In which I take a photo every day that I'm 50, and post it here on this blog, with a bit of related blurb.

Saturday 7 June 2014

Day 175 - Rock Star Revisited

slender gentleman

Welcome to the second and final part of my long running series, Rock Star - Wideboyz Edition.

In the opening/penultimate episode in the series, I introduced you to Tom Randall, who I rudely accosted whilst he was setting problems at The Climbing Station.  As I explained then, he's one half of a hugely successful (and highly entertaining) climbing partnership known as The Wideboyz.

This here young lad in the photo is the other half of said comedy duo, Pete Whittaker.  He's a fabulous climber too, and has put up some of the hardest routes in the Peak District over recent years.

We were at the bouldering gym today and Pete was there setting problems for a competition tomorrow.   Still feeling bad about mugging Tom last time (first name terms now, see...), today I decided to play it slightly more covertly (and a little creepier, now I think about it), and just take a few snaps from across the gym, without disturbing him...

(Although maybe I'm disturbing him now?! Sorry Pete!)

Ooh, first name terms there too, huh?   Whilst I didn't speak to him, we did share a laugh over another climber who fell amusingly (it happens!), so now I figure we're kind of acquainted!


see pete's feet

Hey Jezz (if you're watching)...check out the shoes - Five Ten Moccasyms I reckon...you should definitely get some, they're all you need to be climbing like Pete...you'll be getting up E9 or E10 in no time, I bet...that's only about 10 grades harder than we've ever climbed...

;-)

Once we got home from a great afternoon's bouldering, we took Jazz for a limp down the lane...poor old fella, he's quite sore at the moment...

Loz decided to come with us, as she often does...which is fine, except she hangs back and keeps getting distracted by potential murder victims (voles) in the verge, and we spend around 70% of the walk waiting for her to catch up. 

To have any chance of getting home before dark, Anna usually ends up picking her up and carrying her, much to Loz's queenly satisfaction...

I got this lovely shot of the two of them: 

slim girls

As we got back to our garden, the cotoneaster was alive and buzzing with dozens of bees...I stopped and spent ten minutes trying to capture a nice shot of them.

Somewhat unconventionally, I decided to do this using the largest zoom lens, fully zoomed in, from 3 or 4 feet away.   

Turns out it's quite hard to get the bee in focus (especially with a low f-stop, which I was trying to use)...not least as they won't stay still...bumblebees are busy little things, buzzing about from bud to bud...who knew?!

So I only got one or two that are (barely) acceptable...but still, I quite like this one, even though the little white-tailed bumblebee is partially obscured:

bee still

Well, that's that for this evening...now go and watch some Wideboyz video's!

On the one hand, Tom and Pete are both world class climbers, whilst on the other, they're a couple of humble, funny lads having a great time, doing frequently amazing, sometimes crazy, and always inspirational things...

Recommended!

:-)

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