It was nice weather on Saturday..

which leads to us taking a long walk. Actually not a long long one, as it was just over the hills from Lodge Moor to Hathersage, a walk of about 9km.
From the flat to Lodge Moor its a 10min bus ride towards peak district. Which was our starting point, and before you reach Hathersage you both pass Redmires reservoir and Stanage Edge.
As usual I was looking and listening for the wildlife, but during this time of year it is rather 'dead' and so it was that day too.
At the Stanage Edge it was rather windy, but with +10C in air it didn't matter that much, and along the edge its self, there was a lot of hikers and climbers.
Due to the wind and the exposure of the location it was here you could clearly see the victims that the latest storms had claimed.
From the Stanage Edge its just straight downwards to Hathersage which was our final stop. As the weather was really nice, we enjoyed tea in the sunshine and the pleasant warmth of spring.

The pics is taken with Nikon 3Ds and Nikon 50mm 1.8D lens.
                                                                        

Kingfisher

At last, the storms and rainfall seems to have died out, and I have ventured out on photo adventure again :)
As you probably have seen on the news, it has been Very windy and rainy here for the past few months. To be honest, some of the days it has been ok weather for few hours, but I have since not had the energy and inspiration to take photographs.
So yesterday and today I have been down to a valley where I 've seen the kingfisher the whole winter and it was still there. Yesterday I didn't manage to get any good pictures of it at all, so I tried again this morning and it went much better. I positioned myself so that I could photograph it while it was sitting on one of his favorite branches that are quite high up above the water. You can clearly see that it is one of its favourites because of all the marks from its claws. Obviously I had the camouflage on otherwise it's impossible to get closer than 5 - 6m.
During the three hours I was there, it only sat on the branch 3 times! I would have liked to be there longer, but my back was beginning to hurt as I was standing the whole time. The camera was on the tripod rather high up so I could get on the same level as the kingfisher.
I will try next time, perhaps already tomorrow but it depends on the weather, to try and get some pictures while it is hunting and diving into the water.
                                                                         

The Kingfisher sitting on one of its favorite branches



A weekend in Luxembourg

During this weekend we were off to Luxembourg to visit my wife's family. I had in advance checked out some sightseeing location so that we would have enough for the weekend.
The Friday was more or less devoted to traveling so when eventually arriving we were just hoping that Saturday and Sunday would have nice weather so that we could manage the list :) As you can hear, there was no such thing. It was windy and the rain was pouring down, actually sideways. Beside Notre-Dame Cathedral and walk by the Palace of the Grande Dukes, we did some cafes, restaurants and window shopping.
That evening I had my first ever frog legs, was a bit sceptical but they were actually really nice. Not much meat on them, but rather tasty. A mix between white fish and chicken :)

Little bit about Luxembourg, due to its laws and taxing regulations its a paradise for banks. A paradise for more than 200 banks! The population is around 100 000 but each day there are around 200 000 more coming in from rest of Luxembourg but also from surrounding countries such as France and Germany.

Hoping for better weather next time, so that I have more to show you here. The pictures that I took this time are few but well, at least something :)



                                                                          

Palace of the grand dukes

Notre-dame cathedral

Notre-dame cathedral

Nice chair