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Archives for August, 2013

Ridgeway

August 31st, 2013

I went for an adventure this afternoon in the hitherto unexplored region north west of Reading. Started in the pleasant village of Streatley and headed in the general direction of Swindon along the “ridgeway” national trail. At first it was a little dull and plodding, the only interesting site being this memorial to a solider killed in a 1947 accident:

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Things improved somewhat after I crossed the A34. Still, it felt a unusually empty and desolate for southern England.

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A while later I realised I was in the middle of nowhere with no obvious route back to civilisation. So I made a rapid detour via this rather ominous looking facility that I later discovered was the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

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Eventually, and with the help of a well timed bus, I made it to Didcot. Didcot is not Oxfordshire’s prettiest town by a long margin. But at least I saw a steam train while I was waiting for the train back home:

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August Bank Holiday

August 30th, 2013

Went for a really long walk last Monday where I discovered the previously discussed tank-tractor. On the way back to Henley there was a really awesome sunset and I managed to take some nice photos with the trees silhouetted against the dramatic clouds.

Tractorg

August 30th, 2013

The latest innovation in farming combines both tank and tractor technology to make this wonderful machine:

tractorg

The farmer is surrounded by more screens than your average software developer. Although after a while he had to stop and poke about with the trailer in a rather low tech way.

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Portland

August 25th, 2013

Went down to Portland near Weymouth the weekend before last to go camping and climbing and generally be outdoors-y. Here, our encampment!

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Where we went climbing on Saturday:

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Nice sunset sky in the evening.

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