Almost warm enough to start gardening !

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I have titled this orchid picture "The Three Graces" and it has done well today on Ephotozine.

The flower looked attractive on the windowsill with the sun and natural light behind it at just after 12noon. So far it's earned 13 ticks and some praiseworthy comments.

And over on WebUserforums I created a poll re The White Horse sculpture discussion.

Please click here to see what I'm talking about. I asked people to vote either Yes or No to the question "Would the sculpture be better if it were more creative?"

At the time of writing 7 people have said 'Yes' while 8 have ticked 'No'. So I am losing the argument but only just. The poll closes at 12noon on the 18th and I will tell you about the final voting figures thereafter.

Y went to Nottingham to meet Joan for lunch in The Bell and, after I had dropped her off at the tram, I went to Eastwood to take a preliminary shot of the Chapel I want to use in my Eastwood Gothic picture.

I have published it here but please don't react to the quality or lack of it, of the picture because so far it is what my graphic designer son-in-law calls a 'story board'.

It will probably be difficult to see any possible connection between yesterdays publication of the actual 'American Gothic' picture and this, so your patient tolerance is sought.

But you will probably remember I promised to show progress on my 'uplit hyacinth bulb' picture. Not worth showing you the outcome. The idea simply didn't work. At least, not in my hands it didn't.

During the day I prepared 14 pictures as entries for the 'projected images' section of the EPS Annual Exhibition. I have burnt them to disc, together with file sizes and titles and if I don't go on Thursday night for the monthly judging I will give the disc to someone at WoW

Hannah is being dropped off for her two night sleep-over around lunchtime tomorrow and we have decided to do sausages and mash, with veg for them all. Followed by Jelly and Icecream. They will think I never cook anything but sausages here ! But I am planning a Spagbol or a Chilli for Wednesday, Hannah can choose.

My responses to your previous comments

Bob..... I don't think we actually disagree that much about global warming. My position is that climate and weather conditions on Earth are affected by wider issues than the behaviour of humans. But I also feel the world would be a better place if we burned less fossil fuels, caused less pollution, farmed more in tune with nature, ate a more sensible diet, and so on.

The free range pork steak sounds good. The 'reduced-counter' is a good place to look for meat in Supermarkets. Not because it's cheaper but because it is a little more mature. Same goes for Cheese.

Rob.... You are pushing at an open door in these pages, when arguing for the evolving nature of English. As you say, the canon of French is locked away in The Sorbonne.

And don't we love our English dearly ? It is such a playful and forgiving language. And all those double-meanings - a gift to the embryonic 'writer'.

I think Y's point was that the teacher spelt out 'desolate' phonetically des-o-late making it well-nigh impossible for her classmate to spell it wrongly. Y wasn't offered similar help with 'thorough'. Oh how hard we feel injustice when we are eight.

Thanks for the plaudits for my 'moon'. Please feel free to cadge it if you need a moon. I can just see a cyanotype moon hovering over some Rob type landscape. (Throws back 'already lit' cracker)

If I have a bad night tonight I'll have a scroll through iPlayer for Seasick Steve. In my opinion iPlayer is a superb service from the BBC who are deserving of much praise at the moment. I think I get my licence fee's worth from their website alone, without bothering to watch the telly hardly at all.

Readers will welcome your Sports Desk update. Bogger the BBC !

Reg .... Brilliant idea ! And I would much rather borrow a pitchfork from a 'stable' person than from an 'unstable' one. Bob has drawn attention to the eyes of the bloke with the pitchfork in American Gothic. I fear he would fit into the 'unstable' category.

It sounds as if we shall have to be taking 'record shots' of the Police Station then, before it vanishes or becomes yet another 'take-away' or similar.

Thanks for the update anyway. Hope to see you on Wednesday.

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Quotation time ....... trying to be relevant....

"Drawing on my fine command of The English language, I said nothing"

Robert Benchley

Another excellent chap to spend an hour with in a pub............

"Sleep tight - catch you tomorow"

and, by popular request, our Train


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