Welcome to the Ministry of Propaganda - Armin Grewe's Weblog
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Saturday, 09/Jan/2010
Snow Picture of the Day - Snow in Tree
The ‘novelty’ is wearing off a bit and I'm getting a bit bored with all that snow. In a way ‘cabin fever’ is setting in as well, having involuntarily worked from home the last three days with the roads being so treacherous. Yet there are still nice points: At lunchtime today I went for a long run along the Kennet & Avon Canal, from Aldermaston Wharf to Midgham Lock (3.5 miles one way, I think, i.e. 7 miles return). I took a lot of pictures of the snowy landscape, but this only happened by chance, and I really like it:
I had stopped to take a picture of the snow covered towpath along a bend of the canal. The picture turned out fine, but nothing spectacular. Almost by chance I looked up and noticed the snow on the green-brown-ish branches above against the pale blue sky. Not thinking too much I snapped a few pictures of it. Looking at it again now I quite like it, the textures, the colours, the mood, it just seems to play together quite well.
I hope you like it.
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[09/Jan/2010: "Snow Picture of the Day - Snow in Tree"]
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Friday, 08/Jan/2010
Snowmen and Icicles
Unless you are a hermit you will have noticed that it currently is rather cold in the UK and we had a lot of snow, so much snow that almost the whole country has been turned white. Many pictures and videos have been published about the snow and what comes with it, so I thought I might as well add mine as well. For this evening they are of the Snowgiant and his wife as well as some icicles:
This giant snowman (my estimate is 8ft tall) and his wife (she was much smaller, I'd estimate 5ft) were built outside Lockside Court in Aldermaston Wharf on Wednesday. I took the pictures on a wonderful sunny morning on Thursday. Unfortunately they are gone already, not sure if they just collapsed or if someone took them down.
The other thing we are getting now are rapidly growing icicles, in particular along the roofs. The two above were outside of my bedroom window, picture taken with the nice background of a winter sunset. Below some from my spare room, in the background the frozen and snow covered pond and the houses at Mallard Way:
That's all for tonight, I'll probably post a few more snow pictures over the next few days.
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[08/Jan/2010: "Snowmen and Icicles"]
Friday, 01/Jan/2010
New Years Walk 2010
Happy New Year! Time to get used to writing 2010 instead of 2009. While the snow from just before Christmas is now all gone New Years Day in West Berkshire turned out to be a very nice day. I spent the morning and lunchtime listening to the New Year´s Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic while having some nice food and later on opening a bottle of Bruichladdich PC8 Islay single malt whisky. A good start into the new year. Then I went for a walk along the canal in the afternoon:
The stretch at Aldermaston Wharf Lock with Lockside court looked very nice in the bright sunshine. Next a view you might remember from the Snow at the Kennet & Avon Canal entry, the alley just before Fronds Bridge:
Half a mile further down the canal I spotted a nice view: Earlier in the week parts of a field had been flooded and then frozen over. The water had since run off leaving the ice behind high and dry, where it now started to break up.
After about 45 minutes I reached my destination for the afternoon, The Rowbarge in Woolhampton. It was very busy, but I managed to find a seat at the bar, where I enjoyed a pint of ‘Good Old Boy’ from the West Berkshire Brewery and some crisps.
Refreshed I started the walk back, knowing I had enough time to get back home before it went completely dark. The sun soon set, but it being a clear day the twilight provided enough light to take me home safely. Not to forget providing some great views of the canal in the gloaming, here's the stretch near Fronds Bridge again, this time with the light slowly fading:
Let's hope this afternoon was a good sign of what the year will bring and we're going to have a great year 2010!
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[01/Jan/2010: "New Years Walk 2010"]
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Sunday, 20/Dec/2009
Aldermaston Wharf in The Gloaming
The (long) weekend finished as it had begun, with snow and wonderful weather. Some of the snow from Friday was still around and a further dusting had been added over night. Not much, but enough to make it all look pretty again. Through the day we had brilliant sunshine with clear skies, leading to some fantastic light after sunset, also known as ‘the gloaming’ or twilight.
With the help of a small tripod and the self-timer in the camera I tried to capture at least some of the view from my window, hopefully also capturing a bit of the calm mood. These are three of the pictures I managed to take, the white spot on the wider angle pictures is the moon:
The branches of the trees without their leaves looked great against the dark yet light sky:
The moon is just a crescent at the moment, looking very nice through the branches:
That's the best I can offer, I hope you like the pictures! For more pictures of the twilight/gloaming I recommend the (previously mentioned) Scotland In The Gloaming.
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[20/Dec/2009: "Aldermaston Wharf in The Gloaming"]
Friday, 18/Dec/2009
Snow at the Kennet & Avon Canal
Should today turn out to be the only nice snowy day this winter I picked the right day to take a day off. While it wasn't very much snow it was enough to make the landscape along the Kennet & Avon Canal look very nice. When the sun came out late in the morning I went for a long run along the canal, all the way from the lock between Froudes bridge and Aldermaston Wharf to Midgham Lock (near Thatcham) and back. Here are a few pictures I took during the run:
The most easterly point of my run, looking east towards the lock between Froudes bridge and Aldermaston Wharf. Looking very nice in the sun with the trees lining the canal.
We've moved on to next to the road bridge in Aldermaston Wharf, just below the lock (on the left). The barrier on the right is from the lifting bridge, not a railway. The railway is a bit further away. The side arm with moored boat used to be a bit longer and led to the railway to transfer cargo.
Looking west from right next to Aldermaston lock, on the right is Lockside Court. That's where I live when writing this. Nice, isn't it?
This is just before the bridge at Fronds Farm. I just liked sun light coming through the trees and snow sticking to side of the trees.
Just across the bridge (I think it's called Fronds Bridge, but I'm not sure) are a few fields which usually have some sheep in them. Most of them are of light colour, except for this dark one. It seems to be of the curious type and usually comes up to the fence when you stop. It certainly did so today, looking photogenic against the white snow.
This bridge is called Oxlease Bridge and can be found between Woolhampton Lock and Midgham Lock. I think I was the first one to cross it today, at least there were no other steps when I was there. The footsteps you see are mine from the way, this picture was taken on the way back from Midgham Lock.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as I enjoyed being out during my run and occasionally stopping for pictures.
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[18/Dec/2009: "Snow at the Kennet & Avon Canal"]
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Saturday, 21/Nov/2009
Idlewild play City Hall acoustic
Long time readers of this blog will know that I quite like Idlewild. Recently I bought their latest album, Post Electric Blues, which I've been listening to quite a lot. A few days ago I found a nice video of them playing an acoustic version of ‘City Hall’ on FlyTV, Idlewild // In The Courtyard to be precise. A very nice version I think:
That's all. I think I let the music speak for itself.
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[21/Nov/2009: "Idlewild play City Hall acoustic"]
Saturday, 31/Oct/2009
Autumn at the Kennet and Avon Canal
It's been longer than I had expected since I last wrote something here. September was an extremely busy month for the day job and October was dominated by a holiday on Islay. Autumn seems to have largely come and gone. I had originally planned to go to Westonbirt - The National Arboretum this weekend, but with the rather changeable weather and the autumn looking rather advanced I decided against the 1.5 hour drive. Instead I just took a few pictures here while out jogging along the Kennet and Avon Canal:
A lone tree provided some interesting colour on the canal towpath:
A canal boat cruising along the canal in the autumn colours:
To finish a picture which illustrates that the outdoor season is now pretty much over:
Looks like winter with the short days and long nights is just around the corner now…
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[31/Oct/2009: "Autumn at the Kennet and Avon Canal"]
Sunday, 30/Aug/2009
A Life Through Chairs: The Waiting Chairs
And now for something completely different: After all the timelapse videos of the Kennet & Avon Canal and other local Aldermaston Wharf and around content a video I found on YouTube today. When I say video I actually mean animation, it's an entry to the Bitfilm festival called ‘The Waiting Chairs’ by Aswin Inamdar:
At first glance it sounds a bit odd, but it takes you through a life simply with chairs. The events, ideas and dreams associated with the chairs. Not sure why, I think it just works, at least for me. A very enjoyable minute and nine seconds.
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[30/Aug/2009: "A Life Through Chairs: The Waiting Chairs"]
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