river rowing museum

Razor Wire

Now forgive me as I know this is old hat but as I was driving passed Friar Park, as I do on many occasions, I just thought I had to put my ten pennies worth in.

Personally I am like many others against the unsightly (at best) security and found it amazing at the time that the permission was so granted. If you or I were to request such ghastly security for our more humbles dwellings, would we be granted permission? I doubt it and certainly from my perspective I would not want it.

Of course I appreciate the necessity of security at this place especially after the incidents that occurred when the man himself lived there but I feel that today it is over the top, unsightly and what is already in place looks to be adequate.

It is such a shame that this sort of thing draws attention and almost makes it look like an entrance to a prison and not a great house and gardens which had been so lovingly restored.

I don't know about you but I cannot think of anywhere in the area that has such fortification. Please tell me if you know and are those people any less concerned about their security? I don't think so.

Let's hope that common sense prevails and this does not take place.

Weather again!!

I just thought I would mention this seeing as the weather has been so warm. Some people speak of it as an Indian summer (American Indians that is). Well it could be although we would expect more sunshine and an Indian summer can take place in October or November but technically not until we have had the first frost which we have had now. The warmth, although very mild and above the average, is not as uncommon as you might think. It has to go a long way to beat the record of above 29°C but that was at the begin of the month so is not really a true representation; none the less it was October. The record for the last week or so is around 23°C (73°F) somewhere along the south coast on or around the 26th. So a better guide to this time of month. It's worth noting that yesterday Benson was the warmest place in the UK at 19°C (66°F).

Colours / Red Kites

Well what a cracking day Sunday was weather wise and this looks to continue for most of the week. Out walking the dog and seeing some fantastic colours and light contrast. And to cap it all another wonderful aerial display by those majestic Red Kites darting and diving into each other and their colours matching all those Autumn colours of the trees.

On the topic of Red Kites you might be interested in: redkites.net.

Photosynth of Henley Town Hall

We've been playing with Microsoft's Photosynth recently. After a little trouble getting over 100 high resolution photos to upload into the system we can finally share our first "synth" of Henley Town Hall. Enjoy!

small print / LARGE "KEEP OUT"

Now I know this is not local issue but doesn't it just get up your nose that with anything we buy such as insurance and pensions (well almost everything) there's always one thing there to protect the company; the small print. How many of us read this in full, in part or not at all? I think it's fair to say that the print is like that so they know we are unlikely to read it. And to understand it is another matter! It's not there to protect us. It's there to protect them. Now we know this is nothing new but with a recent event it prompted me to blog to get it off my chest.

Now who like me hates signs that say, "PRIVATE KEEP OUT!" Surely "private" warrants enough. I always find that so aggressive. It's like, "As you know we are not in the least bit friendly but we'll draw your attention anyway." The point I'm trtying to make is that when we sign these things, instead of having the small print let's have the LARGE print at the top of the contract or paperwork with "WARNING READ AND UNDERSTAND CAREFULLY!" at least it would draw our attention to what we should really know at the beginning, not the end.

Anyway, got that off m'chest!!

So it might as well rain until September (as the song goes)

Now, with the equinox here (equal daylight and nighttime hours) we might expect a possible change in the weather but the good news is, at this present time looking ahead on the 16 day weather charts, that it will follow the same sort of pattern with high pressure holding fast.

On this basis we could be heading for one of the driest Septembers on record but not the driest as we have already just about beaten that. This was in 1959 with a meagre 8mm of rain. This month so far we've had just over 12mm.