TheBuchans

This is the Christmas letter we sent out to friends who do not have a computer. It is a summary of our year. The blog will take you some time to get through but it is more detailed.
To view the letter so that it is legible> click the photo> now put the arrow over the photo and go to the bottom right and click the icon to expand everything - Hey Presto, you should be able to read it!

Hopefully with this post there will be a sitemeter attached to the blog.

The weather forecast was good and it was very good on Tuesday, blue skies and sunshine. I wanted to go to Fovant Badges (FB), SW of Salisbury and also to Shaftesbury. FB is where various regimental insignia have been carved into the (very steep) hillside. Unfortunately our visit coincided with the sun being behind the hill, so the photo I wanted was impossible to get. I'll have to come back in the summer, late in the afternoon.
From there we went to Win Green a high viewpoint which was superb. We did a geocache here and had our sarnies. We moved on to Shaftesbury to another geocache on Gold Hill, the old Hovis advert, again we were beaten by the weather for a good photo of the hill, foggy.
Anyway I took a photo worthy of the South Today weather photo spot, but they didn't show so I will. It was taken at the viewpoint in Shaftesbury, Park Walk, there was no view this day.

With the short days we are not up to too much. We are preparing for Christmas and that seems to be under control. The weather has been pretty good so we have managed quite a few walks. These usually have some connection with a walk I am going to lead in the New Year. One of the walks will be from Holmsley and the other from Linford Bottom. The latter is on New Years Day with the New Forest Ramblers.
With the closure of Castlepoint our major new shopping centre (the car park is crumbling) we visited Bournemouth. I dropped Sue off and then we met up at the Russell-Coates Museum later on. I managed to do the new geocache which was just outside. It is the smallest one I have ever done, about an inch long!!!
Last night was -5 C so it's a slow chilly start, blue sky and sunshine though.
Must go out for a walk.

We were due to go to Oxford this week, but didn't because the weather looked as though it wouldn't be too good. So we had a day out in Southampton today. I had wanted to see the Hall of Aviation for some time, because it has a lot of information about the flying boats that used to fly out of the Solent.
The centrepiece of the exhibition is a Short Sandringham IV VH-BRC flying boat. This is the only commercial four engined flying boat in Europe. Whilst Sue and I were looking around the flying boat a volunteer offered to show us the flight deck which is only accessible up some narrow ladders (not everyone receives this invitation). The chap was very knowledgeable and we both sat in the pilots seats. It was all very Heath Robinson up there. If you are in Southampton the Hall of Aviation is within walking distance of West Quay, the shopping centre.
Needless to say I was dragged off to West Quay, but it wasn't as bad as I thought, because it was warm inside. We also managed to do a geocache which was hidden in a holly bush, in a park we had to walk through.


Mignet HM Flying Flea


Technician (model) servicing the engine on the Sandringham


Sue in the cabin of the flying boat - rather spartan