Golf and My Friend PJ

So yesterday afternoon I got to go out and play some golf, one of my other hobbies. I went to a very pretty course in Temecula called Redhawk. This photograph is of the green at the 8th hole. I didn't play so well on this hole hitting my first ball into the water and eventually scoring a 5 on a par 3 hole. Like most of the hobbies I get into I cannot do them by half measures and golf was no exception. I took lessons, bought good equipment, learnt how to build my own clubs and slowly I get better. Golf is a game that teaches you patience and humility, because just as you think you've worked out how to play it, the golf gods will come and you'll feel like you have never held a golf club in your life. Personally I never really had much desire to play golf, then about 4 years ago a very good friend called PJ got me to go out and play. PJ sadly passed away in February and we never got to play all the courses that we had plans to play at. We even wanted to travel to Scotland to play some of the famous courses from the home of golf. I miss PJ though as he was my golf buddy, it's just not the same without him. Every time I play, at some point in the round I'll think of PJ and wish he was there, enjoying the weather, the frustrations, the laughs, the bad shots and always the good shots.

Grand Canyon

There's really not much you can say about the Grand Canyon because it really just says it all itself. When I lived in England and had never seen the west coast of the USA, the Grand Canyon just seemed like a big hole in the ground that Evil Knievel once wanted to jump over but wasn't allowed to. And then you you go there and you just stand in awe at the most amazing view that you could never comprhend until you are there in the flesh looking for yourself. Admittedly it's still just a big hole in the ground, but it's one that tells you a story in picture form. I've been to the South Rim twice now and both times I had trouble taking photographs, it's just such a difficult place to get a photograph to do justice to it's beauty and wonder. Out of all the photographs I have taken there this is one of my best and even this required some work with Topaz Adjust to really stand out.

My Dad's Birthday

So the main reason for going to England this year was the fact that my dad was celerbrating his 70th birthday. Anyone that knows me well knows that if I want something I just go and buy it, so buying Christmas or birthday presents for me tends to be tough. Well guess what, I got that from somewhere and that would be from my dad. Buying for him has it's issues, but my sisters husband came up with  the idea of doing a tour of Arsenal Football Club's stadium. My dad has been a life long supporter of Arsenal following in the footsteps of my grandfather and it was inevitable that I would be a lifelong follower too. So on my dad's birthday, my nephew Josh and myself took my dad on a tour with Arsenal legend Charlie George. It was a fun afternoon that took us into the Directors Box (where this photo was taken from), down into the changing rooms and onto the pitch. Charlie George was a great tour guide, with a fun sense of humor and gave great insight into the club. It was an amazing day out and great to give my dad a gift that was kind of unique.

Telephone Exchange

Dover Castle in Kent is a place that I had visited many years ago, but never knew until my trip back to England in June that there was a whole section that I had never seen. I had heard of the wartime tunnels built into the White Cliffs of Dover, but never knew that you could go for a tour inside of them. The tour takes you around the main areas of the tunnels showing you the barracks, kitchen, hospital, operating theatre, planning room, generator and radio room and the room pictured above the telephone exchange. The tunnels are about 4 miles in length and were constructed during the Napoleonic War as an underground barracks 50 feet below the cliff top. During that war they housed more than 2000 men. The tunnels were eventually abandoned  for over 100 years until they were converted in WWII to an air raid shelter, before becoming a naval headquarters. Admiral Ramsey directed Operation Dynamo (the evacuation of Dunkirk) from here. Rumour has it that Admiral Ramsey and Prime Minister Churchill met to discuss this operation in secret in the generator room where no one else could hear them, hence the name Operation Dynamo. We were not allowed to take photographs on the tour so this was the only one I could sneak when the tour guide was not looking.

Ghost Town

I needed this photograph to tell a story. It was taken at a place in the middle of desert that is just so isolated and yet was once a town of 4000 people, with schools, shops and even a post office. Eagle Mountain as it is known was run by Kaiser Corporation and supplied iron ore to Kaiser's Fontana steel works near to Los Angeles. It is located about 20 miles north of the 10 freeway between Indio and Blythe.The first time I went to Kaiser mine I could not believe what I saw. It reminded me of one of those towns in Nevada that you see in films where nuclear tests were conducted in the 1950's. Everything was there, all the shops, houses and even the gas station, it was just missing one vital element, people. It was like someone had just vaporized all of the life from the town. On a side note to that I have a very good friend in Big Bear that I had no idea until after my first visit to Eagle Mountain, that he lived and worked there for a number of years. The mine closed in 1983 and just left everything where it stood, buildings, vehicles and even locomotives. It still gets used to make films and commercials though. Well now we are building a new radio site on the mines property so I hope to visit there soon and take some better photographs of this ghost town and post them on here.

The Burren

The Burren is a 135 square mile limestone plateau in County Clare, Ireland. It's a fascinating place to see and experience. The limestone was formed millions of years ago under a tropical sea and then it was shaped by hard weather and ice. Walking on it is tough as you are constantly looking down trying not to fall in the cracks. One of the places on The Burren that is highly recommended for a visit is the portal dolmen at Poulnabrone (photographed above). A dolmen is a megalithic tomb formed out of stone that looks like a table.

Traitors Gate

On our visit to England we decided to spend a weekend in London. Janet wanted to visit the Tower of London, so who was I to argue. I lived in England for 29 years and had never been inside the walls of the Tower, I've walked around it more times than I can count, just never had the desire to go in and take a look. It's a strange place and totally not as I imagined it to be, the Crown Jewels exhibit is amazing and a must see for anyone that goes there. The one part of the Tower that always fascinates me when I walk around the outside is Traitors Gate. It's an entrance into the Tower from the River Thames and is accessed by boat. As the name implies for you to be taken into the Tower that way the chances were that you were not coming out alive. So after all those years of seeing Traitors Gate from the outside I finally got to see it from the inside and that's the picture I share with you here.

The Duck Pond

When I was young we used to walk our dogs or ride our bikes down a lane to a farm about 3/4's of a mile away called St Mary's Farm. The reason why was this pond. It never used to look like this, it wasn't fenced off and didn't have any trees growing around it. It just had big white ducks living in it and a wall at one end that was kind of derelict, but safe enough to lean on and feed the ducks bread. I guess eventually it dried out, but now the owners of the farm have reestablished it, fenced it off and it has geese living there. You know it's like everything in life that you take for granted when you live right by it or when you are young, you miss it when you leave and love it when you go home to visit. You also don't realise how lucky you were growing up in a small village surrounded by fields and countryside and 15 minutes from the sea.

My Nephew Josh

This is my nephew Josh, he is Shannon's older brother. So a strange fact about Josh is that he doesn't eat much, unless you put a plate full of ribs in front of his face. He can eat as many pork or beef ribs in half the the time that I can. In Florida last year twice at a rib place he munched through 6 large beef ribs and still wanted more. Here he is a my sisters birthday dinner enjoying his baby backs.

The Place I Grew Up

This is where I grew up, the village of Great Bentley in Essex. As places to grow up go it was pretty good, we had a population of about 2000. My dad was the village postman for 10 years so he knew a whole lot of people. This photograph is of the village green and at 43 acres in size is the largest in England. As kids we would play soccer, cricket, ride our bikes, fly kites and even once crashed a radio controlled airplane into the green. As teenagers we would get drunk, party and just hang out and have a good time. I have many fond memories of things my friends and I did when I lived there. The green is also used for the yearly carnival, the cricket and football clubs have there pitches on it and the when the fair comes to town they use it.