Thursday, 10th February: I had to do some shopping today for an upcoming birthday, now normally I would cycle in, it is quite possible to do some reasonable shopping and carry it home on a bicycle - but I had two problems. The first was that it was raining and the second more important one was that I didn't know what to get. Now this was shopping in Cambridge so despite the rain I still figured it would be easier to get the bus into the centre to avoid getting too wet.
So no cycling, but I did take my camera (smallest one) with me just in case. As I was walking out the spring flowers deserved a few pictures before I left the garden. Unfortunately I must have been in a hurry or I was not really paying much attention to the camera when taking the pictures. All of them are somewhat blurry. I think that it was partially the light, it as rather gloomy and partially that I was not holding the camera properly. With my Panasonic although it is possible to look at the picture on the screen I prefer to use the viewfinder. It shows the picture through the lens (albeit on a mini-LCD screen inside the camera) - my compact camera has a viewfinder but it just looks in the general direction. So these were taken at a wobbly arm's length.
What I ought to do, if I have a few minutes to spare is use a tripod and check to ensure that the focus is where it should be. Still you'll get the picture - even if it is rather blurry. We have a few flowers out in the garden - here is a rather nice little miniature Iris pooping up through the remains of last year's Beech leaves.
I know I have Posted picture of this year's Snowdrops already - but here are some more. They seem to be popping up all over the garden at the moment. Actually the weather here is also quite warm and pleasant around 10C - here is the link to today's Cambridge DTG weather charts. I am sure there was more rain than the few little blips shown on the rainfall graph.
We also have Aconites popping up.
And Crocus - this is the grottiest of the flower pictures I think, This is way worse than "could do better". Still there will be other opportunities. We also have purple ones flowering but those pictures were even worse than this one.
The small boy in me still likes to sit on the top deck and look out of the front window when on the bus and today was no exception. Mind you I have been "teaching" my daughter to drive (she also has lessons). As a result I found myself sitting in the bus watching the traffic carefully thinking about braking points and watching for hazards. All I can say is he braked later than I would have on a couple of occasions and got way too close, for my liking, to a couple of cyclists in a cycle lane at one point. Mind you I have never driven anything as large as a double-decker bus and I guess it has its own challenges, especially as they have timetables to stick to as well.
As I was walking down Market Street I noticed that the Council have introduced two-tier cycle parking - now that is a good way of increasing the number of spaces for bicycle after all, getting people to switch from cars to bicycles can only help to reduce traffic congestion, pollution and ease parking for the hard-done by residents who find other people parking in the street outside their houses (on the public road).
What it does show is that despite all the PR Cambridge is still short of cycle parking The two bikes locked to the bollard could be just lifted off - that is how desperate people are to park their bikes.
This is the cycle park next to Drummer Street Bus Station - not quote so over-flowing - but full and there were bikes parked "improperly".
The good new is I did find something for a present - although it was not as inspiring as I would have liked - ho hum - it is the thought that counts.
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