News

A couple of new galleries this month. Firstly some new shots of the Kingston Lacy Enchanted Garden. I lugged the tripod around this time, so I was able to be a bit more ambitious. And secondly some shots of the New Forest taken just as the mist was lifting.

This is the first outing for my new resizeable pop-ups which will eventually be implemented across most of the site. When I first started to develop the site, broadband was only just becoming available and 17" screens were a bit of a luxury. I therefore picked on a relatively small sized image (450px maximum) for my pop-ups and slide shows.

Now, looking at the current stats, over 70% of my visitors are on broadband and over 80% are using a screen resolution of 1024x768 or above, so it's time to rethink that decision. On the pop-up screen you can now choose one of three resolutions: Small is for dial-up users and those with small screens, Medium is optimised for 1024x768, and Large is for anything bigger.

I have also had to introduce a visual recognition field on the comments pages, as spam is starting to appear here. Apologies for the inconvenience.

If that wasn't enough I'm also trying to finish off the Switzerland pages, and now have articles on:

• Lake Brienz
• Lauterbrunnen
• Grindelwald and
• Grosse Scheidegg.

together with a brief article on Lynmouth in Devon, for some reason.

New this month are articles on

• Kleine Scheidegg
• The Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe
• Mürren
• Wengen and
• The Schynige Platte Bhan

in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland, together with a short article on Luzern. More to come.

I've also been getting my head round Firefox's live bookmark facility, and now have a set of dynamic bookmarks pointing to the new content on the site. (Note: These do not yet work in Internet Explorer 7)

Finally got all the Switzerland stuff on-line. Apart from the sheer volume of photographs I took, there's all sorts of silly things, like the location system being based around Ordnance Survey Grid References, that needed to be changed.

Also new this month:

• Cromford Mill and Wharf
• Lumsdale Valley

Both in Derbyshire

Looks like I spoke too soon, as I am now suffering another rush of bounced email messages. So it looks like the spammer's back. Once again apologies to anyone who suffered from this, but there is not much I can do about it. Please be assured that it is nothing to do with me or the Strolling Guides site.

At long last the site is up and running with the new web host fuzioned.com. Initial impressions are very good and I can happily recommend them.

I think I've sorted out all the teething problems, but please let me know if you come across anything that doesn't work.

Now I can start putting up some new stuff, such as: Some more photos of Deans Court in Wimborne.

Not much new this month as space on my web server is getting very tight, and additional space with my current web host is ridiculously expensive. I've, therefore, decided to change to one of the many cheap hosting deals that are around, but this will inevitable cause a certain amount of disruption.

Once that's done I can start on the other exciting development: Strolling Guides is going international. Well actually, having just got back from two weeks in Switzerland it seems a shame to hide the photos away. As you may know, there is already an Amsterdam gallery, somewhere in the depths of the site and I have been promising to get around to scanning the negatives of Tobago, Malta and Ireland for some time.

So far this month I've detailed a stroll along the sea wall at Severn Beach near Bristol and given the New Forest Owl, Otter and Wildlife Park its own page with a load more photos. I've also created a new gallery of photos of Milton Abbas in Dorset and the surrounding area. Some old photos and some new, including an amazing display of primroses at nearby Hilton church.

Also new is the facility to get directions by public transport and car with the UK Government's Transport Direct web site.

This month I've written a couple of new articles on Forde Abbey and Lyme Regis in Dorset.

I've also worked on the Port Isaac area and there are now articles on the village itself, Port Gaverne and the stroll up along the cliffs and down to Pine Haven. Pencarrow House, just down the road, now has its own page as well.

I've made some changes to the navigation which I hope will make it easier to find your way around, have updated the Google Earth Pushpins, and created a new gallery for some rather gloomy pictures of Hampton Court Palace in London.

I've also extended the Spetisbury Rings Walk, making it a better length.

Looks like some b's "borrowed" my domain name to use for spam. Apologies to anyone who suffered from this, but there is not much I can do about it. Please be assured that it is nothing to do with me or the Strolling Guides site. Hopefully they will move on in a few days.

Also added two new galleries for Fort Nelson and the The Royal Armouries near Portsmouth, Hampshire and Lulworth Cove in Dorset.

Ongoing hardware problems and the gloomy weather have conspired against me. However, I do now have a proper test server again. So not a lot of new stuff this month.

Highcliffe Castle in Dorset now has its own page, with some shots of the inside, as does the Lymington Heritage Line with some more photos.

Not much new this month as I have been in the throws of upgrading all our computers. There is, however a new walk in the New Forest and some nice photos from Portsdown above Portsmouth.

Two new item so far this year:

• A long article on, Harnham Water Meadows near Salisbury in Wiltshire, complete with animation!
• And a short one on the Kennet and Avon Canal

Not much else I'm afraid due to a major computer upgrade.

Three new gazetteer entries for December:

• Pooh Bridge in the Ashdown Forest, Sussex
• The British Engineerium in Brighton and
• Calke Abbey in Derbyshire

And a new article on Portsmouth Historic Dockyard (revised 2016).