Kent – Page 2 – Fooyah

March 22 2020March 22 2020

It’ll Still Be Here

I do like living in the country away from things. Well, I’m not really that far away from things; there are two motorways within five minutes, all the supermarkets you could want and I live under the flight path for a small airport, which essentially means this is an almost perfect place to live. It’s generally quiet, even though I can hear the M20 and also the Eurostar as it blasts its way through a tunnel in the North Downs, there are aircraft [at the moment] flying overhead on their way to the money centres of the world and small planes circle around doing their thing at Rochester. So, it’s not quiet but it’s my kind of noise.

My recent angst at all things human society have been calmed by the idea that even if we fuck it all up this planet of life will continue and something will stay here, alive and well. It could take a long time but maybe this planet will once again be an amazing world of life and beauty [beauty being a human property because of the way our brains work]. So, here are some photographs of this wonderful place. It might turn out that everything becomes forested again at some point. Wouldn’t that be great.

The vineyard below won’t exist but something will be there.

February 18 2020February 18 2020

Time Lapse Plans

I’ve been thinking recently about creating a time lapse film of the view outside the back of my house. I think it would be nice. It’s a big open space and the weather and seasons changing would make it interesting. I quite like the challenge of figuring out the tech to do it. I’m going to investigate a small 1080p camera and then see if I can write some script [or steal it] to capture a still from it every hour or so. That would make a six minute video for a year’s worth of photos. Once it’s created I’ll write a communication on here and let you know.

December 4 2019December 4 2019

It Was Better Than That

The other night the colours on display in the sky stopped me in my tracks and I just stared. The red was so deep and rich, contrasted with the black of the approaching night. I tried to take a photograph that would capture the hues but I don’t think it really does the sunset justice. Photographing atmospheric events is tricky and probably requires a deep investment in time and getting the DSLR out. I took this photograph with my iPhone and while the camera is good it’s not great. Also, I don’t do much in post. I like the shot to work. The things I will do are crop and maybe white balance adjustment. I rarely use filters as they seem to be a little “cheat”.

This view is in stark contrast to the view this morning through the window of . . . . nothing. There is fog out there and my normal uninterrupted view of around ten kilometres of countryside is reduced to 0.05km.

December 25 2018December 25 2018

Christmas Views

Although these weren’t taken on Newtonmass Day they were taken in the 2018 season and in the area of the Medway Valley. Not sure what they say about this area though.

Actually, two of them do point to the idea that the Medway valley area is rough as fuck.

December 23 2018

Merlin

A couple of nights ago I was watching television in the evening when I could hear the sound of a large or low helicopter. I didn’t move but consulted 360 Radar and observed that it was a Royal Navy Merlin helicopter flying over. It struck me as a little odd but not enough to make me move. I see Apaches and Chinooks a couple of times a year and given there are DIO training areas in east Kent there’s reason for the activity.

Turns out I was rather wrong.

The next day there was quite a bit of news about the Special Boat Service or maybe the Royal Marines on social media although most of the mainstream press kept away from it. I probably should have followed the Merlin on 360 Radar a little longer, but my television show was deemed more worthy.

October 22 2018October 22 2018

Reinden Wood

I spent a couple of days inside Reinden Woods part of the Cinque Ports Training Area. Whilst there I supervised a number of training opportunities for the cadets and generally helped out. I quite enjoyed playing a role during the vehicle check point exercise. I took some photos and they are below. I’m not going to say a huge amount about this weekend except to say it was fun while also being cold overnight.

Of course I don’t believe in ghosts but if films and stories are anything to go by the lodge pictured above would be haunted. It was bad enough having the cockerels crowing at 04:00.

I don’t go near wild fungi, I have no idea what they are and don’t want to die.

This is possible not the greatest photograph of this view but I had a task to do and came back to this spot about two minutes after and go this shot. I was even prettier two minutes earlier.

October 13 2018October 13 2018

Glorious Colours

Here are a couple of photographs taken of the glorious colours in the morning skies above Kent.

I know they are sunrise because both of these photos have the camera facing to the East.

The weather for the last few weeks has not been usual. We are in the middle of October and I’ve only had the heating on for two days and that was me being luxurious.

September 16 2018September 16 2018

Hot and Chilly

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned here how lucky I feel I am being able to live in the North Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and every now and then nature combines in such a way to make the view gorgeous or stunning.

I didn’t really have time in the day to get the best photograph of the above situation. I think it would have been more stunning as fingers of sunlight crept over the horizon but I had other stuff I needed to do. Like get to work.

This photo shows the state of the soil on the Downs Slopes. It’s quite chalky here. I took this while I was trying to run up 5-O steps but I didn’t manage to run it all.

June 24 2018June 24 2018

Busy South East

A few weeks ago when I was in the Lake District I would occasionally look at 360Radar to see what was flying close by. I found it curious that there was quite a lack of aircraft flying compared to Kent, where I live normally. Now, the south east does have the three London main airports and most air traffic heading to the continent. Have a look at the two following views and decide for yourself. Both are the same area of land and they are taken within a minute of each other. I think the difference is striking.

Of course, this communication could be entitled:

There’s a lot more planes where there’s a lot more airports