Neil R Smith

iMac stand

neilrsmith — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 22:52:37 +0000

I bought a iMac stand for my iPhone. It’s great for using by my bedside and on my desk. Tweet

2010 images in one movie

neilrsmith — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 23:10:57 +0000

I took over 2,500 images on my iPhone in 2010. Here are most of them, all in one handy 7 minutes video. I used iMovie to drag and drop all the images into a project. Then, saved down as

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Snow in the garden

neilrsmith — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 16:33:17 +0000

Snow from Dixons Retail HQ

neilrsmith — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:48:58 +0000

Snow from Dixons Retail HQ, originally uploaded by neilrsmith. Tweet

Funny faces

neilrsmith — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 01:02:54 +0000

20101204_150055, originally uploaded by neilrsmith. James sees a funny face in the spoon reflection. Tweet

New curtains for the HAL

neilrsmith — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 13:28:35 +0000

Today, after 3 weeks waiting, I received the new curtains for the camper interior. I just need to get some fixing rods and they’ll be installed. Tweet

Camper pics

neilrsmith — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:16:03 +0000

VW Camper

neilrsmith — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 23:28:09 +0000

Finally got the camper I’ve had my eye on for a while. It’s a 1979 VW Camper Type 2 with the bay front. It’s already had loads done to it. Lowered suspension and new wheels, new interior with rock

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Hummingbird Hawk Moth

neilrsmith — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 17:17:21 +0000

Ilfracombe Harbour

neilrsmith — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:04:43 +0000

Lynton, Lynmouth and the Valley of the rocks

neilrsmith — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 22:26:08 +0000

Croyde beach

neilrsmith — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 22:17:17 +0000

RHS at Rosemoor

neilrsmith — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 21:56:38 +0000

Veggie progress in Spring

neilrsmith — Wed, 19 May 2010 21:01:38 +0000

The veggie garden is starting to show signs of a good crop. I’m shocked by how many carrots have sprouted. They didn’y to be shooting and so I sowed again and now I have too many. I should really

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James gets a bike

neilrsmith — Wed, 05 May 2010 01:21:21 +0000

We have been looking around for the last few months and finally went to Halfords this weekend. James was slightly taken with the bright red fire engine bike. Insisting on testing it out in the store. We also

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Sunflowers get planted outdoors

neilrsmith — Mon, 03 May 2010 01:16:07 +0000

Finally planted the sunflowers seedlings in the garden. Tweet

Rothschild Zoological Museum

neilrsmith — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:29:43 +0000

The Tring Zoological Museum is a fantastic Victorian exhibition building for the collections of Lionel Walter Rothschild. He collected thousands of animals, had them stuff and displayed them in this museum. Entry is free and it’s definitely worth

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Garden progress

neilrsmith — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:18:43 +0000

23 April 2010 17 August 2007 5 July

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Sunflowers update

neilrsmith — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 23:49:55 +0000

At 5 weeks, the sunflowers are coming on some now. Measured at 14cm in their pots. Looks like we have about 8 plants in total. Tweet

Whipsnade Zoo

neilrsmith — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:40:47 +0000

At Whipsnade Zoo this weekend. I haven’t been for a while and it was great to see the new arrival to the elephants. “The pint-sized pachyderm, still to be named, was born just after midnight on Monday 12th

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Sunflowers in the greenhouse

neilrsmith — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 23:33:13 +0000

First shoots of the sunflowers have started to appear at 2 weeks I planted the sunflowers about 2 weeks ago and now I’m seeing them sprout. Hopefully, when they reach a good size and the weather starts to get

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The Really Useful Engine Blog

neilrsmith — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 23:08:13 +0000

Over the last few weeks I have been building a new blog. The Really Useful Engine Blog. It’s for the Thomas the Tank Engine fans, who don’t appear to have any decent websites out there dedicated to the little

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Buckinghamshire Railway Centre

neilrsmith — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:27:15 +0000

A day out to the Buckinghamshire Railways Centre this Easter Bank Holiday. Thomas the Tank Engine and friends were there. There were train rides on Thomas and Percy. Tweet

Preparations in Spring

neilrsmith — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:29:28 +0000

Veggies Slightly later than expected due to the wet weather, but this weekend we have been preparing the garden for this year’s veggie crop and making provisions for the summer. We have the compost bin prepared for this year

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Spring Ladybirds

neilrsmith — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:06:33 +0000

All the early Ladybirds are nesting in our Box plant on the patio. It’s quite a dense foliage pant and probably gave the beetles a good place to hide during the cold winter months. The sun was out

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Pergola update

neilrsmith — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:41:49 +0000

Busy this weekend finishing off the pergola in the garden. Cutting the wood to size, staining it and screwing up to the uprights. Next we will purchasing some wysteria or clematis coverage, maybe even a climbing

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A walk in the Chilterns

neilrsmith — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:20:57 +0000

This weekend, I went for a walk around the Dunstable Downs and Ivinghoe. After a 2 hour wander I sat and watched the sunrays behind the clouds. Tweet

British Museum

neilrsmith — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:59:22 +0000

This museum has had a facelift since the last time I visited, some 20 years ago. The building is truly beautiful, with it’s stately facade and massive towering columns. The interior courtyard has been internalised with gigantic glass roof.

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Planning for the future

neilrsmith — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:27:09 +0000

I have been inspired by a friend, Paul Hudson to think about the setting some new goals for the next 10 years, going forward upto 2020. It’s very easy to just simply drift through life taking chances as they

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Thomas the Tank Engine

neilrsmith — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:25:42 +0000

Thomas the Tank Engine on Facebook For the last 12 months, I have been working on building up a Facebook page to discover the benefits and pitfalls of said task. I created a page which is easy to maintain,

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This Winter’s snow

neilrsmith — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:53:57 +0000

Winter garden

neilrsmith — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:50:48 +0000

The garden is looking very empty at the moment. Winter is almost over and soon we will start making preparations for the Spring and Summer. Lots to do before the veggie beds start to produce

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Talking Carl

neilrsmith — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:28:59 +0000

This is a great little app for the kids. Talking Carl simply repeats anything you say. It’s sounds ridiculous and it is, but it’s also a very very amazing app. Speak into the device mic or earphone mic and

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TomTom Western Europe

neilrsmith — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:45:50 +0000

I bought this app back in October 2009. Priced at about £80 / 1.4GB download file. This has to be the most useful of all my iPhone apps so far. It has all the normal TomTom functionality that you

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Colour for college

neilrsmith — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:42:58 +0000

20100206_140149 copy, originally uploaded by neilrsmith. This weekend I spent some time shooting Smarties and M&Ms for my college project. Exploring the differences between colours in the spectrum. Shooting Complimentary, Contrasting, SImilars and Accented colours in

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Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock

neilrsmith — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:36:41 +0000

I been trying out a new iPhone app called Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock. It monitors your movement during the night and gives you a sleep pattern report the next day. I’m not sure just how accurate is it,

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Geometric Dixons Building

neilrsmith — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:34:08 +0000

Uploaded – 13\02\2010, originally uploaded by neilrsmith. I don’t think many people realise just how geometric the Dixons building actually is. Everywhere I look, I see the squares, diamonds, grids, alignment, chequerboards

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Orlando, Florida 2010

neilrsmith — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:05:35 +0000

Our first break of the year was two weeks escaping the freezing temperatures of the UK to sunny Orlando Florida or so we thought. In the days leading up to the flight out, it was questionable whether we

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James in 2010

neilrsmith — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:37:09 +0000

James in 2009

neilrsmith — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:58:25 +0000

Portraits of James

neilrsmith — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:15:15 +0000

Salzburg, Austria

neilrsmith — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:53:01 +0000

I spent the weekend in Salzburg at the weekend. Gatwick to Mozart Airport via British Airways and arrived in 2 hours. I was expecting freezing temperatures and snow but it was surprisingly milder than the UK. We spent

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Autumn images

neilrsmith — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:08:29 +0000

Facebook casualties

neilrsmith — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:48:48 +0000

Over the last few years, I have amassed a collection of people via Facebook in the vein hope that I would catch up with many of my school friends and old work colleagues. The idea was to chat about

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Lemurs at Whipsnade

neilrsmith — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:20:24 +0000

I can always get good shots of the lemurs at Whipsnade Animal Park. They sit very still and I can walk right up to them and snap away. View the

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13th Nov ’09

neilrsmith — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:45:46 +0000

I had a reasonably busy week, working at DSGi. There has been some people off sick and one left. The team gets smaller and the task list grows ever longer. Mostly HTML corrections, so nothing we can’t handle. The

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A new bed for James

neilrsmith — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:25:03 +0000

This weekend, I have been designing and building a bed for James. I have most the time working the how to join it all together. The basic structure is completed, all I need to do is work out

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Luton Hoo for lunch

neilrsmith — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:17:36 +0000

I took Sarah and James out for lunch at Luton Hoo this Sunday. Booked in at the ‘Adam’s Brasserie’ beyond the main house. The restaurant is set in the stabling area of the Luton Hoo grounds. The restaurant

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Bruges, Belgium

neilrsmith — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:32:26 +0000

We spent the weekend in Bruges in West Flanders, Belgium.We drove down to Folkstone and got the Eurotunnel and from Calais continued to Bruges. The whole journey only took about 4 hours. Bruges is a wonderfully little city, full

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My birthday present

neilrsmith — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:31:49 +0000

James and Sarah decorated a nice plate for my toast. I will use it every day

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Birthday

neilrsmith — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:47:17 +0000

Another birthday and yet I find myself reflecting each year less and less. Everyone makes a big deal of birthdays and getting old, but to be honest I feel great. I feel no older than last year and in

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The garage is a mess

neilrsmith — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:20:52 +0000

I must sort the garage out, it’s a mess at the moment. Too many other things distracting me from getting on and clearing out. Tweet

James enjoys a milkshake

neilrsmith — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:15:04 +0000

Cloud Rays

neilrsmith — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:00:57 +0000

28th Sept 2009

neilrsmith — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:55:29 +0000

7:15 My iPhone wakes me up with the ringing bells and Sarah makes me tea and toast. We switch on BBC One to watch the news. 7:45 James wanders in and gets into bed. He eats his porridge and

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Walk in the woods

neilrsmith — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:05:29 +0000

We all went out for a long walk today. Off to Ashridge Monument and into the woods. The weather has been very sunny recently. Very little rain at

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Getting low

neilrsmith — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:16:09 +0000

An image for my photography coursework. This is called ‘Low’. Tweet

Creative James

neilrsmith — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:12:13 +0000

James is very creative. He likes making pictures, drawings, crafty stuff. Here he is at the table creating another masterpiece. Tweet

Vintage sky

neilrsmith — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:49:53 +0000

I have been very impressed with the iPhone camera. It’s not the best sensor quality, I know. But it’s portability and usefulness is unrivalled. I have to keep reminding myself, this is a mobile phone. You have a

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Greenhouse tomatoes

neilrsmith — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:26:34 +0000

We’ve had a bumper crop of tomatoes in 2009. We have probably harvested around hundred, and with another hundred still green on the plants, it’s been our best season

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Garden Pergola update

neilrsmith — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:23:36 +0000

Finally fixed all the posts in place. I used a bagged postcrete. It ‘goes off’ in about 5 minutes, so I had to be careful not to misalign the post during that time. The next stage will be

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Garden pergola

neilrsmith — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:53:18 +0000

I have started to build the pergola in the garden. Once completed it was stretch across the width of the garden dividing it in two. We are looking to grow wysteria, clematis and honeysuckle probably but we have

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Mini pumpkins

neilrsmith — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:01:22 +0000

This year’s pumpkins are a smaller variety than previous years. They are still growing around the garden, stretching their tendriles across the ground and winding around everything though. The fruit themselves wont grow as big as the common

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Painted Ladies

neilrsmith — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:53:10 +0000

The Budliahs attracted alot of Painted Lady butterflies this summer. Tweet

Summer sunflowers

neilrsmith — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:31:02 +0000

This year’s sunflowers grow very high. It measured about 7ft high and it’s stem was 7cm across. Tweet

Butterflies on the Verbena

neilrsmith — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:32:14 +0000

Planting particular plants in the garden can really help attract butterflies. The Peacock butterflies spent weeks visiting these Verbenas. Tweet

First course complete

neilrsmith — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:39:00 +0000

I have finally finished the first of seven photographic courses with the OCA. I don’t think the next course will take so long but I must stay focussed and work hard to achieve my

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Open Garden Day

neilrsmith — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:34:00 +0000

We visited a friend’s garden today as part of an Open Garden Day in Weston Turville. Absolutely stunning flowers displays, for a non-RHS garden. I got some really good ideas for my garden too. Weston Turville Open Garden

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Apple’s iPhone 3Gs

neilrsmith — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:12:00 +0000

I have just purchased the iPhone upgrade, the iPhone 3GS. I got the 32GB hard drive for more iTunes music, podcast and photos. And, now video is available, officially. I have to say that using the jailbreak’d iPhone

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First of the Cucumbers

neilrsmith — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:30:00 +0000

The greenhouse is really producing some amazing results. The cucmbers are growing fast. We also have tomatoes, aubergines, chili peppers, sweet peppers and melons. More from my

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Pitstone Windmill

neilrsmith — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:16:00 +0000

Saturday 14th June: Went to the Pitstone Windmill with James. We had a small picnic and played Hide and Seek. I took some photos as always, Pitstone

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Summertime in the gardens

neilrsmith — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:13:00 +0000

Summer is upon us – so we spent some time last weekend in a friend’s garden. It’s a large garden with lots of different planting beds, lawns, roses, poppies and shady areas. The flowers are starting to look

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Bank Holiday Weekend

neilrsmith — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:10:00 +0000

Off to Sarah’s parents this Bank Holiday Weekend. Some alfresco dining and chilling in the sun. A break from the house and the garden to someone’s else, watching James playing in the garden with his

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James on the beach

neilrsmith — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:35:00 +0000

Take one bucket fill it with fine sand and Presto! A portable beach. James was impressed. Tweet

Garden border

neilrsmith — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:39:00 +0000

The Russian Vine is growing very fast on the fence and the Buddleja and Foxgloves are establishing well. Tweet

The Greenhouse

neilrsmith — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:36:00 +0000

The last few weeks I have been working hard in the garden. I have acquired a greenhouse from my nan and have been cleaning it up and constructing it. The whole project has been very hard work and

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Stratford-upon-Avon

neilrsmith — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:28:43 +0000

Stratford is a beautiful place to be. There are wide rivers, old churches and medieval terraces to see. Tweet

ThomasLand at Drayton Manor

neilrsmith — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:43:00 +0000

Just returned from a trip up to Drayton Manor and ThomasLand. This is theme park within a theme park. It’s a separate zone for Thomas the Tank Engine fans (and their kids). The Thomasland was great for James. He

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Work vs College

neilrsmith — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:31:00 +0000

It’s already Easter and I have been working on my degree for over a year now. My current module is ‘Photography 1 : Introduction to Digital Photography’. It has a five assignment structure with 23 projects along the way

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Life Snapping – Most Interesting

neilrsmith — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:23:38 +0000

The future is Mac

neilrsmith — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:55:35 +0000

‘Dark Side’ to ‘Way of the Mac’, originally uploaded by neilrsmith. Finally succumbed to the Mac. In contrast to my dark PC, my new Apple iMac is white and metallic. Very pretty. I wonder how it will change

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Dandelions

neilrsmith — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:20:24 +0000

iPhone Distraction

neilrsmith — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:01:00 +0000

Over the last few weeks I have started to realize that many things in life are purely distracting us from reality. I have few hobbies which I care to mention; photography, computers etc. I can spend many hours immersed

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Snowy morning

neilrsmith — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:32:00 +0000

It snowed today in the south of England. Our road as always doesn’t get gritted so the horrible task of clearing the car of snow commenced. It only took a few minutes to clear and get the engine

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James in 2008

neilrsmith — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:07:13 +0000

Christmas Day family photo 2008

neilrsmith — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 20:19:37 +0000

Our Christmas Day family pic Tweet

Apple iPhone 3G

neilrsmith — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:25:00 +0000

Last week, against the backdrop of the doom and gloom in the UK over the ecomonic climate and the threat of raising unemployment and mass pay cuts – I bought an Apple iPhone 3G. It cost me a

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Energy saving

neilrsmith — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:33:00 +0000

I can imagine that with winter closing in, everyone in the UK is dredding next quarter’s energy bills. I was astounded just how much electricity and gas we were using so decided to take action. Over the next few

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James plays trains

neilrsmith — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:07:00 +0000

James now has a larger bedroom. He can now play on the floor with his trains and spends hours doing

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Snow in October

neilrsmith — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:02:00 +0000

This week it snowed and James and I ventured into the garden for some fun snaps. He likes to makes footprints and touch the cold icy snow. He has still very intrigued by its very

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ICY BOX 2.5in Portable Hard Disk Drive Caddy

neilrsmith — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:39:00 +0000

This hard drive caddy from Icy Box is really useful piece of kit for anyone using laptop computers. I recently experienced a laptop failing to boot up and managed to use this caddy to access my files using

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Topfield TF5810PVRt Freeview+

neilrsmith — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:55:00 +0000

This PVR basically uses Freeview terrestial signal to records your favourites channels and programmes. One signal feeds two tuners and allows you to watch one channels while recording another. Or, simply record two channels. This is the 500GB model

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Motor Racing in Spa, Belgium

neilrsmith — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:46:00 +0000

This weekend I went to the F1 Grand Prix at Spa in Belgium. Myself and Paul travelled on the EuroTunnel to France and drove to Belgium. A journey that took about 6 hours. We stayed at the F1 Campsite

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Porsche Supercup in Spa, Belgium

neilrsmith — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:50:00 +0000

This weekend I went to the F1 Grand Prix at Spa in Belgium. Myself and Paul travelled on the EuroTunnel to France and drove to Belgium. A journey that took about 6 hours. We stayed at the F1

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Vianden, Luxembourg

neilrsmith — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:27:25 +0000

On my trip around to Spa in Belguim, we took a drive to Vianden in Luxembourg. We walked around the town in the late afternoon for a few hours before dinner. It’s a peaceful place to be, with

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RHS Wisley

neilrsmith — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:37:00 +0000

The family visit RHS Wisley off the M25 this week. They have some lovely gardens to walk around the very pretty border flower displays. One of the best flowers to photography was the Echinaceas. View more of the photo

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Late crop of tomatoes

neilrsmith — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:25:00 +0000

The tomatoes were good this year, better than last year. Lots of foliage for the compost. Tweet

Garden Sunflower

neilrsmith — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:09:00 +0000

The sunflower in the garden has grown to about 8ft high. Taking macro images on a ladder isn’t easy. Tweet

London Transport Museum

neilrsmith — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:39:00 +0000

On Tuesday, we all visited the Transport Museum in London. Situated in Covent Garden and a short walk from Leicester Square. I haven’t walked through Covent Garden in about 10 years, I dont think it’s changed much, but

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Bird feeder in garden

neilrsmith — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:22:00 +0000

One of the benefits of having the garage next to your back garden, is you can hide and watch the birds feeding. But no birds today. I waited for about 30 minutes and gave up. Maybe one

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