Cosford airshow...

The Cosford airshow is a yearly event. People travel countrywide to spectate. The resulting chaos locks up the roads for miles around. I long since gave up queueing, and instead, have found a convoluted route through the maze of country lanes to get to within 5 mins walking distance. This way I miss all the traffic, park for free, and no, I'm not saying how you get there! Once there, we don't go inside, but instead head to a grassy mound known to die hards and locals alike. The air force give us the wink and allow us to watch for free....

Where we watch is at the far end of the airfield. The view is partly obscured by an embankment and the occasional tree, but it means that often on their approach aircraft fly right over your heads (it is outlawed to fly over the crowd in Europe, too many people got mashed!). Also this is where the Chinook sits to warm up.....grab everything, it's taking off!

Military aircraft were pretty thin on the ground, (not sure that expression works with aircraft) probably due to all the war and stuff. Still, ladies glued to bi-planes will have to do.

Could they get any closer?!

The glue comes unstuck and she clings on for dear life!

The Red Arrows are always popular. Fly with precision and crash with style.

One year, down south, they managed to clip a 20ft mast on one of the yachts in the harbour! He lost his no claims bonus and everything.

The Red Arrows display was cut short because some one in a microlight chugged their way into the military airspace! Did he not notice it was busier than normal? He was lucky he didn't get knocked out the air by jet wash. Ushered away with a specially adapted large rolled newspaper, the show continued.

Flying in tight formation was their forte, but when I went to press my shutter button...Whoosh! A spectacular split, peeling off in every direction. It's a conspiracy. That can be the only explanation. They know when I've just switched the camera off, and they know when I'm just about to press the button!

The gorgeous looking Spitfire. During the second World War these were manufactured at a site about 4 miles from where I live. The test pilots were apparently quite reckless and often flew through the hangers!

The 'Eurofighter', or it's preferred name, the 'Typhoon' shot past with an exhaust note that jibbled your innards about.

What were they thinking calling it a 'eurofighter'? It sounds like something you would put down to kill cockroaches! 'Typhoon', now, that's a proper name, you could do some damage with one of those....

Upside down, at low level, with the afterburners on, now that's fun. "I'll just see if I can get it through that hanger!"

This plane spent most of the time being blurred or getting small quickly. It was very fast and agile. A lot of the time I didn't know even where it was until it had past!

Air show cont'd.....

I never used to like the RAF parachute team display when I was a kid, but now I've got my own parachute, it suddenly seems more interesting. Still, that label that was attached to it troubles me...."Certified scrap, All liabilities denied, all explosives removed safely". It's nice to know it's not going to blow up, but I won't be jumping out of any planes with it!

The well choreographed display, declined into an out and out race. I don't know whether they had a bet or whether they could just see the beer tent!

Helicopters, I like these. They stay put so you can photograph them.

Tornados are great. They are swing wings so are constantly changing shape.

The nose is pointing at the ground, and you've got the afterburners on?! Are you sure that's right?

Are you sure you shouldn't be pulling up now? Are you sure you're sure?!

Maybe the ectoplasm is obscuring the ground. Yes, it is called ectoplasm! Yes, I know they had it in 'Ghostbusters'! You'll have to go and look it up then....

A quick tug of the handbrake and he levels out. You can tell it was a humid day, as the wing tip pressure leaves condensation trails.

A Wasca plane flies high overhead, probably keeping an eye out for more microlights.

There were three Tornados flying simultaneously. They make a great noise when there is so many.

I love some of the WW2 fighters, they have such a dynamic look. For a 60 year plus plane he's still throwing it about a bit!

A Dakota (I think) comes into land (no, maybe not a Dakota, it's got English markings; I don't know) and so ends the show. Back to my secret parking place and bypass the traffic home...

Just a walk in the woods.....

Nature was calling..No, I don't mean that way, (I went before I came out!). It was sunny and I had not had chance to get out into the greenery for a while.

This is the old mill site near the village of Hints. I love the sign on the way into the village, "Hints, please drive carefully", I took the 'hint' as there were lots of Gatsos.

The main dam still survives, one of the few features not too overgrown. Many of the leats and courses don't reveal themselves until you're up to your waist in mud!

Black brook used to feed the mill, but now meanders unimpeded. The banks are lined with Himalayan Balsam (a foreign invader), the bees and damsel flies seem to like it, but it swamps everything else out and when it dies back in winter leaves the banks bare and open to erosion.

A flash of blue! A small bird flies low to the water along the length of the stream and perches on a branch right next to me. It's a Kingfisher! I'd just switched my camera off and tucked it away safe in my rucksack. Scrabbling at my bag I found the camera. The brightly coloured chap sat there gently bobbing on his perch looking amused at my frantic antics. Got my camera....starting up...'Welcome'....don't welcome me, just switch on! On, zoom in, focus,..press button. Got it!

Yes! I'd got it. This perfectly framed, close up picture of where a Kingfisher once sat.

I took a step back to see where it had gone, (((Crunch))) I hadn't noticed my picnic falling out of my bag and now I'd stomped it into the mud! This chap knew what he was doing, I reckon he'd played this trick before. He's going on the list!

Knowing that Kingfishers tend to use the same fishing post regularly, I hung around for a while. In the meantime I contented myself by taking some pics of Emerald Damsel flies on the far bank.

These made a nice change from the blue ones that I see when kayaking. Often they end up in the water while 'fighting' with their reflections. It is always a race to save them before a Chubb gives them a nasty suck. I say suck, because they never get eaten, they must taste bad as they get spat out almost immediately. The nose of the kayak is employed as drying area and recovery room.

The farmer and his dog....How many times has this fooled me? It's just a couple of tree stumps! The first time had been in winter, late afternoon and it was going dark. I had wandered off the path and didn't want a remonstration with an irate farmer telling me to get off his land. I waited ages for him to go, what the hell is he doing? Why can't he go away? Eventually I could wait no longer. I felt such a berk when I realised my mistake.

What I thought was his waist, is an iron band left over from a protective cage. Ironic, that the cage that was put there to save damage from livestock, 150 years later probably killed it!

I remembered to take the high ground. The lower meadow looks beautiful, but beware! This must have been the mill pool at one time. Skipping merrily among the wild flowers, I once found myself stranded on a small tussock, an island among what seemed a minefield of peaty bog holes. Unable to quite remember the route in, (too busy skipping) it took me ages to pick my way out.

This once used to be part of the Canwell estate. At the turn of time there used to be a priory, secreted amongst the trees in a huge hollow, (I found the ruins a while ago, they're creepy, posting in the off!) this was superseded by a great hall. Eventually this developed into a farming estate, and in the 1800's in the land grab of the enclosures, much of the previous 'common land' was fenced off. Many of the richest estates had this distinctive iron fencing. Inheritance tax, designed to bring about the demise and unfairness of these big estates, led to the Canwell lands being distributed as small holdings to deserving returning first world war soldiers. Grandeur's such as stone gate posts, mills and this railing are gradually being consumed by nature.

The sun was fierce and the incline tiring as I completed the arduous final leg to my picnic destination. The hill steepened (as often they do as you get older), but just when I'd had enough, the path levelled out and the soft grass invited me to sit a while....

A lovely spot that photos can never do justice, (especially when your camera battery has gone flat!). Rolling hills to the east, firs and fields as far as 'crows castle' (a hill topped with a mound and a circle of Scots pines where the buzzards now roost) to the west.

Now, where's that food....Oh look, really thin sandwiches, and lots of tiny, tiny crisps!

WHAT THE HE*!!?! IS THAT???!....

I was out in the back garden lying out on the grass, when I spotted Venus. It was daytime but it still showed up as a tiny pin prick of light. I tried to photograph it, but even at 35x it doesn't look much.

I had a go at taking some pics of a jet up at cruising height, where the sky begins to turn that darker blue.

I lay back and considered my next target, when I noticed a little black line in the sky. It was slightly curved and at first I thought it was a buzzard up high. The line shrank to a dot, and then stretched out to a line once more. It was something long, tumbling and rotating, giving the illusion of changing shape. Desperately I tried in vain to train the camera at it, but there was nothing to reference the position to. Eventually I decided to put the zoom at full optical (35x), point roughly in the right direction and perform a crude 'raster scan' of whole area. Bingo! There it was!....

To all the world it looked like a modelling balloon....

...but this was big! When I first spotted it, it had passed above the con trail of the passenger jet that I photoed at the same magnification. Logic dictates that this was as long or longer than the jet plane!

I've seen planets, meteors, glints from satellites and often seen weather balloons, but nothing like this. If it was some sort of huge wacky weather balloon where was all the equipment that normally hangs down below? The way it was tumbling wouldn't have allowed anything like that without getting tangled.

It was a real struggle keeping the thing in frame at that zoom, my arms were starting to ache.

Any movement would cause the object to skip about, so I held the shutter button firmly down with the camera clacking away taking five pictures a second!

With the SD card rapidly filling up, I switched to video downloading to the hard drive. With all the messing about with buttons, the object fell out of frame. Damn..... Oh, there it was, got it back again...relief!

Now on movie I attempted to zoom in further, 50x, 80x, 100x, 150x...No it was all too much, I just couldn't hold it steady enough.

The last three pictures were lifted from video. I was a little disappointed that the higher magnification pics didn't come out very clear, this was because I didn't have time to bump up the shutter speed to max. So these were the best that I could get.

I have absolutely no idea what this thing was. All I can say was that it did exist (I saw it with the naked eye as well as the camera), it was grey black, shiny (the sun glinted off it, but didn't shine through it), it wasn't powered (it tumbled in the direction of the prevailing wind, but slower), it had no markings and had nothing attached to it. If you know what it is then let me know, cos I'm stumped.

"Ghost" hunting...

As I've explained before, I often study maps, scrutinising them for any detail that might point to something interesting. Frequently I use maps of altering ages and manufacturers, hoping that they might trip themselves up and reveal something unintended. More and more I've begun to notice what looks like 'deliberate' mistakes. I offer two examples and satisfy my own curiosity that these are definite additions or alterations to map data. I know this area well, this is why I first recognised this anomaly. There is no trackway/ driveway, I'm sure. This map is from the "A to Z" series.

On a detailed "Ordnance Survey" map, there is no such track! The only way that I can be completely sure is to go and see for myself....

I walked up and down for ages. Double checked the position with my GPS. Nothing! These houses have been here for several decades, there were no dropped kerbs or anything to indicate the existence of a drive past or present. This track seems to be a complete fabrication by the map manufacturers.

This second example took me longer to spot, as it is quite subtle. On the Ordnance survey map, again nothing amiss, apart from maybe the cliff could be marked a little more clearly as I've nearly tumbled off this more than once!

Yet on another map, "Beacon Heights" mobile home park falsely appears on the East side of Pinfold Lane, not the West. This 'mistake' isn't due to limitations of presentation, as there is plenty of space to display the details correctly. These 'mistakes' are far too obvious to be genuine and are repeated on each map edition after edition. Looks like I'll have to check this one out too....

This is Barr Beacon. It is the nearest place to park. It is a great high ridge (barr), where warning beacons used to be lit, hence Barr Beacon. This bandstand houses one of Britain's many Ordnance Survey triangulation points, and can be seen as a distinctive landmark for miles around.

There are great views from here. You can see Birmingham, Walsall, the hills of the 'Black' country, on a clear day even the Malvern hills. During the day is pleasant, but at night it is spectacular. Apparently, looking north east, the next highest point is the Ural mountains in Russia, although I would take this so called fact with a 'pinch of salt' as I've never researched this. It might be one of those frequently bandied facts such as Birmingham having more miles of canals than Venice, I just don't know!

From here I walked down the hillside to the old section of Bridle Lane, abandoned as a road due to its steepness (photos never do justice to inclination) some forty years ago.

This skirted round the base of the cliffs. The sign says "DANGER, unstable cliff face", fair enough, but to read it you have to get so close that you're standing right underneath the "unstable cliff face"!

Eventually I got to Pinfold Lane. This view looking south, clearly indicates the mobile home park is on the west side of the lane!

Conclusion.... I believe that these anomalies are 'ghosts' introduced into the map datum in order to reveal unauthorised duplication and therefore maintain copyright. A bit of a bummer if you're trying to find Beacon Heights mobile home park though!

I would like to know, is this purely a British phenomenon, or is this technique used worldwide? Comments gratefully received...

On return to the car, I encountered this fenced off area on the top of the barr. The sign reads "Barr Beacon Beeches. Planted by Sir Joseph Scott, Bart, of Great Barr Hall, circa 1799".

It looked familiar....

These railings have been replaced, the previous ones having been vandalised and bent. Although over ten years ago, I'm sure one day the culprit will be caught.....you know who you are!!!