Warmer day. Nat. Trust meeting at Mansfield

The object of the exercise was to get the evening sun shining through the camelia petals and, I admit, in the right-hand image, a little Picasa handiwork to grey-out the background to throw colour emphasis on the centre. I'm not quite sure whether it works or not. Some loyal reader will tell me ! The first image was a straightforward 'macro' job to fade-out the background. I'm happier with that one actually.

A lovely warm, late April day, with the temperature reaching 17C in the afternoon and no rain. Really good growing weather and I'm sad that (due to the pending house-move) I've hardly any young plants coming on. Never mind, there's always next year. This morning I had all manner of computer problems which I won't bore folks with. My friend Bob pointed out that there was a danger of this Blog becoming IT obsessed; so, say no more. I'm going over to Boughton to see Bob tomorrow and he has succeeded in booking lunch at the Snooty Fox which he rates highly. As I mentioned yesterday, if he hadn't been able to book he was going to cook a smoked fish chowder and I couldn't really decide which way I wanted the 'cookie to crumble' as the cliche has it.

In the afternoon I took Yvonne over to Mansfield for a National Trust committee meeting. How she came to be on the committee is a funny (Ha Ha) story. The last time we went to the normal monthly branch meeting, as soon as we walked in, a lady said to Yvonne "I understand you are going on the committee" which was the first Yvonne had heard of it ! And then, in his opening remarks, the Chairman said ".....and Yvonne has agreed to serve on the committee". Never mind, they are a lovely group and she will enjoy it immensely. They know we have this upcoming house-move but I'm sure we can find a workaround. The meeting was at Conny's house on the outskirts and I was made very comfortable in another room. I had taken my laptop (sorry Bob) and found plenty to occupy me tidying up folders and picture files, and things which didn't need an internet connection. My battery had just 9 minutes left when I heard the meeting come to an end and I was brought a beautifully strong cup of tea. I wonder how Conny knew that I like tea to be a rich orange colour. Perhaps it's a 'man thing'. I had been given strict instructions for dietary reasons, not to accept a cake or a biscuit and when Conny came in with my tea she said "I'm not to offer you a biscuit". I think that must be a 'woman thing'.

During the drive home Yvonne said how much she had enjoyed taking part in something again; after all that time when, due to my being so ill, she had had to give up so much. And we are both enjoying the National Trust a lot. I've certainly mellowed somewhat from my extreme left-wing days when I used to say that the only way I wanted to visit Chatsworth was in the turret of the first tank.

One of my computer probs. was that Picasa refused point-blank to email photos out. This evening I managed it at first go and sent David three pictures from Sunday. Steve rang to say that they had decided to use his birthday money to buy a garden-bench. Sensible idea.