Henry VIII I am, I am.....

I just had to post this photograph for purely comical reasons. This is a replica of Henry VIII's suit of armour from his younger days and I'm sure you'll agree he apears to be a very modest King. Actually thinking about it I should have taken a profile shot to show you just how modest he was. The Tower of London has a great exhibition about Henry VIII, but you cannot take photographs inside it, but I managed to find this suit of armour in the Tower of London shop outside. During his younger days Henry was a very fit young king but as he grew older so that fitness was replaced by more than a middle age spread. There are some images showing how he grew in size every decade and by the time he was 50 it was not a pretty site. Click on the photo for a larger version.

Evolution of a Radio Site Week 4

It's Tuesday and week 4 in my series about the building of one of the new radio sites for the County of Riverside's public safety radio system. As you can see one week can change a whole lot of things. Concrete was poured over reinforcing bar (rebar) in the 12ft deep holes for the tower foundations. A couple of days later the 100ft tower was constructed by tower climbers who bolted the 20ft sections together with the help of a crane. Then later that same day the prefabricated building was brought in by truck from Arizona. A crane lifted the building onto it's foundation pad, which it was then bolted to. Out of view in this photograph the propane gas tank, which is used for emergency back up generators has been set and bolted onto it's concrete pad.

Now one of the most important parts of a radio site gets installed and the trench you see here is part of that. That work is GROUNDING (or earthing to the Brit's reading this). Because radio towers sit high up in the air above everything else and are made from steel they have a habit of being struck by lightening. I never had any idea about the amount of time, effort and engineering that goes into the grounding system to deal with lightening strikes. Without an effective grounding system one lightening strike could destroy every piece of equipment inside the radio site. A lightening strike is so powerful it can take many different routes into the equipment building and the grounding system has to deal with every one of those possible routes to dissipate the electrical charge effectively. Click on the photograph for a larger version.

Terrace of the Jade Mirror

This is a photograph taken from inside the Terrace of the Jade Mirror at Huntington Gardens Chinese Garden. This little Chinese style villa is perfectly set up for framed photographs. According to an article I read in the LA Times, the Chinese Garden was built by workmen from China, who worked for six months to create the Garden of Flowing Fragrance. This style of garden is based on the Ming era garden from about the 16th century, with buildings that have openings to look a specific view. A lot of thought went into this and made it a lot easier for me to come along and get a great photograph. Like I said before, go and visit Huntington Gardens, it's a beautiful and peaceful place, right in the middle of Pasadena. Click on the photograph for a larger version.

St Clement's Church

During our recent trip to England, me being me and having a fascination with trains I wanted to take a trip on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. In the past when I have taken trips on this miniature railway I have started the journeys in Hythe. Fortunately for me the RH&DR timetable worked out that it would be best to begin the journey in the small town of New Romney. Just before we arrived in New Romney we passed through the village of Old Romney and there off to one side is one of the strangest looking, most picturesque churches I have ever seen. After our trip on the RH&DR I drove back to the church to photograph it. The light was a bit harsh, with the unusual English clear blue skys, but I was there and would do the best I could. St Clement's church dates back to at least the 12th century and the yew tree next to it is at least that old. This area of Kent is famous for the smugglers that used to dominate the local villages and rumour has it that the clergy and the church were also involved. Click on the image for a larger version.

The Beach Huts

"What's a beach hut?" I hear all my American friends ask and from all my English friends "Oh I remember my summer days spent by the seaside in a beach hut". A beach hut for all those asking is a garden shed (for want of a better term) that's built on the promenade by sea. People own these sheds and spend their summer days by the beach in this shed, that allows them to cook and get changed before and after a dip in the sea. You are not allowed to sleep in them, although I'm sure some people do and really they only work for people that can make a day trip to the seaside from their homes. When I was growing up instead of going away some summers, we would rent a beach hut for the week at Frinton-on-Sea (once a very posh town). It was about a 20 minute drive from home and we would spend a family vacation everyday driving down to the beach. The day would be filled with swimming, building sand castles, flying kites and kicking a football (soccer ball) around. Then at the end of the day we would head home to get ready to do it all over again the next day. It's funny when you think about how as a kid you could make your own entertainment, there was no video games, DVD's, iPods (even the walkman didn't exist) or Internet but we could always find things to do and have fun with.

This photograph is of the beach huts near Bateman Tower in Brightlingsea. It was taken late at night with no wind and a calm sea. To the left of the beach huts the rocky shore that stretches into the distance used to be the embankment for the railway branch line that used to run to Brightlingsea from Wivenhoe. It was closed in 1964 and today is used as a footpath and makes for a very pleasent walk along the Colne estuary. Click on the photo for a larger version.

Happy Birthday Janet!

50 years ago today Janet Elaine Anderson came into the world, probably kicking and screaming. She was born in Shreveport, Louisiana and then got to travel and live in many different parts of the country as an Air Force Brat with her brother Russ. She has a great 30 year old daughter called Heather and has worked for the County of Riverside for 24 years, where she got to meet me. Luckily for me during her 46th year (I'd have thought at 46 she would be wiser) Janet accepted my proposal of a date and then a while later of marriage. We have now been married for 3 years and I feel very lucky to call her my wife. Happy Birthday Janet, I love you!!!

This photograph of Janet was taken at Huntington Gardens overlooking the pool in the Chinese Garden.

A Cliff Top Pasture

Ireland I'm sure gets a whole lot of rain, especially on the west coast side next to the Atlantic and of course one of the benefits of lots of rain? Green, green lush grass. Ireland has a mild climate to go along with all that rainfall and so earns itself the name of "The Emerald Isle". Contrary to what the dairy industry here in California says, my guess is that Ireland probably has some of the happiest cows in the world with all that rich green pasture to munch on and then you add the views on top of that and they must be some "Happy Irish Cows". 

This photograph was taken in the pastures that overlook the Cliffs of Moher. It always amazes me what is left to rust away be people, especially farmers. I'm not sure what type of farm equipment this is or how long it has been there but, I'm sure it will be there long after I'm gone.

Mountain Lakes

I thought I would you show you a photograph of a quiet day on Big Bear Lake. This was taken in February so the lake is closed to public boating. I used to love the crisp, cold, winter fresh mornings in Big Bear, especially when there was no snow. The snow was beautiful unless you had to commute down the mountain through the it and then when it turned to dirty brown slush it really was nasty and just looked horrible. But if you had the luxury of not leaving the mountain and just enjoying it Big Bear was a great place to live and vacation. I remember the first time I went to Big Bear in 1997, we arrived there late at night and all I remembered was the dark night driving up the winding road. It was too dark to see any of the views that would behold me. The next morning I got up and walked out onto the deck of the house we were staying in, I  just stood there in awe of the view that my eyes were trying to take in. It was mid May, there was still snow on the peaks of the mountains, the sun was shining bright in the blue sky and the air was fresh and clean with a hint of pine smell. That's a memory that I will remember forever and why I will always have a place in my heart for Big Bear.

Evolution of a Radio Site Week 3

Week 3 of Evolution of a Radio Site Shows you just how fast things change in a couple of weeks. All of the grading work has been completed and the foundation for the pre-fabricated building is complete (the concrete pad everyone is standing on). The piece of equipment in use is a drilling rig that is used to drill the three 36inch diameter holes for the foundations of the 100ft tower. Unfortunately the drill managed to hit a solid block of granite about 12 feet down while drilling the 3 holes required. So after a replacement drill bit was found and some more hard work by the drilling crew they managed to get the job done. I also know what everyone is thinking, typical government job with so many people standing around watching, except everyone of these people has a job to do. There was the drilling crew, the construction crew, the contractors construction manager, the counties construction manager and the counties building inspector. All of them were there making sure that the work was done safely and to the standards required by building codes and county standards.

A Tree Top View

Sorry for no photograph yesterday, I decided in my not too infinite wisdom to erase my whole computer (a Mac for those that wonder) and reinstall everything with Apple's new operating system Snow Leopard. Well it took a little longer than expected and it's still not quite 100%. Anyways up, as we'd say in England, today's photograph is a view of the tree tops from the top of the tramway at Palm Springs. This view is looking east towards Indio and eventually Arizona and just captures some of the desert floor on the left. If you every decide to take a trip up the tramway just remember that when you get to the top you are at over 8000ft in altitude and to say you get breathless quickly (and not just from the view) would be an understatement. It wasn't so bad for me as I used to live in Big Bear at over 6000ft but Janet was really feeling it. Southern California really is a pretty place  and in so many different ways. Can you imagine standing here looking at this view in January or February, you would be looking at a forest covered in snow at probably 20 - 30 degrees F overlooking a desert with temperatures in the high 90's. Hopefully in February I will find the time to do just that to show you the difference.