Mark H

@neonbubble

Software developer from #Portsmouth, UK; keen traveller and photographer. #Travel #Photography #Cruise #SciFi #RugbyLeague #NFL #Architecture #Science #History […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Mark H@neonbubble· 25d

#FotoVorschlag Nutzfahrzeuge Photo theme - Commercial vehicle The Irish fishing vessel Antarctic docked in Ireland's largest fishing port of Killybegs last week. #Photography #SchiffSamstag #SchiffsSamstag #ShipSaturday #Killybegs #Ireland

We're beside a small harbour area, looking from land across a short stretch of water to a couple of low piers running across against which there are docked ten, small, motorised pleasure boats. The main focus is just behind them where a large fishing vessel dominates the space against a higher pier. It has a green hull, red near the waterline, with the upper structures in white. The bow to the right rises a little. The bridge is set about two thirds back and the aft of the ship has a few large crane arms clearly used for hauling in catches from the sea. It's a hot day with a clear blue sky and the water is barely rippled from a gentle breeze in the harbour area.

Mark H@neonbubble· 28d

Another shot from pretty Cobh today. This was coming back from Spike Island where we'd toured the former prison and defensive fortifications, ventured into some of the vast expanse of tunnels, and had some rum tasters too. Sea day tomorrow then home and […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

It's a hot, bright day with a blue sky devoid of any clouds. We're on the water in a harbour looking back to land. There's a town filling the shoreline and rising up a steep hill some way. Colourful houses and small boats tied up are overshadowed by the imposing sight of a grey stone cathedral that's built near the top rise of the hilly land. The tower of the cathedral is on the left and appears taller than the hill and the houses up it combined, spearing up into the blue expanse.

Mark H@neonbubble· 28d

Last port stop on this short cruise. Cobh today and it's lovely. We've been here before when everything was closed so it was nice to visit the museum (pictured; great Lusitania items and accounts), the cathedral, the heritage centre, and do some shopping this […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

It's a bright, warm day with barely a cloud in the sky. We're on the side of a small but steep hill on the edge of a town. Trees fill all the space on the hillside and there's a thick, grey, stone wall in front and to the right of us. There's a gap here with steps heading down the hill but our view is looking along this area of it to a grey stone church with a tall steeple flanked by more trees.

Mark H@neonbubble· 29d

Galway today. Ultimately disappointing as there wasn't a whole lot to do. We'd expected more from a city of this size but its history was lacking. An art festival taking place didn't seem to manifest itself in any art. Anyway, saw some sights, shopped, had a […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

We're in a narrow, pedestrianised street that snakes between tall shops and apartments above. Thin, leafy trees provide additional shade from the sun although the narrowness of the area and tall buildings provides ample. Bunting with flags of countries zig zags between the buildings and there are people enjoying the sunshine and heat.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 12

We've walked along Killybegs harbour today then up the bay to three stone structures (reproductions) of hermit houses. They're called the Little Cells which is where Killybegs gets its name too. And now we're back in town in a pub, after some shopping for local […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

A bright, sunny day with an almost cloudless, deep blue sky overhead, and we're standing on a small rise of grass ahead of a border of bushes and some distant trees. The grass is verdant and cut short. There are three small structures, like rounded, conical beehives constructed from grey stone, about as tall as an adult. Each has a small door, barely above knee height, and small windows set above.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 12

A scenic cruising day yesterday along the north western coastline of Ireland. We'd pre-booked afternoon tea in the ship's forward-facing lounge so had great views circling Tory Island. We're docked at Killybegs today, just had breakfast, and will be heading off […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

We're sat at a table in front of a curved set of windows, part of an observation lounge at the top and front of a cruise ship. Through the windows we can see a flat, grey sea and some distant islands. On the table there's an afternoon tea set up on white linen. Small pots, cups, and strainers along with two glasses of champagne are either side of a small cake stand holding a selection of sandwiches, cakes, and clotted cream and jam on the three levels.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 9

I regret to inform everyone that we will be spending this upcoming week of a heatwave in the air-conditioned surroundings of an old, small cruise ship and heading off around the Irish coast. Trying out Fred Olsen for the first time, on Borealis, and with an […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

We're in the atrium of an old, small ship. It's a curved space with stairs curling around one side and we're about the middle of three decks that this open space is set within. Colours are deep blues and accents of gold and wine. Filling the central area, rising up to the ceiling, there's an ornate clock tower in gold with dials for times and almanacal/astronomical/astrological purposes.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 9

Mid 70s for #ThrowbackThursday this week, taken on a hot day in Portsmouth (much like today). I'm the boy at the front. The girl next to me is Tracy and her older sister Samantha sits behind. Being held up by his mum, Ethel, is Tarek. The older woman standing […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Scan of a square format colour photo taken in the mid 1970s. It's very hot and sunny and it's a photo of people sitting out on the lawn in a public park in a city somewhere. The grass is cut very short and runs back a few metres until it reaches a low wire fence that separates the lawn from a path that's partly shaded by large trees behind and in which there are benches set up for people to sit at. In the foreground, left of view for some reason, there are people posing for the photo. An adult woman and a younger girl are standing behind two decks chairs, one striped in red and white, one in green and white. The girl is drinking from a cup so her face is partly obscured but the older woman is smiling at the camera. She's also wearing a pink coat and tartan scarf which seems overkill for the hot day. In the deckchair in front of her there's another woman with black curly hair looking down and holding up a toddler to get him to stand on the grass. A very young girl sits on the other deckchair and on the grass in front there's a similarly-aged boy and a younger girl. On the grass around in the background there are a few other people sat and enjoying the sunshine.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 8

Second evening in a row out in the garden trying to enjoy some drinks and listen to music while a bloody police plane is driving us mad by flying overhead constantly. #Police #Plane #Airplane #FlightRadar

A screenshot from Flight Radar which shows a map of Portsmouth and a police plane flying overhead with its course showing that it's flying in circles, loops, and it's just generally being very annoying.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 8

#FotoVorschlag - PflasterKunst Photo theme - pavement art Spotted near the cruise port in Rotterdam in 2022, this is by Polish street artist Gregor Wosik who is renowned for his large-scale, 3D street art images. #Photography #StreetArt #Rotterdam #Netherlands #GregorWosik #Art #Travel

It's a bright but overcast day. We're in a city, standing on a pedestrianised area of long brick tile flooring with a cycle lane on the right of us that meets the junction of a busy road where it merges with other bike lanes running across. Pedestrian crossings head over the road ahead and across a road just out of sight on the other side of the bike lane to our right. Our main focus is on the ground, though, where there's a large piece of street art that is designed to be seen from this specific angle to present a three-dimensional view. It looks like the pedestrianised area here is split between walkways left and right over a gaping chasm. The walkway on the left forms a massive arched bridge over a deeply distant view of islands and water fed from a waterfall that cascading out of the apparent sheer rock face ahead of us. The walkway on the right has some jagged areas jutting out over the drop into this fantastical valley below us and there are a couple of flags painted on the edges of these overhangs: one Dutch, one Polish.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 8

If we weren't fully booked up for trips next year then we'd consider this. Something of interest to the #TOTP or 80s music crowd too: a week's cruise to Norway with entertainment from Holly Johnson, ABC, Go West, Nik Kershaw, and Pat Sharp amongst others […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

A promotional poster for an 80s music-themed cruise. The poster is in landscape format and broadly features a stippled sky of orange, pink, and yellow with a few white cloud shapes in it over a light blue sea with some wave shapes and dolphin shapes in lighter tones on it. To the right there's a white cruise ship with purple keel and shadows on its bridge structure cutting through the water towards and to the right of us. The text of the poster gives its name - "Rewind The Cruise" - and a list of performers including Holly Johnson, ABC, Go West, Nik Kershaw, The Gangsters, Pat Sharp, and West End production shows from Queen of the Night and What's Love Got To Do With It? with the promise of more to be announced. The dates are 6th to 13th June 2027, 7 nights from Tilbury to Sandnes, Haugesund, Ulvik, and Austerfjorden.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 8

For #MeerMittwoch we're returning from a visit to Sakurajima volcano across the bay to Kagoshima in 2018. This has been the most active volcano we've seen on our travels, belching out clouds of smoke every minute. Still not seen any lava yet. #Photography […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

It's a beautiful day, warm, and with not a cloud in the sky. We're on a boat heading back from an island across a calm bay of water, and we're standing at the aft of the vessel looking at the tapering, foaming trail of the wake leading back to the landmass. The island is a volcanic one with the mountainous mass that dominates it stretching the full width of the view, sloping upwards until at the top the nearly perfect flat triangle shape becomes more jagged where eruptions in the past have taken off some of the peak. The sky is clear blue at the top of view, fading into a pale blue-white nearer the horizon behind the island, and the volcano itself is a little hazy with the heat of the day.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 7

Fascinated by all the bumblebees next to us in the garden on the raspberry canes, and all the different types too, but then I spotted this newcomer (difficult to miss: he's huge): a hornet mimic hoverfly. Rare in the UK before 1940 and still only occasionally […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Three photos arranged in horizontal stripes one on top of the other, each showing a different view of a hornet mimic hoverfly. It's a large insect which looks a little like a hornet (as you can guess) and it's generally a shiny leathery brown colour with thick yellow bands on its abdomen and a prominent yellow stripe down the centre of its head down to the mouth area. The photos show the insect on large grey stones and a big green leaf.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 5

Picked up a couple of new books from my favourite authors yesterday on our shopping trip. Hopefully, Halcyon Years is a return to form for Alastair Reynolds whose recent books haven't quite lived up to the highs of the Revelation Space series. Neal Asher's […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

The covers of two paperback books, side by side. On the left there's Dark Diamond by Neal Asher. The cover art is a planet of swirling yellow clouds, a little volcanic-looking. In front there's a space station in a torus shape which appears to be firing a bright white laser beam down, just missing one of several bulky, grey spacecraft. On the right is Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds. The feel of the cover art is a futuristic detective noir scene with a man in long coat and hat walking away from us over a metal walkway between towering building blocks that appear to curve away from the vertical as we peer up until they're lying horizontal to the axis in a circular space high above.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 5

#SilentSunday

We're looking through a doorway to a small courtyard bathed in bright sunshine. The doorway has thick, square-formed pillar surrounds with a Romanesque arch over the top. A fanlight grille within the arched space has no glass in it. The doorway frame is a dark red in colour and it's set in a wall of pink-red stucco. The courtyard hosts a small, leafy tree with a thin trunk set in a low bed, and beyond the bright sunny space there are more columns and arches suggestive of other openings into the courtyard area.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 4

Well, well, well. If it isn't me, in the sunshine, implanting Fediverse thoughts into everyone around through the power of subliminal advertising. #Photography #Mastodon #Fediverse #TShirt #TeeShirt

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 4

For #SchiffsSamstag this is Alliance, an Italian ship designed to generate low noise so as not to interfere with its main purpose of oceanographic research for NATO, such as climate effects in the Arctic and the impact on sonar. #Photography #SchiffSamstag #ShipSaturday #Ship #NATO

We're on a boat in a harbour on a day with a mix of blue sky and small, thin clouds above. The sun is currently hidden but it's bright and calm, feeling warm with a hit of freshness. We're looking low across the flat green-blue water to a ship docked alongside a low harbour wall. The vessel is white, about 90 metres long, and sits low in the water, with the highest points over the water line being the raised, pointed prow and the bridge superstructure that forms a block around centre. The aft of the vessel is fairly flat. A5345 is written in red lettering on the ship's side along with Alliance in small black lettering on the prow. On the side of the bridge area the words NATO and OTAN are prominent. A couple of radar domes are above the front of the bridge and there's a sloping blue funnel behind them. A rigid dinghy is behind the bridge.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 3

#FotoVorschlag - Man kann es hören Photo theme - You can hear it A punk saxophonist from 2008 here in Portsmouth. One of those occasions when roads are closed, traders set up, buskers appear. #Photography #StreetPhotography #Punk #Music #Saxophone #BlackAndWhite #Monochrome #Portsmouth

A black and white photo in portrait orientation, taken in a busy street and close to where some buskers are playing. The view is close in and centred at an angle on a punk guy playing saxophone, with the base of the instrument and his thighs forming the bottom of the view and the spiked hair on his head reaching to the top. The punk is where a white sleeveless top on which he's written some text that's partly obscured by folds in it and by the pair of dark braces over the top and holding up his jeans. He's wearing sunglasses with thin circular frames and his hair is shaved at the sides then gelled into seven long white spikes that run fairly evenly from the nape of his neck to above the centre of his forehead. The punk is gripping a saxophone and has his mouth pressed to it and blowing. Around him are parts of the rest of the band, including a guitarist's shoulder on the right and a drum behind to the left in front of a brick wall.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 3

A bar in Akureyri for #FensterFreitag today, taken almost exactly four years ago. We'd spent the morning exploring the area around the town followed by a couple of hours in the town itself when we spotted a bar, and kinda had to pop in. #Photography #Travel #Iceland #Akureyri #Bar #WindowFriday

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 2

#FotoVorschlag Landschaft in Schwarzweiß Photo theme - landscape in black and white A view along the Aurlandsfjord, part of the larger Sognefjord in Norway, taken in 2023 after a day spent in one of our favourite Norwegian locations, Flåm. #Photography […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

A high contrast black and white processing of a view to the nearby landscape while cruising along a Norwegian fjord. Flat, inky black water reaches a short way up from the bottom of the scene. The rocky face of the fjord wall isn't sheer, but sloped back slightly from the vertical, and it rises towards the middle of the scene so that the overall fjord wall looks like a long, shallow triangular mountain. The surface of the landscape is deeply creased in places as if the mountainous form has been bent and pushed over a great period of time. Except on the most sheer of faces and edges, trees and grass grow widely, and we're not too distant enough from shore to be able to make out huge, individual evergreens. Tiger stripe shadows flow and ripple over the landscape, cast by the sun through the patchy streaks of cloud above. A mass of thin white cloud seems to gather over the peak of the hilly land but spreads out and disperses as it approaches us.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 2

For #ThrowbackThursday this is my wife's Great Aunt Rose of whom I know nothing at all, but this is clearly her wedding day. I can't even guess at the location or decade with any certainty. #Photography #Vintage #Wedding #Family

Scan of an old black and white photograph. This is a wedding day photo showing the bride and groom standing in front of a couple of wide stone steps leading to the huge doors of a church. The bride is on the left, shorter than her new husband, in a full length white dress and a long veil back from her head that reaches to her thighs. Her torso is almost covered by the bouquet of white flowers she's holding in one arm while her other arm is gripping that of the man on the right. He's in a dark suit with white buttonhole, and he's got a faint smile on his face in contrast to the slightly more staid expression of his wife. The church doors are taller than the picture shows and the one on the right behind the groom is open. On the steps there is a young, short-haired bridesmaid in a short, light-coloured dress and dark shoes and white bobby socks. She has a hand to her mouth, perhaps gnawing at a nail awkwardly. A couple of other faces of people can be spotted peering over the groom's left shoulder from within the confines of the church.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jul 1

The shoreline near the port on the island of St Kitts for #MeerMittwoch this week. One of our least favourite islands when we were visiting this part of the world late last year. #Photography #Travel #StKitts #Caribbean #SeaWednesday

A portrait orientation view of a curving shoreline. We're very close to the turquoise water's edge and the shoreline here is one comprising boulders, light-coloured for the main part, dark and glistening lower down where the water reaches them. The rocky edge of the water curves to the right then juts back out to the left about two thirds of the way up, exposing the sea in a rounded triangular area in the bottom left and centre of the view. The water looks a little cool, but clear and inviting. It's generally flat but there's enough motion to cause some foaming, splashing areas when it hits the rocks at our feet and around this little bay. In the distance there is a long hilly landscape, undulating, and beautifully verdant thanks to the tropical location of this island we're on. The sky is filled with bulbous white clouds and patches of deep, piercing blue. There's a heat and humidity around, and a sense of a small breeze here by the water to help cope.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jun 30

For my wife's birthday today she got Prosecco and fancy cocktail stirrers from her sister and niece, and she got Prosecco and fancy glasses from her parents. This is those glasses but it's champagne. It's the only thing we buy ourselves for birthdays. #Photography #Alcohol #Champagne #Birthday

Two stylish glasses are sat on a pine wooden table surface in a room where we can see polished, light-toned wooden flooring behind and the fronts of a couple of cream leather chairs in the background. The focus is on the glasses and what's clearly champagne in them. The glasses are a form of coupe glass with long, thin stem and a wide cup. For these glasses the cup itself is straight-sided with a ribbed texture on the walls.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jun 30

#FotoVorschlag - Jugendstil Photo theme - Art Nouveau broadly, but the Germanic form of Art Nouveau more specifically This is the Jugendstil Centre, a nice little museum dedicated to the architecture and art form in Ålesund, Norway which was rebuilt in this […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

A cool, overcast day and we're looking across an empty road to an imposing building on the corner. The building is thick-walled, made from varying sizes and shades of rough bricks. The ground floor of the corner is a thick stone column, arched to join the walls either side with the inner space leading to varnished, warm-toned wooden doors with large glass panels and flowing decorations. The corner rises through three tall storeys with windows curved slightly to flow into the brickwork, where it is then topped by a tall, tapering, cone tower of metal turned green with oxidisation. On the right, on the façade mostly facing our street, there is a single section adjoining the tower-set corner, also three storeys high but with a free-standing gable in which there is a clock face showing. The rest of the building running at right angles from the corner is only two storeys in height. All the windows have large panes of glass in them. The windows on the ground floor are have a mix of Romanesque arches to them if they're narrow, and shallow segmented arches for the wider portals. The first floor windows have rounded upper corners to their more rectangular forms. A large red flag with "Museum" on it hangs from a pole jutting from a shallow stone balcony on a first floor window on the right. A black banner wrapping around the corner of the building just above the entrance reads "Jugendstil Senteret".

Mark H@neonbubble· Jun 29

In case it's not obvious, and it's clearly not obvious to Vodafone, no, I'm not thinking about a new phone. #Vodafone #Email

Screenshot of eleven emails, all from Vodafone, all roughly in the past two months, most of them asking "Thinking about a new phone?"

Mark H@neonbubble· Jun 27

At an annual beer festival raising money for the Motor Neuron Disease Association. Morris Dancers, folk music (currently playing the Captain Pugwash theme mixed into Mike Oldfield's Portsmouth), and a range of ales and ciders. Bloody lovely way to spend a Saturday. #Photography #Portsmouth #MNDA

It's a warm, sunny day with a few clouds in the sky. We're in a pub garden, at one end with the leaves of trees overheard framing the view along the length. Picnic tables are set in rows along the garden, all fully utilised with people sat, some under large parasols. It looks warm and the grass shows it's been hot with dry patches.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jun 27

For #SchiffsSamstag here's Ametista, a pusher tug based at the port of Lisbon. This was taken from our balcony just before heading down the river Tagus and out into the Atlantic in 2021. #Photography #Travel #ShipSaturday #Ship #Lisbon #Tagus #Portugal #SchiffSamstag #Cruise

It's the evening, with the sun approaching sunset somewhere to the right and lending what we can see of the sky at the top of the view a pale golden colour. We're on a ship balcony and looking down and across a wide stretch of water with some low land on the horizon near the top of view. At this time of the day the water has taken on an inky blue colour with rippled shadows of black. A single vessel is on the water heading away from us but cutting across the view from right to left, leaving a foaming churn in its wake. The vessel is unusual in that it is shaped like a long rectangle - about twenty metres long - with a very low topsides of no more than a metre above the waterline. A small superstructure bridge is at the aft of the odd-looking ship. The open space of the flat deck is empty except for two people in life jackets who are standing towards the front.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jun 26

Must remember to order things using companies that understand the concept of time's arrow.

Screen capture from an email notifying of the expected delivery of an item being two days ago.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jun 25

We occasionally see dragonflies zooming past the garden but this one this evening has perched on a branch long enough for a zoomed-in phone photo. #Nature #Garden #Photography #Insect #Dragonfly #Lexx

A dragonfly is sitting on the end of the bare branch of a tree with a perfectly clear blue sky background. The view is slightly upwards and the wings are clear. The insect's body is short and squat, dark-coloured, and the tail is straight out behind it.

Mark H@neonbubble· Jun 25

A memory of cold for #TravelThursday and this is the Sólheimajökull glacier in southern Iceland which we visited in 2018. We've seen glaciers in four countries across three continents now. Catch 'em while you can. #Travel #Photography #Iceland #Glacier […] [Original post on mstdn.social]