Graduation

Graduation, originally uploaded by clivenutton.

This is me very happy at graduating in my FdSc Wildlife and Countryside Conservation course at Beverley Minster at the weekend. Now ready to clean up Gotham City.

What is it good for?

Airshard BW, originally uploaded by clivenutton.

Visited the Imperial War Museum North, in Manchester, today.

The brutal structure of the building matches that of its contents.

The Wedding Planners

Since coming back from our holidays, we've been busy, with much of our time spent planning our wedding in March next year.

Here are some photographic highlights:

I assisted as an instructor on a young people's outdoor activities residential near Windermere.


Late summer spiders in our back yard were so big we gave this one a name. Meet Gerald.


We attended Leeds Carnival with friends. "Curry goat all de way"!


We visited Newcastle upon Tyne to plan some wedding arrangements.

I completed some teaching work for the RSPB at their Fairburn Ings reserve near Castleford. Great bridge they've got there.


I completed the Outdoor Adventure Group's "Seaquest" charity race again. Photo by Jenny Horne.

We visited Alnwick in Northumberland to make more wedding plans and made a trip to see the Chillingham wild cattle.

Back from holidays

Just returned from 2 week's holidaying in the South West of England. We explored some classic English landscapes, wildlife and historic sites.

Here's the itinerary:

• Wiltshire

Avebury, Silbury Hill and Stonehenge, Salisbury cathedral and chalk downs. Got close views of buzzards and found a slow worm.

Silbury Hill

• Dorset

Cerne Abbas, Maiden Castle
Corfe Castle
The Jurassic Coast - Arne RSPB reserve, Durdle Door and Chesil Beach. Nine Kestrels in one spot near Abbotsbury.
Lyme Regis

Durdle Door

• Devon

Dawlish and the Teign and Exe estuaries - buzzards mobbing a peregrine falcon
Dartmoor and Hay Tor - ponies, newts and ravens

• Cornwall

The coast around Padstow, mackeral fishing, body boarding in the surf with my brother's family and Rick Stein's bistro.

Constantine Beach

• Oxfordshire

Staying with friends on the way home - the Fosse way and Rollright stones.

Part of the King's Men group, Rollright stones

Is that it?

Finished my Wildlife and Countryside FdSc course last week after 3 years of ups and downs.

Here's a picture of us all. Relieved at having completed.

Bamburgh Castle

Bamburgh Castle, originally uploaded by clivenutton.

We had a return trip to Northumberland over Easter to look at some possible wedding venues. However, this one wasn't available!

That London

British Museum roof, originally uploaded by clivenutton.

Went to the capital at the weekend for a friend's birthday and also a visit to the British Museum.

A decent proposal

Alnwick Castle LA, originally uploaded by clivenutton.

Old news to many now but some of you might be pleased to know that I got engaged over Christmas. This is a view of Alnwick Castle taken from the very spot I proposed. Since then, much of my time has been occupied with decorating and helping my beautiful fiancee to move in.