A summer rainbow

This picture is from Saturday evening when the setting sun coincided with a rain storm to produce a wonderful double rainbow.

The picture hardly does it justice, it was spectacular.

Friday foto - Superwide, hi-res view of Street and Glastonbury Tor

I drove along Collard Hill in Somerset today and stopped to take pictures. Here is the result of 6 pictures being stitched together. You can see the large warehouse roof that belongs to Clarks shoes in Street and of course the famous Glastonbury Tor in the distance.

I wish it had been a little clearer.

Zoom in and enjoy!

Yeovil Saturday night, cinema, closed shops, closed eateries

For a variety of reasons we found ourselves able to take a night out in Yeovil on a Saturday. Fantastic. "Let's go to the cinema" says she. "Great idea" I say, it's been a long time since we went.

A quick check online shows a few films that look interesting. Good.

Taxi to cinema. Chaos inside. Huge queue, ticket desk closed, what the hell is going on? In what is I presume a cost cutting measure, you can buy tickets from the snack desk or the ATM but not at the ticket counter. Not great, but tickets purchased, we rejoin the queue. We are going to see 'Rock of Ages'. I wish I had read the reviews...

If you like stage musicals maybe this is your thing. I thought it was going to be an updated version of Spinal Tap. I was very, very wrong. It's a string of '80s rock tunes (so far so good) held together with some dodgy acting and awful dance scenes. It's the first film I can recall walking out on in a long time; but we did. (The huge queue of people were waiting to see the Westlife tour film. It had to be better than Rock of Ages.)

OK we said, "Lets go eat..."

Where?

Umm..not too many choices in Yeovil town centre actually. OK Let's try the Green Room, we had heard nice things about it. "Table for 2?" I enquire. "Sorry we stop serving at 9pm" (it's 10 minutes  past nine).

Alright, what about Mulberrys say I. Same story. Kitchen closed at 9pm. What a bloody farce. Does nobody want to eat after 9pm? Spanish visitors (notoriously late eaters) to Yeovil must think we are in the dark ages. Even Burger King was closed. As we walked to the taxi rank I took the picture below; it was around 9.30pm.

Yes it's raining but there there was virtually nobody on the streets of Yeovil.

9.30pm Saturday 23rd June, Middle Street, Yeovil AKA Ghost Town

So off to the Indian restaurant then. A decent meal was had at the Mem Saab at the bottom of Silver Street.

Now the question, what is happening to Yeovil? Shops are closing right through Middle Street and into the town centre. The only restaurants that can be bothered/can justify staying open past 9pm on a SATURDAY NIGHT are Chinese or Indian; why?

Have we locals forgotten how to work? Our first taxi driver was Romanian our second was (I think) Polish.

It rather feels like a long and terminal slide into irrelevance and this is coming from someone who chose to live here and has done so for 10 years. It's not good and it's getting worse. Sorry.

I downloaded Apple iTunes into my laptop this evening.

The idea is that I'll upload my hypnosis MP3s to bring them to a wider audience.

Not discovered how to become a content providers on iTunes yet but I'm sure it will come.

Did spot some interesting and some very dodgy hypnosis products on there already. I feel the need to check out the other offerings.

Words are important...

I hear many people say "I'll try..." and then they fail.

Try implies failure!

Choose a different word and change your mind.

Give "I'll strive to do that ..." a road test. You might be surprised by what you achieve!

A tidal wave of news that swamps the mind

I like to stay up to date with current affairs. I listen to the radio, watch TV news (less often) and follow blogs. But there are times when it can all feel a bit too much. When the tidal wave of negative images and stories makes me forget just how great the human spirit can be.

Then it's time to turn off and reflect on what I have (and you have too) rather than what may or may not happen in the future. And while you are turning off the news flow a picture can calm the mind. This one was taken in Lyme Regis earlier this week.

Sun rise at Lyme Regis, Dorset, UK - click to enlarge

Super hi-res and wide picture of Lyme Regis

Today we got up early and went to Lyme Regis. It looked lovely as the warm colours of the sun came through the clouds. So, I took another panoramic pictures. This time stitched together from 6 images.

It was taken from the Easter end of the beach looking towards the Cobb.

A Somerset orchard - super wide image

A visit to Burrow Hill Cider Farm showed me that the orchard looked wonderfully lush. So out came the camera to create a super wide image from 6 images stitched together.

Hope you like it!

TV news can drain the life force of the most robust

I had to travel a good deal this week. Business meetings, staying in hotels, and too much driving but seeing different parts of the country.

In one hotel, Sky news was playing in the bar area. I ordered a meal, sat down with a pint of beer and wondered why they had the TV on. The news was overwhelmingly depressing. Death, disaster, war, unemployment on a 20 minute loop.

I finished my meal and moved to another part of the bar but no, there was a second TV screen putting out the same awful mix of soul destroying awfulness. There was no "and finally" moment as used to be delivered by the news at ten. No story to uplift the heart that was centred on human kindness.

No it was unremitting pain and suffering.

No extra bar sales that night! No reason to stay in that gloom.

I know that there is suffering.
I know that it is happening every day.

But if we allow ourselves to only see this side of life we will be like the poor unfortunate souls who took their life on the Paddington to Swindon trainline on Tuesday evening. Unable to see a way out, convinced that death is the only answer.

I removed myself from the bar, went back to my room and chose not to watch the TV and did something positive instead.

What about you? Will you keep allowing the media to poison your mind or will you decide to break free?

Travel pictures

I've had a busy few days travelling around the South of England. I love taking pictures on my travels; some good, many less so. Here are a couple.

The view from my hotel bedroom in Epping. It's the first time I have been to this town. The town itself seems to have suffered a lot of shop closures.

A shot of the sun setting over Salisbury Plain. Always a fantastic sight.