New waterways map!

I've finally got around to transferring my Canal Tube Map into the right format for the graphics program i use nowadays (Photoshop) and while doing so i decided to update it a bit... and then a bit more and in the end quite a lot! So proudly presenting version 3.0 of what is now a Canal and Navigable River Map.

I first created the map a number of years ago, seeking to create a Birmingham Canal Navigations map in the style of the London Tube Map, over time the map has expanded to include canals like the Stratford-upon-Avon and navigable rivers in the West Midlands. The style has also deviated from the London tube map somewhat.

Version 3.0 has the following updates:

• New font used for titles, no reason for changing really apart from the fact i really like the typewriter font now used! Its a digital version of the actual font of my Brother typewriter in fact.
• Amends to a number of canals including Titford and W&E.
• Rivers now more clearly shown
• A few extra places shown

I hope you find it useful or at least mildly diverting... 

Roses are red...

Actually probably more pinky-red, the best ones are yellow. A few roses from my garden. I can't claim any credit for the rose bushes which predate me at the house but i guess i can claim credit for not killing them off. In other garden news i have spotted my first pea flower and have sown some herb seeds to create a little indoor herb garden.

The Fort

Erdington has a new coffee outlet, a new Costa in the newly opened larger Next store at The Fort. This new cafe also affords visitors an excellent view of the ..er.. carpark. Well i thought it was a nice view anyway.

Feeding the birds

I put up a bird feeder a couple of weeks ago though i did not expect much because of past miserable failures. However i noticed this week the seed in the feeder was definitely going down! Yesterday i saw for the first time a couple of finches tucking in. They come quite often, hopefully the cats won't get them!

A826 progress w/c 10/06/13

Onto the grind then, i spent some time this week on some of my secondary sources. I note all my references in a notebook which isn't very hi-tech i know. I do put the books into EndNote though hopefully for use when i begin writing something. I watched a tutorial of that program this week to remind myself how it works... though i might need to watch it again later!

I also gave the program TreeSheets a try, this is an organiser that allows you to make notes in a structured manner on-screen. It looks promising to try and make sense of all the facts i am uncovering.

The problem i got at the moment is that i am not 100% convinced my project is going in the correct direction. I am supposed to be examining whether the tramway had an effect on Stratford's economy, it could be though there isn't much evidence of that while i am finding plenty on the river and canal...

Tennis

After the Olympics last year i resolved to continue to watch live sport, i watched some badminton earlier in the year and today moved onto the big brother racquet sport tennis. I went to the WTA event in Birmingham (Aegon Classic) which is one of the various grass court warm up events for Wimbledon.

I had a great day, i'm a big fan of tennis especially the WTA tour and also i find the mechanics of live sport events fascinating. You can see the photos i took here.