21 December 2005
A few quiet weeks at home
The following month passed a little more quietly. We stayed home in England and enjoyed some of the events (organised and natural) happening in the local area.
On the weekend of the 13th and 14th of November we caught the train up to London to
meet up with Lian and Laurent (remember back a few months... they are the one's who dumped us in the forest in Belgium). Lian had just got back from a short time in India as part of the final stages of her studies.
Lian was happy to be outside in fresh air and so we walked around the city visiting various famous sights. As we were walking along the river we were stopped by a family of German tourists and asked where was the best place to watch the fireworks from. Smiling sadly we all assured them that they were a week late: Guy Fawkes night had been the previous weekend.
Satisfied, we carried on along the river away from Parliament buildings. As we wandered, taking in views of the London Eye and the various musuems. As we got closer to the next bridge we were suddenly engulfed in a mass of people. We stopped to ask what was going on and were told that the Mayor's Show had been on that day and there was about to be a fireworks display. Oops. Hopefully the Germans had asked someone who knew what they were talking about and made it to a good viewpoint!
A few days later, back in Exeter, as part of the Winter Festival, the city was hosting the Festival of Lights in the Cathedral grounds. There was a procession of hundreds of school children carrying bamboo and paper lanterns and a huge dragon type thing that led the way. There was a large stage set up where various 'rocking' choirs did their thing. The host of the evening was a presenter was from local radio station, Gemini FM. We met up with Ben and Dayna (from around the corner) and two of their friends, Simon and Alison, to enjoy the festivities.
The big finale of the night was to be the lighting of the christmas lights in the streets and in the Cathedral Green. Well, after much standing around stomping our feet (it was very cold that night) and several practice countdowns (the lighting was apparently going to be shown live on the local news program) it was time for the real thing! Eagerly we jumped up and down and counted down with everyone else in the crowd, but alas, when we got to "1!" there was no great illumination... in fact there wasn't much of anything, except the host saying "Oh, I guess that was a rehersal too. No? Oh. Well we can assure you that the lights in the streets are now on!". What a dissapointment!
This month we expanded our camera kit by buying a 50mm fixed focal macro lens. For those in the audience not photographically inclined - we bought a lens that lets us get really really close to things and still keep them in focus. Cool. All kinds of things in and around our home became targets (boots, tomato, leaf, coins etc. etc.) and the results were quite pleasing! The neat thing about macro photography is that anything can look really abstract and beautiful.
We also had a play with our tripod and a slow shutter speed. There is an interesting piece of artwork in the high street here in Exeter, it is a tall narrow cone shaped piece. In cross-section it is a star. The whole thing is silver metal and highly refective. In each alcove there is a large silver ball. So - we took a photo with the camera aimed at one of the balls, with us and some of the Christmas lights. Chris and I both look seriously bent - but it is kind neat too! Love night-time photography!
A few days later the temperatures in Devon dropped. The weather forecasters started telling us about the way the wind was going to change direction and bring arctic winds from the north down across the country. They assured us that there was snow coming and that it would probably come down over the whole country. Excellent! Sure enough, the frost came down and a couple of days later the snow! Overnight the whole area was transformed!
That weekend (Saturday 26th November) we took a drive in the countryside. We headed first up to Winkleigh to visit the School for the Christmas fair. It was fairly similare to fetes back home except that it was completely indoors owing to the weather.
From there we headed south and drove around Dartmoor for a time. We went right down to the south-west corner of the park - a much more rugged and empty area than where we had been previously. I had spotted on a map some time ago, a small village that I wanted to visit, and it was towards that spot that I guided Captain Chris. Before long we arrived at our destination - DOUSLAND! (Dous is my family's name). It was a tiny village (and in reality, a little non-descript) that took about 10 seconds to drive through from one side to the other. Unfortunately the postoffice was closed so we wern't able to but a post card, but we did stop in at the local hotel/bar and convince the guy behind the counter to let me have one of their Christmas menus! It has Dousland on it! We also stopped by the town's welcome sign for a quick photo.
As we drove home through the Moor it seemed that the whole county had been out making the most of the unusual snow. We must have seen a hundred snowmen and women of all shapes and sizes. Also there were dozend of people out walking and having snowball fights and generally froliking in the 'winter wonderland'. If we're going to be honest, Chris and I also pulled over and tossed a couple of snowballs at each other. It was a really nice afternoon and did a lot to build our excitment about the upcoming skiing trip. Snow is great!
In posts to come - Amsterdam and Norway! Stay tuned!
Also - just a quick reminder about the images. If you click on any of the images above, or here , you will be taken to our photos page. Once you are there, you can have a closer look at any of the photos by clicking on it. In fact if you do click on an image you will be offered a choice of how big you want to see it. Cool.
On the weekend of the 13th and 14th of November we caught the train up to London to
meet up with Lian and Laurent (remember back a few months... they are the one's who dumped us in the forest in Belgium). Lian had just got back from a short time in India as part of the final stages of her studies.
Lian was happy to be outside in fresh air and so we walked around the city visiting various famous sights. As we were walking along the river we were stopped by a family of German tourists and asked where was the best place to watch the fireworks from. Smiling sadly we all assured them that they were a week late: Guy Fawkes night had been the previous weekend. Satisfied, we carried on along the river away from Parliament buildings. As we wandered, taking in views of the London Eye and the various musuems. As we got closer to the next bridge we were suddenly engulfed in a mass of people. We stopped to ask what was going on and were told that the Mayor's Show had been on that day and there was about to be a fireworks display. Oops. Hopefully the Germans had asked someone who knew what they were talking about and made it to a good viewpoint!
A few days later, back in Exeter, as part of the Winter Festival, the city was hosting the Festival of Lights in the Cathedral grounds. There was a procession of hundreds of school children carrying bamboo and paper lanterns and a huge dragon type thing that led the way. There was a large stage set up where various 'rocking' choirs did their thing. The host of the evening was a presenter was from local radio station, Gemini FM. We met up with Ben and Dayna (from around the corner) and two of their friends, Simon and Alison, to enjoy the festivities.
The big finale of the night was to be the lighting of the christmas lights in the streets and in the Cathedral Green. Well, after much standing around stomping our feet (it was very cold that night) and several practice countdowns (the lighting was apparently going to be shown live on the local news program) it was time for the real thing! Eagerly we jumped up and down and counted down with everyone else in the crowd, but alas, when we got to "1!" there was no great illumination... in fact there wasn't much of anything, except the host saying "Oh, I guess that was a rehersal too. No? Oh. Well we can assure you that the lights in the streets are now on!". What a dissapointment! This month we expanded our camera kit by buying a 50mm fixed focal macro lens. For those in the audience not photographically inclined - we bought a lens that lets us get really really close to things and still keep them in focus. Cool. All kinds of things in and around our home became targets (boots, tomato, leaf, coins etc. etc.) and the results were quite pleasing! The neat thing about macro photography is that anything can look really abstract and beautiful.
We also had a play with our tripod and a slow shutter speed. There is an interesting piece of artwork in the high street here in Exeter, it is a tall narrow cone shaped piece. In cross-section it is a star. The whole thing is silver metal and highly refective. In each alcove there is a large silver ball. So - we took a photo with the camera aimed at one of the balls, with us and some of the Christmas lights. Chris and I both look seriously bent - but it is kind neat too! Love night-time photography!A few days later the temperatures in Devon dropped. The weather forecasters started telling us about the way the wind was going to change direction and bring arctic winds from the north down across the country. They assured us that there was snow coming and that it would probably come down over the whole country. Excellent! Sure enough, the frost came down and a couple of days later the snow! Overnight the whole area was transformed!
That weekend (Saturday 26th November) we took a drive in the countryside. We headed first up to Winkleigh to visit the School for the Christmas fair. It was fairly similare to fetes back home except that it was completely indoors owing to the weather.
From there we headed south and drove around Dartmoor for a time. We went right down to the south-west corner of the park - a much more rugged and empty area than where we had been previously. I had spotted on a map some time ago, a small village that I wanted to visit, and it was towards that spot that I guided Captain Chris. Before long we arrived at our destination - DOUSLAND! (Dous is my family's name). It was a tiny village (and in reality, a little non-descript) that took about 10 seconds to drive through from one side to the other. Unfortunately the postoffice was closed so we wern't able to but a post card, but we did stop in at the local hotel/bar and convince the guy behind the counter to let me have one of their Christmas menus! It has Dousland on it! We also stopped by the town's welcome sign for a quick photo.
As we drove home through the Moor it seemed that the whole county had been out making the most of the unusual snow. We must have seen a hundred snowmen and women of all shapes and sizes. Also there were dozend of people out walking and having snowball fights and generally froliking in the 'winter wonderland'. If we're going to be honest, Chris and I also pulled over and tossed a couple of snowballs at each other. It was a really nice afternoon and did a lot to build our excitment about the upcoming skiing trip. Snow is great!
In posts to come - Amsterdam and Norway! Stay tuned!
Also - just a quick reminder about the images. If you click on any of the images above, or here , you will be taken to our photos page. Once you are there, you can have a closer look at any of the photos by clicking on it. In fact if you do click on an image you will be offered a choice of how big you want to see it. Cool.
# posted by Elke & Chris @ 5:40 pm 
