My DVD Collection

I've been collecting DVD's since the medium was launched,
but judging by other online collections I've a long way to
go before it can be described as large. See it HERE .

Fractal Doodling

Fractals are a fascinating (for me at least) subject and the patterns that can be generated are wonderful shapes and colours. Free software such as Tierazon Fractals and interesting websites like http://www.fractalarts.com - a few of my doodles follow:

I've got a new PC!!

I've had a wireless gateway for nearly a year now and only just got the thing to work wirelessly. Having two desktop pc's (one upstairs and t'other down) which are on a wired network, I thought an early Crizzy prezzy would be in order to replace an ageing laptop running Windows ME , with a shiny new wireless-enabled job. Not being one to take snap decisions I'd sorted it in half an hour online. PC World had a Compaq Presario 6133 with £100 off. That was last friday 8/12 and it's taken me a while to get the wireless bit working and the other pc's plugged into the new router, but here I am WIRELESS at last in the conservatory typing this note. The new notebook has the AMD Turion 64 X2 dual core chip and is ready for Windows Vista in the new year. In fact I should get a free upgrade! if the enclosed leaflet is true
(update 28/3/07 - received the upgrade today, having read of trouble with drivers etc. I'm holding off installing it)

40 Years Ago!

It was 40 years ago, we were on holiday in Norfolk in a rented cottage - a really old thatched affair that had all the proper trimming. Whitewashed walls and a lovely apple orchard. It was walking distance from Barton Broad and Neatishead village, Admiral Horatio Nelson spent time here in his youth. His sister rented Barton Broad, and Horatio visited her when on leave from the navy. (Tradition has it that he once lost a chain and locket in these waters.)
Anyway, my (then) girlfriend Lorraine and my cousin David and his wife Deirdre and her mum and dad and I spent a week in this quiet corner of Norfolk. A spot of fishing on Barton - rising at silly hours of the morning and rowing out on the Broad with the mist still swirling and everyone tucked in their bunks on the moored boats. I don't recall anyone catching anything memorable but the peace and tranquility was enough!
The picture is Lorraine fast asleep in the cottage after the early risings took their toll! Surprisingly, she's still with me after 40 years!

I've got (another) new camera!

Now that compact digital cameras with a decent pixel count are
available at reasonable prices – I’ve got another.
My first, a Panasonic) was only 0.75 MP (magapixels) about 7 years ago and it was expensive by today’s prices.
Next came a 2 MP Kyocera that was ok for printing up to 6x4 or so and was an unusual camcorder style

Then a Nikon Coolpix 3700 with 3.2 MP – a tiny thing that was very pocketable.



All the while my “serious” photography involved Canon SLR film cameras and later a digital EOS 300D with 6.3 MP. The quality of digital photography from the larger sensor size of an SLR was not achievable with the much smaller sensor of the compact.

The latest acquisition is a Fujifilm Finepix E900. This has a 9 MP sensor and, whilst not the size of an SLR sensor, it will easily print an A3 with very satisfactory quality,


This one now allows full manual exposure control along with all the features expected in an SLR. It also shoots RAW mode files which allows a lot of post editing and refinement.

A Week on the Norfolk Broads

Our "Tender Behind" 

Yacht under construction in the Hunters yard at Ludham. 

Bundles of thatching reeds 

Back to Nature - Womack Water 

Moored at Howe Hill 

The Forget-Me-Not 

This is Cap'n Jim writing the ships log aboard the Forget-Me-not 

A Week on the Norfolk Broads

The one and only sunset from a week on the Broads during the last week of May. Very cold and windy with occasional torrential rain.
This was at Womack Water where we moored overnight.