I’ve just taken delivery of 7 of the 14 adventure books by Willard Price, courtesy of the 2nd hand booksellers on http://www.abebooks.co.uk.

I remember reading the Adventure Series of books at the age of about 10, and given my love of wildlife, these were an instant hit.

On opening the package yesterday, I realised that I even recognised most of the covers from the first time I read the se books all that time ago..

I have just started reading South Seas Adventure, and have the 6 books I am missing (I already had one of the books at my parents) on order.

The Adventure Series feature the teenage animal hunters Hal and Roger Hunt, and follow the adventures they have whilst travelling the world in search of rare and dangerous animals for their fathers wildlife collections.

Although highly fantastical, these books really developed my interest in all kinds of wild animals, and along with the books by Gerald Durrell developed my fascination with wildlife into what it is today.

Since I had my back operated on last Wednesday, I’ve been pottering around my parents rather large garden, but decided that I’d go out for a proper walk this morning.

I took my camera (regrettably with only the standard 17-70mm zoom) with me, and walked for about 2.5 miles, which isn’t much really, but is a bit more than the few hundred yards I’ve been doing around the garden.

Almost as soon as I stepped off the road, I regretted not taking my large zoom lens, as I had great views of a Roe Deer and a Sparrowhawk, then a little later, I had excellent opportunities to take some good shots of a female scorpion fly and some large red damselflies (if only I’d taken the Macro lens).

I did take a couple of close’ish shots, but they’re nowhere near as good as they would have been with the macro lens. That’ll teach me to take the macro lens off the camera :o).

Anyway, I’ve converted the images and used RoboGeo to put them on a Google Map and Google Earth.

I’ve been working on a site to host my portfolio and various reviews using Joomla. I’ve now got this online here.

I’ve also written my first review, which is for the HyperDrive Space unit that I received last week.

After about 2.5 weeks of waiting, my HyperDrive Space casing has arrived.  I’ve installed the 30gbHDD that I aquired from a friend, and the unit is currently charging the battery.

The unit seems to be well made, the casing although looking plasticky seems to be manufactured of anodised aluminium, as it has a definite metal feel to it.  Installing the HDD is a breeze using the tiny screwdriver supplied in the box, and then is simply a case of turning the unit on and formatting the HDD.

The format is quick, and I’ve tried copying a few files from a SanDisk Extreme III 1gb card.  The transfer seems to be swift, but I will reserve judgement until I have a full cards worth of images to transfer.

First impressions are good, and I’ll post back more information once I’ve given the unit a good try out.

Adrian

I’ve just taken delivery of my first Canon L lens.  I took advantage of the cashback offer and got a 70-200 f4 IS and a 1.4x extender.

I gave this combo a quick try in the garden this evening, and all I can say is WOW.  The IS on this lens is amazing, with the 70-200 @ 200mm and a 1.4x extender, I was getting sharp shots at speeds as low as 1/30, when you’d normally need 1/300 to get a sharp handheld shot with this combo.

Unfortunately I’m off to have a back operation on Wednesday, so I’m not going to have a chance to give it a good trial, which is a bit annoying, but hey thats Murphy for you.

I’ll post more on this lens combo once I’ve had a chance ot have a bit of a play.

I took a quick trip over to the Hartslock Reserve at Goring this morning, as it is the last chance I’ll get for a while due to my back operation.   I was hoping that the White Helleborines would be in full flower, and after speaking to a member on the Wild About Britain forums, I hoped to locate the Pasque Flowers that were re-introduced to this site in 1998.

On arriving, I found it to be very windy, with the wind whipping up the hillside.  This made photographing the Helleborines rather tricky.  The Helleborines were almost out in flower, but not fully open, but I took a few shots nonetheless.

The Pasque Flowers are now past their best, but I found them easily enough this weekend, and took a few photographs.  I found one in flower, one just coming into bloom and another still in bud.  A lot of them looked as though the flowers had been chewed off by rabbits.

On the Orchid slope, I discovered a few more Monkey Orchids in flower, though the solitary one I photographed last weekend has vanished.  I do hope that this doesn’t mean that some idiot has picked it.  There are a few also in bloom on the lower slope where the footpath runs through.

I also saw a few butterflies including Small Heath, Common Blue, Dingy Skipper, Green Veined White, and the Yellow Shell and Pyrausta nigrata moths.  Red Kites were also soaring above.

I had a bit of a shock today when I received a call from the Dunedin Hospital telling me that they could fit me in on Wednesday.  I assumed that this meant Weds 23rd, but was told that this was Weds 16th.

I thought that this was too short notice for work and initially turned it down, but on speaking to my boss Sarah, was told to get back on the phone and get it arranged for Wednesday 16th.

So everything is now booked, I’ve got a pre-op check up scheduled for Monday morning, then I’m under the knife on Wednesday.  This is so sudden that my head is still spinning.

Just got back from my consultation with the Orthopaedic surgeon.  It seems that I have a herniated disc, and have been advised that the best option is to have it operated on.

I’m desperate to get it done because I’ve been in pain for so long, but I’m slightly concerned at the 5 week recovery time as we’re supposed to be flying to the USA for a family wedding in the middle of July, so I need an appointment quick smart if I’m going to be able to fly.

Just waiting for the Hospital to contact me with the specifics and then for PPP to sign it off.

At least now I know what is going on.  However, it doesn’t look good at work, as I’ve only just started a new job, and now I’m going to need 4-5 weeks off.  Though as I have a laptop now, I guess it will be possible to work from home, so fingers crossed thatit won’t be all that bad.  I guess time will tell.

I’ve only been in my new job for just over a week, but already they have given me a nice shiny laptop, and are ok at signing off expenses for learning materials such as books.

I’m still finding my feet as everything is new, but I’m starting to quite enjoy the role now, and once I get up to speed, I’m hoping that I’ll get onto some technical training to move on to the next level.

Feeling quite happy today.

Alice was going to the Birmingham Juggling Convention today, so I decided that I’d make a trip up to the BBOWT Hartslock Reserve just outside of Goring. This reserve is famous for its Monkey Orchids, and more recently its Lady and Monkey Orchid Hybrid.

My route and photographs can be seen on Google Earth Here.

I started off walking along the Thames in the hope of seeing some Club-Tailed Dragonflies (Gomphus vulgatissimus), but as it was very cold and overcast I didn’t see any at all. I did however see a couple of Great Crested Grebes and a Kingfisher though, so that was a bonus. On reaching Hartslock, I had a quick scout around the lower meadow before taking the steps up to the upper meadows. There are several white helleborines next to the path in the woods, one of which was in bud, but none were in flower.

I saw plenty of Chalk Milkwort and Common Milkwort, including the bright pink variety which is widespread on this hillside. After this, I headed down to the orchid slope and photographed the Lady, Pseudomilitaris hybrid and Monkey orchids. On this slope, I also found what might be a species of Gentian, but have been unable to identify it, so let me know if you can give it an ID.

Just before leaving the Orchid slope, I bumped into the warden (Chris) who was telling me about the problems caused by huge numbers of photographers visiting the site when word got out about the hybrid plants. He also pointed me in the directionof the Pasque Flowers that were re-introduced, so I headed off back up the steep steps to the upper meadows.

In the upper meadows, there were lots of yellow shell moths, a few grizzled and dingy skippers, several small heaths and a single common blue. I also saw a stunning moth that resembled a grizzled skipper, which I believe to be a mother shipton, but Murphy dictated that just as it was coming into focus, it flew away :o(

Try as I might, I could not find any Pasque Flowers, but I bumped into Chris again, and he showed me a nice Club-Tailed Dragonfly. I made a final trip down to the orchid slope where I was rewarded with my first Green Hairstreak of the year, albeit a very tatty specimen.

On leaving, I managed to get a couple of shots of an Orange Tip before heading back to Goring station to catch the train home.