I took this in the middle of the night a couple of days ago, and it is not a 'red sky at night'. Well not a genuine one anyway. It is quite simply, and horribly, 'light-pollution' and depending on the height and nature of the clouds, we get it all the time.Thank you Bungus for your alpha+ research into Vegemite and related matters. I feel sufficiently well armed to steer a dinner party conversation round to the subject and then baffle everyone with science. Trouble is we don't seem to do dinner-parties any more - but the thought is there!
We had our usual busy Thursday. I took Y to the tram just after 9am, did some shopping, came home and unpacked it and put 2 jacket potatoes in the oven on the timer for evening meal. Jacket Potato and grated-cheese with salad is one of Y's favourite meals. So you could say she has won the Jackpot. Oh dear - they are flowing today, even if high on the cringe scale. Then I drove over to Boughton to meet Bungus for lunch and he had booked us into The Snooty Fox where, hithertofore, we have had excellent meals. Not so today. We both felt our meals were poor value, too expensive and over-priced. A 25ml bottle of Becks non-alcoholic lager was £2. Bob had the meat and potato pie which arrived without potato and with not very nice pastry. My poached haddock with spinach turned out to be 'smoked haddock' which had I known I wouldn't have ordered. It arrived sans spinach and when I queried it the boy waiter returned and said "We ain't got no spinach". I fought back the desire to say "In that case I will have a portion please" feeling that the irony would be lost.
We nipped over to Laxton the historical farming village which is quite near Bob and which I am supposed to be researching for Mansfield National Trust as potential visit. One of Bob's farmer friends does the guided tours but, at first sight, I didn't think it would suit many of our members. However, I won't dismiss it until I know more. Then, after a quick coffee we returned to Bungus's so I could have a quick chat to Ralph. He is getting to be an old dog and apparently neither his eyesight, not his hearing are working well anymore. The other end is certainly working and he produced a 'room clearer' which his master who was sitting next to him, claimed not to smell. I think Ralph has become a 'ventriloquist of the bottom'. Sensing my desire for a pudding Bungus produced some first rate rhubarb and custard and copious amounts of tea.
When I left I drove straight down the A614 to Burton Joyce and had good fun with the grandchildren. Miles and Hannah both had excellent School Reports to show me. Millicent was her usual boisterous self, I doubt if there has ever been a noisier little girl. I read a bit of The Gruffalo but what she really wanted to do was beat me up which she had great fun doing. Then my nose gave me the second warning of the day. She peeped in the side of her nappy and declared it to be 'degutting' which indeed it was. Y did the necessary thank goodness! And then we all played blind man's buff. I was allowed to to be the 'Humble Assistant' again; a sedentary role which I can handle. Then, before her Dad came home Hannah did us an excellent dance, which she is still working on. Yes. Steven has been to work ! I knew he would. Let's just hope he has a rest day tomorrow. Thank you all for your good wishes to Steven.When I arrived home I nipped out with my 50mm lens and x4 ND filter and photographed the hollyhocks at f1.8 into the sun, by underexposing quite dramatically. The result pleases me which is what matters. And I would rather achieve the result by camera-work rather than post shot 'PhotoShoppery'.
Tomorrow morning I am Exhibition sitting again. I will be fun and I am looking forward. By the way my ArtDaily newspaper has started arriving reliably again.
A quotation -
"[Abstract art is] a product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered".
- Al Capp - cartoonist.
This is the scene outside Madeline's most evenings. Sleep tight everyone.n.b. Everything orange is a live link. i.e. click on it and magic happens.
3 comments:
I don’t expect it to be the last word but I return to the question of McAfee (a web-searching safety system devised by the renowned Rangers, Man U, Milan and Scotland player, perhaps best known as the highest scoring right-winger in Home International matches).
I have found an analogy.
You (RadioG and Madeline) are like climbers who sally forth (or third on a good day) to conquer Munros and challenging faces, fully equipped with ice-axes, ropes, Kendal Mint Cake, and tricounis.
I, on the other hand, am a graduate of the Royal Engineers’ Cambridgeshire School of Mountaineering. My requirements are no more than a decent pair of fabric boots, a banana and a walking stick. If, by chance, I should lose myself in uncharted territory, I only need to find a safe ledge and shout for help.
Light pollution IS a terrible thing (and much of it could be avoided) but I have NEVER seen it look so startling as that...
Any reader is welcome to use my Vegemite research in lectures and debates. The only thing to remember is that if you say it with enough confidence very few people will challenge you.
I they do, it was nowt to do wi' me, m’lud.
The ‘Jackpot’ joke (I use the term loosely) eluded me at first but then I read the daily 'heading' and spotted the hyphen which made everything clear. I am not sure that I should have bothered.
The comments about our lunch give the right impression although the pastry wasn’t too bad – it was the meat that was tough and ‘bitty’. I think the Kaliber price (not Becks) was probably fairly standard (we have been spoiled by Wetherspoons) but I think if we had never been to the ‘Snooty’ before we would never go again. The lesson learnt is to go to the Wednesday carvery which has a special pensioners’ price and is excellent value. I agree that unsheathing the ‘double negative’ weapon would have been a waste of time. I blame Mick Jagger (who, many readers will recall, could not get no satisfaction) although I doubt if that name would mean anything to the lad who’d not got no spinach.
RadioG remarked (before he knew the price) that he feared he was becoming addicted to Kaliber and suchlike. We decided that he should lose no time in joining NAA (Non-Alcoholics Anonymous).
I had thought the possible Laxton visit was to be with photographers not NT. But it is perhaps a pity that we didn’t say ‘The hell with it’ and squander another couple of quid to watch the video which would have given RadioG a better idea of what is on offer. That said, the interest is perhaps more cerebral than visual, although there are some interesting things to see (Lincoln Cathedral 20 miles away, ‘ridge and furrow’, a very good ‘motte & bailey’ castle, the farming ‘strips’). It is worth a click on the blog's Laxton link (just ignore the suggestion that it is necessary to learn Korean).
The dog Ralph has become a bit smelly (I would not like to hurt his feelings by exaggerating) but he does have the remarkable ability to bend it like Beckham. I think it is something to do with his varied diet; but it is about the only pleasure he gets now, poor old thing.
Segueing sweetly, I am pleased that nappy changing took place before the ‘Blind Man’s Buff’. It would be a pity to give a too obvious clue (I hope Millicent doesn’t read this blog when researching her family history for some ‘A’ Level project)...
The hollyhock does have an appealing ‘je-ne-sais-quoi’ quality. I would never think there was any sun about at all.
Al Capp was a very skilful cartoonist but perhaps not the greatest art critic.
Yes, Sleep tight everyone (unless you live near Madeline and she is playing her music!). I am sure she will appreciate the ‘clip’ as we appreciate her contributions. And I enjoyed Jill's letter very much too.
That light pollution's dreadful, we don't get anything like that here. In our hamlet, one street light doesn't work and the other one's overgrown with foliage from large trees! Our nearest small town is about 7 miles away, so it's very dark here at night as well as in daytime recently, due to the appalling weather.
When it's not cloudy, we can see stars, planets, the moon and UFOs
(the latter usually after a few glasses of wine, but not necessarily)! A fly drowned itself in my wine last night; luckily I noticed it before I took a swig.
I like the scene outside my house, it's nearly always like that. I wish these people would go and have their "raves" somewhere else, the neighbours are getting a bit fed up.
Poor Ralph, although I expect he's happy and completely oblivious to the olfactory distress he might cause to humans! When I was a child, one of my aunts had a dog with similar capabilities. Cats can be just as bad, if not worse. The worst thing with cats and dogs is that you don't usually get an audible warning. All of a sudden there it is - in your face, as it were!
Bring on the Kendal Mint Cake!
Madeline's comment reninds ,me of two things.
1) When caavanning at Ferry meadows, Sandra remarked on the beautiful sunset. I admired, thought about it, and then pointed out that she was looking east at the lights over Peterborough.
2) Many years ago (the 60s) I was in a Nottingham pub with a female friend (not a girlfriend but a friend). I bought her a drink (Sweet Martinei or Dubonnet possibly) served from the optic. She pointed out the beerflies in it. The barman put in his finger and removed them and passed the glass back. You don't get that sort of service these days (except perhaps from young 'not-got-no-spinach' in the Snooty Fox?)
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