Miss Kournikova!

REPORTING From The Fox Tower would like to mark the summer season of tennis played on clay and on grass by paying homage to Miss Anna Kournikova, pictured above. We would also like to take this opportunity to link back to a post in honour of Miss Kournikova's Birthday last summer, a post entitled '#WinningIsn'tAlwaysPretty', which you can view here. The hashtag is explained in the post. As with the post last summer, access Anna's Facebook page, which also appears to be the role of her official website.

Roll on Summer, let's have a good one.

Get this blog on your mobile device!

HERE is the QR code which should, hopefully, enable you to visit this blog on your mobile device. Which means you could access these ramblings from anywhere. Enjoy...

Another edition of 'Meet the Author'...

... Sorry about that.

The Foxtower Reporter!

MAYBE you have been wondering what the blogger behind Reporting From The Fox Tower looks like. So here is a photograph of myself, Martin.

Sorry about that.

Listening to Medium Wave, April 2014

THE evening of Good Friday, 18 April 2014, was spent beside the Roberts R881, listening to the medium wave band. Here are the broadcasts I heard (Times in UTC / GMT; Frequencies in kiloHertz [kHz] ) :

• 2028 UTC, 738 kHz : RNE-1 (Radio National Espana) via Barcelona, Spain, 500 kW. Male and female Spanish speech. Broadcast reception poor to fair. To 2042 UTC.
• 2045 UTC, 747 kHz : NOS Radio 5 (Radio 5 Nostalgia) via Zeewold, Holland, 400 kW. Male and female Dutch speech, telephone interview. Broadcast reception very good. To 2100 UTC.
• 2104 UTC, 756 kHz : BBC Radio Cumbria via Brisco, Carlisle, 1 kW. Music: The Shadows. ID: "Joe Costin - Never heard of him!" voiced by Richard Nankivell. Music: Engelbert Humperdink - 'Please Release Me'. Speech by Joe Costin, presenting the Late Show. Music: Nillson - 'Without You'. Broadcast reception fair. To 2116 UTC.
• 2129 UTC, 756 kHz : Tentative reception of a low power broadcast, possibly either BBC Radio 4 via Redruth, Cornwall, 2 kW, or Radio Maldwyn via Montgomeryshire, Newtown, Powys, Wales, 630 Watts. Broadcast reception fair to poor. To 2140 UTC.
• 2150 UTC, 756 kHz : Deutschlandfunk via Ravensburg / Braunschweig, Germany, 100 - 200 kW. German speech by male and female, operatic pieces. German national anthem up to 2200 UTC. Broadcast reception strong to fair. To 2200 UTC.

That completes the logs for Medium Wave, April 2014.

Enjoy the remainder of the Easter weekend!

Maria's Easter Birthday 2014

THE MAGNIFICENT Maria Sharapova, pictured above, celebrates her birthday this coming weekend, the weekend is also Easter 2014, hence the title of this post. To mark Maria's birthday on Saturday, 19 April, this blog presents the above image, from the May 2013 edition of Esquire Latin America, which featured a stunning photoshoot with Maria. Miss Sharapova celebrates her twenty seventh birthday on Saturday.

Happy Birthday Maria!

Abbie J Steele - Then and Now

HERE ON RFTFT, we do like to follow up previous posting threads. Today, we look back to the summer of 2010, when the amazing Miss Abbie J Steele, pictured above, competed in the Miss Cumbria contest of that year. This blog was a keen supporter of Abbie's campaign to muster votes to take her through to the final. More of Abbie's 2010 campaign in a moment.

With the co-operation of Abbie herself, RFTFT will bring you all the latest details of her current work, as an actress and model, in a future post. That posting will include links to Abbie's social media sites and her new look website, which is being created at the moment. Hence the name of this posting as Then and Now - This is the 'then' post, the future post will be the 'now' post.

So, let's return to the 2010 Miss Cumbria campaign, which RFTFT supported. The above image was from 2010 and I shall now include links to the posts in support of Abbie, for your ease of access. The title of each post will include the appropriate link.

Here are the links:

Vote for Abbie

Listening and voting

(second part of post)

The Beautiful Ballerina

Miss Cumbria 2010 - The Result

That concludes this post. Thank you for visiting RFTFT and we will be back with Abbie again soon!

International Listening Update, March 2014

TEN MONTHS have passed since I last tuned the Short Wave band of my radio, to listen to broadcasts from all over the world. I took the opportunity to spend some time beside my radio on the afternoon of Thursday 27 March. The results of what I heard are here. All times are UTC (Universal Time Co-ordination, also known as GMT - Greenwich Mean Time); All frequencies are kHz (kiloHertz).

• 1615 UTC, 7265 kHz : Unidentified broadcast - Possibly China Radio International, broadcasting in the Russian language. Reception was fair. Male speech, female speech, news regarding France. Speech regarding President Francois Hollande, France. To 1620 UTC.
• 1630 UTC, 9410 kHz : BBC World Service - 'Sport Today'. European football: Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Real Madrid, Barcelona. Reception was fair. English to South Asia via Kranji, Singapore. Premiership football in England: Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea. World reaction via social media. To 1650 UTC.
• 1650 UTC, 9435 kHz : China Radio International - Learn to speak Chinese, referring to phrases such as "I won't go to the company today" and words such as "supermarket". Reception was good. English broadcast worldwide via Kashi, China. To 1700 UTC.
• 1710 UTC, 9500 kHz : Radio Australia [ABC - Australian Broadcasting Corporation] - 'Daily Planet' music programme, referring to the band 'Tangalo'. Male host. Reception was fair. English to Asia and Australasia via Shepparton, Victoria, Australia. To 1730 UTC.
• 1755 UTC, 9500 kHz : Unidentified broadcast - Speech interspersed with intro to the track 'Puffing Billy' by Edward White! To 1800 UTC.

• 2245 UTC, 9575 kHz : Medi 1 Radio, Morocco - 'Album Story' programme. Speech, followed by clips of tracks by Dire Straits, Santana and Michael Jackson. Female speech in French. Reception was good. Male speech, music by Bob Marley. To 2255 UTC.
• 2310 UTC, 9855 kHz : Radio Australia [ABC - Australian Broadcasting Corporation] - Female host with round table discussion regarding sport in the community and history of cricket in Samoa. Reception was fair. English to Asia and Australasia via Al Dhabbaya, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. To 2325 UTC.

That concludes the log of broadcasts I heard Thursday 27 March. I hope not to leave it so long next time!

It's Shara Time!

THIS week, Wallpaper of the Week brings you another image from the Facebook account of the amazing Maria Sharapova. The image is a still from a video Miss Sharapova posted on Facebook and on her Social Channel, as she prepared for training on a Saturday morning in October 2013. Maria's official Facebook channel can be found here.

Enjoy.

Eden FM - Eden Country Playlist - 15 March 2014

PRESENTING the playlist of Eden FM's weekly Country music show Eden Country, as broadcast Saturday 15 March 2014:

Hayseed Dixie - Walk This Way

Scott Holstein - The Spell

Jim Reeves - Then I'll Stop Loving You

Lady Antebellum - Singing Me Home

Ricky Skaggs - Coal Minin' Man

The Steeldrivers - Blue Side Of The Mountain

Lindi Ortega - When All The Stars Align

Kenny Chesney - Me And You

Willie Nelson - Mountain Dew

Johnny Cash - Bridge Over Troubled Water

Lonestar - I'm Already There

Hank Locklin - Please Help Me, I'm Falling

Dolly Parton - Why'd You Come In Here Lookin' Like That

Nanci Griffith - Outbound Plane

Alison Krauss & Union Station - It Doesn't Matter

Dixie Chicks - Everybody Knows

Glen Campbell - Rhinestone Cowboy (Live)

Elvis Presley - I Forgot To Remember To Forget

Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton & Loretta Lynn - Silver Threads & Golden Needles

Tim McGraw - Something Like That

George Jones - I'm Not Ready Yet

Taylor Swift - The Other Side Of The Door

Nanci Griffith - From A Distance

Eric Brace & Last Train Home featuring Charlie McCoy - Stone Fox Chase

Elvis Presley - That's All Right

Charlie Rich - I've Got Mine

Patsy Cline - Lonely Street

The Bellamy Brothers - Sugar Daddy

Faron Young - Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young

Willie Nelson - On The Road Again

Please give the Eden FM Country with Martin Facebook page a 'Like'. Thank you!

A Beautiful Sunset.

TAKING you back to September 1st, 2013, to a beautiful sunset in the Caribbean. The lady in the photograph is the magnificent Miss Maria Sharapova, and it is from her official Facebook account that I have shared this photograph as Wallpaper of the Week. Enjoy.

It's Taylor Ti- Oh. My. Goodness.

Taylor Alison Swift is FAB-U-LOUS.

It's Taylor Time!

TAYLOR SWIFT released the album Speak Now in 2010. The standard album cover dress was purple, the Deluxe Edition cover dress was red - But I just had to share this piece of art from the internet, in which the dress has been coloured blue, which I like. There is also a celebration of Speak Now on the internet, portraying Taylor in a green dress, but I wasn't so sure of that one.

As this post is celebrating Speak Now, here are the track listings of the standard and Deluxe Editions of the album:

Standard edition:

Mine, Sparks Fly, Back To December, Speak Now, Dear John, Mean, The Story Of Us, Never Grow Up, Enchanted, Better Than Revenge, Innocent, Haunted, Last Kiss, Long Live

Deluxe Edition content:

Ours, If This Was A Movie, Superman, Back To December (acoustic), Haunted (acoustic), Mine (US version), Back To December (US version), The Story Of Us (US version)

Video content: On The Set: Behind the Scenes of 'Mine' Music Video, followed by 'Mine' Music Video.

Taylor has also released an eponymous album, Fearless (also the Platinum Edition), Speak Now World Tour Live and RED (also a Deluxe Edition).

Please also click on Taylor's name at the beginning of this posting, as I have linked to Taylor's official website through that.

Finally, whichever colour dress you choose, enjoy!

Wallpaper of the Week, 16 February 2014

LADY LUCK appears to be smiling on Eden at the moment - Two dry days in a row! Whilst the sun is shining, I thought that this week's Wallpaper of the Week feature should also include an image of a sunny day. So I present an image looking out to St Bees Head, from Hartley's Ice Cream Café, on the coast at St Bees. The location is also the starting point of the late, great Alfred Wainwright's Coast to Coast walk, from where you head north, before turning east to conquer the Lake District fells, the Eden Valley, the Yorkshire Dales and the North Yorkshire Moors, before finally completing the walk on the shoreline at Robin Hood's Bay. Let us hope for more kind weather, if you are here in Eden, in St Bees, or participating in the Coast to Coast walk. Best of luck, whatever your plans are this week. Enjoy.

Reporting From ... The Fox Tower!

A WHILE has passed since I first started this blog - November 2005, I believe - during which time the only photograph I have published of the Fox Tower itself is the profile picture in the top left of the page. Here is a nice image of the Tower, taken by myself in May 2013, when the landowners allowed visitors to reach the Fox Tower and neighbouring Bluebell Wood. I am pleased it was a beautiful, sunny day, which was very enjoyable 'up Helbeck' and provided great panoramic views. I do hope you are enjoying the weekend too.

Welcome to February!

WELCOME to another Wallpaper of the Week. Following the post regarding Penrith last week, I'm posting an image of back home, Brough. On closer inspection, the image may be a little blurry, as I had to use the zoom to achieve the image above. This image is from 25 May 2013, taken from Helbeck, the farming hamlet to the north of Brough. The Castle stands in the centre of the image, with the distant Wild Boar Fell, looming large, behind in the distance. Hope you enjoy this image.

Discover Penrith

THIS post on RFTFT takes us up to the market town of Penrith, Cumbria. A town that has been going through a regeneration in recent years, which has included the building of the new Castle Park Retail site, on the A592, Ullswater Road, as well as the New Squares development, around the Southend Road area. I do like the metalwork which greets visitors to the New Squares, as seen above. A new website was launched in late 2013, on which visitors can learn more about the town, the website is Discover Penrith. There is lots more to Penrith than just the new retail areas; The Musgrave Monument in the Market Square, St Andrew's Church, the statue of the Black Angel in Castle Park (to commemorate the Boer War), the Band Stand in Corn Market, not forgetting Penrith Castle, as well as the sporting facilities in Castle Park. Regarding sports, Penrith Rugby Union is based at Winters Park, Carleton; Penrith AFC [Football Club] is based at Frenchfields Park. Learn more about sport in Penrith on the Eden FM Sport Facebook page. Eden FM is the Community Radio station based on Ullswater Road Business Park. Also based in Penrith is the Cumberland & Westmorland Herald (weekly newspaper) and Cumbrian Local (monthly community magazine). I do hope this posting regarding Penrith has been enjoyable. Do enjoy the remainder of your weekend.

Wallpaper of the Week, 19 January 2014

THE FINAL image of the series of photographs taken at Ullswater, May 2013, is of the stone steps which lead from the roadside down to the water. I like the low sun shining at an angle, showing the greenery at its best and giving good light on this shot. I do hope you have enjoyed these images and will continue to visit Reporting From The Fox Tower.

Happy Birthday Victoria Louise!

BEFORE the day is through, join me in wishing Victoria Louise Lott a very Happy 23rd Birthday.

Victoria Louise is better known as the British singer Pixie Lott, who will be performing her new single 'Nasty' at the 2014 Brit Awards. Happy Birthday, Pixie!

Wallpaper of the Week, 12 January 2014

WALLPAPER of the Week takes one final look - for now - at Ullswater. This image, as with the previous images in the series, was taken one evening in May 2013. I hope you have enjoyed this selection of images of the water and surrounding country. I still have one more image which will be in the next posting, then I intend to post a few more items closer to home in the near future. Until then, enjoy this week's image of Ullswater.