Possibly one of my favourite songs.

Elbow's One Day Like This is a piece of music I have loved since the first time I heard it.

Browsing YouTube, I found a performance of this song with the band and the BBC Concert Orchestra and Choir. This performance is absolutely awesome and moves me every time I hear it. Take a listen and see what you think.

Amazing Places a bit Closer to Home

Last week I posted a blog about places I had visited around the world, this time I thought I would show some photographs of amazing places a bit closer to home.

Some places I've been lucky enough to visit over the years.

Over the years I have been lucky enough to travel and visit some of the most amazing places in the world. Here are a few photographs.

The Hoover Dam

The Grand Canyon

Monument Valley

Bryce Canyon

 The Canadian Rockies

The Grand Teton Mountains near Jackson Hole

Arches National Park

Canyonlands, Utah

Camps Bay, Near Cape town

South African Winelands

Hoyt's Bay

All I can say is take the time to wander and explore, there are some amazing and beautiful places in the world take the time to appreciate them!

Summers here!!!!

After what could be described as one of the coldest springs in years , a fact confirmed by the Met Office, over the last two weeks summer has finally arrived. Temperatures especially over the last two weeks have peaked in the mid 20's and the days have been long and sunny if somewhat warm! Here a screen grab of the BBC weather website showing predicted temperatures due for the coming weekend.

I feel loath to moan about the heat, so i think I will comment about the British psyche instead. As far as the weather goes there must be a window of about 3 Celsius where a British person feels comfortable, I think this lies between about 18-21 C, any cooler and its freezing, any warming and I think your average Brit feels like they are melting.

But enough of moaning lets enjoy the amazing weather and enjoy the summer and local beautiful scenery whilst the good weather lasts. And maybe enjoy a cold drink before the sun goes down!

Sounds of Summer

So the last two weeks have finally been a little warmer and there is a hint that summer may be arriving.

The arrival of summer can only mean one thing the cricket season has begun and Test Match Special returns to the radio. Unfortunately these days, televised live cricket is only available on Sky Sports, I don't feel that I can justify the monthly subscription to this, so my cricket fix comes via live commentary on the radio. This summer is especially important for cricket fans the Ashes will contested again. So in a month I will be spending my weekends glued to my digital radio, hopefully hearing some enthralling cricket being described by the great voices of cricket such as Jonathan Agnew and Henry Blofeld and with expert summaries from the likes of Michael Vaughan, Phil Tufnell and Geoffrey Boycott. Here's to a successful summer for the England cricket team.

One other thing I love about TMS is occasionally things go wrong, with hilarious results as these to audio clips will show. One recent and one classic from many summers ago.

Chris Hadfield- A space oddity

Yesterday Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut, landed safely in a Soyuz spacecraft in Kazakhstan. He'd spent the last six months on the International Space Station, carrying out experiments, studying the effects of weightlessness on the body and uniquely, communicating with the world via Twitter and social media.

I discovered his Twitter feed about three months ago. Many times each day Commander Hadfield would share comments about his daily routine and tasks, but also he would post spectacular photographs taken from the ISS as it orbited the earth. His twitter feed can be found here. Here are a few of his images,I just love seeing how amazing the Earth looks from space!

Finally, before returning to Earth this recording of Space Oddity was posted to You Tube.

I'd just like to say to Commander Hadfield, thanks for keeping us all in touch with things on the ISS and I loved looking at the amazing images of Earth every evening. Hopefully a new crew member will carry on this work!

I took the hound to Hound Tor

Today is the middle of my week away from work, this year so far my leave has been blessed with good weather, the sun has come out and the temperature is finally warming up (about time too it is May Day after all).

Today I got up bright and early and drove up to Dartmoor. I felt that after a year the dog needed a change of scene during his walk. It was sunny and pleasant on the moor today with great visibility, you could see for miles. These are a few pictures from the trip.