Four Seasons In One Day

Well I certainly saw that today, with perhaps the exception of spring. Leaving home at four o’clock as the day begins, silently closing the bedroom door, I and another climbing/ photography companion set off for Cader Idris. (N.B. He set off from his own bedroom 120 miles away, just in case you were wondering….) Its quite a long trip to do in a day, there and back with an ascent and descent thrown in once we get there. I added to my tally of kill’s on the way there, with two dozy Pheasants, that wandered out into ‘Suicide Alley’ Near to Dinas Mwaddy. That adds to the total over the past few years of numerous rabbits, pheasants, a badger and a horse. Such are the pleasures of rural driving in the small hours. The climb up was good a realtively quick ascent to our vantage point lugging our cameras and day gear with us. For once the Met men got it right, and throughout the morning the effect of the Polar Maritime air mass made its presence felt, with a significant temperature drop and the high winds ripping through us on our somewhat exposed ledge. Just at the cloud line we occaisionally got glimpses of brilliant autumn colours in the valleys below as occaisional shafts of sunlight broke through the cloud layers.

At mid day the back of the cold front passed with one of the heaviest rain storms I have ever been out in, visibility dropped to yards and it was like being in a car wash. Both of us had camera gear out, neither of them ‘winterized’, putting them away would mean the rest of the gear getting soaked too. The wind veered through 180 degrees and was now full in our faces, the rain mixed at this altitude with soft hail. At this point the descent became a priority, instead of getting a yellow taxi ride off the hill and our own entry in the SAR idiots register 2007. We were fortunate in making a rapid descent to get to the cars so we could change out of our soaked gear and get the cameras into a dry environment. This we were able to do and this evening after a gentle drying out, all are fully serviceable, real testament to the quality of the Eos20D and 1DmkII, and their lens’.

Needless to say once back down the weather continued breaking, by this time the gear was to wet for a further ascent, and the effects of the cold morning would have made it uncomfortable and potentially risky. Common sense took charge and we returned home, a 400 mile round trip with not one snap taken, the things we do for art….

Not an entirely wasted day as far as photography goes though, awaiting me at home in the ‘inbox’ was a request to use one of my pictures in a national mag, so that was nice….

The 40 and 50ft HO freight cars arrived yesterday, all of them by Kadee, and of superb quality. You do pay a bit more for these models but then quality rarely comes cheap.

I’ve still a few more British items to complete, the most recent being a final weathering and toning down of this Bachmann 08. Always raises a grin this one, as despite several errors not least of which is the cab roof profile it gets a far warmer reception that other locos with similar errors don’t.