We've recently bought some new lightweight camping gear, with the aim of doing some long distance walking and wild camping in the future. (I think I've begun to realise, from my conversations with people, that I'm becoming a bit of an outdoor gear geek!) Last weekend, we decided to test it out a little, up on the Clwydian Hills in North-East Wales. I've put a page up in the walks section of this site with lots of pictures and a description of the route, but I thought I'd also just mention what some of the equipment is that we have been using - equipment which so far I'm extremely pleased with - in case anyone else is looking for some pointers at to what might fit their needs.

The tent is a Big Agnes Seedhouse SuperLight 2 Person, which packs down to just over a kilo and easily fits inside a 35 litre rucksack. We got this from REI in the US, where it was considerably cheaper than in the UK.

I'm sleeping in a Mountain Hardware Lamina 35, which whilst not the lightest bag in its temperature range, does pack down very small and will fit sideways at the bottom of my pack. You can pay as much as you like for a sleeping bag these days, and I reckoned that this was a good compromise. Got it from Cotswold Outdoor in Betws-y-Coed.

For cooking, we're becoming awfully fond of our Trangia 27 series. We got the one with the steel coated pans (too many scares about aluminium around), which doesn't add much weight at all. It weighs in at about a kilo, plus fuel (meths).

And my latest purchase is my Rab Drillium jacket, which I got from Joe Brown's in Capel Curig. This is an incredibly light jacket (around 350g) which is made from the eVent stuff, which has done better than GoreTex in many tests. Waterproof, breathable, hood, light, nice and short so also good for cycling. Oh, and brightly coloured so you can be seen by the helicopters should the worst come to the worst.

As previously advertised, we went of to Wales again this weekend, to get in some more serious walking.

We camped down at Llyn Gwynant, at the foot of Snowdon, but on Saturday took the long walk from Ogwen Cottage up and over Glyder Fawr and Glyder Fach. I have only done that particular walk once before, a good few years ago, and attempting it again certainly made me feel a bit older! Still, we managed it and felt pretty pleased with ourselves (if a little tired) by the end of the 6 and a half hours.

The photos from the weekend are up on Flickr, and I've also added a new section of this site with more details of this and future walks. Click here to take a look.

The weather was also wonderful once more, and that made the camping great fun. I got to try out my new Trangia 27-8 stove, which is a fantastic little meths-burning lightweight piece of equipment. Mmmm... fried egg sandwich anyone?

I just spent the best part of last week in Wales. My girlfriend's family came over from California to visit, and so we've been travelling around visiting various places. I reckon we must have notched up about 1000 miles (including the two trips to Heathrow) in our whistle-stop tour of the Midlands and North Wales.

The weather in Wales particularly was amazing. We took a walk up around Cwm Idwal on Thursday and I got this shot, with which I'm really rather pleased.

My parents have also had the builders in this week on their house, and some major structural work is going on (pics to follow).

Well, summer appears to be almost upon us and I'm planning on getting out and about in the countryside with my camera over the next few weeks.. so expect more!

This "through the viewfinder" stuff is great fun. I have a few more examples of pictures I've taken using it up on Flickr now, including this rather messed up picture of a light bulb. I actually have a fair few pictures of this light bulb in various guises now - it sits above my desk and is the obvious first subject on which to test whichever new technique or bit of equipment I'm playing with at the time.

This has led me to the idea of trying to theme my photography a bit more. As interesting as these photos of light bulbs are (and I do think that they are), and as nice for me as my documentary pictures of Ludlow, Paris and Harborne are, there are many many other subjects out there.... but what to take? Well shortly, I hope, I will be able to have a section of this website devoted to different subjects, with a variety of different types of capture and effects for each one. Light bulbs today, tomorrow, who knows? Maybe even a doorknob or something. :-)

Well, Christmas is almost upon us, and I shall be spending it high in the Clywydian hills of North Wales, at my parents' new house (smallholding is probably more accurate). Devoid of any central heating or mains water, it will certainly be a Christmas with a difference. Still, it's all about the people I think, and trying to focus on the romantic side of spending the festive season atop a Welsh hill with only open fires for heat will, I hope, make this Christmas a brilliant one.

I have finally got round to doing what I said I would, and become a Fellow of the Free Software Foundation Europe. I get a new (additional) email address (prlewis {at} fsfe.org) and a shiny cryptocard, which I can use to digitally encrypt and sign my documents and email. I'm still waiting for the card to arrive in the post, but this looks like a very interesting (and potentially important) idea. So, as I hope to get further involved in Free Software advocacy and the like, expect to read more about it on this site.

Happy Christmas!

Has it really been almost a month since my last blog entry? Wow, I've been busy. It really is rather crazy; so much has happened in the last few weeks. Much of the business of November has centred around the entire of the rest of my immediate family moving house within a matter of days.

My parents have finally moved completely to Wales, moving from their two houses to one, and my brother has moved in with his fiancee in their own house. All of this within a few days was quite a task!

Anyway, details aside, all went smoothly and a few photos are on Flickr. I think we're all still recovering, however.

In other news, I've now started my PhD, and got my desk and everything. I've even received my first month's pay, which was nice. The topic I'm supposed to be studying is still rather like a misty spectre in front of me though. I know it's there, but I can neither grasp it fully, or explain to anyone else what it's really about. I have been recently reminded though that I do have three and a half years with which to get to grips with this, so I don't feel overly stressed. The reading so far has been interesting, as have been the research meetings. I'm also demonstrating in a Java workshop for MSc students - something I do find rather amusing considering that I only learnt Java myself a few months ago for my own MSc project. Still, I haven't been found out yet. Ssssh! :-)