Summertime, and the living is easy

Gordon Bennet, it's been a bit warm recently hasn't it?! I'm not  a fan of overly hot...heat, but summer sun is great under a shady tree with a book and a cuppa.

I've been getting plenty of sun after a week in Somerset with my old you group from home, but this time I'm playing the role of the leader (eep!). It was great to be back at Spring Harvest at Butlins in Minehead, back to the old haunts like the beach, the ice cream hut and the Poundshop. But the best thing about the whole week has probably been finding out what it is like to be on the other side of the age gap, seeing what my youth leaders had to go through when I was a whipper-snapper at SH.

This time around it was 22 kids versus 6 leaders all sharing 4 chalets, which made for some interesting balancing acts and times that were sometimes akin to herding cats.

The week has been a great start to the summer months, we just have to get through the traditionally rainy april, then dash through the month of maybugs, and arrive puffing and panting at the official start of the summer.

I just hope my hayfever doesn't get any worse, my eyes have been streaming while writing this, for which i blame the plants in the kitchen. Curse them!

In the summertime

I'm not sure where spring went! I must have lost it in a flurry of activity that covered the last two months, but summer has arrived!

In my first evening off in weeks, it was looking so nice outside (and vaguely light for a change!) that i thought i'd return to my old photography haunt; roath lake.

The only two other beings on the lake were a swan and a fisherman (I saw him pack up at 8.30 the next morning, either he's dedicated to the sport or has an insufferable wife), and even with the occasional passing car, the scene was very calm and warm, so I tried to capture that in my photos.

The water still had some movement in it, but the long shutter times flattened it out so it looks almost like it's made of glass. That's the moon in top left, I tried to figure out an elaborate system to block it out for half of the exposure so it wouldn't be so bright, but left it for another time.