Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Blog before Carsington - Round up Weston

Picture 1 is the lily-pond at KnightsHayes and you can see the sort of rain we braved. Well worth it though.

I've spent the day being 'busy' I sawed off a fence-post stump which impeded the moving out/in of the greenlid bin. It was green recycling day today and it has needed doing for some time but I couldn't solve a problem which I perceived. We needed the stump leaving level with the concrete pathway but eventually I realised there was no requirement for the end to be at a right-angle to the stump, so I just sawed it off at around 45 degrees. Problem solved. Y always says that for an intelligent man I can be incredibly stupid, and this was a classic case.

For lunch I cooked egg & chips because we both had a fancy for it and then we finished off the gooseberries. Soon we shall have raspberries. Yummy yummy. And I spoke to Helen and more or less finalised the Carsington arrangements. I didn't want her to 'buy in' food supplies etc., because I aim to go fully equipped, also with bedding which I shall bring back with me.

I am sorting out camera stuff, tripod, chargers, lenses and filters, and all the necessary leads. Plus books, radios, tablets, clothing - but I'm sure to go without something. I always used to omit something, when work took me all over the place. Each time I would write down what I had forgotten and keep the list going for future commitments. My worst effort though was to go without my case, with everything in it - including list !

Picture 2 was at Snowhills Manor and was an attempt to get the photograph sharp, all the way from foreground to infinity.

It needed an aperture of f22 and a shutter-speed of a quarter of a second, but I managed to steady the camera on a fence-post. It looks as sharp as I could reasonably expect and it is a shame that the subject matter isn't interesting enough to justify the effort.

The national/international news continues to be depressing so I won't bore you with it. ArtDaily please click continues to delight. The link is republished in case we have any new readers who are interested in Art. When I have returned from Carsington and we have a 'window' I would love to travel to London by train to visit the Royal Academy to see the Hockney (big trees) and also the exhibition of Turner watercolours he is curating. Plus of course, The Summer Exhibition, which we always find a delight.

Two quotes appealed:-

"Beauty is God's handwriting"
Charles Kingsley
and

"Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes."
- Henry David Thoreau



If anything further occurs to me I shall return later this evening. But if not - tattah till Saturday.

Carsington here I come. I shall restrain myself from climbing trees. See you soon.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

SNAP.
Sandra always says that for an intelligent man I can be incredibly stupid.
It seems that apart from our many shared virtues we also have a common fault.

My rule on packing is don’t forget the matches, corkscrew and tin opener.

Your ‘attempt to get the photograph sharp, all the way from foreground to infinity’ is an interesting exercise but I incline to the view that part sharp / part fuzzy is (usually) more dramatic and ‘artistic’.

Anonymous said...

We used to stop at Snowshill with the children on the way to holidaying in Devon or Cornwall - they always loved it, and found something new in it to look at every time.

A little poem re climate change:

One green bottle
Drop it in the bank
Ten green bottles
What a lot we drank
Heaps of bottles
And yesterday's a blank
But we'll save the planet
Tinkle, tinkle, clank.

Passed on to me - can't think why....

Have a lovely week-end - so relieved that tree-climbing is off the schedule...

Anonymous said...

to Jill ... hic!

To RadioG ... I've had another look at the all-in-focus picture, enlarged. Apologies. As you say it is a pretty mundane subject but technically I think it works very well - the folige at the front, the middle stuff behind it and the slightly hazy distance. Ignore my previous comment.