12/5/24
A rather frustrating
view of the island on Thursday afternoon, when we tried to fly back from
an overnight stop in Manchester. Taken on the Loganair flight going
round the holding pattern at 'KELLY', south of the island. Despite
most of the island basking in sunshine, the airport was covered by fog
and despite making three approaches the pilots were unable to land and
we ended up diverting to Liverpool, eventually completing our journey on
the Steam Packet!
It was quite handy for
us that the Steam Packet fast craft 'Manannan' was operating to a revised
schedule and not departing until 21:00, which gave us plenty of time to
book tickets online and get a taxi from the airport to the Landing Stage.
Due to her only operating on three out of four engines at the moment we
didn't disembark at Douglas until half past midnight and the final couple
of miles to home took another hour, because there is no public transport
at that time of night and there was only one taxi doing a shuttle service.
I was able to walk two sets of visitors to their hotels on the Prom while
we were waiting!
   
13/5/24
On the evening of the
day we actually arrived back on the island, there was a spectacular display
of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. I had seen forecasts
that there was a chance of a good display, so at around 23:00 took a look
outside and could see something that was possibly just some high cloud,
but once my eyes had adapted to the darkness could see the colours so dashed
back in to get a camera. The first five pictures here are taken from
the garden, but I decided to walk up to the Centenary Park where the skies
would be darker. The final picture was after arriving back home,
taken poking the camera through a Velux window. I've deliberately
kept the pictures a little on the dark side as that is how I observed the
display with my eyes.
Insta360 Ace Pro 10/5/24
   
    
   
14/5/24
A trip out on Saturday
afternoon to view the bluebells flowering in Sulby Glen. Most of
them are on the far side of the river from the road, and although I did
try to paddle across for some ground level pictures, it was a little too
deep for comfort so these are all shot using a drone!
DJI Mini 2 11/5/24
    
    
17/5/24
A visit to the Curraghs
Wildlife Park on Sunday afternoon.
Panasonic FZ82 12/5/24
    
    
   
  
19/5/24
On wednesday we went
up to Milntown House, on the outskirts of Ramsey. After a lovely
lunch at the cafe, we renewed our memberships and had a very pleasant stroll
around the gardens.
Panasonic FZ82 &
Insta360 Ace Pro 15/5/24
    
    
    
    
    
   
On the way home from
Milntown, we were driving through Ramsey and spotted the lovely sailing
vessel.
 
20/5/24
On Thursday afternoon
I had another visit to Garwick Glen. I'd visited a couple of times
in the winter but failed to locate two of its old attractions, the Wishing
Stone and the Maze. Thanks to the efforts of Annmarie and Don, I
managed to initially find the Wishing Stone, which they had taken some
time to clean up so that the inscriptions on all four sides could be read.
In January I had produced two videos of the glen, the first one is a descriptive
walk down and can be viewed
here. The second one was a 'Then and Now', trying to mix old pictures
of the glen with the view as it is now, it can be viewed
here.
The present state of
the glen is a little strange, as it is publicly owned (by the IOM Government)
but not open to the public! Hopefully at some time in the future
it can be officially re-opened, as it is a lovely walk down to the beach.
Unfortunately it is unlikely that most of the former visitor attractions
will return.
DJI Osmo Pocket 3
DJI Mini 2 16/5/24
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
 
21/5/24
A morning walk with
Star up to the Centenary Park, which is just at the end of our road in
Birch Hill, Onchan. I first discovered the park quite a few years
ago when I went up to the piece of waste ground where Onchan Commissioners
dumped green waste to do some test flying with an early drone. I
met the wonderful Clive Martin, who sadly died in 2021, and we had a long
chat about his ideas of transforming the waste ground into a memorial park
for those who lost their lives in World War One. I'm sure he had
plenty of help, but whenever I met him up there he always seemed to be
working on his own, often moving heavy rocks! The park is managed
by Onchan Commissioners and the Woodland Trust and has some great views
over the surrounding countryside. Although it's not promoted as such,
it's actually a great 'dark skies' site and was where I took most of the
aurora photographs earlier in the month.
Insta360 Ace Pro 18/5/24
    
   
22/5/24
One of our favourite
places to walk with Star is Arcallagan Plantation with its widely spaced
trees and numerous tracks and pathways. We can wander in there for
hours, although Star demands that here ball is thrown regularly.
She particularly seem to enjoy it when she has to search for it using her
nose!
Insta360 Ace Pro 18/5/24
    
    
23/5/24
Seeing that the spell
of good weather we have been enjoying recently was about to end, I decided
to get out and shoot some aerial panoramas. I didn't have too much
spare time so decided to try some in the Keppel Gate/East Baldwin valley
areas with a backup of Injebreck. In the end I managed both!
DJI Mini 2 21/5/24
   
  
   
 
26/5/24
A Time-lapse video driving
around the TT course yesterday morning.
Insta360 Ace Pro 25/5/24
27/5/24
On Saturday afternoon
we visited the magical Ballaglass Glen, lots of water coming down the rivers
after the recent rains.
Insta360 Ace Pro
25/5/24
    
    
    
    
I also shot three short
video sequences covering two of the waterfalls. Click the button
below to view on YouTube.
28/5/24
There are twenty new
Railway pictures in Rail
2024 Pt1
Panasonic FZ82 &
Insta360 Ace Pro 27/5/24
    
I also shot some video
clips for a friend, not really planned but I've stitched
them together and you
can view on YouTube by clicking the button below.
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