Getting on with it!

Last week was interesting. I succumbed to a cold and am just about over it. Weather continues to be variable, from freezing rain, to snow and back again. I have been pushing hard to get trimming of trees done in the garden before they start to leaf. When Trix and I moved last March we inherited an overgrown garden, with a number of unpruned plum trees, stinging nettles and brambles. It is great to have a little more daylight.
I have a chain saw, which I have learnt to keep oiled, adjust the chain, sharpen the cutting blades and mix two stroke petrol. Exciting stuff, although the newly pruned trees have left a lot of material, that I can use for logs, recycle or burn. So gardening at the right time of year is critical.

Yesterday evening I drove to Peterborough to attend our evening chuch meeting, and the journay takes me   past a parish church in nearby Great Gidding. I always enjoy driving by it at night, as it is floodlit, and has a six sided tower, with narrow beam floodlights uplighting alternate faces of the tower. The church stood there as a beacon of light, with the swirling snow picked out by the spill light. It was eerie and beautiful. I was not able to take a picture, but a great memory.

Photograph for this week is not one of mine, but provided by Allan Howard during a visit to The Light Show at the Hayward Gallery London. Worth a visit, as the lighting is stunning.

Last week was Regional Officers at Rugby and it was good to meet with the Honorable Secretaries and Vice Chairs of the Regions. Lots of issues were talked through and hopefully some clarification on a number of practical issues, which will be fed back via the Secretaries

I will be thanking the Regions for all the good work that they do at their AGM's, but wanted to take the opportunity now to thank those Vice Chairs, who are busy preparing for their years, working with the committees, planning events, working out budget against venue and all the hard work that has to be done. I wish all the Regional Vice Chairs the very best, during their preparation and in coming year as Regional Chairs.

Trix and I are looking forward to going up to Scotland this Friday to the Scottish Spring Dinner Dance at Airth Castle. I hope you all have a good week, safe journeys and get to see some great lighting. Pete

Changing seasons

The nights have begun to draw out. It is nice to have a little more light in the early evenings. We might live in a 24 seven society, but some things are still done by the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. This is the time of year for the cutting back hedges and getting an overgrown ditch next to our  garden, dug out and cleared of brambles, nettles  and ivy. The ditch looks good, but I am paying the price - sore back.

I have been staggered by the number of creatures that are looking for food. I posted a photograph of birds feeding on the fallen crabapples. Well, now the snow has gone there is still a carpet of crab apples, and we have a small deer (muntjac) coming into the garden to eat the apples - amazing.

This March Trix and I  will have lived in our cottage for a year and will have gone through our first year of seasons in the country side. I am looking forward to early sunrises and late sunsets. So I am glad the winter is coming to an end and spring is ready to come in. When I get the time, I like to fish, so in anticpation of early mornings at a lake, here is a picture of the last fish (carp) I caught a couple of summers ago. I think this may be the last fish I caught. Been busy!!



 

Last week was Executive Board, and we continue to deal with the challenges of limited budget.

 

One of the things that has also come out of recent discussions with members is how to show inclusiveness to all our members. I would like to make it clear that being an Associate Member, Member or Fellow does not require an applicant necessarily going for Engineering Council registration at EngTech, I Eng or CEng. Engineering Council Registration will require compliance with either the technical qualifications or a technical report, which has to meet EC criteria and be assessed accordingly. Some of you may want to upgrade from Affiliate to Associate Member or Member without EC registration - this is an option, but will require an upgrade application, an assessment of knowledge/experience, but this can be work based as well as through qualifications. So if you want to upgrade and don't necessarily want EC Regisration, then give the ILP a ring.

 

This week is Regional Officers, so I look forward to meeting Regional Secretaries and Vice Chairs - should be interesting. This meeting happens to be on the same day as the CIBSE Awards in the  evening. So I intend to be at the awards representing the ILP.  Have a good week . Pete

Hooray, the snow has gone. One night of heavy rain and howling winds, and at least where I live, the roads are no longer white. I noticed as I was driving back from church tonight , how dark it was again. I was beginning to get used to seeing across several fields at 12 midnight , due to the reflective characteristics of the snow. No longer. Also pleased to enjoy some dry roads and milder temperatures. I know the British talk about the weather, but it has dominated of late. Of course, with the snow melt came flooding. I popped down to the next village to check how badly it was flooded. Road closure notices, but the water has dropped. Interestingly, it must have been a full moon, and driving towards it, I could see the road quite clearly. Probably only a couple of lux in terms of illuminance, but good enough to turn off the headlights (kept the side lights on)  and still be able to drive along the road. Coming back with the moon behind, could not see a thing. Trix, commenting as a pilot , mentioned the teaching " in an emergency at night land towards the moon". As always, lighting principles seem to come into play in some many areas of life.   Enough of snow rain and wind, here is a picture of a bumble bee. Reminds me of the promise of warm sunny days to come

 

Last week I met for dinner with fellow past chairmen of the London and South eastern Region. I am very aware how important the regions are  - those who serve on the comittees and the members that support all the work the regions do. I am looking forward to visiting each region during this year. . Also last week I received my copy of the Lighting Journal, the first under the editorship of Jill Entwhistle. This is a pilot of the new monthly version and some comments have already been fed back about the layout, style and print. As Jill said in the editorial, she welcomes feedback, positive or negative.

This coming Tuesday 29th January is the next Executive Board meeting. Many issues and things to discuss and progress.

 

All the best - Pete

Snow and Sun and next Summit

I have finally got back to doing my blog on a saturday morning!  Routine can be a good discipline, but with a sprinkling of non-routine now and then. I look out of the window and I am sure, like those of you who read my blog this week, you will see snow. Fantastic stuff when you are a kid or are on a sking holiday, but for the vast majority of us, tricky stuff.  I was watching the news last night and one of the great images was of a motor way, slow moving traffic in heavy snow and the twin lanterns in the middle of the motorway picking out the snow as it fell. Good to know the lights keep working, rain or snow, summer or winter. To those of you who look after the lighting and keep it running - Well done. I know it is taken for granted by many, but from me, thank you.

A couple of winter pics taken from my home. One of the sun as it headed towards the evening horizon. I looked up from our kitchen table and saw the fiery orb surrounded by cloud with snow on the ground. Quite stunning. Tried to capture it. Second picture is of a flock of birds in the garden, feeding on the fallen crab apples.

I have been keeping busy as President, replying to various invitations to represent the Institution at a number of events and dinners. It is an honour, and I hope I will be a good ambasador for the ILP and where ever and when ever I can - get the message of lighting out to these who don't know what we do.  I am delighted to see that the announcement for the next lighting summit has come out this week.

So I hope you will put the summit dates in your diary for the 11 and 12 september 2013. It will be in Glasgow. Have a look on the website. Have a good week . Pete

Holiday pics and getting back to work

I hope you have had a great Christmas and New year.
No doubt, like me, you are getting back into the work routine!
It was a bit of a shock to the system, coming back from relatively warm Italy, with several days of blue sky's (great for taking pictures) and temperatures in low double figures.

I really enjoyed taking some walks up into the hills around the city of Perugia. I got high enough to get above some inversion mist layers to see white capped snow mountains. I really struggle to know what photograph to show, so as I have not done a blog for a while , I am showing a daytime shot of this beautiful city, a nightime shot (you can work out how good of bad the lighting is and one, of many shots across a tonal graduated  range of hills. Finally, I managed to play with my camera settings, to get the orb of the sun as it dropped over the hills. I guess most shots again show a recurring theme of how amazing sunlight really is.Enjoy




Perugia, seen above the inversion layer with mountains in the distance

 

 

 

 

 



Stuart Bulmer (ILP Professional Services Manager) and I met recently with the Lighting Liaison Group (LLG) to discuss what is going on in our various organisations.  I was interested to hear how the different groups are promoting lighting in many different ways - education, trade, research, publishing etc. I think the one key fact that we all agree on is - how to get the message of lighting,  its importance and effect -  out to the person in the street. As lighting professionals we know about each other and what the different parties are doing. Certainly the profile of lighting was raised when an issue becomes newsworthy. Often that can be because of something sad or negative. So switch off grabs the headlines and we respond. People take lighting for granted, and those of you like me who appreciate just how much effort goes into design, installation and maintenance of whatever type of scheme, wonder how we can get people to understand a little more about good lighting. So next time you have an opportunity to talk about lighting to somebody who is not a specialist, go for it and be proud of what you are involved in. Looking forward to visiting  the regions and seeing you at agms and other events. Have a good year. Pete

 

 

 

 

Christmas and Tunnel Lighting

It has finally warmed up a bit, and it has been nice to have a few milder days. Some folks like it cold, some like it hot. I guess it is down to you. One thing I do appreciate is a cool railway tunnel on a blistering hot sunny day. My last photograph of the year is the linear lighting inside a railway tunnel in the Peak District. The combination of coolness, water dripping from the roof and the amazing engineering of building this tunnel with it's brick lining. Incidently, I started off in civil engineering and my first job was working in a long sea outfall tunnel - 1.6 miles under the English Tunnel.  The lighting was simple fluorescent, but quietly effective as I hope you can see from the photograph.

A few blogs ago, I mentioned November 5th  night and how we enjoy the fireworks and forget that a certain Guy Fawkes wanted us to lose our parliament and what it stood for. I think we sometimes forget that Christmas is more than just a commercial opportunity for the shops and people getting stressed about presents and the like. I love giving and receiving gifts, but Christmas for me is about the most special gift ever given. So when you see the words CHRISTmas, the clue is in the first six letters!


Last week has been a busy one, with the last Executive Board meetingof 2012. I am pleased that we have appointed Elizabeth Thomas as Vice President Highways and Infrastructure and  I am sure that she will do an excellent job. This my last blog of 2012 as I am having a Christmas Holiday in Italy, and probably won't have an internet connection. I wish you a joyful Christmas and a happy new year.
Pete

Time Out!

It is only when you don't have something or it does not do what you expect that you notice it! I have already mentioned this in relating to lighting  - when it goes out that it is noticed and the users kick off!. While this week , the computer network at my work has been playing up. I have a fast machine, because I do computer aided design(CAD) and things got slower and slower. The IT team are trying to figure it out. I say all this because even emails are getting difficult. I hit the reply button and then wait a minute (yes 60 seconds)  before I can reply. I get a lot of emails, and the ILP hotline is pretty busy at the moment. There are lots of things that the Executive Board (EB) are working with at the moment. Next week is the last EB  meeting of this year, and as ususal a lot of business and items to work through.

As members, your EB does a huge amount of back office work, you don't always see it, but like the computer system, it has to work. So emails are one of our vital comminication devices and slow emails are a little frustrating!!

Sometimes though, it is good to not always just react. Sometimes just stopping and thinking about an issue can be the best way. So if you have a busy day and you have just taken a couple of minutes to stop  then here is a picture for you. Just stop and take in the view!
 I did when I took this picture -  I can still remember the warm sun, the smells and the view.

I love walking in the peak district when I have time. Next week I will be showing you some tunnel lighting pics along the one of the old railway lines. Have a good week.
Pete