Carphone Warehouse boo! - Rob and Photoshop hurrah!

We've been so busy today there's been little time for taking pictures. So, I am pleased to use a lovely tulip by Helen. And as she knows I approve 100% of the good hint of environment as against the gaussian-blur effect favoured by NEMPF etc.

Carphone Warehouse were superficially helpful but, when I got home, I found the same problem persists. i.e. I've only got a balance of £1.35p as against £11.35pm. The lad claimed to have linked the top-up card to my new phone but I am suspicious and loath to top-up another £10 in case that doen't work either. So - another trip to Nottingham tomorrow.

Reg rang to draw my attention to a V & A Exhibition of Contemporary Photography which is at Nottingham Castle from Sat 3rd May to Sun 15th June. He felt, correctly, that it might be 'my sort of thing'. Unfortunately the Castle drive is being repaired and there may be 'access problems' for the disabled. Whatever problems there are, I shall overcome them.

As you will see from Picture 2 Basil Rooting is awaiting a visit tomorrow, from his second cousin twice removed, Basil Potting. And Reg and Maureen are first in line for a plant.

This evening I enjoyed a Photoshop session with AnonymousRob and not only did I learn lots we jointly made discoveries. Always a good thing. I was having trouble with the 'replace colour' tool and while we were in there we discovered an excellent way of producing a realistic-looking infra red image. While I was making coffee Rob wrote a comprehensive note.

Y meanwhile listened to the Chelsea v Liverpool match on Radio 5live. A real 'nailbiter' apparently and Chelsea narrowly triumphed.

Comments..... AnonymousRob ..... Your 'wheels' modifications have merit. I'd already considered a tripod device and the easiest way could be to attach my monopod firmly to one of the down supports. If then fitted with a ball/swivel head I would be ready for anything. And my brolly fixed to the other leg and I could cope with bright sun followed by heay rain. Like today for instance.

Still talking radio, as a boy I used to listen in bed to Luxembourg (mentioned later by Bungus) on an early portable. One of the first 'hits' I can actually remember was 'Bewitched, bothered and bewildered'. The first mention of it I could find was 1944, which is about right, I would be 9yrs.

Bungus ...... I am glad you feel better from your nasty sounding chest pain. Although it only lasted 5 minutes I sincerely feel that you should seek medical advice. Ditto the walking headfirst into the wall.

Re trees..... I would like a good picture of the tree whose leaves have an almost silver reverse. They are coming into leaf right now. I used to thnk they were 'Hornbeam' but now I'm not sure

Thanks for the further Old Spot stuff and the 'gentle correction' over the architecture.

Humpf's 'double-entendres' at Samantha's expense were indeed legendary. Perhaps now someone will publish a selection and I could put it on my Xmas list.

Hannah ..... Thank you very much for the information about the bird house and the nesting birds. Grandma tells me that there are eggs and your Dad has rigged up a webcam. can't wait to see some results. Sorry I kept putting you off on Google Chat, but it was while Rob was here.

....... Tomorrow evening is Presentation Night at EPS, and should be fun. Elaine has a prize to collect and I am expecting that a great time will be had by all. Good buffet, good food, and pictures to look at, what could be better?

This Yogi Berra quote appealed .....

"This is like deja vu all over again"

I wonder if he actually did say them all - or whether some are 'attributed?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^V^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Bestwood Park - Old Spot Daybrook

We managed our little adventure to Bestwood Park without getting drenched although it was a close thing. Joan was ready and waiting and when we arrived at the country park the ladies set off immediately on their ramble while I went into the Hotel for a coffee and a look at the crossword. I had just gone outside again to take a snap of the following tree when Bungus arrived.

Equipped with my wheels we ventured quite a way into the woods but the rain was a constant threat.

The 'wheels' are a mixed blessing. They make a tripod of 'wheels' and one's legs, and thereby confer a great feeling of stability. The downside is that some people react to you as if you are mentally disabled as well. Sandra tells the story of being in a shoe-shop in her wheelchair when her pal was asked "What size does she take then?"

Y advises its use during an actual activity like a walk, but to use a walking stick in pubs etc. And I suspect she may be right. If I fall over in a pub they will just have to pick me up again won't they?

When we met up back at the car we decided against sandwiches at the Hotel (there was obviously a conference of 'suits') and we didn't really fit in. So instead we went to The Old Spot in Daybrook which used to be a favourite watering-hole where Fletch, Dai Jones, Steve Bowley and I used to meet regularly. People used to call it the Home Brewery Tap because it was just on the opposite side of the road from the brewery. Legend had it that a pipe under the road connected directly from the brewery to the pub's hand-pumps.

Next door is the old Daybrook Laundry, due for demolition. So some time ago Bungus came over to photograph it. Although mere mortals consider the building ugly it is apparently an important example of 1930's industrial architecture. If any of that sentence is incorrect I feel sure that I shall be gently corrected. Instead of sandwiches we all decided on the 'scampi and chips' at 2 for £5 and jolly good it was too.

So as not to be anti-social I am watching this in the big room, where Y is watching and enjoying the big match. I've just noticed a Barcelona player with 'DECO' on his shirt. Would that be Art Deco by any chance?

Comments.....Bungus ...... I think now you have actually seen my 'wheels' you will realise that pillion is not a possibility.

You really must keep up with 'tree of the week.' Weeping-willow was last week, Silver-birch this week, and by next week it will no doubt be Horse-Chestnut. I always love the 'candles' but can never remember whether the red ones precede the white or vice versa?

anonymousrob ............Thanks for the research which yielded a meaning of 'sough' (pronounced suff) which wasn't wildly at odds with my boyhood understanding as a drain. My mother's family were all miners living in the Stonebroom. Morton, Stretton Top, Clay Cross areas and it was there I learnt the word.

I'm really enjoying the old radio show correspondence. And I am old enough to remember the BBC being The Home Service, The Light Programme and the Third Programme.

My Dad used to think himself very witty when he used to call it 'Sing Something Sinful' on Sunday night.

Reg ...... Thanks for the 'nickle' jingle. And re your comment 2 days ago, not only do I remember Much Binding in The Marsh extremely well, when we next meet I will sing you the opening phrases of the theme tune.

I tried to track down a YouTube of Much Binding ...... Someone might have had some archive footage - but no luck!

The big match has just finished and my lady wife says it was good, and a RESULT. More detail can be expected tomorrow I'm sure, from The Sports Desk.

I've decided against WoW-ing tomorrow. I'm in a mess with my mobile phone and need to go to Carphone Warehouse. It will be cheaper to go to Nottingham than to use their 0870 number. The problem is that I topped it up from my phonecard, but WRONG phonecard, and I am sure that whoever stole my phone in February, will be pleased to find that he/she has just acquired a £10 top-up. I realise that I can't recover that, but I can't work out which top up card fits which phone. Y has an identical model.

But we are both definitely going to EPS on Thursday night for the Presentation Evening - plus buffet !

...... I hope I haven't forgotten anything....... Catch you tomorrow..!

oooooooooooooOoooooooooooo

Evening sky - Silver Birch - another storm

This was last night's dusk after the storm, hardly tweaked just cropped. And today, after lunch we had another very bad storm with petits pois sized hailstones, standing water and everything. The roadside drain outside neighbour Derek's never seems to be able to cope, however much he helpfully pokes it. Eventually the water dissipated.

A Derbyshire dialect word for that type of drain used to be a 'suff' but I have no idea of its derivation. Maybe someone else knows?

Morrisons for essentials and then I cooked a stir-fry for lunch. Computer time has been spent transferring loads of pictures onto my external hard disk in order to free up my laptop somewhat. Not only had I too little space on my laptop hard-disk but it was becoming very sluggish. Whereupon a good clear-out is always recommended.
For the past few days during my travels, I have been keeping my eye open for the definitive 'Silver Birch' (Betula) to illustrate the lovely poem for children which begins -

"The silver birch is a dainty lady
she wears a satin gown......"

By Elizabeth Nesbitt

Then I realised I didn't have to go far - just to the end of the drive and point my camera over the football field for a very ladylike example.

Tomorrow morning, unless rained off, Y and Joan plan to do their Bestwood Park walk (meet in Pub Car Park at 10.45am) and if Bungus feels up to it he is going to join us. He can hold onto one of the handlebars of my wheels. Easy-Rider or what?

What's the betting that within 30 yards of Bestwood Lodge Hotel Car Park I am surrounded by groves of magnificent Silver Birch trees?

Comments.....Bungus.... Thanks, as always. But I can find little to comment on. I must be cracking up. If the 'helping hand' people do incorporate my design idea, without slipping me a few notes, I shall do very little of the 'basking in satisfaction' - more of the grumpy letters and suggestions of legal action.

The RadioNottm quote is very unfair on accountants. I have known several accountants who are lively people and, especially if of the 'chartered' variety, very attractive to women if for no other reason than their wealth.

If you've not listened to radio since the 50s, how do you know about Mornington Crescent?

AnonymousRob ....... If misled over the 'pinhole' position you needn't apologise because I am fascinated with the technique and can't wait etc., Please bring the Magnolia Tree with you when you come because I'm keen to see it in the flesh so to speak. I think Bungus is quite wrong, and the image to me seems, as I said, remarkably 3D. Perhaps experimenting with the distance of the 'pinholed' body cap from the sensor could yield results more similar to film. Extension tubes or a bog-roll core spring to mind.

I agree with most of the old radio shows although I was never a big Goon Show fan. And having since learnt that Prince Charles is a fan makes me happy that I wasn't. All the Kenneth Horne shows were good. The earliest I think was 'Much binding in the Marsh' with Richard Murdoch.

For different current radio comedy I've got to recommend the Garrison Keillor show late Saturday early Sunday on Radio 7. If you ever were a Lake Wobegon fan you need to catch up on what has been happening.

...... Cheers folks. Catch you tomorrow all being well. Sleep tight.

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Rob's 'cyanotype' pinhole - RG's Idea 6,329

This is a 'pinhole' picture of a magnolia tree, by Rob Palmer BA(Hons) ARPS. Printed digitally in cyanotype. All potentially acquisitive and occasional readers please read the © copyright notes at the head of the left-hand column.

The image intrigues me. Such depth, even with the tree against a wall, and it is difficult to believe the picture is two-dimensional. It resembles a three-dimensional model in a shallow, glass -fronted display case. Rob draws our attention to Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day . The subject is very interesting. Must have a go! I guess it would be possible digitally - a body cap with a pinhole in it ...... etc., etc. Anyway - Congratulations !

I haven't been idle and came up with bright idea 6,329 ! The other day I dropped my 'helping hand' which has been thoughtfully provided by the disability people, and it caused me a major problem ! i.e. Nothing to pick it up with.

What it needs, I reasoned, is a wrist-strap similar to the ones Joan made for my walking sticks.

In the picture you will see at the bottom, the 'helping hand' as supplied. The copy image above it (I've photoshopped the strap in) shows the redesigned device. I have sent the idea, accompanied by the picture, to the manufacturers with a paragraph saying, if they use it, a couple of quid will come in very handy !

The weather has done its best to be April - we have had an aluminium saucepan coloured sky, followed by bright sun, followed by heavy rain and then a violent 'donner und blitzen' storm. And finally a dramatic sunset - maybe a picture tomorrow.

This morning I decided to pursue Jill and Ro and found they've arrived at Gran Canaria so I 'saved' guessing it might be dark if I looked around 'blog-time'.

The picture makes you realise how enormous the ship is when the bridge-camera apparently looks down onto the roofs of 6-storey buildings near the quayside. And the normal sized boat at its moorings looks like a child's toy.

Hope Jill is enjoying her holiday, but we are missing her from our 'comments' column.

Comments..... Bungus ..... Even as a Derbyshire lad, I do agree about Nottinghamshire scenery. A little understated - but that suits me fine! And I'm glad you enjoyed Dorket Head. Following the success of yesterday's ramble Y and Joan want to have a meander in Bestwood Park soon. That will suit me. Plenty of trees and flowers and grass, and a good pub to boot.

Internet and download speeds can be notoriously tedious at the weeked, or early evening, when everybody is trying to get onto the web. You must just be patient.

White honesty is not that uncommon. As you will see from Mr. Fothergill's website he is quite willing to sell you a packet of mixed seeds. But why pay £1.70p, when Joan is intent on petty theft? And I am quite happy to act as 'fence'.

Reg ..... I honestly didn't realise that the club was started so long ago. The 1950s were of course a growth period for many hobbies, and photography came within the reach of so many.

Obviously then PMT is out as an explanation of EPS's difficulties with its 'monthlies'. Do I remember that 'Indian Brandy' used to be recommended. Next year we must arrange for 'tots' to be available for sufferers.

Thanks for your interesting stuff about the local jazz scene. I seem to remember seeing Kenny Ball at Kirkby-in-Ashfield but I didn't enjoy it much. The Bell in Nottingham centre had a good reputation at one time I believe. See Rob's recommendation for Basford in his yesterday's comment.

Rob..... As you will see I have taken the liberty of publishing your pinhole magnolia tree. And I'm glad to hear you seem to have had a reasonable day.

I entirely agree that 'I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue' cannot continue without Humpf. It would seem almost sacrilegious to even try. And I shall have to eventually 'meet my maker' without ever having understood 'Mornington Crescent'.

Re Jill's hols. It looks good weather in Gran Canaria - but I guess she will be somewhere else tomorrow.

Re your accent, or lack of it. I've never thought of you as sounding 'posh'. You don't sound stupid and perhaps the 'local commentator' thought that implied 'posh'. Don't worry about it !

Quotation time........ This just about follows, I think ......

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it"

George Bernard Shaw

...... Sleep tight. Catch you tomorrow......

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Y rambling - RG snapping - messing about

At lunchtime I took Y over to Joan's whereupon they were going Rambling with Chris in the East Bridgford area. Chris is a very keen and experienced rambler and organises and leads walks for, among others, the Broxtowe Borough Council. After the walk they were able to drop Y back home and she had had a great time. They stayed for a cup of tea and a biscuit but I would have been delighted to do a meal. Chris is great to cook for; he is an assiduous clean-plate person and will, if pressed, have seconds.

When I left Arnold I came back via Dorket Head from where there's a lovely view over the Trent Valley looking almost due east towards Lincolnshire. After much messing about there, with my tripod and different lenses and ISO's and RAW my journey took me down Burntstump where I came across this beatifully 'layered' thorn hedge.

Thank goodness someone still knows how to do it properly with real hazel-wattles to support it for the first couple of years.

Hedge Layering is a proper country craft. Although the link takes you to a firm that uses hazel, I seem to remember that willow can also be used. I suspect that originally willow rods and split hazel were used but I didn't get out of the car to examine this specimen closely.

A good hedge makes such sense. Stock-proof and trespasser-proof in a couple of years. And it won't blow down.

The National Trust is very keen on supporting country-crafts and we are supporting an apprentice stone mason at Hardwick Hall. Stone masons 'hurrah!', Free masons 'boo!'......

Which leads me unerringly to this hedgerow Honesty a little further down the road. Joan says the bed is there each year and she has often eyed the white version covetously. She intends to try her luck with a 'seed head' (they look like a translucent penny, 1d - that is) when they are there. She realises that, if she collected one, she would probably be in breach of some EU regulation, Health & Safety, and possible the Terrorism Act. But she doesn't seem bovvered. At least she didn't look bovvered. They are incidentally biennial and I suspect they don't run true to colour either. Guidance from the Horticultural Desk would be helpful.

Comments.....Bungus..... Re your sat upon telly-remote. Just as well you had your trousers on, is all I can say.

The flash-fried kale is, as you say, very much like Chinese seaweed and I shall definitely do it again particularly when serving finger-food. It is easy, quick, cheap, and reliable.

We will let you lay claim to 'conkered', you deserve it.

A house-point and an Radiogandy ....for the EPS and PMT comment. The club is now well into its 40s as I understand it, so perhaps problems with its 'Monthlies' should come to an end quite naturally. But they would probably mess about with HRT (High Resolution Tripods).

Strangely enough the Telegraph carried no obituary today for Humpf. His death must have been announced just too late for the morning edition. I can think of no finer tribute than a little video of him playing Bad Penny Blues. I hope that the boogie-piano won't get AnonymousReg in to trouble with Senior Management again!

Humpf playing 'I love Paris' was what I really wanted but google and youtube failed me. Not a track for the purists I realise, but it was probably my favourite bit of jazz. I'll try one of the other search-engines tomorrow.

As a Radio 4 person I have been an 'I'm sorry I haven't a clue' addict for so many years and Humpf chaired it so brilliantly. His witty Weltschmerz was a joy and, as he once said :-

"Anyone wishing to avoid the crowds when leaving, please wait until the end of the show"

A kindred spirit and I sincerely hope he rests in peace.

Sleep tight and I'll catch you tomorrow.

Lidl, Morrisons - Flash-fried curly-kale

Not wishing to miss out on the 'knobbly trees' this one, near the visitor's centre on Wednesday, caught my eye. I don't think I can see a 'face' in it or anything else for that matter - I just liked the patterns and whorls and contrasting colours.

Picture 2 was from the same occasion and is simply elder at an early stage. A younger elder in fact. At least, that's what I think it is, I am always ready to bow to superior natural history knowledge. Especially if it comes from the Collins British Wildlife book. I am pleased to inform Mannanan that I have now found it, hiding on a bookshelf !

This morning we did the Lidl, Morrisons run and in Lidl, for just under a tenner, bought a car vacuum-cleaner which runs from the dashboard cigarette lighter. It has a full range of little accessories like big brushes, things for poking into corners etc., so now we shall have no excuse for an unkempt car interior. Except of course, sheer idleness.

Picture 3 is the 'flash-fried curly kale'
which I liked and learnt about from the Chef at Clumber on Tuesday, and decided to cook today to garnish our main meal.

Although it looks rather oily and soggy it is in fact dry and extremely crisp. It melts in the mouth.

I used rape-seed oil, very hot and just threw a couple of handfuls of curly kale into it. It fizzles and dances about furiously and it only needs a minute or so to cook. Then you drain it and the result is as shown in the picture. And although it doesn't look it, it is in fact crisp and crunchy.

Puicture 4 is from the Cunard Queen Victoria's bridge webcam. I was beginning to feel like AnonymousRob that it wasn't working.

Then, when I looked this afternoon I found that Jill ad Ro had arrived at Madiera Portugal so I did 'save as' and preserved the image.

Comments.....Bungus.... as Mannanan predicted the 'Hoof fungus' is illustrated in my Collins and as in your 'bible' it says it is normally found in the Highlands of Scotland. Bound to be 'global warming' I suppose to send it to Edwinstowe !

I take your point about ink prices and the costs of big print runs. However, National Trust policy is that 'volunteers' should not finish up out of pocket, so we intend to claim all our printing costs, including ink and paper. The National Trust's sensible view is because they do not want anyone to be deterred from 'volunteering' due to financial fears.

AnonymousRob..... Fear not. EPS has not changed that much and there was, of course, the annual thrash through 'change/not change' the monthly competitions. My paragraph was intended to say that no-one became ill tempered, so far as I could see, but I had to ask Brian Smith, on the way out, what exactly we had decided about the monthlies ! But this was my normal state of confusion, because Brian had it clearly enough.

World pinhole day sounds great fun and I wish you well with it. And don't forget to 'bracket' your shots !! Can't speak highly enough of the Thermos full of coffee and I note your concerns about the proximity of a toilet..

However, provided your Thermos is restricted to one-user, when it is empty of coffee........!!

Hope the Nimmo Brothers made up for missing EPS's AGM and, for the benefit of other readers - please open this Nimmo Brothers YouTube link.

AnonymousReg...... Really like the dogs/lamposts quote link with photographers/judges.

I think Bungus's 'conkered' is also a Derbyshire saying. But I guess that Netto, followed by Newark Morrisons, onwards to Aldi, before Homebase for wallpaper, would 'conquer' anyone ! I was 'done for' just by reading about it.

Let Rob work out for himself who the 'mediocre' lecturers were ! I don't think there would be much disagreement.

.....Sleep tight. Catch you tomorrow.....

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Y at Burton Joyce - Camera Club AGM

Thanks to field agent Reg we have a picture of The Major Oak. He promised to get me one (because I couldn't walk that far) and he did. Reg says the light was bad (which it was) and his picture is 'poor' which it certainly isn't. The most important thing is that the picture does the job.

One photographer (in the googled links) had digitally cloned-out the support props! Such an image would not grace these pages. We need to know what it looked like a.m. Wednesday 23rd April 2008.

Out of many links I considered the bbc one is the best. But I prefer Reg's picture.

Y has been at Burton Joyce and tonight it was Eastwood Photographic Society's AGM and, as AGM's go, it was comparatively painless and even-tempered. The Officers and Committee were all returned unopposed and very little was changed. A great compliment to Chairman Reg, Secretary Roy and Treasurer Duggie and all the other people who do important jobs to keep the club running smoothly and successfully. I was back home for 9pm !

Comments..... Bungus..... Thank you very much for the picture and I am completely sure that the fungus I saw is Hoof Fungus, as depicted.

Mannanan ..... Thanks also for your endorsement of 'Hoof fungus' and I'm sure will be in my British Wildlife book, when I can find it ! We are many miles from The Highlands of Scotland though - but it was on Silver Birch.

Bungus ...... Haven't actually replaced the Epson, the two are side by side. Re ink prices I'm afraid I can't answer. Inks came with it, so I can't tell you the price of replacements.

It is still bible-black aboard the Cunard Queen Victoria - perhaps tomorrow we can have a peek at where Jill has got to.

Just nipping back to Clumber catering for a second. As I think I reported, the buffet was excellent. One dish of garnishes looked interesting. Shiny, crisp and vivid green. My first thought was 'flash deep-fried rocket' and on the way out I asked at the food counter. My first 3 words are right, but it was kale from the kitchen garden the chef was pleased to tell me.

Brian S saw the consultant about his knee yesterday and the X Rays show that it seriously needs fixing. Protuberences rubbing within the joint are causing him to walk bow-legged, not to mention the pain from it. Brian never complains but often you can see he is suffering. He has been told he will be called in for the operation in about two months. Best of luck with it Brian !

..... Better stop there. Done for. Sleep tight and I'll catch you tomorrow.

.................................................

WoW to The Major Oak

This morning we decided to make the trip to see The Major Oak which is quite a substantial walk from the Sherwood Forest Visitors Centre a couple of roof-corners of which are Picture 1.

It was too far for me to tackle but I have been promised pictures by other WoW-ers. However I am pleased to report that I anaged to walk considerably further with my wheely-frame than I could with sticks. My weight is more evenly distributed and, as I am leaning forward to walk, I feel stable. So, so far so good. There were five of us this morning, Helen, Kevin, Reg, Mike and me and we needed two cars. Inevitably I overshot the entrance to The Visitors Centre but eventually we got there.
The place is well laid out for all ages, plenty of seats and Robin Hood stuff, a statue of Robin and Little John fighting with their staves on the bridge (a favourite scene) second only for me to when he is dying and fires the arrow through the window so he can be buried where it falls. Great stuff.

Could a fungi person, or someone with a suitable reference book, identify this for us please. It was the other side of a fence so the customary 50p piece wasn't possible. The bole of the tree was around 8" diameter if that helps. The top bit looked like a fossilised bobble cap and the colour (as it leaves here) is spot on.

Maybe it's the time of year but the forest was rather weird. Such a lot of dead and dying trees it had a post nuclear holocaust feel to it. Anyway, replete with knobbly trees, we decided on a revisit to The Bird in Hand at Blidworth for lunch.

It well deserves its name of 'the pub with the view' and we were lucky enough to get one of the two window tables with the Picture 3 view of the rolling Nottinghamshire countryside. Lunch was the usual chip-baguette again and excellent quality and not too expensive.

After that home, papers, crossword, laptop stuff, e-mails and such...... This morning a fledgeling flew into the kitchen window and killed itself and Y hadn't liked to move it so I did the necessary. Sorry to say it was a very young and beautiful thrush. Why couldn't it have been a starling ? Vexatious creatures that they are. I don't really mean that because I accept that starlings have equal rights with thrushes.

Comments

AnonymousRob...... I have every confidence that your talk to Matlock Camera Club will go well ! Your experience is such that you could deliver the lecture , half asleep after 4 pints. When I was at Canning Circus I often used to go out at lunchtime with Chris Throup, the then news editor at Radio Nottingham. He used to down 4 pints, return to his desk and read the 1pm news without a slur or a hitch. I never knew how he managed it.

Thanks for the St George's Day poems, click here folks to read them. Personally I prefer the Brian Patten to Elvis McGonagal. He seems to be trading on the William McGonagall name whose poetry is a hoot. Nobody ever knew if he did it on purpose - it didn't scan, the rhymes were cringe making and he earned the title of Britain's worst poet. It is so awful it almost becomes compulsive reading !

Bungus ........ Yes. My Epson scans (ha ha!) very well and it is an excellent photocopier and I'm pleased with my new HP printer so far. I shall run them side-by-side and have modified my desk space to allow for this. Y rather cuttingly asked if perhaps we should consider having an extension built?

My zimmer has three wheels not two. So while the motorbike concept would be OK I'm doubtful if a tricycle image would do much for my street cred. And I loved the 'Willbury' stuff.

AnonymousReg.... Sorry to get you into trouble with Senior Management with the Turner video side-bar stuff. You should have waffled something about 'having to pursue my Art'. It might have worked, but probably not.

With Bob Dylan's birth name being Robert Allen Zimmerman has, over the years, been the source of much fun about the poor chap. He was called 'The Zimmer Man' by some, but it certainly didn't hold him back did it?

Thanks for the computer and IT stuff - we all have lots to learn I think. It's good fun though isn't it?

Quotation time....... This I like ----->

"There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality."

Pablo Picasso

Although I have the link to Jill's cruise liner I thought there's no point in publishing it because I've just checked and it's pitch black. Then I thought that, when people read this tomorrow it will probably be daylight. So here it is - the bridge webcam of the Queen Victoria. I hope they are having a good time.

Tomorrow is Burton Joyce day for Y and I have the AGM of the Camera Club in the evening. Catch you tomorrow. Sleep tight.

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Nat. Trust Regional Meeting - Done for.

The reason Clumber looks deserted is because we were there before they opened. And No, it wasn't 7am, it always looks like that. Peter and I travelled together and it was good to have a nice long chat. I hadn't realised that the birthday he has just celebrated was his 79th - he does wonders with a work-schedule that would exhaust a 50yr old. It is good that, now Y has taken over the secretaryship, he will be able to shed a few tasks.

The meeting went well but I find these things rather demanding these days and I was 'done for' when I arrived home. So you must excuse my brevity. Glad Jill is still 'vertical' and I shall do my best to track Cunard Victoria on her cruise round Madiera and The Canaries. No doubt the ship will have a bridge webcam and it should be possible to find the site address. We will patiently await her return, perhaps with a few pictures.

n.b. Found the bridge webcam, please click here and we shall be able to see where she goes. Seems to be raining at the moment.

Comments.....Bungus ..... It sound as if you have been quite lucky with printers. I like the results from my Epson and Brian has sorted it out twice now. But now we have these Nat Trs things I need to be able to do a black & white print run of more copies than the Epson would do without going haywire.

I liked the 'quiz' stuff which, as I remember, you were quite a star at. I certainly have been 'framed' and the official one is, as you say, a sort of industrial weight zimmer. It will be handy for when I am really bad but it is perhaps too robust for more normal days. Peter and Joan have lent me one which originally belonged to Joan's Dad. This one has wheels (with brakes) is lighter and more compact and altogether feels better for frequent use. I intend to take it WoWing tomorrow to see how I get on.

You wonder if your distaste for manual tasks makes you effete ? The following definition might amuse you :-

effete \eh-FEET; ih-\, adjective:
1. No longer capable of producing young; infertile; barren; sterile.
2. Exhausted of energy; incapable of efficient action; worn out.
3. Marked by self-indulgence or decadence; degenerate.
4. Overrefined; effeminate.

Re the above in respect of yourself -<

1. Not sure
2. Probably
3. Certainly
4. Certainly not.

AnonymousRob...... Glad you enjoyed the Turner video. I agree with you about the people/painting mix but believe me, for Artdaily videos, it was good quality. It would also have been helpful if the paintings had been named.

I always forget the title of one of those shown, - his painting of a ship with the small triangular sails. It is a memorable image because some unwise viewer asked Turner "Why did you paint the sails that black?" Turner replied "Because I couldn't find any pigment blacker".

Re the Munch and 'the influence of photography.....' You make a good point and rather than a 'snap' answer, I would like time to consider.

Glad to welcome you to the 'soft hands brigade' and I refer you to my comments to Bungus above.

If your Dylan 'zimmerman' sentence was a little obscure for some readers, this should help.

Biography

Bob Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman May 24 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota in the USA, is widely regarded as America's greatest popular songwriter born in the Twentieth Century. Of all American songwriters ever, only Stephen Fosterand Irving Berlin are mentioned in the same breath.

Biography

Thats about it for tonight folks. Hoping to go WoW-ing tomorrow, and I understand Mike is interested in a trek to The Major Oak. That should be fun.

.

Busy again - New printer - Walking Aids

The picture is an Edvard Munch called "Girls on a Bridge" and is being auctioned in New York. If you have the odd £15 million lying about you might be in with a chance. It interests me because my guess is that the bridge is the same he used in his earth-shattering "The Scream", but at the other end. This picture won't give you nightmares but the other one just might, so I haven't published it - but I will if anyone doesn't know the picture.

As my printer was still playing up we went to Staples and bought another - on David's recommendation an HP which he says is really robust and seldom gets bunged up jets and seldom crashes. I managed to get it up and running fairly easily - I stress fairly easily because I had trouble inserting the ink cartridges - having missed the sentence which pointed out that the printer needed to be switched on before it would accept the inks. OK now though and it seems to do a tidy and quick job.

Before leaving the art world I'd like to share with you this great little video about Turner. I was talking to Andrew at EPS on Thursday about Turner and I said that one of the thrills of my life was being given access to his watercolour notebooks full of quick sketches of the soldiers and sailors returning from Trafalgar.

Comments.....Bungus......Re RAW vs JPEG. In the blog, you won't see any difference at all because, as I understand it 'blogger.com' makes JPEGs of everything so as not to clog up the system.

You sound as if the Leeds and other places adventure really appeals. Do I understand that this is a plan afoot rather than you've done it. In my view it all sounds far too demanding and tiring.

The disability girl arrived with my walking frame and the version she brought and recommends, doesn't have wheels anyway. So I've no idea what that was all about.

While at Staples in Mansfield this morning we were just opposite Field Mill and I though that the Sports Desk might like a picture of their favourite Stags home ground. So I went and poked my Casio through the aluminium fencing and snapped them a picture. The light wasn't very good so neither is the picture. Sorry.

Yet again Y has done the cooking and jolly nice it's been too.

As I have used a Munch masterpiece I thought I'd give the old boy blogroom for a quote. Not that he said this about that particular painting but about art in general:-

"The colors live a remarkable life of their own after they have been applied to the canvas"

Edvard Munch

Indeed they do. And in photography too. A good 'picture' is as memorable and alive as a person and with much greater longevity. The wikipedia link was the best, and, if you open it you will see a small version of 'The Scream' anyway.

Not heard from Jill, and I hope she isn't suffering from whatever it was that caused her fainting attack.

..... I know she likes the sheep? dog? ....sheepdog? jumping the hurdle so - sleep tight Jill. And catch you all tomorrow. After I return from Nat Trst work at Clumber. That is poncy type headwork, notepad and laptop work - not real man's work gardening, rebuilding walls etc.. See you tomorrow.......

.

Rest Day - Papers - Lots of Naps

My flirtation with RAW continues. The above is from our last WoW at Alport.

Basically all my pictures were taken within 15 yards of the car. If you turned 90° CW you would see the old Corn Mill of yesterday's blog and if you stepped back 4 yards you would see Picture 2 from April 16th.

Today we have caught up on idleness. Lots of 'lie-downs' and plenty relaxing with the papers.

Yesterday evening we watched The Book Quiz and thoroughly enjoyed it. We knew plenty of the answers, but it does wonders for your ego when you succeed where the panellists are stumped. A couple of lines of Horace which I knew and they didn't and Y knew an Edgar Wallace quote which defeated them for instance. Kirsty Walk is an excellent chairman and apart from being rather dishy is also extremely well read isn't she? James Delingpole, one of the panellists, was very shy and confused to begin with but he soon eased up and became very entertaining. In his Press role and from a book of his that I have, I know how well he writes.

We are also watching Melvyn Bragg's 'Travels in Written Britain' but it is on so late we record it.

Comments..... Jill ..... Oh dear, poor you, having a fainting fit. So worrying if it hasn't happened before. I'm sure Barbara was right to discourage an ambulance but I definitely think you should see your GP and relate the incident. Did you just pass out? Or did you have the other related symptoms of 'shock' i.e. pallor, and sweaty brow etc? I googled "fainting fits" and came up with the webpage behind that link. It seems very straightforward and mentions 'getting up too quickly' - could that have been a factor?

Perhaps the others can be more help.

Thanks for the info about 'Drinka Pinta......' and then AnonymousRob adds the authorship of the add to your acquaintance with the model. The 'Which twin has the Toni' twins went to a party once at some friends of ours. And No ! We didn't ask them the obvious question.

niftyanonymousrob..... Well googled Sir! And a trip to the Dixies at the times you suggest sounds like a good idea. Tuesday would be the best for us. Not this Tuesday though because I have an all day Nat Trst commitment at Clumber. But definitely a date for the future.

I enjoyed your Dixies quote very much. If we get Bungus started on bar-room quotes he has lots and lots and lots. He did a book about them (or planned one) because for a time in his rich and varied background he was a licensee. It could have been 'Tap-room Tales' but I might have read chapters from it in draft.

No quotation today ..... Too tired to find one.

...... Ray sent me this charming 'smiley'. If it looks like a blank white box, be patient !! Sleep tight and I'll catch you tomorrow.....

oooooooooooooOoooooooooooo

At home day - House Viewers - Casserole

The picture above is The Old Corn Mill at Alport and is my first real experiment with a Raw file. At Reg's, last Sunday, seeing the quality of his work displayed on his Digital Photo Frame, I finally decided that there may well be 'something in it'.

I hope that I am not too old and stupid to admit when I am wrong. Previously my view has been (fuelled by Ken Rockwell) that for my sort of photography JPEGs are good enough. But now, I think by shooting RAW you do have more information in the picture, to work on. We shall see.

The house-viewers arrived this morning, half an hour late and they only live down the road. Not a whisper of apology and they had a cursory look around. Sheer nosiness I suspect. We aren't very hopeful !

For lunch I defrosted the final two portions of an excellent shin beef casserole - and 3 weeks in the freezer had actually improved it. Mashed potato with chopped chives, carrots, mushrooms, cauliflower, and broccoli accompanied. For tea we had 2 boiled eggs (each) with soldiers. The free range eggs are from Lidl and are good, although described as medium, the yolks are 'large' and a fine rich flavour.

It was sad to note the death of Gwyneth Dunwoody a Labour politician of the old school. Different from most politicians she would always answer the question she was asked, straightforwardly. Although I ddn't always agree with her - it is difficult to remember an occasion when I didn't. She will be missed.

Comments.....AnonymousRob....... I agree about the respective merits of the Conservative Club and The Dixies Arms at Bagthorpe which, as folks will gather from the website is a true gem. We haven't been recently but I remember, many years ago, they used to have a weekly singsong round a real piano with a pianist who knew all the songs from our era and beyond. You used to have to arrive early and be willing to fight for a seat ! Has it retained all its little rooms and nooks and crannies?

Hope your evening with Dennis went well. And thanks for your call. I am looking forward to the 29th.

Bungus........ Google made hard work of ‘drinka pinta milka day’ . I could find loads of references to its success as a slogan but who the author was? defeated me. As Jill remarks later Fay Weldon was responsible for 'Go to work on an egg' but not apparently 'drinka pinta......' And I certainly don't think it was Dorothy L Sayers. And I agree with Jill that, although she didn't put it in these terms, DLS's knickers were far too heavily starched for her to have been the author.

Thanks for the current chapter of the hospital saga. But I am as mystified as Jill by the 'bruised heels' reference. Is it a side effect from your treatment? Please the transport arrangement worked so well though. Was the 'chicken, stuffing and fruit jelly cob' one you took with you? The filling sounded a little exotic for a WVS canteen. Anyway I hope you took the remnants with you , it sounded far too interesting to abandon.

I think the insurance people whose titles escaped you are actuaries. And Sigmund Freud always struck me as singularly joyless, and nowadays of course, much discredited.

Jill...... Glad the Chichester trip was a success. You didn't mention your arm so I assume it was OK. While at Pallant House did you manage a peep at their ongoing Modern Art Exhibtion? Or did you stop in the restaurant nattering? They have such an important collection and many artists such as Frank Auerbach, Peter Blake, Lucian Freud, Richard Hamilton, Howard Hodgkin, Claes Oldenburg, to name but a few, are particular favourites. For Pop Art fans it is a 'must visit' place.

And a three storey Lakeland sounds something again - ours is only 'main-floor plus basement' !

Quotation time....... This art-chat and restaurants leads me inevitably to :-

"A first rate soup is better than a second rate painting"

Abraham Maslow

Maslow was not mainly known for his art criticism. He was the chap who devised a ladder of human needs which it's all too easy to fall out with. A parent's willingness to face death to safeguard a child as against 'self survival' for instance throws a big spanner in his theory. A quiet day planned for tomorrow. Odds and ends to be done, need to plant some herb seeds etc.....

....... Catch you tomorrow........

Shopping - Fish & Chips - NT work

A 'guest' picture to start with - Roy's "ET from Suffolk". He didn't want to miss out in the 'knobbly trees' series.

It was really nice to see him at the Club last night, still convalescing from his hip replacement though, and I think the stairs were a major hurdle which he overcame.

But I understand how he couldn't really miss out on his son's evening.

And Roy drove the projector and the laptop and we all hope he will soon be back in full swing - blue hat included !

I promised before & after pictures of our flat-pack telly stand. So pictures 2 and 3 are exactly that. It looks good and even Tracy convinced us that she really does like it. Being a lovely person she would say she did even if she didn't, if you know what I mean.

But I think she actually does.

Yvonne's comment of "It looks as if it's always been there" sums up how well it blends in.

This morning Reg came round and sorted out a computer problem for me. Reg's copy/paste worked where my drag/drop had failed. But I really love this environment where "somebody knows the answer". We all have different bits of expertise and it's good to share them.

Then we went shopping - Lidl and Morrisons for essential provisions. I managed Lidl OK but opted out of Morrisons and let Y do it. I cooked lunch haddock & chips with marrowfat peas - no bread and butter, followed in my case by Tiramisu for pudding. Y had healthy grapes !

This afternoon, after naps, we tackled Nat Trust stuff and unfortunately my printer played up again and I spent a good hour cleaning print heads and changing ink cartridges etc., perhaps the time is coming .................. Anyway, we got it done.

Comments.......Jill..... Hope your day trip to see Barbara (yes - Y did know) went well and that it didn't cause you too much of a problem for your arm. And that you enjoyed the train, and the coffee !

Jill and Bungus........This silly business over the walking frame without wheels is just that - silly! He took the wheels away with him. What is the betting that when the frame arrives, it will be without wheels ?

Bungus..... I quite like being unframed. But, re my 'disability aids' perhaps it would be easier all round if I just stayed in bed and took a series of photos of my feet for instance, read poetry and listened to the radio of course. WoW could come round and instead of thumbnails they could photograph toenails.

I'm not convinced by your 'short-fibred potato flour' theory. But I don't feel strongly about it.

Not surprised by your bumble-bee sighting. They are hardier than honey bees which, I can assure you from my bee-keeping days, don't emerge until the temperature reaches 56 Fahrenheit.

AnonymousRob....... That's fine about why you vanished last night and I admire your strength of principle. Hypocrite that I am I have no compunction about using the Conservative Club. In fact taking advantage of the facilities without any intention of being swayed suits me fine.

Very interesting about the girl in Doisneau's "The Kiss" and her retrospective fee. Joan Hunter Dunne, the muse for one of John Betjeman's finest poems, die a few days ago at 92 bless her. It is called "A Subaltern's Love Song" and I've made that a link for you.

Hope your Tandoori was a success. Agree about Notaries - but I would settle for 1hr a week's pay, so long as I still got all my pensions and everything plus. Looking forward to your call.

Quotation time.....Being a quotation person, I find the following a little harsh:-

"A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought"

Dorothy L. Sayers

You can all 'google' her yourselves, if you wan't to. I thought she was racist and anti-semitic and I couldn't stand that stuck-up upperclass twit Lord Peter Wimsey.

.....Sleep tight. Catch you tomorrow.

*****************************

Disability Aids - House viewer - Camera Club

Nice 'guest picture' to start with, courtesy of 'Manxislander' and is the Police Station and Court House (complete with blue lamp) at Ramsey.

He is well and sends his good wishes to all.

Today the NHS rather reverted to type re my disability aids. Lara turned up and had left before the stuff arrived, and when it did, the man had brought the wheels for a walking frame without the frame. So he took them away with him. To be fair, the things to raise the height of my favourite chair, the half-height step to the front door and the grabbing tool are all fine. But the core problem, of something to hold onto while walking inside/outside remains unaddressed. She intends to return on Monday - but nothing is going to be delivered by then is it?

Picture 2 is Brian looking suitably mystified by this extraordinary chip. It was either one helluva potato or, and this is what I suspect, the chips are made of reconstituted potato flour.

You can't trust anything these days can you?

Breaking off there to go to Camera Club.

See you later.

11pm and all's well. This evening was an 'Evening with Andrew Walters' son of Roy our Secretary and founder member of WoW.

Andrew's job takes him all over the world and, if that isn't enough he takes exciting holidays in remote and dangerous spots. This evening we started in Nottingham and visited Bolivia, Nepal, the Orinoco and Borneo and India at least, and not necessarily in that order ! This was record-photography at its best, with humour. And for this sort of show we wanted to know about the places he had visited 'Records' are exactly what you need.

There were some 'pictorial' shots thrown in but not too many. We can get our fill of 'third brick from the right pictures' in Camera Club competitions........(Get off that soap-box..Editor)

Comments......Bungus......Everyone loves your paintings, and perhaps I didn't make it clear enough that the charcoal drawing is a self-portrait. AnonymousRob raised a similarity to Doisneau and here is a link please click so you can see some of his work. 'The Kiss' is probably his most famous image but 'Un Regard Oblique' 1948 is my favourite.

The Helen referred to is an EPS member and recent recuit to WoW. I also have a daughter-in-law Helen. But it was not she !

Jill...... I think they all agreed that that cow was in the right. Glad it worked out without injury though.

The chap who brought the wheels without the frame explained that the wrong reference number had been entered on the form. I'm sure that it will all work out. Have a nice day in Chichester and I think it most sensible to go on the train.

AnonymousRob...... What happened to you both after Andrew's talk. I fully expected to see you downstairs in the bar, but you had flown. We must speak on the phone sometime over the weekend, if you are not away or summat !

Quotation time :-

"All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed"

Sean O'Casey

........Sleep tight and I'll catch you tomorrow.

WoW at Alport - Good day - Poor light

This morning we had a good turn-out for WoW. There were 6 of us, Helen, Brian S, Kevin, Mike, Reg and me.

Alport was the destination and as usual the chaps parked me down in the village and went for a walk up on the top. I am counting Helen as an honorary chap on this occasion - I hope she doesn't mind. A well photographed spot but I was fortunate to capture this chap with a good 'puther' (Derbyshire lingo for a smoky bonfire). Other local words for bonfires will be gratefully received.

To start with he was wearing a dull blue anorak but, as he warmed to his task he took it off. His red sweater couldn't be better on a dull day. I sought, and was granted, permission to take the snap.

I enjoyed my thermos, and a book and Radio 4. It was quite cold and breezy and by the time we all met up I had transferred my pictures to the laptop. Helen had great fun with her new DSLR and I am much looking forward to seeing some results.

Picture 2 is one of the frequently snapped views in the village but none the worse for that. In fact, looking at the 'link' I prefer my version anyway.

When we met up I learnt of their 'near death experience' with a cow and calf. The cow, obviously concerened for her calf, charged shortly after Kevin had managed this peaceful looking snap.

Disaster was only averted apparently by Mike using his tripod in a touché gesture which caused the critter to screech to a halt, and Reg managed this snap of the resultant skid-marks.

After all this excitement we decided on The Miners Standard at Winster for our chip-cobs. A charming pub and if you open the link there's lots about the lead miners and the origin of the pub's name

Almost mischeviously the sun, as we approaced the pub, caqme out and remained out while we sat inside. When we emerged it vanished again. Never mind, it is April after all.

Whern I arrived home the new TV stand flat-pack had arrived and, after a sit down and a pot of tea, I decided to assemble it. No problems at all. Straightforward instructions, all the bits were there, and it took me around an hour with frequent stops. I've already used lots of pictures today, so you will have to wait till tomorrow. I'm not on a quota or anything but I don't like to inclde too many. And now I have 'guest' pictures (and they are most welcome) I don't want the blog to become uncomfortably long.

I'm off to bed because I'm flat-packered. Catch you tomorrow. Please excuse me for not answering your 'comments' individually. My disability assessor returns tomorrow. It will be interesting to hear what she has decided for me.


..... Sleep tight !

Karen day - Y lunches - RG much better

After dropping Y at Phoenix Park en route to the City where she was meeting June C for lunch, I decided to drive round Back Lane at Moorgreen. I think Y is in danger of becoming a 'lady who lunches'. Back Lane is a delightful country lane about 10 feet wide and very few passing points and eye-spied a rape field.

OK, I'll plead guilty to photoshoppery, - I flipped the image and then merged it with the original. Scrutiny will reveal the join. But the result gives you a better idea of the field-full because I only had my little Casio with me. When I saw the yellow I thought surely rape-fields are May - then I realised we are halfway through April anyway.

More importantly, 'Night Surgery' yesterday is an original painting by Bungus. He both draws and paints like an angel and he don't write bad either. A veritable Blake !

Which is a good excuse to publish another, a self-portrait this time, in charcoal. And it is, I can assure you, an excellent likeness. Except that he doesn't usually look as neat and tidy as this !! Sandra must have sorted him out. I know he won't be offended by my weak effort at humour.

We own a 'Bungus' which is of a JCB on the beach on the East Coast near Skegness. An unlikely subject you may think, but it is a great painting and we love it. It graces the wall above our dining table and, like 'The Old Man and The Dog' it cheers me up as soon as I see it in the morning.

Camera Club judges would moan that there aren't any catch-lights in the eyes. Of dear, oh dear, - how out of order can you be? Bungus and Rembrandt can't both be wrong !

Comments..... Jill ..... You may be right about it being the last Delia. And, although I never thought I'd say it, I'm not really sorry. She had the germ of a good idea but mostly it just didn't work out. The dishes were certainly not simple, as claimed, and in many cases, rather than go to all that trouble you might as well go out and buy something ready-made.

Your Portuguese Custard Tarts with hot chocolate sound dreamy.

Bungus..... Pleasure to publish the picture. And I assumed this current one would be OK too. In fact, unless you specifiy, I assume if you send me a picture, it's OK to publish it. You will have noticed in the top left of the blog, words about copyright, but I can always prove date and time, so if anyone knicked one we would be after 'em.

'Codger' is OK. My Roget also suggests 'skinflint' which I would accept. When I saw the word I started to speculate how long the word had been around? Presumably from the days when 'flints' were a current topic of conversation. I spent around 20 minutes reprogramming my new office-phone. Instead of calling itself Malcom, it now identifies itself as Office. The phonebook is now clear and waiting for our stuff to be entered. That would need doing anyway, with a new one, so the costs of my frugality are minimal. And satisfying !

And I agree with you also (am I sickening for something?) about Delia. Your lambs liver dish sounds great - I feel the bacon is essential for it to taste traditional. And Yes! I seem to have some vague recollection of a rather tumultuous private life in the 60s.

Your - "this day in ???" column is good. Well worth a second glance. I actually remember the first cordless phone in 1983. It was enormous as I recall. At around 5"x 5" and almost a foot long. Hardly a shirt-pocket job.

AnonymousRob....... Glad to have another member in the 'shower' brigade. Although when I was playing rugby I got used to communal baths I don't like the idea of soaking in dirty water. Apparently in Russia they don't provide plugs for wash-hand basins in hotels because it is considered unhygienic.

I enjoyed the 'potato' story. Just shows what 'foul' minds people have !

Sorry to have missed you at Maureen and Reg's. You must both come over. Or we could meet you at the Dixies. I think the spoken word via the 'tellingbone' is called for.

When I was driving down Back Lane at Moorgreen (please see above) I saw a large bird on top of this telegraph pole. At first I thought it was a sparrow-hawk but people have mentioned a buzzard in the area. Needless to say, as soon as I stopped and pointed my Casio, it winged it. Reg reports a similar effect that his long telephoto lens has on interesting aircraft.

I realise the picture isn't very good but perhaps some knowledgeable 'birder' could hazard a guess ?


...... Hoping to venture out tomorrow, although my walking range is zilch. They will park me somewhere pretty though, as they always do, and I shall take my thermos, papers and lappy and it will do me good to get out.

Sleep tight and I'll catch you tomorrow.

Blood tests - Y's nails - Joans & lunch

It gives me great pleasure to publish a Bungus painting entitled 'Night Surgery' and, like the 'Old Man and Dog' the back view adds intrigue. The clock, the lights and the cast pool of light are great and were I judging a competition I could waffle on for a good 15 minutes about its strong points. At least 18 out of 20 I think, but of course I didn't see any others.

I feel it has an Edward Hopper feel to it, and the artist agrees.

n.b. - He is always saying it to everybody else, so I'll say it to him. "The customary 50p piece for scale would have been useful". An excellent piece of work nevertheless and congratulations.

The 'cup of tea' at Reg and Maureens was to commemorate Reg's 70th. Many Happy Returns Reg. We had a great time and it was nice to meet everybody. I deliberately hadn't given it prior publicity because Y says I blog too much about our arrangements and I thought it would be inappropriate to start on somebody else's, unless asked to do so of course. Great grub and I had a portion of Maureen's famous trifle, in spite of my non-alcohol stance. It was well worth it too!

Picture 2 is so that you can see and understand better the 'hound drain-spouts' mentioned yesterday. Nothing at all to do with today's events which have been quite normal. Blood tests, both INR and kidney function. Then we went over to Carlton to have Y's nails serviced and I just managed to visit my favourite charity shop. Our office phone has been unsatisfactory for some time; it's really old fashioned and doesn't display the number you have rung etc.,. And...... On a shelf, just inside the door of the charity-shop was a Panasonic cordless for a fiver, exactly the same as our existing household set-up, and as you can see I've charged it up and it works perfectly. Serendipity rules !! However, I must erase all the previous owner's data. I've no idea who 'Malcom' is but he was careless about letting his phone go to a charity-shop without reformatting it.

After that it was over to Joan's to take her out to lunch. The Treetops was our choice and all our meals were v.good. Y and I plumped fr the plaice fillet in bread crumbs and Joan had the poached salmon salad. I make no apology for going for the pensioners' menu because the portions are manageable.

I am keeping a weather-eye on skies now, to find a sky which justifies the 'black over Bill's mothers' description for Jill' benefit. But of course, like policemen, when you need one, there aren't any around. If storm clouds come along with the same frequency as policemen it will be next year before I see one.

Comments..... Bungus..... I have always found Emerson most astute. Your comment about the stars "but I could lie on my back in the desert (no other light) and just look at them for hours" made me think, I wonder if he speculates as to where his tent has gone !

Jill...... Willow trees are a gorgeous green I agree, and I don't know of a major painting which features them. Sounds like Impressionist territory I would guess. Well worth a google tomorrow though ! Watch this space.

You are quite right about my sheltered life and the subject of knickers. There was a local saying the 6% proof Stella lager used to rot knicker elastic, which I thought quite clever.

Quotation time.....

"Never trust a man who speaks well of everybody"

John Churton Collins

We watched Delia but I didn't find it very inspiring. With several things I thought why not just buy them ready made? She has introduced some v. good ideas but this week wasn't a good week.


Sleep tight, catch you tomorrow. A Karen day and Y is meeting June C for lunch. Quiet day for me.

.

London Marathon - cup of tea at Reg & Maureen's

This morning we watched The Marathon.

Although the weather was changeable I guess the runners don't mind getting wet but we saw loads of spectators umbrellas. An interesting entry was 6 Masai Warriors in traditional dress who were raising £60,000 to sink bore holes for clean drinking water in their native Tanzanian villages. Their 24yr old chief when interviewed, was a most impressive young man. I wish them well.

The whole event was impressive and one can't help but think that there isn't much wrong with our young people, or our old people come to that. It was nice to see founder Chris Brasher again.

Picture 2 is a hangover from yesterday and shows a charming little pond down Old Mill Lane, at Cuckney. A Casio picture. I didn't even get out of the car; just snapped it through the open driver's side window.

It is around this time of year I start searching for the definitive weeping-willow shot. What I would really like is a 'specimen' tree, not surrounded by others, in a lovely setting bathed in early morning light but not over-sharpened. All contributions would be gratefully published.

This afternoon we went over to AnonymousReg and Maureen for a cup of tea ! and saw Reg's Digital Photo Frame. Y and I have each got small ones but picture quality isn't good. The picture quality in Reg's is phenomenal and I could even be persuaded back to Raw files if the visible detail is to be that good.

Comments.....Jill ...... I know what you mean about the gargoyle and the chinese dragon. My first thoughts, from a distance, was that the gargoyles were griffens, but they had no wings. Pleased about your new Freeview box. We have an NTL / Virgin box which I guess is the same thing. They are a closed book to us both. But we have knowledgeable grandchildren so we reserve our brain's channel-capacity for other matters.

Now Sushi we do understand. Provided one is careful with the Wahhabi.

Bungus ..... Amazing about the tinned stuff and your label-reading research ! I never object to cooking an oxtail because I like the flavour. But I haven't cooked one for years.

What are control-knickers? I have known women with out-of-control knickers! Presumably they are not therefore in danger of anaphylactic shock.

Bungus and Jill. My complete answer to the problems of bath ingress and egress is to have a shower.

David tells the story of when they were made to eat skate-wings I had cooked. They were awful and Ive never cooked them since.

Bungus.... By e-mail you forwarded me a picture entitled 'Night Surgery'. You sort of imply it is a painting rather than a photo. If it is, it's brilliant and it would be an honour to publish it. Overtones of Edward Hopper I thought.

Quotation time.... I must have used this one before, but I just happened tio be thumbing through etc., etc. Excellent advice for budding photographers and authors I think :-

"

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you open the link Bungus please skim read it or I shall feel guilty for wasting your day.

Blood test in the morning, then Y's nails, then lunch with Joan. Don't think I'm walking well enough to enjoy my charity shops. We will see ! Sleep tight, catch you tomorrow......

.

Spontaneous outing to Clumber Park.

Spontaneous decision early on, to risk the weather and go out for the day. Y had been up since 6am and I felt up to it, so we decided to visit Clumber. We left shortly after 10am with a large thermos of coffee and went by the pretty route.

Please see left - We broke our journey for coffee opposite Perlethorpe Church.

Smashing website, well worth a browse and from it I was able to discover that the prominent gargoyles, sticking out on the four corners at the top of the tower, and below the spire, are 'hounds'. As you will see from Picture 2, they are fearsome creatures and immediately made Y think of the 'baskervilles'. Or should that be 'basquervilles'?

The website picture is from almost the same spot as mine. I had no prior knowledge but photographers often come to similar decisions as to what looks good from where. Mine was originally in colour but the sepia is a 'thanks' to Jill for her continued incantations re my pain. I had another good night, but turning over is no-no (it is easier to get up, walk round the bed and get in from the other side - not worth it, so I sleep on my back). I'm at my best first thing in the morning for trips or to get anything done.

The weather was competely varied from bright sun and blue sky, through rain, hailstones, black-over-Bill's mothers (a local expression for storm clouds over a particular spot), lovely cloud scenes. No actual snow though.

Picture 2 was with my Tamron at the 300mm end and is surprisingly sharp because I am often disappointed with it.

I was mystified by the tube protruding from the creatures' mouths. They are to drain the roof. The type of limestone used is allegedly subject to moisture/decay and this cunningly devised system obviously keeps the water away from the walls. .A new one to me, but perhaps the Architectural Desk can enlighten us.

He looks as if he is leaping to eat the bit of foliage on the left of the picture.

Back to the knobbly trees for the moment. I think Bungus's criticism about nothing to give him scale and "trees at unspecified distance tell me nothing about the size of the hole" is a little onbscure for me. This crop to the hole in Helen's picture shows, quite clearly, the grasses and plants growing round the base of the tree. And we are not after-all in the Serengeti are we? Grasses and plants in this area and at this time of year have a regular and knowable size? What more is necessary?

All I can say about Picture 4 is 'don't forget the mint sauce'.

Madeline will probably give me a bad time over that but it would be nice to hear from her anyway. Whatever the message ! I read WU forums regularly and mostly see her dispensing valuable computer advice.

At least lambs are free to frolic during the short lives, not like the appalling conditions in which battery chickens are reared. We have now joined the free-range chicken and egg lobby; reading labels very carefully before buying anything. This fuss over food dyes though is abit OTT in my opinion. If Battenburg cake causes your kids to act strangely, don't feed it to them. As simple as that. Certainly not necessary to make it unlawful to produce. I can just guess what the French reaction would be to such legislation !

Comments..... Jill..... I hope you have now found Reg's 'comment'; it is there, twice actually - he must've clicked the button twice, - no safety catch on again.

It is there because AnonymousRob has reacted to information therein about the young girl photographers' names.

Glad you like the painting. Each time I look at it I appreciate it more. And you can't say anything better about great Art.

Sorry you don't fancy a chip-butty. In this area chips and bread have often been linked. I know a Fish & Chip restaurant in Belper where, with your fish and chips and mushy peas, you get a pot of tea, and two slices of bread & butter. Now that is traditional. You and Ro will have to come up for a fortnight and we can introduce you to real sophisticated eating !

Bungus..... Already mentioned above re knobbly trees and scale. Today at Clumber I could have OD'd on knobbly trees but thought perhaps churches would be better.

Strange you mentioned being startled by dangerously driven disability scooters. There's a lot been running in the Telegraph over the last few days.

Re 'proud pied' and alternative definitions. I suspect that, in Poetry, there is no such animal as an 'official' definition. Part of the joy I've always thought. Ambiguity is an essential tool for Poets don't you think?

AnonymousRob....... Pleased to see the Sports Desk in such good fettle. And re the proliferation of Robs, Regs, Roys and Rays. And we must'nt forget Rose. On our Nat Trst committee we now have a Ron - but I'll try not to mention him too often.

My Epson printer is the Rx420 stylus which I bought from Brian and, although only A4, has done sterling service and, as I said yesterday, when on song particularly with letters etc., is great. The photocopier in colour, produces documents indistinguishable from the originals and the scanner is good too.
At this time of year, with so many bunches of daffodils and tulips for sale, I always remember this quote :-

"The flower in the vase still smiles, but no longer laughs"

Malcom de Chazal

Lovely little web-page there folks. I was enchanted while I read it. Well worth a click !

p.s. When I was putting my camera away, after the Perlthorpe Church snaps, I realised that I had had a large raindrop right in the middle of the lens. And when I downloaded my pics onto my laptop it was glaringly obvious. Not easy to deal with in Photoshop either because it was obscuring essential information, like a hound on a church roof. Good job I didn't use that lens exclusively.

....I hope my disability assessor had a good day for her wedding and that it didn't take place anywhere near 'bill's mothers'. She is coming over to see me again on Thursday.

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A Lidl shopping - mostly messing about.

Picture 1 was given to me by the artist, Kathleen (and I can't remember her surname) who used to go to Nottingham Writers Club. We were all asked to take in examples of our 'other hobbies' and she brought this along. I fell in love with it so much she actually gave it me.

And the old boy still gives me pleasure everyday as I pass him in the hall. It breathes life, and the concentration of the dog on the possibility of food, is spot on. She used to paint pub signs, when commissioned to do so, but of course they all seem to have gone now.

This morning we went out for essential supplies and I managed to get round Lidl, with a trolley to lean on, but when we reached Morrisons I had to stay in the car while Y shopped.

Then we relaxed, by 11.30am the xword was done, reading was caught up on and I did some computer jobs and photo-copying.

Apparently the 'themes' evening at EPS was a success, see comments from Rob. And I know the candid from Helen (she was kind enough to e-mail me a copy) of me looking quizzically at my compact camera. That says it all............

Picture 2 is a hangover from my last WoW outing when we had the excellent chip baguettes at Blidworth. As you can see, the chips were so good none were allowed to make an escape.

Although I have the occasional glitch with my Epson printer and I read recently of their limited life expectancy, I am loathe to replace it because when it is on song it's excellent. We did NT letters, and photocopying this afternoon and the results were splendid. Mind you - excellence in, excellence out - what!

Comments..... Jill ...... No more knobbly trees. I don't want to scare our friendly white witch. Thanks for the 'spell' because I had a very good nights sleep. Getting up was painful but things continue to improve by the hour almost.

I would certainly stick with your polymath gardener.

'Pied' certainly is Shakespeare. From my Etymological Dictionary -pied 1382, as if it were the pp. of a verb form of M.E. noun pie "magpie" (see pie (2)), in ref. to the bird's black and white plumage. Earliest use is in reference to the pyed freres, an order of friars who wore black and white. Also in pied piper (1845, in Browning's poem based on the Ger. legend; used allusively from 1942).

My quote was from a sonnet. The word is, in fact, fairly common with the meaning you have. As in Pied Wagtail etc. Do you share our view that the Telegraph xword setters have changed? Several of the 'lead ins' are new and different and interesting.

AnonymousRob ...... See above in main blog re EPS. You are right about the grumpy old men irritant list. We'll just put them in when they occur. Which leads me unerringly to :-

"Testy, querulous and given to praising the way things were when he was a boy"

Ars Poetica Ib 173 ----- Horace 65 - 8 B.C

It's been going on a long time then, this grumpiness. But we are in fine company.

...... Rather tired, so I'm off to kip. If you've got chance to boil up the cauldron Jill, or stick pins in Magwitch or whatever you did, I'd be obliged if you would do it again. Sleep tight folks.

p.s. Just seen a comment zoom in from Reg. I'll respond tomorrow Reg.

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Quiet recovery day - knobbly trees.

Another knobbly tree from WoW, a Helen one this time. She says it is the same tree that Reg photographed (see yesterdays blog) but from the other side.

Whether or not they were both standing at either side of the tree at the same time will have to remain a mystery. And I don't think that this time Bungus will need his customary 50p piece for scale because the trees in the top-right corner of the picture convey the size fairly accurately.

Obviously Helen had this in mind when she pressed the shutter.

As knobbly tree pictures go I think this one is a winner. Nicely exposed to show its essential knobbliness, but, as Helen seems to hint in her e-mail, once you've seen ONE knobbly tree.............

Karen came and mowed both lawns bless her. It was hard going as it was the first cut of the year. She was here an hour and a half, and when Y gave her the £10 note she said "You need some change....." Obviously we didn't take it. I bet you are envious in Chiswick !

Once I got myself, laboriously, into the office, I had a good go at Nat Trst stuff and sorted myself out in general. Then I caught up on reading, did the Crossword but it needed Y to finish it at teatime. Some good clues again today. I suspect we have some new setters who have different and cunning ways of telegraphing (geddit?) the anagrams which is fun.

Comments.....Bungus ...... Ooo-er what a long list of irritants ! And to be irritated by things you are actually strong on - like building construction and The History of Architecture. I shall have to put my mind to producing a similar list.

One springs to mind - elderly women who put all their shopping through the check-out and then search in their handbag for their purse, and then search in their purse for the money.

Contributions to the list will be gratefully received and, subject to the normal rules about not stirring-up racial or religious hatred or pornography, all will be duly 'blogged'. Actually, you can stir up religious hatred if you want to. I don't want to preclude 'Church Noticeboard' or 'Vicar' stories.

I love 'coping' by sitting on top of a wall. Cleverclogs. I wish I'd thought of it. As Jill and her knitting colleagues would say, it had me in 'stitches'.

Quotation time.....From one of the Sonnets.....

"From you I have been absent in the spring,

When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,

Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing"

Shakespeare

A different commentary interprets 'proud-pied' as 'resplendently variegated' you pays yer money and takes yer choice.

Another recuperative day planned for tomorrow. I plan to ease-up on the pain-killers and see how I get on.

Sleep tight. Catch you tomorrow. Please excuse the train again, but I love it so.

Simple things please simple minds !!

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One photo blog - a little better

The tree opposite the front gates is a joy and I thought I'd better 'catch' it before it is in full leaf.

The lighting is from a street-light about 30yds away and the colour is about right. At the risk of irritating Bungus, it was a 20 second exposure at f7.1. Fortunately there wasn't any wind and at 4am there wasn't much traffic either. This was the day before I was struck down with this pain.

Incidentally, it is easing by the hour, so Jill's 'Curse on Magwitch' seems to have worked. Thank you Jill.

A full bulletin would be boring so suffice it to say that the attack, or flare-up as the clinic mysteriously call it, is following its normal path. I can now turn over in bed and pull myself from one position to the other, or ask Y to provide the pull. Heavily dihydrocodeine-ed and fentanyl patched but we are getting there.

I haven't heard from the WoW-ers or received any pictures but I guess they had a good day. The weather was reasonable I think.

Y has gone over to BJ for Millicent's third birthday and Tracy is bringing her back. Sorry to have missed it but it simply wasn't possible. Also sorry to miss EPS tomorrow night because I would love to see everyone's pictures. Rob and Elaine have some in - it was 'Theme out of a hat' night.

Comments.....Jill.... Annie's 'Calamity Jane' sounds as if it had definite overtones of St. Trinians and none the worse for that. I managed to track down some original footage which is fun. My school's musicals were mainly Gilbert & Sullivan and my rise up the thespian ladder stopped at being an anonymous sailor in the crew of H.M.S Pinafore. I can't sing for toffee anyway.

Bungus...... Glad you enjoyed the rainbow. Like you, I love them. In fact I don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't. I'd love to capture a good one in all its glory but I think luck would play a prominent part.

Talking of walking-aids etc., my lovely assessor rang today, and already she has organised our half-step, an indoor walking frame, and various other bits. As Jill remarked it is good that at least a part of the NHS seems to be working well. Most of these things are down to individual people in the end - although systems, poor leadership, and lack of funding can drag anything down.

anonymousrob BA(Hons) A.R.P.S...... I tend to agree with you about photographic titles. Mainly because most of them are way up high in terms of cringe-factor. Somewhat similar to the epigrams on church notice boards. There's been a piece in the Telegraph recently.

I thought your Magwitch joke quite good actually.

And there was me thinking that basque-separatists were blowsy scrubbers dressed in two piece basques.

My Etymology Dictionary has :-

tad

1877, "young or small child," probably a shortened form of tadpole. The extended meaning "small amount" is first recorded 1915.

but it remains silent on titch, titchy, tadge and tadgy. I am sure though that Jill is right to suggest a common root for all.

Y and I have done quite a lot of Nat.Trust work together over the past few days. Sitting in the office swivel chair is as comfortable as anywhere and we both enjoy a sense of achievement by actually doing things and reaching objectives. For instance, rather than a box containing hard-copy letterheads, I have done a template and copied it a few times in the appropriate Word folder, and there they are ready for use, without storage problems.

I have also taken responsibility for our Mansfield Centre of The National Trust web-page and will in future act as a sort of editor for it. I shall probably be able to find ways of irritating Bungus by going on about The National Trust now. Mind you, he'll understand what I'm talking about in this sphere. I've explained to him that the blog is read by people with varied interests, from photography through to computers, and he will just have to continue being 'irritated' by the bits he doesn't wish to know about.

Hold the stop-press. Picture 2 just in from Reg. WoW went round the lakes at Calke Abbey. The weather was OK, the light reasonable and this hollow-tree was photo-worthy.

The picture appeals because Reg has kept the shadowy interior from being completely blocked. It therefore intrigues. If I wasn't to be offered a cave, I wouldn't mind living in a hollow tree with the customary proviso that there was a plug for my laptop.

Tomorrow's EPS meeting is a competition "Themes out of a Hat" which I shall be sorry to miss but I simply wouldn't be able to get up those stairs. I picked out of the hat "pairs" and although I hadn't had any strokes of genius I did have a couple of bird pictures.

Rob and Elaine have entries in and I bet tens that Reg, Brian, Roy, Douglas, and Helen will have too. and I feel sure that, between them all, somebody will pen a paragraph.

Quotation time.....Sorry about yesterday's somewhat doom-laden effort. This is a little lighter.....

"A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road"

Henry Ward Beecher

..... Catch you tomorrow......

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Brief Blog - due to staff illness

This is from our office window. I would have gone to dig for my crock of gold in the middle of the football pitch, but I couldn't manage the spade.

The disability-needs assessor arrived on time (always a good start) and was a delightful and competent young lady. Lots and lots of useful suggestions and a run through what is possible. Simple things we had never thought of, like the depth of the front step. Too deep apparently, after she had seen my trying to walk, and we are to have a half-step to make things easier. Grab handles, walking aid wheels, loo raisers, things to make getting out of bed easier etc., etc. And as Bungus endorses, it is better she saw me bad rather than good. A lovely girl who is to be married at the weekend, and when she told us about it, she actually blushed. Absolutely delightful - I didn't know that girls could still do that. She assured us that the improvements wouldn't make the house look like a rest-home for the elderly, with its possible effect on potential purchasers.

Y cooked, all meals (and very good they were too) plus frequent tea and coffee. We managed a couple of hours in the office (I find the IKEA swivel office-chair with arms ideal 'cos I can trundle about in it) and did Nat Trst minutes etc., and we've designed a letter-head for Y as Secretary. She was unsure whether or not to use her B.Sc, my advice was 'go for it' so we've added it. If nothing else it will irritate you-know-who.

Comments......Jill..... When you say "most gardens in Chiswick have at least one" I assume you mean a 'camellia' rather than 'a greenhouse designed by Joseph Paxton' ha ha! Hope you enjoy your school play. Freeview boxes seem notoriously fickle but, after 3 years, yours probably has simply expired See Rob's comment). Although we have other problems with Virgin, the actual NTLbox seems OK.

Bungus...... The 'Y carried me' remark referred solely to my mental performance which was distinctly under par. Back to normal today. Telegraph xword, design, minutes (solely in my Secretary's PA role) the actual minutes are down to Y.

Isn't it strange that the Lidl catalogue seemed like a special issue for my benefit? However, I shall await the outcome of this morning's assessment before making purchases.

The title 'springtime' for your cat/dove picture is superb. Trouble is it would probably go over the heads of most camera-club judges. I wonder what AnonymousRob thinks?

For a chicken to reach 6lbs in 7½ weeks is incredible. One must suspect growth hormones and god-only-knows what else and my instincts are repelled.

AnonymousRob....... I agree that I had only previously associated this camouflage behaviour with animals not plants. Perhaps I should submit the picture somewhere where it may be of academic interest.

The blog was only released on bail, until I was sure that it wasn't a generalised blogger.com-glitch that had caused PC problems, and I needed to check on the forums. Pleased to announce that RG is now completely exonerated and won't need to answer bail.

Unfortunately I will have to give Thursday a miss (Magwitch 1 RG 0) because I would really have liked to see your theme pictures. Getting in and out of the car is difficult and those stairs would defeat me. If there aren't too many perhaps you could either send them, or a link to them if you use a file-hosting site. I promise not to blog any without specific clearance.

I posted this in a different place, due to a query. But it is well worth sharing with you all, if you don't like Russ Abbott and Bela Emberg just don't open the link. Personally I love it.

Quotation time..... Quite thought provoking this one:

"Perhaps in time the so called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own"

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Sleep tight, catch you tomorrow. Y bussing over to BJ for Millicent's third birthday. Me - can't manage WoW so I shall be messing-about, staggering, and resting.

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National Trust at Mansfield - Stir Fry

Picture 1 is Sky and Brooke's Anniversary Cake which they so kindly hand-made for us. And very delicious it is too. Moist, lovely soft icing and gooey filling - just my sort of cake in fact.

The flower in the centre is to demonstrate Jill's collapsible flower-vase. Surprisingly easy to use once you've figured out how to open it. "Squeeze the base" said Jill. Eventually I managed it, and, as she says the water then holds it open. And it doesn't leak. Cunning device!

This morning we had a NT meeting at Mansfield about funding a School-visit to Hardwick Hall, The Workhouse at Southwell, or Clumber Park. Part of the fund-raising activities of our Centre is allocated for projects of which our local properties have a wish list. A useful meeting and some good ideas emerged. Much necessary correspondence for Y, our new Secretary. I was so glad she was there this morning. She carried me. Due to Magwitch I was a shadow of my true self. The community physiotherapist is coming in the morning to assess what I actually need in terms of walking aids etc., - in a way, I suppose it's best that I am currently going through a bad patch. It would be counter productive for her to see me at my best.

Picture 2 is of fungi, near a path in the front garden where the birds break open snail shells on the concrete. What interests me is the similarity of design and colour of the fungi and the snail shells.

I know that some 'animals' particularly the chameleon can mimic their surroundings for camouflage purposes.

But I have never before encountered plants doing it !

Any ideas folks ?

Comments....Bungus.... I am looking forward eagerly to celebrating your and Sandra's 25th Anniversary when you are 90 ! A goal to aim for ! I did actually know about the greenhouse at Chatsworth/ Crystal Palace link but I am not as keen as you. It always looks crammed in as an afterthought. Space round it would make it more impressive.

I think we have gone as far as we need to with spic and span.

AnonymousRob..... As per previous, but thanks for the last word on spick and span. That 'phrases.org' looks a useful site. Yet more for my groaning bookmarks toolbar !

'Tadge' is interesting. Where I grew up it was 'tad' i.e "You are looking a tad peeky this morning'.

It was nice of AnonymousReg to ring to let me know that it was a hard-disc problem that caused his PC to crash and not the blog. He had had the experience of his computer freezing, going haywire, and finally crashing immediately after trying to access the blog. It seemed like a cause and effect job. He tried a 'system restore' etc., to no avail. Eventually a hard-disc problem was diagnosed. Nice man that he is, he rang me at once to let me know. So the blog was promptly released on bail.

Off to catch the midnight radio 4 news. Catch you tomorrow.

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25th Wedding Anniverary - Great time

Tracy, with help in the kitchen (Andy mostly) had done a super job and the food was magnifico. Far too many dishes to talk you through. On the right of this table was a 'hot table' also with cheese and biccies, where eventually puddings appeared. The cream jug looked like a quart (TJ knows her brother's little vices).

Most people had at least seconds, and I suspect thirds, in some cases. And there wasn't much in the way of left-overs, which speaks volumes. People had gone to so much trouble. The centre-piece cake had been organised by Lisa bless her! Hannah had done couscous which was delicious and Sky and Brooke had made us a homemade anniversary cake. Also delicious and, I was assured, didn't have 'real witches blood' this time, like the Halloween cakes. Altogether there were 7 grandchildren between 3 and 10 and Alannah at nearly 18. Plus all the relevant adults.

Lots and lots of games were played from the ever popular hide & seek, lego, and hedbanz a great game for all ages. Rather like 'Whats my Line' and 'Twenty Questions' modernised and much more fun. And the kids are so good at it. Also, 'wrapping people up as snowmen' which, within our family is a sure-time winner, always. Simply, with loads of white toilet rolls, people are wrapped up until they look like convincing snowmen. Very appropriate because it kept actually snowing outside.

As I was physically unable to circulate, people circulated to me instead and I had lots of lovely chats. Alannah has finally decided she wants to read English Literature at Leeds. And John and Yvonne (thats John's Yvonne) assure us that they expect her to get the necessary grades.

She loves literature and it is her best subject. Genes or what? I told her I would have loved to have done Eng.Lit and so did Y - who finished up getting a B.Sc mainly in Economics, - oh to be young again and just starting out. I don't actually mean that - but when she was telling me all about it, I glowed with pride at her achievements.

Picture 2 is Lisa arriving with the cake. Smashing idea - Y and I were each represented by a fizzy sparkler and in between us was a sparkler heart. Ahhh !

Comments..... Bungus.... I didn't mean to start name-dropping. It happened in my defence of The Telegraph.

Chrystal Phallus is actually very clever 'innit? with its resonance of Crystal Palace. which I would have loved to have seen. The pictures I have seen also look magnificent so I guess the actual structure must have been awesome. Just came along too late I suppose.

We need more work on 'spic and span' I think. My Online Etymological Dictionary suggests:- spic-and-span 1665, from spick-and-span-new (1579), lit. "new as a recently made spike and chip of wood," from spick "nail" (see spike (n.1)) + span-new "very new" (c.1300), from O.N. span-nyr, from spann "chip" + nyr "new." Imitation of Du. spiksplinter nieuw "spike-splinter new."

Nifty Googler may fare better tomorrow.

For some reason photo-club judges always mark out of twenty. I knew why once but have forgotten. Whatever the reason - well done. I usually get in about the 12 mark, on a good night !
Sorry about your chicken. At 6lbs 'oven ready' I would have treated it as a 'boiling foul' and wouldn't have roasted it.

Jill....... The weather is seasonal isn't it? Snow in April isn't at all unusual I guess. Anyway I think we all have serious doubts about 'global warming'.

As you will realise from the above I was determined that Magwitch wasn't going to spoil today. Hot pads, lots of pain-killers but, unfortunately moving about in the classic 'gunslingers crouch' and extremely slowly, is all that is possible. Instead of two guns I tote two sticks !!

And we've got National Trust tomorrow. But we shall cope. Nice of you to suggest an estate car in which I could stretch out. I suppose a hearse would serve the same purpose ?

I'm a little done for so I'm going to turn in. Catch you tomorrow. Sleep tight.

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Basil Rooting's annual outing - Surprise meal out

As you can see from Picture 1 Basil Rooting is making an annual guest appearance. The cuttings really are so easy to 'strike' in the garden parlance of this area. Four or five days is all that is needed for the roots to appear and, if I have time, 'I can pot him on' tomorrow.

Bungus had hoped that Basil would keep Magwitch at bay. Unfortunately not so. It has been a painful 48hrs and in and out of the car has been worse than yelp-worthy. I prefer Y to walk away so she doesn't see my face when I transfer my weight from my seat to my legs.

We had a surprise invite to join an old friend Derek at the Bestwood Lodge Hotel for evening meal, and a splendid occasion it was. He has panache, and the menus were without prices. He has done this before and our meals were very good indeed.

The Hotel started life as a Hunting Lodge and the present building was built in 1865. Full blown Victorian Gothic seems to be the style sought, and achieved. If my description is not correct I expect our Architecture Desk to put it right.

Derek has been in the nearby Park Hospital for a urinary-tract operation on Friday. He seemed very chipper considering he has been told not to drive for a fortnight and that he would be sleepy all the time. Not so apparently. So he is making a little holiday of it and has been entertaining friends. Derek used to teach electrical engineering at what was Trent Polytechnic now is Trent University. He feels as we do that the government has let the country down badly in the field of education.

On retirement in 1984 he went to live on the Lincolnshire Coast but now regrets it and is seriously considering a return to Notts.

Bestwood Country Park is a great place to be convalescing. His bedroom is a long way from the pub end of the hotel, and disco etc., and is completely quiet, in the middle of the wooded area and he awakes to birdsong rather than traffic.

A possible WoW morning I think, but they have probably been already.

Big day tomorrow. Over at Tracy's for our Anniversary do, (it will be great to see everybody). Then National Trust on Monday morning and on Tuesday, our actually anniversary and we are going to The Hardwick Inn for lunch.

Comments .... Can't reply to any comments - 'cos there weren't any.

Quotation time ...... I love this one.....

"Never knock on Death's door: ring the bell and run away! Death really hates that!"

Matt Frewer

Catch you tomorrow. Sleept tight.

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Y returns - Tired but happy

Brian Smith got some excellent Creswell Crags pictures and on Thursday evening he put about 40 on a memory stick and said I could blog a couple.

So here are two pictures of where our ancestors lived from around 35,000 years ago onwards. I wouldn't mind living in a cave provided there was a plug for my laptop.

Earlier today, before I collected Y from the tram I managed a couple of hours trying to consolidate Mike's tutorial. A surprisingly high number of things I managed to actually 'do' and that way things do actually stick.

Particularly useful is the facility in Photoshop to lock a section of the 'curves' curve and operate on a selected spectrum of tones in a picture. Ansel Adams and the Zone System people would adore it. And it certainly follows that we snappers should make more use of the camera's on board histograms.

However, I am still not a convert to using RAW. For the sort of photography I do, and the use I make of the results, JPEGS are fine. RAW files, comparatively speaking, are enormous and such a faff to deal with. In downloading and handling terms they are around 5 times slower than JPEGs. And to what end? Unless you are keen on making big prints and exhibiting.

I'm still in the Ken Rockwell camp on this one because I can never see any difference either. Other folks disagree and they are certainly entitled to and we all get on and plough our own furrows.

Y was understandably tired when she got back, and was quite entitled to be, Ruby had been quite ill for a couple of days and off school and with Elli and little visitor Sadie to look after things are quite demanding for grannies. Anyway in Thomas The Tank Engine terms Y has been a really useful engine.

Comments.....Jill..... Thanks for your tick for the Orchid on Pine. Sounds like an American Sandwich doesn't it. I'll have mine with extra relish please. But the others have a point.

Bungus...... I think you and I met a few months after I had retired and so there is much about my working life that it never seemed necessary to tell you about. Not being reticent or anything, it just never cropped up - and vice versa I'm sure.

I certainly don't know how they date the cave-paintings so accurately either. It isn't my field and if people are academically well qualified in their speciality I tend to accept it. The 'scholarly monograph' which I linked to, from Rob's link, had obviously been subjected to peer review so was no doubt completely sound.

It seemed to me that I had also done a link to the 'grains of rice' thing, but I can't find it, - and in my own blog too !

And well done with your cat picture. 16 out of 20 from 'machiavelli too Rob'. Not being a camera-club person you can't realise that is a very high mark. Not going to be 1st, 2nd or 3rd but very respectable.

Machiavelli too Rob ....... Paul liked a rabble-rousing article of mine in Police Review and contacted me about it. He actually contacted Ben Whitaker (another chum) and a Junior Minister at The Home Office to check me out. We got together and our friendship went on from there. He persuaded me to write some stuff for both Tribune and the SWP.

I've tried to google the 3 letters myself but without immediate success. If it was really important I could ask the custodian of some of the cuttings to get them down from his loft. But it wouldn't be fair even now to identify him in this blog.

My mind is buzzing with the possible content of the suggested article. Lets just hope I get round to it before losing interest - decrepitude has this unfortunate effect ! Do you remember, I was going to do something similar with Eddy Sethna, but it never happened.

" 'tis known by the name of perseverance in a good cause, -
and of obstinacy in a bad one"

Lawrence Sterne - Tristram Shandy

Lovely potted biography thanks to Jesus College - much nicer than Wikipedia. Catch you tomorrow. Sleep well and have a nice weekend.

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EPS - bring a laptop night

Picture 1 is a Bungus photo and I think he should call it "I've got my eye on you" - nicely captured and a pleasure to publish it.

Guest pictures are always welcome and now, with my google PageRanking, you will be reaching a reasonable audience.

Tonight at the camera club people who have them are asked to take in their laptops and there can be a good interchange of ideas and information. I'm also going to take in my Photoshop CS2 Bible and folks can have a thumb through it. Rather than ask me anything - because I am unlikely to know.

Picture 2 is some more orchids and I'm hoping that the pine background is more gentle than the black sheet. The picture was at f3.5 and I wonder if the depth of field should be even shallower - to blur the background. Trouble is that most of the flowers (except the one focussed on) would blurry too. I suppose easiest is to bully it into submission with Photoshop. All suggestions will be gratefully received.

Comments.....Ray.....Thanks for the RSS feed info. Much to think about and I haven't yet decided it I want to go down that path or not. But other readers mght.

And thanks also for the image hosting site.

Bungus and Rob.......My allegiance to the Telegraph comes from the time when I did the official archive for the miners' strike, part of which included press cuttings. I found that the paper was the fairest and most thorough. The only time they were 'scooped' was when Paul Foot published the famous 3 letters in The Mirror. I didn't leak them although it was suspected that I had. (Paul was a personal friend and he stayed at my house when he came to Sutton-in-Ashfield to ginger up the 1977 by-election) This was not popular either with the Chief Constable or The Security Services. And I wonder why I didn't progress further than Inspector.

Anyway, back to the Telegraph. Max Hastings was the editor at the time and no doubt the paper isn't what it once was.

The Bird in Hand is still an excellent pub, as mentioned yesterday. And the licensee has a sense of humour. When I drew his attention to a walking stick someone had left he told us that recently someone had gone home without a pair of crutches. "I thought it was a miracle" he said.

Pleased to see the Sports Desk hard at work. You can't beat this delegation thing can you?

Bored at work Rob...... A star and a house point for getting 'goalposts' - I was nowhere near it. Bungus will be pleased.

I'm not sure about cooking hyenas. I suspect it's been done. I had some soup once etc........... Wild Boar paté is around but my portion seemed somewhat understated I thought.

Thank you also for the Rock Art material. And a great link. I am cutting a link from your link so to speak, so everyone can share the Creswell Stuff. OK, it's an 'academic monograph' but none the less interesting for all that. And when I said chaps yesterday, it was in fact the case that Helen was not with us.

I will most certainly do my best to have you elected a NEMPF judge but as a non-exhibitor I guess I personally won't carry much clout. The main problem, as you suggest, is to break up the self-perpetuating clique. There are a few RPS people I talk to at the regional meetings but your own contacts including our Paul are much better placed. The old dictum about "Pick people off socially beforehand" is as relevant today as it ever was (I speak as the recently elected (contested) Vice-Chairman of The Mansfield Centre for The National Trust with 144 members) Let me ponder it. Perhaps one thing I could do is write a hard-hitting article for AP; not naming you personally of course (that wouldn't be good strategy) but stressing the need for new blood and citing regions that get things right!

Eastwood Photographic Society enjoyed its evening of sharing skills and laptops. The general hubbub was rewarding. My only useful contribution was my laptop ! We were lucky at our table, - we 'coggsed' (another local expression meaning booked) Mike Holland before anybody else did, and we learnt such a lot. I must spend some hours tomorrow consolidating it because while the meaning of my handwritten notes is fresh in my mind I stand a chance.

Brian has put me his Creswell Crags pictures on a memory stick and given me permission to pick one, or more, for the blog. So, watch this space.............


Stopping there. It is getting late. And my e-mail notifier tells me that Jill has already put a comment on the first draft of this post......We shall have to call her "Speeedy from Chiswick"..... Catch you tomorrow.

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WoW at Creswell Crags - Bird in Hand pub

Yet another smashing WoW day, there wasn't much light but Creswell Crags was most interesting.

Picture 1 is of the Meden River which flows through the gorge and I was attracted to the white blossom tree on the left bank.

The site is of great archaelogical importance because a recent discovery of cave-paintings of an earlier date than those at Lascaux in France. Although I can't find a current link for the work, it was reported in my ArtDaily newspaper about 6 months ago.

Personally I am always dumb-struck by the sophisticated artistic skill of the artists. So much power and grace (but of course they didn't have NEMPF judges making snide remarks - if they had. I suspect it would have been 'up yours' with the barbed spear).

I'm afraid you will have to open the links to see what I'm talking about because I run short of picture space. Even though there isn't any google-limit I am aware of some readers on dial-up and download time can be an issue.

Picture 2 is just a pleasant modern structure on the way from The Visitors' Centre to The Crags. It isn't an Ice-Age Bandstand so far as I am aware. It was a handy place for me to rest and an excuse to use mi' Sigma wide-angle.

On my limping return to the Visitors' Centre I was told that I could have been given a 'Radar key' to open gates so I could have driven there. A notice at the start would have been more use than at the end. Although the link describes the key in relation to toilets, they also open gates and things. I fully intend to apply for one and I am indebted to Kevin for drawing it to my attention.

The fearsome creature at Picture 3 was, obviously, in the Museum rather than wandering around. Until today I never realised that the Hyena was native to these shores. Just so long as some well intentioned berk doesn't suggest reintroduction; solely on the grounds of their irremediable ugliness.

We chip-cobbed (well chip-baguetted actually) at The Bird in Hand at Blidworth and all agreed on the excellence. A very 'well thought of' pub (we managed to get the window table. in the top picture - ace view) and an additional pull was a proper open-fire, even though we weren't near it. Pleasant landlord with a sense of humour. Poor Roy - he would have loved it. Back soon though Roy ! As soon as you are allowed to raise your knee higher than your hip I will pick you up and you can share my coffee where they put me, in the Car Park.

Comments..... Ray.... Thanks for the Hansen i.d. and also the link, which the Sports Desk will enjoy. Others were also successful but yours was first. Nice to have your comments these days. I tried to explain to Reg about RSS feeds, but failed. The problem was me not fully understanding what I was talking about, rather than his.

Jill.... our first April fools day spoof was the 'flying penguins' in the Telegraph. Like Rob, I'm afraid I can't bring myself to read Y's Daily Mail. She assures me she only has it for the sudoku and we fight over The Telegraph. The Mail has poached some good writers though, Max Hastings, Tom Uttley etc.

Bungus.... thanks for the latest episode of the Hospital saga - it speaks articulately for itself and doesn't really need anything from me.

Thanks also for the additions to the 'sayings list'. It was in boyhood I first encountered the story about the problems of word-of-mouth communication. Where "Send reinforcements, we are going to advance" became "send three and fourpence, we are going to a dance". I fear it wont outlast us though because of the currency change.

Flowers of ManchesterRob...... (we Xword puzzlers would identify the Mersey, Irwell, Medlock and Irk rivers, as Manchester flowers) - crazy lot that cryptic xword setters are.

The chaps this morning were delighted with your Yorkshire judging experience and just hope that your influence rubs off.

Thanks also for your continued shared manning of The Sports Desk.

I've rabbitted on far too long....(you can say that again...Ed.) so I'll stop right there. No quotation, no animated line.............just good night !

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p.s. to Reg. I have checked out all the links and they seem OK at this end. If one doesn't open though, I need to know.....

National Trust Mansfield - Windy - Rest Day

Going along with Anthony Aloysius St. John Rob I don't decry the virtues of monochrome work but, being a simple man, colour helps me to 'be there' or to unravel the artist's intention.

Picture 1 is a 'now you see it, now you don't' almost monochrome. And we shouldn't forget that one of the greatest and most powerful paintings of the 20th Century - Picasso's 'Guernica' is monochrome. This is a surprise when people see it for the first time. Reproductions of the image imprint on your consciousness so that you believe it is in colour. But it isn't. The link BTW is a YouTube about the painting.

Picture 2 is from Delia's programme last night and she is eating Asian cuisine, out with friends. I think the chap sitting on her right is a football person. Perhaps someone on The Sports Desk could give him a name. She obviously told us, but I have forgotten.

Today has been a Karen day and although I didn't go out shopping, I kept out of her way. And the house was 'spick & span' in no time. Now there's another expression that everybody understands the meaning of but why 'spick' and why 'span' ? - there must be more to it than just sounding good. And 'Yes' Rob, the 'fowlness' of chicken dripping was on purpose. I try not to telegraph my punches - feeble as they are these days.

A worrisomely strong 30mph Westerly wind is making something bang. As a homeowner one always fears - 'It must be the roof!'.

Comments....anthony aloysius st john Rob ..... thanks for the additions to our list of sayings. Re plate-clearing. In our house it was "If you don't clear your plate you are helping Hitler to win the war". A heavy responsibility for a 9yr old, and perhaps something to do with my waist line?. 'Clooty' for left-handed is new to me - where I grew up it was 'cack-handed'.

I think Ken Holm, and Madhur Jaffrey are still writing, but I haven't seen them on the telly for years. Recently on the Radio I heard Prue Leith - I always rated her as a straightforward and sensible cook although I don't own her authoritive book. Apparently she is to head the Schools Food Trust. An excellent appointment.

Bungus...... I'm sure you are right about de trop. My little Websters has it as "too much, unduly, too many" and, probably wrongly I was using it to convey 'over-the-top'. But, I think we have enough on our hands boggering-about with English. Lets not start on French 'eh?

I'm also sure you are right about spices losing their flavour on the bedpost overnight. My pet theory is that flour acts similarly. We always buy the smallest package possible of plain white flour when making yorkshire puddings because, in my experience, to get the super-risen effect fresh flour is necessary. Whenever I've tried old tired flour they haven't risen much.

The 'umbrella on a motorbike' is good. And the Mencken quote is excellent. Was it Mencken (a lifelong atheist) who was asked "What would you say if, the moment after your death, you were faced by Peter and The Apostles?" He replied "I would say - Gentlemen, I was mistaken".

That will do for a quotation I think. I might re-open the blog when I return from National Trust-ing - it all depends on my knackered-ness level. If I don't; sleep well and I'll catch you tomorrow. I just love this train......

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