It was very rewarding to receive such encouraging comments about yesterday's pictures. The 'tonal recessions, front to rear' were serendipitous but I must admit that I had spotted their potential before clicking. They were definitely not 'photoshopped' - what an idea! Hmmmm.Today's first picture which looks, in my opinion, even more 'painterly' than yesterday's, is similarly free from any more intervention than - 'cropping and straightening' - necessary because I was leaning on a rail-post due to the high wind and my well-established unsteadiness on mi' feet. Result - skewed horizon - which always ruins a picture.
To answer Jill's query. We didn't spot a statue to either Alice-in-Wonderland or Lewis Carroll but apparently the town is proud of the connection. Y says she wouldn't really be looking because she has always thought Alice to be weird, and Lewis Carroll a pervert. And I don't disagree strongly.
My few words yesterday about Radiogandy being back 'on air', and the generators starting first swing was a reference back to RAF days in Germany. As an SAC I was, towards the end of my National Service, in charge of a shift of 6 men running what was called a Type 18 mobile radar-station. The first job on 'mornings' was to get the generators running. They were Perkins Diesels, and in cold weather particularly were a sod to start. I'm sure these days they have electrically powered starter motors. But then it was swing the b***** handle until the thing fired. Or, not unusually, back-fired and nearly broke your wrist.
Picture 2 shows the type of thing. Although, being RAF rather than common Army, ours were blue-grey and not khaki. The radar was called ANTPS 1d and I guess now will be off the secret list (after 54yrs) I hope so anyway, I don't want to be shot! The letters stood for American Naval Transmitted Pulse Search type 1d.I collected Y from TJ's around noon and we did essential shopping at Bulwell Morrissons and had a light lunch followed by left-over cheese-cake. This afternoon I made a spag-bol for evening meal after which we had left-over strawberries and yoghourt. Y has made an orange-flan which sits in the fridge looking inviting. But it will come into play tomorrow.
Had a nice chat to David this morning. He had e-mailed me a turn-of-the-century photograph of Long Eaton which shows their house very clearly. Great fun!
Further holiday notes - All the assorted ring-tones people have on their mobile phones are sometimes quite odd. You don't know if the speakers on an MP3 have activated or that you can suddenly hear someone's car radio. My solution to mine is quite simple - I've got a ring-tone which sounds like a phone ringing! Quirky eh? Also, I acquired a fridge-magnet for Y. The picture is a half-submerged polar-bear and the words say "I don't do mornings."
....Catch you tomorrow......
Yes, another nice picture, but not, in my view, “… more 'painterly' than yesterday's,”
ReplyDeleteI rather like Alice in Wonderland; nearly as much as Winnie the Pooh. I didn’t read either of them until I was in my forties.
I am pleased you have cleared up my confusion about the generator.
And how clever of you to remember the meaning of ANTPS 1d.
I spent many months of my National Service, and all the 48 years since, wondering what the letters QL stand for. The nearest I got to enlightenment was:
Staff Sgt: Take these ammo boxes to Prinn, corporal. You can use the QL.
Me: What does QL stand for, staff?
Staff Sgt: That’s it over there.
Me: Yes, I know it’s a 1½ ton truck, staff. I want to know what the letters stand for.
Staff Sgt: It doesn’t matter, corporal. Just use it to take these ammo boxes to Prinn.
Like you, I hope that daring disclosure will not run me foul of the Official Secrets Act. I’ve nothing against ravens but…
PEDANTS’ CORNER
Can I be the only voice crying in the wilderness, the only one who is still irritated by incorrect ** usage of the word ‘fascination’ ?
Watching a recorded programme yesterday I was told by an apparently educated and competent critic, one Andrew Graham-Dixon, that:
“… Hogarth and Canaletto had one thing in common, a FASCINATION FOR LONDON…”
NO ! NO ! NO ! London had a fascination for THEM.
London fascinated them … they did not fascinate London
They found London fascinating … London did not find them fascinating
(i suspect London did not even notice they were there).
What made it worse was that the programme was THE CULTURE SHOW.
It was only the later guitar playing of Eduardo Niebla that soothed me.
And is it just me who gets an impression that the presenter, a lovely Geordie girl, often appears not to be listening to the answers to her questions (although I can forgive her that, sometimes, when Mark Kermode is going on a bit).
** I know my 1995 dictionary says of both ‘fascination’ and ‘attraction’:
“In recent years, however, this (established) construction has quite often been turned around … (Kazuo Ishiguro … Richard Feynman)… Despite their increasing frequency, these uses are not yet sufficiently established to be universally acceptable.”
And I am the Universe!
To me, it is just like the reverse misuse of ‘teach / learn’ or lend / borrow’ (and yes, I know that centuries ago their meanings were reversed or reversible).