Of the places I’ve lived in so far, Winchester is easily my favourite: it’s charming, compact, full of history, surrounded by beautiful countryside, and in all respects superior to the drab towns of the Thames Valley commuter belt where I’ve ended up. Even the Stanmore estate, an area with a poor reputation where we lived, is relatively pleasant by the standards of most towns.

The weather wasn’t too great but I managed to hit most of Winchesters major attractions and museums. For the first time I went on a guided tour of Winchester college (a very prestigious public boys school), which was certainly worth the £6 fee. Also noteworthy is the St. Cross almshouse where you can still go to the porter’s lodge and demand your “dole” (ale and bread for the poor). Although I think now you might not get dole without paying the entrance fee.

Anyway, the point of this rambling post is that Winchester is an excellent town which you should most definitely visit if you haven’t already. Here are some photos I took with notes.

Seriously, I have no idea what it is! I’m sure I’ve never seen one before.

This is my first foray into macro photography and I don’t think it was wholly successful. Still, this next one is quite good though, probably because the most of the bug is actually in focus. You can see the sucker-things it uses to propel itself along. A bit like a caterpillar. Is it a caterpillar variant?

I’m wondering if using aperture priority mode might have helped, but that sounds a bit advanced. Maybe using the “spot” autofocus mode would be good too? Anyway, here is the bug’s head. (Well, it moves in this direction.)

And this is its bum. Not sure if the blue thing is a fancy-coloured tail or a dangerous stinger.

Speaking of strange creatures, I was reading on the train home about the sad fate of the giant Steller’s Sea Cow.

Here’s a glass of that scrumptious substance I had yesterday. Held bravely by my mum, who was inexplicably terrified of it. I’d recommend it to anyone!

Here are some pictures, not a particularly great set unfortunately:

This is Station Jim. He is a dead dog. Very very dead. In fact, he has been dead and on display at Slough train station for over a hundred years. This alone should make him a top tourist attraction, even if he hadn’t lead the incredible life of adventure an selfless charity detailed on the small plaque on his case.

Station Jim was a stray dog found wandering around Slough station in destitution. However the kind people of Slough took pity on him and he was returned to health. At which point he was fitted with a pouch and sent to collect money from passengers for local charities. He raised enormous sums of money and at one point boarded a train and traveled as far as Swindon (or somewhere like that)! After his death at a ripe old age he was stuffed and put in a display case. The end.

(Wikipedia may have a slightly more accurate account.)

Source version is available here: lander-0.6.1.tar.gz. Windows and perhaps binary .deb to follow later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t5zp5/Archive_on_4_Redcar_Made_of_Steel/

I read somewhere that when it’s overcast photos often look better in black and white. So here we are:

Fluffy sky looks good. Finally, on the way to Sonning I came across a cow-based obstruction: