Some years ago on 'Wyenot News' I told the story of how I went into town to buy a Chinese takeaway without my camera and saw Margaret Lucas voluntarily painting a scruffy empty shop front, to make the town more attractive to visitors.

Genuine care for the town of Ross seems to be a family trait for the Lucas family. This photograph was sent in by Gordon Amand, who was walking through the Churchyard and spotted Councillor, Gordon Lucas tidying unwanted foliage from grave stones in the cemetery in his time off from Council business and running his family motorcycle business.

Ross town should be proud of the Lucas family!

The 'exciting,' he said, sarcastically, photo immediately below is of the Space Shuttle, Endeavour on mission STS-118, docked with the International Space Station as the two spacecraft passed directly overhead, as seen from Ross-on-Wye at 10:04 PM on Thursday, 9th August, travelling at 17,000 miles per hour. What does make the picture a little more exciting is the thought that there are twenty two people on board that tiny dot in space - fifteen on board the Space Station and seven on board Endeavour.

The two craft were visible for six minutes during the Thursday evening pass, which took a path from 10 degrees from west to 10 degrees from east, taking them virtually directly overhead, eclipsing at about 30 degrees above May Hill.

As Tina's son, Mike and I watched the objects rise in the West, we saw a brilliantly fiery display from the Perseids, which have also been at their peak this week. That was my second photographic mistake this week . . . I have to admit, due to laziness, I did not set up the wide angle camera to photograph the Space Station trail - I thought about it but could not be bothered. Had I done so, I would have caught the Space Station and Shuttle trail with at least the one brilliant Perseids meteor, just off to the left.

In case you are wondering what the other mistake was. Hiding, by lying face down in thistles so as not to be seen by the bird, I filmed a kingfisher at Backney for half an hour, for a film I am making; but I forgot to switch the recorder on. It has just not been a good week!

Continued . . .

The annual August Perseid meteor shower has been quite spectacular this year, producing some quite fiery displays as well as some fainter, plain 'shooting stars'. I took the wide angle camera out on Sunday evening to try and catch some.

During the early hours of Monday morning, the activity seemed to be centred south of the constellation of Cassiopeia - the 'W' shaped constellation looking north. Cassiopeia is plainly visible in the photo below with one Perseid - which looks fainter that it actually was as this was a 30 second exposure to bring out the stars.

Continued . . .

Footnote:
My run of photography misfortune has continued though and it has certainly NOT been a good week! With photographing the Perseids in mind, I set out to pick up Tina from work at the White Lion. I was going to take her with me to a darker location with a wider field of view but she was not finished, so I set up my camera equipment in the dark car park. When she did finish, I left the camera shutter open and went to show her the way out of the building with a torch. (It is difficult to see where to walk there once the pub lights are out.)

As we reached the car, I closed the camera shutter and took it off the tripod, handing it to Tina, to save packing it, for speed. I shut the tripod in the boot of the car, along with all the other equipment - and my car keys!

We did not make it to the darker location. Instead we had to walk the mile and a half up hill, home, as I am a useless car lock breaker. I was so angry. Using Anglo Saxon language most fluently, and loudly, I was trying to think who to blame, but in the end, it was myself that was the 'stupid xxxxing, xxxting, xxxxarding xxat!' that had caused the problem and all I could do was try to calm down.

I took the photo above from my garden at 1:00 am, laying the one remaining camera that Tina was holding, on a table with the shutter open whilst drinking a cup of tea and thinking, 'Bxxxocks. It's late and I have to be up in the morning 'cause the BBC want me to do a weather watch report on the radio.

Right. It's Monday morning. I have just done the BBC weather report after 5 hours sleep. I only had one car key so it's time to find somebody to break into my car for me - without throwing a brick through the window, this time!.

This week's 'Tina Dancing' photo was taken from quite a distance away through a telephoto lens at the Dark Side of the Moon' concert. I don't mind seeing Tina dancing from a long way off because there is less chance of getting collared to join in!

In the photo she can be seen doing the two things she does best - both at the same time - dancing and drinking pints of lager. Whilst filming, I was up on stage with a pint of tea. Honest Gov. The Riverside Inn thought a 'pint of tea' in a takeaway beer glass a strange request but then, they don't know me and my eccentric ways that well. They happily obliged however and very nice it was too.

The lady Tina is dancing with is Jane Lloyd. She is obviously as eccentric as we are - they were dancing to the tune, 'Brain Damage' (The lunatic is on the grass). Sounds about right!

GET YOUR LOCAL
BUSINESS FOUND!

BY ADVERTISING IN WYENOT NEWS

BUSINESS CARD SIZE, NO HYPERLINK - £10.00 PER MONTH

PICTURE WITH HYPERLINK - £20 PER MONTH

(Payable in advance. Page placement dependent on amount of
news during any one week.)

'Little Sister' provided an excellent evening of entertainment at the White Lion Inn on Saturday evening. We were hoping to catch more of Chrissie and John than we did, but due to filming Saturday's 'Jamstand' event we got held up.

When we arrived, the popular duo were about to begin their third set of terrific cover songs and people were soon up dancing again, demanding 'More' at the end of each song.

We hope to see you both again, soon.

Forest of Dean Brass provided Sunday afternoon's 'Bands in the Park' summer entertainment. Although rain had been predicted for Sunday, it actually turned out to be quite a reasonable day, with sunny periods and quite a few people gathered around the road side of the bandstand to listen.

As usual, Sunday afternoon was busy for me, so I just took the photo quickly and left but what I heard sounded very nice and the listeners seemed to be enjoying the concert.

DO YOU HAVE A STORY FOR WYENOT NEWS?

If you have a local news item or story you can submit it here
or call Alan or Tina on 01989 763217

There is no charge for publishing either news items or What's On Events
This is a Free Service for the local community!

Wyenot News, 1, Hillview Road, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. HR9 7EY

If you would like to order prints from Wyenot News photographs, please click here.

Prints are only available for photographs taken by Wyenot News (Not of those which have been sent in by readers).

Prints of 'people' photographs are only available to those directly involved in the news event covered. i.e. I do not sell prints of people to the general public.