(Credit: Chris Hadfield/NASA)
While searching through the Twitter recommendations the other day we found an absolute gem. Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield has become an overnight sensation on the social media network by tweeting updates and stunning photographs from his latest mission aboard the International Space Station. Armed with a top end camera and eloquent turn of phrase, Hadfield has amassed nearly 500,000 followers on Twitter since he was propelled into space aboard a Soyuz rocket on December 19th, 2012.

(Credit: Chris Hadfield/NASA)
As a young child I used to dream of space, and like many young boys, becoming and astronaut was top of my list of ‘things I would do when I grew up”. Unfortunately, like 99.9% of the population this dream did not happen. Chris Hadfield made this dream a reality, and is now harnessing the power of social media to share his thoughts and stunning photographs from 250 miles above the earth.

(Credit: Chris Hadfield/NASA)
The idea of Tweeting from space was the brainchild of his two sons Kyle (29) and Evan (27), who both realised the opportunity of using social media networks to give people a glimpse into the day-to-day activities of an astronaut. Among Hadfields followers are the Star Trek actors Wil Wheaton and William Shatner, creating a blur between science fiction and reality. Another celebrity follower is the second man to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, who said he would love to have tweeted live from the moon during his most famous space mission.

(Credit: Chris Hadfield/NASA)
If you have an interest in space or would love to see beautiful images of earth taken from on board the International Space Station, click this link to follow Chris Hadfield on Twitter. If your not on Twitter you can receive regular updates on your Facebook timeline by liking Col. Chris Hadfield’s Facebook page.
(All photographs in the gallery below – Credit: Chris Hadfield/NASA)

York’s Clifford’s Tower is today featured as the background image for Microsoft’s search engine Bing UK. UK computer users who visit the second most post popular search engine will be greeted by a beautiful photograph of the 945 year old Norman castle basking in sunshine and surrounded by daffodils. The image has been chosen to commemorate the anniversary of the unmasking of the infamous Dick Turpin at the Tower on February 23, 1739. The page also contains links to information about the construction of Clifford’s Tower in 1068 and the life and death of highwayman Richard ‘Dick’ Turpin.

Ever wondered what York looked like in the late 19th century? Ever had a question about what happened to a particular building or shop? If so wonder no more. A Facebook page called Memories of York has been created which gives followers a glimpse of our beautiful city from years gone by. Created by Tom Holland and Barry Smith, the page allows followers the ability to share pictures, stories and memories of York. Founded on 31st January 2013, the page has really taken off, attracting over 7,500 likes in just over a month. It’s a great concept and quite refreshing to see Facebook used in such a positive way, rather than the usual self promotion of companies and celebrities. If you have not already ‘liked’ the page, head over to their Facebook page to enjoy the photographs and stories from residents past and present.

Following the success of his 2012 York Calendar, our good friend and popular local artist Tony Brook has decided to follow it up with his latest edition for 2013. The Calendar features 12 paintings, a mixture of familiar and not so familiar scenes of our beautiful city, painted in a quirky way, yet still instantly recognisable.

For example, Tony has included the frozen River Foss (the lesser known of York’s two rivers) with geese walking on the ice looking for pickings, this is captioned ‘Cold feet’. Another features children sledding down the banks of the city’s Bar walls in the snow, with the Minster in the wintry background. Both scenes are pictured below.

This 2013 YORK CALENDAR will make a lovely Christmas gift for residents or visitors alike, as everyone likes a daily reminder of our beautiful city. It will also make an excellent business Christmas gift, and for a small set up charge, a company can have their logo and details printed on the back of the calendar.

If you would like to purchase one of Tony’s calendars or just to see all 12 paintings featured please visit his website: www.tonybrookyorkartist.co.uk

Yesterday we went to cheer on Dave Bennett and Alistair McNeil (DBAM Rallying) as they took part in the 2012 Trackrod Rally.

As the Trackrod takes place just down the road through the forests of Dalby, Langdale and Cropton, I decided to dust off the camera and try and work on my panning technique. In some situations at a rally, such as a water splash, taking a dramatic picture that conveys the speed these cars are travelling is fairly easy, just crank up the shutter speed and when the car hits the water press the button. But if you are stood on a straight section or at a corner, a high shutter speed freezes the car against the background, creating a rather boring photograph. In these situations the best technique is to pan with the camera at a low shutter speed, which keeps the car in focus whilst blurring the background. I was fairly happy with the shots I got and Dave and Alistair managed to win the Z1 class, a successful day all round.

When it come’s to food, “the hotter the better” we say. We put our green fingers to the test this year by growing a variety of chillies. With so many different types of chilli to choose from, we got a bit carried away and ended up growing several varieties which included Apache, Mohawk and the hottest of the lot, Naga Bhut Jolokia.

As we were a bit unsure of the outcome, we planted 2-3 of each variety, all of which grew well and left us with a huge crop. A super hot chilli sauce seemed the obvious solution to use up some of the chillies, so we got our aprons on and got busy in the kitchen.

Super hot it certainly was, and sat in it’s jar in the cupboard it seemed to be missing something, a warning label. As designing is our thing, we got busy creating not only a label, but a logo as well, deciding on the name Atom Bomb to reflect the impact of being stupid enough to try it.

This morning I got up early and went into town to get some photographs of York under water. It’s not an unusual sight to see the River Ouse flooded, but after torrential rain earlier in the week it was thought this could be the worst flood on record.

The river was due to reach it’s peak at 8am this morning, but from what I witnessed, the flood defences seemed to be doing there job and the river eventually peaked at just over 5 metres above normal levels, not quite as bad as the November 2000 flood which reached 5.4 metres.

It was quite a sight to see Clifford’s Tower with a moat, and I could not help but see the irony of a poster for a performance of ‘Singin In The Rain’ on the side of the flooded Grand Opera House. I obviously went and got the picture of the Kings Arms underwater, which seems to be used by every news network whenever the country is hit with a substantial downpour.

Like most men i’m a big kid when it comes to all things military and jumped at the chance to have a look round HMS York (D98) when it was opened to the public at Hull’s King George Dock yesterday. The 5,200 tonne Type 42 destroyer, launched in 1982, was in Hull on a farewell tour as it is set to be decommissioned later this month. On Saturday the crew marched through the streets of York to mark the end of the ships service, giving the people of York the chance to celebrate the crew and the ship with which their city is affiliated.

Armed with my camera, I set off up the gangway for a look round the 141 metre Type 42 destroyer. I was only expecting to be permitted to wander around the upper deck and was pleasantly surprised when we were led deep into the bowels of the ship, which has racked up over 750,000 miles during her 27 years at sea.

With seemingly nowhere off limits, we were shown around various sections of the ship including the canteen, crew quarters and even the operations room. Navigating to different areas of the ship by a series of steep staircases and confined corridors gave you a brief insight into how claustrophobic working below deck must have felt for some of the 287 crew required to operate the ship when on deployment. After ascending the final steps we emerged on the bridge at the business end of the ship. This is the part I had been looking forward to most, getting up close to the awesome firepower. With a maximum speed of 34 knots (39 mph), HMS York is (was) the Navy’s fastest destroyer and also packs a punch with an array of impressive weaponry including a 4.5in Mk8 gun, 2 x Sea Dart missiles and 2 x Phalanx Close-in weapons system.

It’s a shame to see such an iconic ship decommissioned, but after having a look around it was obvious that she had been constructed in a different era, and technology has moved on greatly since she first took to the water over 27 years ago. A single Type 45 destroyer, the successor to the Type 42′s, can simultaneously track, engage and destroy more targets than five Type 42 destroyers operating together, reinforcing the Navy’s point that “HMS York has come to the end of its natural life’.

Click on a photograph below to launch the image gallery.

We have just launched a new WordPress blog for York & Leeds based chartered surveying consultancy Aspect4. This project was slightly different to the usual website design process we follow as the WordPress blog need to sit within their current, well established website. The reason for incorporating a WordPress blog was to give the folks over at Aspect4 the ability to easily update their news section without having to shell out for a whole new website.

Above is the current Aspect4 website, the design of which needed to be transferred to the new WordPress blog. Using the established corporate colours and layout from the existing website we managed to design a blog that fitted seamlessly within the current Aspect4 website, which can be seen below. To visit the Aspect4 blog and see it in action visit www.aspect4ltdblog.co.uk.

We have just launched a new website for York plumbers Colin Bell Plumbing & Heating. Colin Bell approached York Graphic Designers to give their current website an overhaul and get them up the Google rankings.
With the internet constantly evolving, Colin Bell realised that they needed to bring their online presence up to date, which we achieved by creating a clean, user friendly website that was both modern and reflective of their traditional values of providing the highest quality workmanship on time and at the right price.
We implemented a lot of on page search engine optimisation which means the next time your searching online for a gas engineer or plumber in York, Colin Bell will only be a click away.