The City of London – A Pigeon’s eye view of our capital

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The Square Mile

The traditional centre of Fianance and Insurance, a city within a City. Widely referred to simply as “the City” (often written as just “City” and differentiated from the phrase “the city of London” by capitalising “City”). Also colloquially known as the “Square Mile”, as it is 1.12 sq mi (2.90 km2),[5] in area. Both of these terms are also often used as metonyms for the United Kingdom’s trading and financial services industries, which continue a notable history of being largely based in the City.

London's Beating Heart

Petal from a faded Rose………

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Faded Rose

Here’s a rose from my garden
Where the bloom of romance grows
But I’ll keep on a part near my aching heart
Just a petal from a faded rose
Love’d be sweet in the morning
When the breeze of summer blows
But will fade and die when the wind is nigh
Like a petal from a faded rose

Kissed by a Rose

Industrial Essex

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From the (slightly muddy) banks of Vange Creek looking towards the jumbled industrial detrius of the London Gateway Terminal and Old Corringham Refinery is this somewhat gloomy but busy view across the marshes.

EDIT:- Just noticed that the boat is called the ‘Pescadora’ which is Spanish for Fisherwoman, or Fisherman’s Wife. Not sure why I thought that was worth pointing out, but………

Industrial Essex

Samantha Bond again…….

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007 at Beaulieu Motor Museum

It’s not every day you see Miss Moneypenny driving around in one of the James Bond villain’s cars. Whilst we were at the museum we were delayed due to Samantha Bond being interviewed, and then following lunch we bumped into her driving around the grounds of the estate in a Green Jaguar XKR, complete with Rockets hidden in the grille and a machine gun mounted on the back !! The car (from Die another Day) was one of the exhibits. – Apologies for the quality of these, but they were reactive rather than planned and I was lucky to get a couple of clean shots without my kids photobombing the lot.

007 at Beaulieu Motor Museum

My name is Bond, Samantha Bond

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Another one from our week in the New Forest. Wandering around the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu we were a little taken aback to be stopped midway through the Bond exhibition by a chap with a radio and a tabard bearing the legend ‘SECURITY’. Wondering if we’d stumbled across a deranged gang of scrap metal thieves caught in the act I was pleasantly surprised to see Miss Moneypenny (Samantha Bond) having a coffee break between takes for an interview that was being conducted. I made like a pap, and rattled a couple of shots off just for posterities sake but unfortunately have no idea when we can expect to see this on the Telly, or whether it was a promotional Beaulieu video or a documentary.

National Motor Museum - Celebrity interview

As an aside, we later saw her driving around in a Lime Green Jag, complete with rockets in the grille, while a Camera car tried to keep up. I’m pretty sure I got a couple of decent shots of this somewhere as well, mostly with Mrs Dave and the kids in, who thought it was hilarious photo-bombing the shot at every opportunity.

A slightly different view of the M25 Essex Section

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A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE M25

Yesterday, I was ‘lucky’ enough to spend a couple of hours on the shoulder of the M25 waiting for a recovery truck. Naturally, it was a pretty tedious wait, and naturally, I had my camera with me.

Unfortunately I never had the tripod, though in fairness, with the traffic thundering past at 70mph plus I doubt it would have helped. So, from the safety of the car, with breath held I took my first ever light trail photos. Not technically perfect (there’s a lot of motion wobble but nevertheless still not a total disaster.

A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE M25

Don’t Feed the Birds……

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Another Hungry gull.

Wherever you visit, from Southend to Skegness, our coastal towns have pretty much every variety of gull you can find.

I’m not a bird person generally and can’t tell one from the other, but I do know that if you lob a few chips in the air, you’ll have at least 20 of them flapping around your head. More fun is to lob a chip into the air above passers by – The photo opportunities are guaranteed, as is the increased chance of someone getting crapped on.

Hungry Gull