Went on a walk

After breakfast I went in the back garden and the pond was frozen. The grass was ever so slightly frosty, like there had been hardly any dew again. I came in and took some photos of my toilet being a face, then processed it and made a clipping mask for it.

After that I checked hotukdeals and my email, and that took the rest of the morning (yes really!)

After lunch I went on walk since the weather was nice, I went up the hill towards Lubenham, and where you enter the hill field the path alongside the field was quite frosty (with a proper frost). Walking down the other side of the hill, it had had quite a bit of sun and the frost had all melted, making it quite slippy due to the mud.

I carried on into Lubenham, then went along the road (can't remember what it's called) until I got to the narrow bridge over the canal. Then I turned right and walked along the canal until I got to another bridge with a road over the canal, then I turned right and went down a path that I have been along before (I took some photos of the trees there last Autumn). I followed that path, but then came to a bit where the path went off to the left into a field, which wasn't the way the footpath had gone before last time I'd walked along there. So I followed the footpath and it went all the way round the outside of this big field and I ended up not too far from where I had left the canal, but had walked a lot further than if I'd just walked along the road to get there.

It was getting very near sunset, so I just carried walking along the road, and eventually came to the road just outside Foxton, near Gartree. Rather than taking the footpath across the fields back to Lubenham, I just followed the road as I knew it would be quicker. I wanted to get home before it got too dark and also was quite worn out from the big diversion the new footpath had made me go on.

I'm not sure if the new footpath I went on is because the footpath has been changed, or just if there was another footpath further up the field that I used before or something. I will have to look at the gps tracklog in google earth tomorrow when I get some time.

I just carried on along the road, which went back to Lubenham, and then I walked along the road home. When I got home my feet were very worn out.

I took my Lowepro slingshot 300aw bag full of lenses etc. and my tripod with me. I found that changing lenses or getting anything out of the bag was quite difficult as I had to put the tripod down before I could swing the bag round to access it. I think the Lowepro belt and lens pouches would probably work well when carrying a tripod since you shouldn't need to put the tripod down to change lenses.

I didn't use the tripod at all since it takes a while to setup and I didn't really have a lot of time. Also, when I did want to use it, there wasn't enough space to set it up (unless I set it up in the road, but cars were coming along the road quite frequently). When I was walking back towards Lubenham from Foxton, a bit fell off the tripod. It was one of the 'Benro' bits at the top of the legs that you push in/pull out to decide at what angle the legs come out to. Luckily it made a clanking noise when it fell off, so I noticed it. When I picked it up I noticed it had a screw hole in it, so I looked and found the screw (and washer) as well.

When I started the walk I wore a t-shirt and my thick coat, which provided nice padding for the bag straps and tripod carrying strap. But by the time I'd got to Lubenham I was pretty hot. I also wore a hat and gloves. I took the hat and gloves off for a bit, but my hands got too cold so I put the gloves on again. Although I was a bit hot, I wore the coat for quite a while, and only took it off after I'd walked along the canal. Without the coat I found that I was hot (although not as hot as I would've been with the coat on) inside and cold outside (though it doesn't really matter what your outside temperature is). I probably looked even wierder than I normally do walking along in a t-shirt and wearing black wooly(?) gloves in the cold.

After I got home I checked my email, hotukdeals, and deviantart. I also fixed my tripod, which took quite a long time as it was very fiddly to get the screw in the correct place and then screw it back in. I transferred the .gpx file and the .NEFs to my PC as well.

After dinner I processed the NEFs to JPEGs, and sorted/processed a couple of them. Then Ben finished his homework, so me, Mac and Ben watched Lost. Then me and Mac watched IACGMOOH.

The weather today was cloudless with a blue sky and was quite cold, in the shade ice and frost didn't melt. In the early evening you could see the Venus and Jupiter again.

Food
Breakfast: Bowl of Frosties; cup o' tea.
Lunch: Cheddar cheese sandwich; banana; apple pie; Tesco fake caramel Rocky; cup o' tea.
Dinner: Toad in the hole; mustard; gravy; potatoes; green beans; carrots. Pudding was: jam swiss roll; jam; custard. Coffee; Sainsbury's caramel chocolate.
Supper: cup o' tea; malted milk; choc chip cookie.