Tuesday 22 February 2011

Scanning

I posted last November about using a digital scanner, particularly to save to a hard drive magazine articles, mainly from TGO and Trail. I have since discovered something light years better. The Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500 is simply amazing. I bought it for use at work where it will easily repay its cost of about £340. I am sneaking in some stuff from home to scan. It works as quickly as a photocopier and will take about twenty five or so A4 sheets at a time. It will copy one-sided (simplex) or both sides (duplex) and then save as a pdf. It takes no more than a minute or two. It's so compact. I have rarely been so impressed with a gadget.

Here's a link to the Oxfordshire Trek which was in an old issue of Trailwalker (the original name of Trail magazine) https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B-WOz-XmGFRdNjcxN2RjMDgtYmU4OC00NmZhLTg4MDYtOWZlZGY3ZmQwYjg1&hl=en_GB&authkey=CICU_sgJ

Backpackers Winster weekend

The weather forecast wasn't good. Arriving at Winster I pitched the tarp with other tents behind the pub, the Miner's Standard A round of four pints of a real ale called "...... Revolution" was £8.80 which was amazingly cheap.

I had pitched the tarp quite low, expecting some windy weather during the night. However, when I awoke, the ridge of the tarp was touching my nose, caused by the weight of snow on it. Three inches or so had fallen in the early hours.


Punching it off from below improved matters and when I emerged I repitched to provide more height.

© Grant Currin

After breakfast, a group of us followed the Limestone Trail across to Youlgrave.

 © Grant Currin

The George Hotel in Youlgrave beckoned and we went in for coffee and I had an excellent egg and bacon roll. We then left the Limestone Way and headed north to drop down into Lathkill Dale, following the river and then by a quarry up to Monyash. On the way, in Lathkill Dale, I was accosted and asked the way to Over Haddon (where we had just come from). One of our group, Andris, being a few years younger than me, recognised our acquaintance as no less than Jarvis Cocker, who admitted that it was he.

After a quick one at The Bull in Monyash, we pressed on to our intended halt behind the Royal Oak at Sparklow. Next day, we headed back to Winster down the High Peak Trail, down Long Dale, Gratton Dale into Elton and then back on the Limestone Way into Winster.

Backpackers Grand Union Canal, Rickmansworth weekend

I can't believe that I haven't posted since the end of November.

A select group of four of us assembled at Denham at the end of January. It was an easy weekend, going through Denham village (where the actor, John Mills used to live) and ambling up the canal to Stockers Farm where we camped a few feet away from the water's edge. Arriving early, we paired off and Colin and I went for a brisk walk the other side of the M25 to Heronsgate. He had a competition going with his son, visiting as many pubs in the CAMRA guide as possible. Our first stop was at a pub with the interesting name The Land of Liberty, Peace and Plenty. After an excellent pint, we went on, crossing Chorleywood Common and following the River Chess into Rickmansworth where The Sportsman was visited. From there we went into Wetherspoons in Rickmansworth for an evening meal and back to the farm in the dark. Sunday was a walk east of the canal via South Harefield back to Denham.