Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Website of the Month - Nothing To See Here

Nothing To See Here is a celebration of some of the lesser known and quirky places in Britain and further abroad. If you'd like to find out about places as diverse as the Lady Godiva Clock in Coventry, the Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle or the Unst Bus Shelter, this site will provide everything you need to know (and perhaps more).

I'm including the site for its quirkiness and individuality, a refreshing change from all things commercial and corporate. It's a shame there's no proper index or search facility, but you can go to the archives page and search for specific words, using Edit / Find in your browser.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Vanna Art - Norfolk Open Studios

It has been a bit hectic recently, as we prepare for Norfolk Open Studios. We will be opening our house to members of the public on the weekends of 22nd - 23rd and 29th - 31st May 2010, for viewings of my wife Vanna's artwork.
Vanna's website was the first one I designed and built - see http://www.vanna-art.co.uk/.
Below: "Nine Lives" linoprint. (Vanna meets Warhol?).

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Installing Photovoltaic Solar Panels

For several years we have thought about having solar panels on the back roof of our house.
In late March we committed ourselves to having photovoltaic (PV) panels installed and we've now been given an installation date of early June. This assumes that the parts will be available. Inverters (which transform DC current generated by the sun falling on the panels to AC current exported to the mains) are in very short supply at the moment.
The company who'll be doing the work are RenEnergy of Blofield Heath, near Norwich (http://www.renenergy.co.uk/). We had our site visit last week and have been given a final quote for the work.
Hopefully we'll be able to generate up to twice as much electricity as we use over the course of a year.
Watch this space for further updates.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Website of the Month - Tescopoly

Tesco is building its Unthank Road store in Norwich, in spite of widespread local opposition and being turned down by Norwich City Council four times. The store is likely to damage the existing shops in the area and increase traffic levels in an already congested area of the city.
So this month's website is Tescopoly - http://www.tescopoly.org/. Find out about how Tesco operates and learn how to campaign against this unaccountable giant.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Vote for Policies

I was recently sent a link to an excellent website which, with a General Election looming, concentrates on parties' policies rather than personalities.
Why not give it a try? You may be surprised.
See http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

From the Woods to the Sea - Photographic Exhibition

I've been busily preparing for my first photographic exhibition, "From the Woods to the Sea", which will be held as part of the Art of Norwich 11 Exhibition in St. Margaret's Church, St. Benedict's Street in Norwich from Monday 12th to Saturday 24th April 2010. I've put together a gallery of the photos at http://www.vanna-art.co.uk/gallery.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Website of the Month - CSS Zen Garden

CSS Zen Garden is a site I've admired for a long time, so I just had to feature it as a favourite website.

The site uses one set of XHTML code with a variety of images and CSS files submitted by web designers and graphic designers, to produce beautiful and often startlingly different web page layouts. The site provides an excellent demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design.

Visit the site at http://www.csszengarden.com/.