A leftover picture from yesterdays Wollaton Hall trip. They are so understanding about the strange need in some humans, to record pictures of pleasant subjects. The through the arch>through the door>to the french style window in the centre appealed.At the side of the windows were tall mirrors and Helen was trying to figure out how to do one of those 'chair in a mirror, in a mirror, in a mirror etc.,etc.,' shots. Unfortunately it would also have included 'photographer's hand holding camera' repeated ad infinitum.
If required, next time I see her, I will ask for a 'model-release' letter.
I didn't sleep too well (what's new?) and the moon-shot was at around 4.30am. An experiment to see how well my beloved 70-300 VR worked hand held under these quite extreme circumstances. I am more than happy.
At also led me to realise that I had never noticed this 'end of a melon' look that the moon has.
It looks just as if there are segment marks radiating from the stalk-end doesn't it ? Not being
sure whether or not we have anyone 'in post' on the 'Astronomy Desk' I will seek general help from readers. Have these apparent marks always been there ? Is it just that I've never noticed them before ? Or have I made a discovery which will lead to the Nobel prize ?Perhaps an e-mail to NASA would be fruitful.
Our Lidl type 'cut-and-come-again' mini-salad tray is unfortunately coming to the end of its useful life as the crops want to grow into full-size plants. We have had several harvests and it just grows back.
Two days ago I thinned-out the plants to give the others more room but 'nature abhors a vacuum' and the following day the spaces had vanished. I am loath to compost-heap it (I love this modern practice of using nouns as verbs) because different things keep germinating. The Swiss/Red Chard, having germinated, grows on apace. What next - cannabis ?
I took Y to the Tram to start her on her way to Burton Joyce and then collected her around 6.45pm. We used the Hucknall terminal because of the awful traffic hold-ups on the A610 near Phoenix Park. A shame because we both prefer Phoenix Park but 'needs must etc...........'
She had her usual delightful-if-tiring day. We shall see everyone again on Sunday because we are baby-sitting 6.30pm onwards.Picture 3 is the mini-salad and the red Swiss Chard can be seen to the right of centre. I hesitate to say ' it is on the thirds' because the inside of my mouth would go all funny and I might collapse with 'nervous exhaustion'.
Still jobs for the National Trust.
This morning I printed 11 copies of the latest Minutes and then did some computer jobs of my own. I needed to transfer quite a lot of data from my laptop to the external hard-drive so as to free-up disc space (my laptop has been driven hard) and I had to do it very carefully, manually, ensuring against accidentally losing anything. I was determined not to go down the 'mover and cable' path I tried before with the PC. A straightforward job but time-consuming.
Then I did a similar job with My Pictures. My laptop's My Pictures folder was becoming un-manageable. I also renamed several internal folders to ease the 'find and retrieve' tasks in the future. So now, if I have ever taken a picture, I can find it.
What's the betting that first time I try out my new system, I fail. Comments
bungus .... Only you so far youth !
You are not 'spoiling my party' by being critical of tudor-style interior decorating. In tudor times there was a desire to be flamboyant, colourful and ornate, a sort of mock-gothic indoors as well as outdoors. This led to the disney-like gaudiness of which you complain. I've re-read my words carefully and I think I fall short of saying 'I really like this myself'. But the conservation scholars and renovators were not trying to please your taste for the understated and muted - they were trying to show it as it would have been. Taking that into consideration I don't feel that it was my ale into which you micturated. I accept that "having been brought up not to ‘show off’" leads you not to appreciate that particular style. Your parents obviously liked, and passed on to you, an appreciation of the faded, brown look of pictures and decoration which have detiorated. Many thousands of ancient pictures, when meticulously cleaned, offend some modern eyes and you are not alone.
Quotation time .................. Most of our readers will remember J. K. Galbraith, the very tall economist who spoke such sense most of the time ........
"The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable"
3 comments:
Looks like I missed a great day out at wollaton park, and a good chip cob too, looks like it scored highly in the chip cob league table.
I could have shown you some of my fancy lead work at Wollaton Hall, which I did in my plumbing days, did you notice the kings heads on the lead rain water down pipes? yes cast and fixed by yours truly, and made some of the lead down pipes to.
My (only) claim to fame.
DIARY
Yesterday I drove Sandra to King’s Mill (as a change from Distraction) for an appointment with the ‘bone doctor’ (I think he throws them up in the air and predicts the future). While she was thus occupied I went to Morrisons, bought some cheeses plus a family sized custard tart for my breakfast, and then we met up again for a cup of their very good coffee.
Thence to Lidl and the Bargain Shop.
Bad and good at Lidls. They had none of the things I had picked out from their online brochure and had sold out of gooseberry bushes. But I did get some purple-sprouting for 39p a pack (usually 99p).
On the way home we called for fish & chips at the Bold Forester. Although my new bp tablets say ‘no alcohol’ I could not resist a pint of Greene King Draught IPA.
If the doc disapproves I shall ask for a change of tablet.
I cannot recommend pig’s cheek.
It did produce a 30 to 40 sq inch sheet of excellent crackling, which Stephanie and Jessica demolished in a few minutes. There is also a good dish of dripping and 4 oz of tasty chopped meat suitable for croquettes. Plus a good half pound of rendered fat for the dog. All-in-all it would have suited a farmer like my great uncle Harry or constitute an appropriate ingredient (with a larger amount of lean meat) for pork pie, faggots or sausage.
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I like the ‘through the arch’ picture. And the figure (Yvonne?) makes it (for me).
I think I first encountered a version of the sort of repetitive picture you refer to when quite young. It was the bear on the Scott's Porage Oats packet carrying a packet of oats on which was a picture of a bear carrying, etc… It fascinated and irritated me.
Glad you are happy. Moonstruck?
But I don’t see the ‘end of a melon’. Something else in the ‘eye of the beholder’.
I suppose you might be seen as a prize something or other… Ask NASA.
But keep trying.
Perhaps you have a tray of Lidl Tryffids. I should make sure it is properly destroyed.
Something to disagree about. I abhor the use of nouns as verbs.
You could try growing hash. I say that on the assumption that it would be a new hobby, ie, never tried before.
I find it interesting that rented properties are increasingly being used for that purpose.
Console yourself with the thought that Yvonne gets better value from her buspass by going from Hucknall on the tram.
Aaaagh!
I cannot disagree with any aspect of your analysis of our part-likes and dislikes.
Drat!
Surprising, really, that in my late teens I was the only one in Mansfield to have an orange ‘bomber’ jacket (not called that then) and, admittedly later when at Art College, an orange waistcoat made by an adoring girlfriend from the ‘Dress Design’ course.
Unlike Graham Taylor I must have liked orange.
Well said, Galbraith
Incy Wincy:
Congrats on having done some REAL plumbing (ie, working with lead).
I regarded myself as SOME sort of plumber having plastic welded together a few plastic tubes!
Incy wincy once gave me an NVQ unit for putting together some bits of plastic pipe and creating a waste pipe. I was so pleased that I decided to retire from plumbing on that high note, knowing that I could never surpass it.
So now incy wincy does real plumbing to go with the real photography. What a shame he drinks Foster's lager instead of real ale.
When we were in Calabria I had a plate of, what was called, pepperoni. Some of it was from the cheek of a pig, prepared like parma ham, but almost all of it was fat. I wasn't too impressed.
Apparently there is an excellent photographic exhibtion currently being shown at the Djanogoly Art Gallery at Lakeside (Nottm Uni). "Not to be missed" I am told by none other than Colin Gibson FRPS. I think it's on until the end of this month.
I am now searching for another job as I am bored out of my mind with the current one.
Elaine and I had chip cobs at the Nelson and Railway a few weeks ago. We enjoyed sitting in the sun in the garden but not so the chip cobs which we thought were disappointing.
I don't know the origin of Higger Tor and, when I first heard the name, was surprised to learn of a tor in Derbyshire as I thought it was a south-western name. I'll google it if no one else comes up with an explanation. Maybe it just means Higher Hill?
I think the person on the Astronomy Desk must be on another planet. Which reminds me of the old line "Your teeth are like stars, they come out at night."
No news from the Sports Desk either. Even after massive, massive victories for Eng-er-land against the mighty footballing nations of Kasakhstan and Belarus. "One Wayne Rooney, there's only one Wayne Rooney...." Scotland seem to be struggling to overcome the hurley-burley of a change in management. Andy Murray's doing well in a tennis tournament somewhere and, this weekend, the Panthers are looking to bounce back from last Sunday's disappointing defeat against the Steelers. Are the Stags settling for mid-table mediocrity?
RG, I hope someone gives you credit for your the moon's a melon, an e-mail to NASA might prove fruitful connection. Otherwise you could end up looking like a lemon. Anyway I thought it was a peach of a line.
Rob
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