“Wonderful” Christmas Snow

Alastair BegleyEquestrian, Sports Short Link

Well with the second batch of snow in under a month cancelling my second job in 2 weeks due to the snow and horses not being able to compete when the ground is all frozen and covered in snow I have been trying to make the most of it for pleasure purposes as although it is a pain it does make for some stunning scenery, though unfortunately there has been no more snowboarding (Snowboarding in Bath). So during Christmas week I went walking with my family and family friends around the Cotswolds which were stunning in the snow. Then for Christmas I headed up to my Gran’s with the rest of my family which is where the horses are kept so I went out into the fields while they were exercising them there as the roads were too icy to go out on and finally on Boxing day we went for a very atmospheric walk in the snow covered Malvern Hills with our cousins. And thankfully the snow now seems to be thawing extremely quickly, with tropical temperature of 9 degrees at home today!

Snowboarding in Bath

Alastair BegleySports Short Link

With all the snow that has hit the UK recently it has converted many places to look more like ski resorts than British cities, with Bath being one of them.With this in mind,  a friend and I decided to do some snowboarding in a field literally right next to his house! Unfortunately without the creature comforts that real ski resorts supply in the form of lifts up there was a lot of walking and the occasional begging on people with cars to get to the top.From the photos it is hard to tell that these were actually taken at the outskirts of a city in England at the start of December! The photos were very fun to take and running down icy slopes camera in hand was an interesting experience!

Snowy Bath

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Wildlife Short Link

Yesterday I headed into Bath to see a friend from school and Bath was covered in snow, so much snow that we actually went snowboarding (these pictures will appear in a later blog post). Shortly after I arrived at his house it was pointed out that a pair of deer were at the opposite side of the field next to their house, so in an attempt to get my first wildlife pictures of an animal other than a bird I hastily changed lens and “stealthily” ran across the field to get as close as I could before spooking them, unfortunately the one that was hiding in the bushes was more timid than the one in these photos and got spooked and ran away causing the one out in the open to follow suit! Then later in the evening after it got dark we went for a wonder around town and near Pulteney Bridge and came up with these two cityscapes, unfortunately the photo of the bridge it’s self did not come out as well as I had hoped as the weir was not lit up as it often is, though. Read the full article…

Winter Wonderland

Alastair BegleyLandscape Short Link

This weekend I was up in the Brecon Beacons and unfortunately it had warmed up so most of the snow had gone but I was caught out by the trecharious conditions walking to the waterfalls that are near Ystradfellte, as the paths were covered in ice and made walking very difficult, but it was worth it as when we got to the waterfalls there was still a large amount of ice left which was a stunning site. I just wish that I could have been there last week when it was a long way below freezing as I think that the waterfall would have been even more spectacular!

Yorkshire Caving

Alastair BegleyCaving Short Link

This weekend was the annual meet up of lots of university caving clubs, and this year it was up in Yorkshire at the Dalesbridge Center. It was a very cold weekend with snow forecast but we decided to go caving anyway and headed up to Gaping Gill. I went to Gaping Gill with a specific photo in mind, but overlooked the fact that it is winter up north and it gets dark early so when we got to main chamber it was dark outside which was fairly disappointing but I tried to make the best of the situation and came up with these photos. It was so cold outside that the waterfall that is normally the main waterfall was barely flowing due to the water at the top freezing and all the water coming down the waterfall that is normally the smaller of the two. This also meant that when we left the cave the hour long walk back to the car at -3 degrees was a fairly cold experience and our caving oversuits froze while they were on us!

Hunting with the North Herefordshire Hunt

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

On Saturday evening myself and David from Vero Photography were booked to shoot the North Herefordshire Hunt ball in the evening  so we decided to go along to the hunt (hound exercise and trail hunting) in the aim to get some more business and have some fun while we were up there. I have hunted all my life on horse back but we discovered that it is a lot harder to follow the hunt on foot, especially when you don’t have a four wheel drive car, my poor focus went to places that it just should not have been! The weather was stunning on Saturday though with the low autumn sun this lead to very contrasty light which made photography very difficult as it was hard enough keeping up with the hunt, let along making sure the sun was on the right side relative to us and the hunt! Though the warm weather due to the sun did make it a much more pleasurable experience at least! Overall it was a great day out and we learnt a lot about following the hunt on foot and we are looking forward. Read the full article…

Single Rope Technique

Alastair BegleySports Short Link

Today some of the members of the caving club I am a member of were doing some Single Rope Technique (SRT) training with ISCA Outdoor in preperation for our trip up to Yorkshire in a few weeks time.  SRT is where you go up and down vertical ropes to enable access to cave systems which involve large changes in height such as Gaping Gill and Allum pot as shown in my portfolio. As I had to drive them there I decided to stick around and take some pictures.  Though unfortunatly due to a lack of club SRT kit one of my friends had to borrow my harness and metalwork which meant that I had to stay with my two feet firmly on the ground which made positioning myself fairly difficult as they were going up a rockface.  I am hoping to rectify this next week and take some pictures while I am hanging on a rope!

Ottery St Mary Tar Barrels

Alastair BegleyGeneral Short Link

Every year in Ottery St Mary which is a town near Exeter for bonfire night the tradition of “Rolling” barrels through the extremely crowded streets is somehow still continued despite the trouble that it must cause in the health and safety mad world we now seem to live in. “Barrel Rolling” is where over a 12 month period barrels are coated with coal tar before being lit and carried through streets packed with people who have to make sure they get out of the way before getting hit by it! The event starts in the late afternoon with the children’s barrels and progresses as the evening goes on to the ladies and men’s event.  The barrels progress in size as the evening goes on with the final barrel weighing around 30kg!  In order to carry a barrel you must have lived in the town for all or most of your life. This year was my third year attending the event and for the third year in a row the beautiful British weather supplied us with rain, though thankfully it was only for about half an hour but long enough to. Read the full article…