Tuesday a quiet day

Another quiet day, well in terms of going out and walking. I had a wander up the Reabrook valley again. I did seem that most of the birds were out singing and I sort of get a sense of rushing to catch up. It has been a cold winter and only now are the daffodils and spring flowers showing, equinox has just passed and I have not seen a tulip yet. Work was busy, well it keeps me out of mischief and I sort of enjoyed the session this afternoon, once it got going. It will be better next time though as I will have more material to work with.

Ok so I am being vaguely cryptic, I was doing a session on CV writing , and having already gone through the "prescribed version" a couple of times found it did not really meet the needs of our clients. Talking to my colleagues and the clients I decided to try and get them to understand the application process an employers perspective. So I "created" a range of C V s and am creating some more all targeted around the same "job" (Thank you Reed.co.uk ).
Anyway this was only part of the session but as I work through I will get more and more CVs in a range of styles and formats.

Although I have not uploaded the new version of the website version 2.111 etc is definitely in the works. I need to continue to update the gallery, both with new categories and the sections themselves with more recent pics. this should be there in the next week. www.vertrouge.co.uk

Have a look and tell me what you think

Anyway time for bed

Another day another post, Well I am keeping going. As I said in previous posts I am keeping up with the walking it is the sitting down writing about it bit that I am finding harder to do. I do need to get back into a routine of down loading the pictures I take and then going through them to see what is worth putting up for the rest of the world to see.

OK so recently I have discovered for myself the Reabrook Valley . As it runs behind the car park at the back of our building and the stream itself flows into the Severn just upstream of the English Bridge on the River Severn.

I think over the last week or so I have been feeling fairly sorry for myself work is being demoralising and I suppose the time I was spending walking just did not have the same effect. So one day I decided to have a look up the road rather than go down towards the river. I did not have much time so when I walked up Abbey foregate I did so more to get the walking in. I came across the sign and started to explore.

Over the last couple of days I have worked my way upstream I have managed to go someway upstream and am hoping to explore more.

This picture shows a fairly typical stretch, lots of riffles and pools and lots of evidence of much higher water levels in the recent past.

I have also managed to see some wildlife. So today I chased a Kingfisher downstream, I would walk down the path and catch a glimpse of a blue dot against the stream, usually disappearing around the bend, or occasionally perching long enough for me to catch site of a blurry small blue and orange dot through my camera lens which would after 3 - 4 seconds would disappear around the bend. It was during one of these moments that I glanced across the stream and saw a mink exploring the opposite bank.

It stayed still for a picture and then ran into the bushes. This is the first live wild Mink I have ever seen so I am quite pleased wit myself. OK so it is not the best picture ever and the animal in question does look like a cuddly toy but that is what it looked like.

Publish Post

Anyway I am going to finish here as I have done enough navel gazing for the moment.

Bed time

Wed evening

I am keeping going though I don't think I have gone through the pics I have taken over the last couple of weeks.

This I took from the English Bridge in Shrewsbury, although it was early march only one of the black headed gulls have gone any where near getting the summer plumage.

I have spent much of the tie reworking the website and re jigging the pictures in the recent images section and integrating them with relevant sections on the Gallery. I have decided to add some more sections as well. It is a slow process, but I think worth it.

something short for Wednesday

Survived Wednesday and another week is slowly slipping by. I am not sure how much I regret the passage of time at the moment. Work is well work and is not stretching or engaging me. I like the people and on the whole the clients. I like working in Shrewsbury and the being able to walk on the river Severn most days. I have even managed to do a little more exploring so that I can extend my walks and still be back on Abbey Foregate within the hour.

I am steadily updating the website and am much happier with the new colours I have started to work on the "monthly " pictures and distribute the relevant ones into the gallery and have a think about more categories. I will have to do something that reflects the fall and rise of the river over the last few months and also the "flotsam and Jetsam". I do have an Autumn set of pictures so Winter would be fairly logical. this would give me and excuse to go beck through my "archives" and did some stuff out. Over the next week or so I will try and get this completed. Life is intruding at the moment so I will try not to put too much faith in any predictions.

OK bedtime...........

Keeping going

Its still march, in fact I have just surprised myself as to how soon I have got back to the blog. The motivation to carry on has been waning a little. I think it is more to do with doing other things than anything else. I have updated the website to an extent (www.vertrouge.co.uk) and although it is much better than before, which was good for version 1, version 2 needs some refinements and in some places completing.

I am still trying and most days succeeding in walking, and generally getting more exercise and as an adjunct taking my camera and seeing what "inspires".

A couple of weeks ago I dragged my two girls or should I say they dragged me around the Hayhead Reserve in Walsall and walked though one of my Childhood play areas "Cuckoos Nook and the Dingle"

Trying to take pictures in a composed manner was nigh on impossible. Well what did I expect ...

I did catch this very tame Robin who came up close as we rested between bouts of major noise production and running around with no particular direction. I am quite amazed how long it was before the moans of "Daddy! Can I have a carry" floated through the woodland.

Otherwise I have spent most of my "walking time up and down the River Severn in Shrewsbury. Slowly perceptible signs of Spring have begun to appear. The temperature and general lack of sun seems to have slowed everything down. Finally over the last few weeks various flowers have appeared, including these hardy fellows.

Walking up and down, what is a relatively small stretch of the Severn around Shrewsbury, I have started "noticing " the things that float in the River, the Flotsam and Jetsam, as it were. At the moment the most visible "natural " floating items are feathers, mainly white, which sit on the surface and are carried quite quickly downstream.

On top of this there is the cast off material, the Jetsam. To be honest there do seem to be a lot of empty bottles of varying descriptions. There does seem to be no covert message in any. I will leave you to identify the overt ones.

This at the moment is my favourite of the floating pictures. The leaf has begun to sink below the surface but is still holding on and I could work out lots of imagery and continue to deconstruct for some indeterminate amount of time.

However I have decided that it is time to go to bed and to come back soon.

New stuff

So finally I have got around to re-doing my front page on the website (vertrouge). so I had a play with the colours and came up with a better pallet. It looks softer and less garish. well at least that is what I hope. I have also combined the pictures page with the Home page to put a direct link to my pictures on to the front page. Here I hope I can build on the categories I already have and in the future add some more. I have left a direct link to the most recent pictures (over the last few months )

I am still behind with getting my pictures up and putting them in context. The blog has been a victim also. My entries for February are only limited and often containing me saying I am working on the Website and the weather has been horrible and the light not good. So now maybe I feel better about the website I will continue to expand it and this blog. though I think I will have to work on both for the foreseeable future.

Time for bed