rd March). Here's hoping the main sections are there it just should take a little reworking to knock all of the bugs out of it and ..... I think it will be good to stop putting in the wish list here and get back to some thing more real.

I have continued my walking up and down a small stretch of the Severn in Shrewsbury and am still enjoying it . I have not given up on the blog just it seems to have reached a plateau, the enthusiasm in general is waning especiallly that initial surge of interest. Now I am much more experienced there is less to to and what I look for is put on the back burner especially hen you want to try and get a decent start in life.

any way I am tired. Time for bed ..............

say hello sunday

Its Sunday and I thought I had better touch base and say hello. I have not done anything on this for almost a week now. More out of lack of inspiration and the fact that work has been getting to me and I am tired so when it comes to sitting down and writing something the motivation is not there. The sun has come out a little more especially towards the end of the week and it generally made me feel better. I am sure there is something in this Seasonally Affected Disorder stuff. I even noticed the light as I left work it is not quite dark, I know it is only a small change but the impact it has is large.

Today is Valentines Day and I managed to get my wife and both Daughters a card (each). I got one as well so I think honour was assuaged on all sides.

More tomorrow I am tired and want my bed

Back again. I have over the last few days updated the website (vertrouge). It is now Tuesday and I am trying to work out what to do next. so the site has some more bits on. I have gone back through October and December and put in pictures. I will do December and January over the next week or so and then try and keep up to date the front page will "evolve" over time. I still think it could be a lot better and I will have to rework it entirely. Having experimented with CSS on a very small scale I think I will have to learn a lot more before implementing it fully.

I am still quite pleased with the sideways picture galleries rather than scrolling down. I wonder if the pictures should be bigger. I will have a play.

So what else is new. My brother came across from Dublin over the Weekend just gone. He came to us on Saturday along with his wife and three children and we had a good time together with various other siblings and their families.

The weather has remained cold and overcast though there is the promise that it will brighten up tomorrow or the day after. So the River Severn walks at lunch time have been dominated by the the light or lack of it when it comes to taking pictures. I have looked through much of what I have taken over the last couple of weeks and realise how "dark" they are.

Both yesterday and today were the same though I found yesterday had more to offer in terms of thins to take pictures of. The highlight being a female goosander having a tidy up and well getting herself into a range of contorted positions just to "scratch the itch".

Yesterday was also good in the beginnings of my quest to spot signs of spring. I have spotted catkins and saw this report of "early spring" on the BBC website.

My contribution is this sighting of Black headed gulls and the appearance of their summer plumage,

I know it is only 2 out of a whole flock but we have to start somewhere and this is probably it. I have seen gulls with various stages of changes in head colour over the last couple of weeks, but this is the first time the critters have stayed in the same place long enough to have their picture taken.

Anyway it is now bed time.

Friday in february catch up

so as promised I have found the enthusiasm from somewhere to keep going with this and show some of the pictures I have taken over the last week or so. The website is still not finished. there is not much I am going to change at this juncture although it does need an overhaul. Any suggestions? have a look at www.vertrouge.co.uk. I should set some sort of deadline to do this, but ....

OK so I have taken some more pics.

From the last week or so this is one of my favourites, It was taken opposite Shrewsbury School on the river Severn. The school boat house is just to the left of the shot. I am quite impresses with the sharpness of the Swan and the blur and feeling of motion from the background.

It feels like the overcast murky, grey and cold weather has gone on for weeks maybe this is one of the contributory factors to my general feeling of, well how to explain, lethargy and apathy are in there somewhere, though there is a fair dose of something else, which I am not sure of at present.

So what else have I seen...

The year has finally made it to February, and I have had the odd moment of inspiration, this bottle being one. It was part of the general Flotsam and Jetsam on the river and although I looked hard for the message..... I like the idea anyway.

So what next, well I am not sure really after some thinking I have this of the weir downstream from the English Bridge

This is as far as I walk on my downstream jaunts and it sort of captures the speed of the water as it goes over the top.

Finally I found a duck that swam nicely past and let me take her picture. she was probably on the look out for bread or some other food. I was sad to disappoint. However she is very cute and although she seemed at the time to be on her own I am sure she will find what she is looking for

OK bed time so I will be back to continue soon

Still not got there

It is now Wednesday as you may have guessed and I have not put anything up here for a few days and I have not updated the the website (Vertrouge). I have started to go through the last couple of months and have realised just how much I took over the last few months especially on my wanderings up and down the river bank of the River Severn here in Shrewsbury.

I have gone through and created a couple of more sets to up load on to the New pictures section. This has made me realise that I do need to re jig the front page.

I have had a play but i have n't got it right yet, so as I try and fit it in around everything else..... I would like to be able to do this all the time but I every so often I like to get paid and have something to pay the mortgage with and even feed my children. I do talk to them and also like to spend time with my wife. This is beginning to feel like a list of excuses as to why I have not done much in the last few weeks. may be

I want to go to bed now.