The rain weeks.

So my flat started leaking again this week. Its not the first time it has happened. If you remember the last time the rain was pummeling your face like Mike Tyson, then this was the first time the flat decided to abandon its usual guard. Instead opting for more aquatic pastime and showering me lightly with water.

With this new aquatic abode I still found a few days to pop out and have a few pleasant walks around the the Caldew have made the weeks a bit more bearable.

With the rain giving us much of our news it also played upon me to. I have recently bought my self a new toy. A beautiful 10 stop filter for my 14mm. It is a huge piece of kit for what is is. It is about 165mm square, barely fitting into my hand at full stretch. I spend a good few hours wondering up and down the river trying to find the best stop to take some practice shots. 

I stopped by the weir and though that it was perfect to show me what a 10 stop can do. So after setting up and getting my feet wet in the river, I pressed the shutter button and stood well back as not to interfere with.

This shot here was a long time around 15mins long. This gave me time to reflect on the river and the small beach I had found my self upon. 

'Beach' in the UK, I felt that it was a beach of inconvenience. Full of unruly pebbles and stones which try to upturn you and bury your face into its friends.

Trying to return for the next day was rendered impossible as work, lectures and worsening weather took its toll on, not only me, but my days out. 

The rain abated for a few days and I managed to sneak out between the brief flourishes of rain and gale like winds. This time I was on the look out for birds. Again the Caldew beckoned me to its muddy and slippy shores. The temptation this time was for Waxwings, having had them spotted in that direction. 

I mentioned this to a fellow birder in passing and he suggested that we take a look. The essentials, (basically a pair of binoculars each), grabbed and stuffed into rucksacks we started once more down the Caldew. 

Unofrtunatly for both of us the heavens had decided that we would not see anything that day, as the winds and rain had kept all but the most fool hard of creatures in the dry. So we were the fool hardy creatures along with a few cyclists, whom offered us valuable information on Otters and Kingfishers. Having told us that he had heard, 'A duck quack. while I was eating my pie. Out the corner of my eye saw it disappear.' We were not a lucky as that otter in finding something to see and then eat. Giving up the search of the Waxwings we walked back in the ever depressing rain.