Final inductions and Ruddington

My inductions at university are now complete. All but two of them were general information talks about the library, the online workspace, travel opportunities, etc.; the remaining two were about English and Media. I have the rest of the week free for the most part before I begin lectures and seminars for my course next week.

As this afternoon was mostly sunny, I used my free time to catch up on some exercise by walking to Ruddington, with the Rushcliffe Country Park being my intended destination. My first visit to the park was in September of last year and until today, I had not returned for a second visit, despite visiting Ruddington since. Yes, a venture to the Rushcliffe Country Park was indeed appropriate.

This is one of the many paths in the park; this particular path is located near to the wooded area along the northwestern boundary.

In this wooded area was this animal sculpture, made from wood and tyres. I think it's a hedgehog? Either that or another rodent coming out of its lair.

Near the centre of the park is this lake, where ducks, fish and swans all reside. The area contains signs that note a ban on feeding bread to the ducks, citing that doing so is of no nutritional value to them and that uneaten bread pollutes the lake.

In addition, I also briefly wandered into the Rushcliffe Fields Business Park, which is home to the Ruddington campus of Central College Nottingham. The business park is within the boundaries of the country park, even though it contains private property.

Once I'd seen the Ruddington campus I walked back to and around the lake and began my trek back up to Clifton. I would estimate, depending on weather and traffic, that it takes about 45 minutes to reach the Rushcliffe Country Park from my accommodation by foot, so it's an excellent walk.

Without water

Sometime before or at sunrise, a major water main burst in an area slightly to the northwest of Nottingham. As a result, those of us living in the towns in villages to the south of this main were without tap water all day. I had to travel to my aunt's house for a shower this evening so that I wouldn't have to worry about not showering for two days when I attend college tomorrow.

Fortunately, for the past couple of hours the water has gradually been restored. It was an inconvenience not having water for much of the day but that's all it was: an inconvenience.

The bottle

Usually when I'm out, such as at college or on my walks, I carry a bottle of water with me. The bottle that I've had for much of my course was destroyed during the half-term break. After I drained two smaller bottles during my recent Wollaton walk, I bought this:

It's a two-litre bottle of water, which is double the size of the two smaller bottles combined. Now, whenever I'm embarking on one of my long walks it will be more difficult for me to run out of water; I drained my original bottle on my most recent Hucknall hike.

And here is the bottle through the HDR filter of the Snapseed app.

Dark Trent

My grandfather and I were out for a bit last night bat watching. While out, I photographed the Trent:

I've never seen the Trent this close before at nighttime; I used the low light setting on my phone for this capture.

The foggy afternoon

My grandfather and I went for a short hike yesterday afternoon. This is the foggy view over the River Trent:

The path on which we were walking, which is located between 50-100 feet above the river, was filled with fog. It wasn't overwhelming but it still made for an all the more interesting walk!

Over the Trent and enhanced

I took the following image a week ago:

It's of a view looking over the Trent and nearby farmland. As you can see, seven days ago it was bright and sunny, whereas today we've had nothing but rain.

Here's the picture again:

I used the HDR filter on the Snapseed phone app to enhance the image. What do you think?

Ducks in white water

My grandfather and I visited Holme Pierrepont this afternoon. We watched these two ducks - likely a mating pair - peck food from the bottom of the white water course area:

I didn't photograph the couple together; they were both too busy eating to move closer to each other.

Holme Pierrepont was busy today; there was a boating event taking place. The event was over before we finished our walk around the main water area.

Such a pleasant day

The weather today has been spectacular; see these views overlooking the Trent. I took these when out on a walk with my grandfather:

This beautiful weather isn't expected to last long, however; we're supposed to be receiving rain soon.

Two river scenes

Here are two pictures from the walk Dad, my brother and I went on yesterday:

Both pictures look towards a weir on the River Trent. For the first picture, we followed a path along the side of the river until we reached a part where the path was blocked; in the second, we were on the view point near the weir. We watched a water bottle and a log get washed over the weir and into the white water.

I was disappointed to see a lot of trash on the path. Some of it had been washed from upstream, like the aforementioned water bottle, but much had just been thrown on the spot by litter-happy people.

The glass of water

I photographed this glass; one of these images has been enhanced:

The unenhanced picture alone is pretty impressive. Now see it through Snapseed's HDR filter:

It looks amazing! Despite what I said before about not wanting to use enhancements too much, I honestly do love the effects the app generates.

Nottingham day visit July 2014 (2)

Here are some pictures from yesterday when my parents, my Hong Kong uncle and I walked around the Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre:

This is the main rowing area, taken from a pier at the south-western end of the water. There were a few rowers present.

This goose posed for us; she was still standing there when we walked away. She's similar to the goose who I use as my blog profile's avatar!

This is the whitewater kayaking slalom course/training area. There was only one person on the course when we were walking through this zone.

 This is where the River Trent flows into the watersports facility.

This is the previous image again, except this time through an HDR filter. I used an app called Snapseed, which my uncle recommended, to obtain this effect. I like it, but what do you think?

We all enjoyed yesterday. We'll see my Hong Kong uncle again at Christmastime.

Wet rose

The red rose in our front yard has produced this beautiful flower:

It rained this morning, hence the water. I am delighted that there is no trace left of the blackspot infection; this is a completely healthy rose plant now.

Shining, not overflowing

I walked past this river today and I thought it would be good to post another picture of it:

The flow was steady and the water wasn't overflowing; it's been several months since I last saw this river look this clear and stable. This picture does not fully capture how shiny the river is in person at the moment on a bright day.

The tennis match and the boat race

Today was a quieter day than yesterday. I spent the morning with my grandmother watching a tennis match. The tennis match in question was a Davis Cup quarter-final match between Andy Murray of the United Kingdom and Fabio Fognini of Italy. Fognini defeated Murray in straight sets, which wasn't surprising; Murray had been ill earlier this week and was exhausted due to a doubles match from yesterday, and Fognini is as an excellent player on a clay court, on which this game was played. While Murray was beaten handily, it was still a pleasant match to watch.

In the evening, my grandmother and I watched the 2014 boat race between the university cities of Cambridge and Oxford. The two cities hold an annual boat race between their respective universities. Oxford were victorious in 2014's race, defeating Cambridge in a landslide (or a waterslide?).

I don't follow sports but if I'm at my grandparents' house, it's a quiet day and my grandmother is watching sports, I'll watch them with her, especially if it's tennis.

Trent from a hill

My grandfather and I went for a bit of a hike this afternoon, going for a walk up a nearby hill. I took this picture:

The river over to the left is the Trent and the areas surrounding it are mostly farmland, although there are some paths and woodlands down by the banks. Prior to today, I had not been up this particular hill, but I had walked on one of the paths near the river itself.

Kettle blue

This is the kettle when it boils water:

The lights at the base illuminate the water, which photographed at the right moment almost give the appearance of blue fire or plasma rather than liquid.

Overflowing

Around a year ago, I wrote about a stream (which my brother later told me was actually a river, but never mind) here and here. Would you agree that the water level wasn't too high and had a fairly gentle flow? Well, this is it at the moment:

All the rain has caused this tributary to overflow and, as evidenced by the colour of the water, to begin eroding its banks. I can assure you that it is the same river as the one pictured in the above links, it just hasn't been this full or strong before. At any rate, this river's overflow is nothing compared to the areas of this country that are currently flooding.

A bridge

My last post about the park we visited two days ago involves a picture of this bridge:

The bridge crosses a stream located near the bulls. The stream is narrow and looks as though it could easily be jumped over if someone didn't want to use the bridge. The bridge makes a slightly disconcerting clunking sound when you step onto it; because of this, I'm glad the drop from the bridge into the stream is very low!

This picture, plus the four taken in the previous two posts, were all done with my phone. As this was in a shaded area, my phone's camera had some trouble in the lower light.

Phone pouch

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my phone's bumpers. Today, I'd like to write about my phone's pouch:

Whenever I carry my phone around, I place it in this pouch, with the device still being held inside its tyre bumper. I don't like having the phone bounce around the inside of my pockets, where it could get damaged, especially on its camera; the handset wasn't cheap...I'm happy to invest a little in its safekeeping!

I was inspired to write about this because, yesterday, my brother got caught in a massive and sudden downpour, and he wasn't wearing a waterproof jacket. His clothes were soaked but his pouch, which is a thicker pouch that the one for my phone, protected his phone from the water. Granted, the pouch wouldn't be much good if he jumped in a pool but it was adequate for the burst of rain. He was soaked!

The sludge

The last image in my Alyn Waters Country Park post contained an orange stream. I also wrote about another image, one that was taken by my brother, that looked as though it were a picture of sludge:

According to my grandfather, yellow ochre — a hydrated iron salt — in the ground, along with contaminants washed out from the nearby landfill, created this mess and caused the stream to turn orange.