The above are three separate pictures to show the interesting roof at 'The Riding School' at Calke Abbey. It was built in the mid 18th Century and most of the main roof timbers are original. The brick-walls are lime washed as they would be. At one stage it had a corrugated iron roof (which obviously did a fine job) and a concrete floor to enable it to be used as a farmer's barn. Now, after extensive National Trust renovation, it is a marvellous 'open space' for our use. Yesterday it housed 150 people in the main part, with enough room at the rear for a buffet-lunch. It has only been opened this year and what a facility. Shall we stage a YeeHah ' barn dance' for the over 70s?.
Thank you Bungus for the "Tricholoma (T terreum?) or Lyophyllum (L decastes?)" illustrated on the left. Although the fungus on the right looks odd. I am undecided between a pair of lambs kidneys and a dog turd. Whichever - I don't think I fancy it. No doubt you will blog tomorrow that they were delicious.Nice also to see you experimenting with Picasa 3's 'text tool' although a slightly larger font size would help those of us with less than eagle-vision.
Easy to do, and a useful refinement is that. as you scroll through the fonts the explanatory text in the middle of the picture varies in tune with the font you are looking at. Ditto with the 'point size', so it's straightforward to get it just how you want it. Much more user-friendly than photoshop.
But isn't it great in our 70s to have new toys to play with?
Our day has been great. Tracy arrived quite early and then Helen and David and family around coffee time. Lots of nice news. Sky had come top in the School with a 'PowerPoint presentation'. Well done Sky. David quite easily, for him, fixed my big computer problems. So I now have sound, - my keyboard and mouse are plugged in to the 'correct' output sockets, thereby freeing up two USB ports. They'd had a super time at Goose Fair and sent me a picture from David's phone to my computer which I recovered from Orange by using an 'ID and a Password' which had arrived on my mobile. But I do know how to deal with these because John has sent me quite a few from Europe.
During all this activity I managed to cook a leg-of-lamb with roast potatoes (desirée), yorkshires, fresh carrots, broccoli, and thinly sliced 'cabbage and leek' which has become a favourite of Y's. Proper gravy made with the caramelised juices at the bottom of the roasting tin. It all worked, and I must remember to compliment the butcher at Watnall Farm shop on the quality of the genuine English Lamb which was succulent, slightly pink and flavoursome.
This afternoon I managed an hour's lie-down and now feel fully refreshed and looking forward to the Strictly come Dancing results show. We both voted for John Sergeant who dances charmingly. He has a unique and attractive style all of his own and he may be onto something.
I know I avoid current affairs but feel moved to speak about the current economic crisis. As a little bit of a socialist I can't understand why failing banks/building societies should be nationalised so the tax-payer is forced to rescue rich businessmen/women who have made poor decisions. If this is OK, why not nationalise a few when they are making obscene profits, so the tax-payer can have a little share of the largesse ?
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bungus ..... I fear you may well be right with the chuck-everything-in soup. Once I had half a tray of oven baked vegetables (The Delia recipe) which included squash, sweet potato, celeriac, and swede from the previous day. That made quite a respectable soup, made with chicken stock. But I counted myself lucky.
Only partly agree with you about luck in photography. Jill said she kept looking through the viewfinder till something appealed. That isn't trusting to luck is it? And I certainly wasn't being 'judgmental' in a sense of putting it down - I was assessing its merits in art-appreciation terms.
Re the Chinese Restaurant picture. All the words in the hoarding were of my introduction. And I wish I hadn't. It was close to racism to mock the pronunciation of another race. And I put my hands up to trying to raise a cheap laugh. Anyway, it failed because the judge didn't see the joke and criticised it as a photograph - which he was fully entitled to do.
Jill ...... Coldharbour Mill looks great I just wish we were closer to North Devon as it obviously of interest to people other than knitters. An Aladins Cave for you. And the restaurant sounds fabulous too.
Re Flu jabs ..... I've heard of people having unpleasant side-effects. We were going to give them a miss this year but Y read a piece warning strongly about an unexpectedly virulent virus (ha ha!) being around. So we are booked in, about a week hence.
helen c ...... Re the judging. And there was me feeling sure that your 'flooded tent' would do well for you. But what pitifully stupid comments. It sounds very much as if he has had a 'sense-of-humour ectomy'.
Hope to see you Wednesday. Unless there is anything to the contrary - "usual place, usual time" as they say.
quotation time ...... This should suit Bungus, and me, very well .....
"I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
Y is off to London tomorrow, for a day with Jill. She will be tired when she gets back but happy-tired which is the best. Messing-about day for me - and make a shepherds pie ?
Sleep tight - catch you tomorrow
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Sorry, but I cannot become too enthusiastic over the roof (or under it either).
ReplyDeletePleased you appreciated the fungus foto. I didn’t want the title to take too much attention (don’t forget you can click on the TL corner to enlarge the picture) but thanks for the tips.
I am not struck on the ‘retouch’ tool in P3 though. I’d prefer ‘clone’.
Glad to hear that David sorted you out. Isn’t it useful to have the occasional visit from someone who knows what they are on with?
Don’t give the butcher too much credit – the pinkness of the meat, I mean.
I think John Sergeant has a unique and attractive style in every way, not just his dancing (for which I shall take your word). Perhaps he is on something rather than onto something?
I absolutely agree in principle that ordinary tax-payers should not have to rescue rich businessmen/women who probably avoid/evade payment of tax anyway. But I suppose it is just a matter of pragmatism (remember Harold Wilson?) in that something had to be done promptly.
The American public and their representatives obviously and understandably felt the same as you and made their point before being persuaded to go along with a strategy which may possibly avoid a crash like that of 1929. Let us hope that we do not have to taste the sour grapes of wrath.
The Observer yesterday published a very good 12 page supplement about the situation and its historical precedents etc.
I’ll bet folk are laughing in Cuba (or at least wearing big smiles).
The veg soup was OK. Better than OK, in fact; enjoyably tasty and the green veg did not dominate as I feared it might.
Although Jill’s very nice photo set me off on my philosophical musings, my comments were not aimed at that picture. I think my point is that chance plays a part in everything – taking Jill’s picture, for instance: if they had not had that room in that hotel, if the sun had not been shining… The thing is to ride luck and take advantage of the chance – ‘carpe diem’.
I did not for one moment think you were sitting in judgment on the picture any more than I was. I am sure Jill would understand that.
I also tried not to be too judgmental about your non-PC restaurant signs, but you have decided upon public self-flagellation which does you great credit!
But, on the wider issue of judges, from what you all seem to be saying, they often seem to talk a load of cobblers (which, of course, is a euphemism for b*******). Also see response below to Helen’s comment.
Quotation from Robert McClosky has it about right, as much of the debate in this blog goes to show.
Jill:
So far as I am concerned it is having an ‘eye’ that matters, but a few tips such as those you mention (and which RG tends quite reasonably to bang on about although I personally think that, correct though he is, he gets a bit precious about the difference between the ‘rule of thirds’ and the Golden Section) do help.
I can very seldom be bothered ‘photoshopping’ (and think RG will agree that it can be positively undesirable if done in what he or I would consider an inappropriate way) but I DO find Picasa invaluable for judicious cropping, lightening, etc. If you don’t have it, I strongly recommend you should download it (free). See Rg's blog of Oct 3rd for link.
We have a water mill in Ollerton which I believe is still in working order. It has an excellent and popular café in the same building which has won national awards for the quality of the tea they serve.
When my father started work, aged 13, at the Hermitage Hosiery Mill in Mansfield, it was his job to ‘set’ the wheel each morning on his arrival. And he finished his working life at another Mansfield Mill that was still powered by water and lit by gas until after WWII. Unfortunately, although a listed building, it recently had to be demolished after a major arson attack.
The ‘pensioners’ special’ sounds very good although I avoid cottage pie or anything else made from mince unless I have seen it minced (all right, I eat pork sausage but I am very choosy).
I look forward to hearing some of your knitting yarns.
I have always refused to have flu jabs on the grounds that I have never had flu and my mother never had flu (even in 1918 when she was the only one on the street unafflicted) and that the innoculation might have a reverse effect.
If I turn out to have made a bad decision RG has my permission to say, “Well I did warn him..”.
Helen C:
Monday’s child is a shining light; Thursday's judge is full of s***e!
I think your flooded tent photo is great, both pictorially and for its wit. So what if the tent isn’t a third of the way in – rules are there to be broken (when appropriate).
Re competition judges.
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was a prerequisite for all photograhic judges to have a humour removal op. as none of them seem able to see a joke. None seem able to read sufficiently well enough to comprehend any "funny" appearing as text in a picture and virtually never see a joke.
Still, we all think that we know better than any "judge". We took the picture and we know the joke.
JB