The Royal International Air Tattoo.

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Here in England we are continuing to have great weather. Enjoying the country side, walking and discovering new places to visit. We had friends from NZ pop into see us, Dave and Jan Goldsack with another couple, who were traveling around the area. A really nice catch up and a chance to show them some of the wonderful places that we walk and visit. I do love catching up with people from home when we are away.

One of my highlights has been the Royal International Air Tattoo held at Fairford Air Force Base. An amazing day, with Pete, Simon and Kevon, watching Jets, Bombers, Transporters, Helicopters, Stunt Jets, and demonstrations of a fantastic variety of planes, old and new, from all over the world and from many different countries. Watching a jet go past at up to 2500 ks and hour within 200/400 metres barely above ground level is very awe inspiring and the sound is quite deafening.I managed to click off well over 60 photo's with some actually managing to catch a plane in frame. The rest consisted mainly of lovely blue sky and the odd cloud. A photographer of fast planes, I'm not.

This past week Helen, Pete, Di and I headed down to Newquay in Cornwall to visit Di and Petes cousin, Charles. We had a magic meal, quite a few refreshments, and caught up with all the family gossip along with stories of past present and future happenings. Chris and Karen, along with one of their sons, came over from Truro and spent the evening as well,so great to catch up with them again as its been 16 years since they spent time with us in NZ.

Helens Mum, Margaret has come up to spend time here and it's great to catch up. We had a nostalgia night when we headed into Frome to watch Leo Sayer preform. I wasn't to sure how it would be as he is 70 now but it was a blast. Couldn't stop taping, bopping and moving while singing along. I had forgotten how many good songs he had.

We have a lot of things to do yet and places to go, people to meet and talk to be talked. Pip/Rod

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Photos

Dining Outside.
A beautiful evening with Simon, Pete, Di, Georgie, Alex and Helen all enjoying the great weather.

A Lovely Red
Enjoying the evening.

Slow Cooked Lamb.
So nice.

A Nice Drop.
Di loves her sav.

Formation Flying.
Brilliant. Hard to catch properly due to the pace and distance.

Waiting For Planes.
Simon, Kevon and Pete. Such a hot day. Certainly needed the umbrella.

So Fast And So Noisy
Wow. I got it. Not a great pic but better than 90% of my photo's that had nothing but clouds or blue sky.

The Old and The New.
Euro Fighter Typhon escorted by Spitfires. I think it may be the other way around.

A Serious Helicopter
Heaps of this sort of thing on show, big, small, and some quite weird looking machines.

Is It Sky.
Yes, but there are 2 tiny planes, Vampires, in there somewhere. Another of my many shoot and nearly miss photos. The pilots flying these were from Norway.

Two Oldies.
A Dakota and one of the two last Lancasters. Even these did some manoeuvres that I thought would be impossible. An enjoyable day.

Cousins In Newquay, Cornwall.
Charlie, Pete, Diane and Chris.. A great night.

Di And Charlie.
Deep in discussion. Catching up on news of the family in NZ and whats been happening in UK.

The Cornish Coast.
Such a magic coast line.

Beautiful Port Issac.
This is were the TV series "Doc Martin" is filmed. It really is a lovely spot.

Port Issac.
Wandering the streets of this old fishing village is great. It's just gets the imagination going about the history.