Portsmouth Heritage Open Days 10th - 13th September

Join Portsmouth for the biggest FREE event of the year, as it showcases and celebrates its exciting range of architecture and culture. Come and explore the curious and interesting places around the city that are sometimes hidden or unknown to even the local residents. Participating venues include the Kings Theatre, Fort Cumberland, Round Tower, Vintage Bus Service and great new venues for 2009 including New Theatre Royal, Hilsea Lido and Royal Garrison Church.

Gmail has been strange for at least 9 hours now, the last hour or so its stopped working, They say they are fixing it. Must be a big bug as its getting worse, not better.

 We went down to see the ships leaving yesterday, It was a good day weather wise, but later on the wind got up and they had to pull in to Port.

Bad weather has forced the yachts taking part in this year's Clipper Round the World Yacht Race into port.

The fleet, including the Hull and Humber Clipper, left Portsmouth yesterday heading for the city.

However, strong winds prompted race organisers to pull the 10 yachts into Brighton.

The fleet are sailing towards Hull for the start of Clipper 09-10 on September 13.

In preparation for the main contest, the yachts were taking part in the inaugural Pilgrim Race to Grimsby, which will now re-start later this week from Ramsgate.

Ralph the bald penguin gets a wetsuit

A bald penguin has been given a specially-designed wetsuit to help protect him from the risk of sunburn.

Penguins moult every year, which usually takes between four to six weeks to complete. However, Ralph, a nine year old Humboldt penguin, lost all of his feathers in one day, exposing his pale pink skin to the sun. The wetsuit will protect Ralph’s sensitive skin until his new feathers have grown through, which his keepers think will take another two to three weeks.

Ralph’s keepers made the wetsuit out of the leg of an adult wetsuit donated by a member of our staff. The stretchy material lets Ralph move around normally, and after a few minutes adjusting he was happily back to swimming around in the penguin pool.

David Schofield, Head Keeper for the penguins said: “At first the other penguins were curious but it wasn’t long before they recognised and accepted Ralph again. He doesn’t seem to mind the wetsuit and is able to swim and move around normally. It was quite easy to fit and we were able to customise it by creating the extra openings for his flippers once he was in it.”

Humboldt penguins live along the coats of Peru and Chile within the reaches of Humboldt Current, a cold current of water running from the Antarctic to the equator, from which they take their name. Humboldt penguins are thought to be declining in number, possibly due to El Nino increasing water temperatures and reducing food supply.

 

 http://www.marwell.org.uk/

 

In South East German, bordering the Czech Republic is a little known walkers paradise, the Bavarian Forest. With in excess of 300 km of hiking trails in the Bayerischer Wald National park alone, over 130 mountain summits over 1000meters, more than 60% of the land covered in Forest and officially the cleanest air in Germany, The Bavarian Forest offers some of the best walking country in Europe.

   

The Gläsernersteig, the Böhmweg  and the European long-distance path No. 6 all past through the border village of Bayerisch Eisenstein. The village also offers direct access to many great walks, from hikes to the tops of Grosser Arber, Osser and Falkenstein mountains, to strolls around scenic glacial lakes and tranquil riverside rambles. The choice is almost endless.

  

And when you hang up your hiking boots at the end of the day, there’s always a local beer or 2 to try, what could be more perfect?