Monday, January 14, 2008

Jacksdale - busy morning - very stormy

I was out and about at 8am this morning and managed to pull in Lidl, The Co-op, a haircut (because Y had said I was looking seedy again) Morrisons and Jacksdale Garden Centre (for nyger seed for my goldfinches) all by 10.30am.

It is a photographic adage that you should 'photograph the light not the land' and both of these were taken en route to Jacksdale. The light before the gathering storm was surreal. In picture 1, when you enlarge it you can see, vaguely, something sticking up in the middle of the skyline. It's Crich Stand; it always is. You seem to see it from anywhere in this area.

The conifers, again on the skyline, and swaying in the wind, are at Jacksdale Garden Centre my desitnation. When my friend Trevor owned it there was a bowling green where the conifers now are. But the present owners demolished it to give them more space.

Both photographs were on my little Casio Compact. It really is the picture that counts, not the camera. Neither has been heavily tweaked in Photoshop, just a crop and straighten. The light really was like that, and I didn't get out of the car. With views, a filthy windscreen makes no difference because you won't focus that close, provided you hold the camera close to the glass.

I've nearly finished the Telegraph Xword. My suspicion has always been that Monday's is easy, to gentle you back into the working week. I'm stuck on:-

26 Across. Didn't stay uninhabited (8).....D***R*E* Any suggestions ?

Quotation....... Probably I've used this before, but I love it:-

"Do not accustom yourself to use big words for little matters"

Samuel Johnson

"Guilty your Worships, on occasions" says RG.

Comments.....Bungus... When I said the piece of embroidery was not an original I used the wrong word. Clearly it IS an original piece of work, my meaning was that it didn't date from the date of the room and wasn't a piece that Lady Willoughby had cast aside unfinished. Thanks for the quotes etc., and I obviously agree with you about John Singer Sargent. There is a painting of his of some children in a garden with lanterns and it is almost impossible not to believe that they are illuminated from behind the work. You may be right about the tense-change in The Snake but it didn't jar with me or anything.

It is great to have the ArtDaily videos back. And I have noticed that, if you double click one, not only can you get full screen but you get a further list of related videos, down the right hand side.

Madeline.....Thanks for the wiki list of group names for birds. I disagree though with 'murmuration of starlings'. A 'vexation of starlings' would be more appropriate; ill-tempered creatures that they are. And, I'm sure to my son Steven's bawdy amusement, there doesn't seem to be anything for 'tits'. Bytheway, does your acquisition of a blogger.com logo mean that you have joined the blogo-sphere? If you have, I would love to read your blog. I clicked it, but got a window saying your blog-profile could not be displayed.

.........Sleep tight - catch you tomorrow. A Karen day and I intend to have a Rest Day...





5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed the sepia line-drawing, it looked pleasantly amateurish to me...

I'm with you over the D.Tel Crossword, though there are half-a-dozen I still haven't managed, including the one you can't do either. That whole bottom right corner I am having trouble with....

Those photos of the skies are amazing. We had a rainbow this afternoon.

Yesterday I went to a Vintge Textiles Fair, the clothes etc. were from the 50's and 60's, I kept seeing ones I had worn or more commonly lusted after. Also jewellry - ask Y if she remembers 'Poppets' - now going for £30 upwards! We were saying that ten years ago most of the stuff there on sale would have gone to charity shops, now people are paying good money for them. Of course, the stall holders may have bought some of them from charity shops initially. Some of the stands had pieces of embroidery for sale - including unfinished 'crinoline lady' type of tablecloths, maybe the sort Sandra has?

Anonymous said...

Mo says is it Departed it fits. I have decided that you can demolish a bowling green I though you had to knock some thing down to demolish it but may dictionary says destory as well Reg

Anonymous said...

Yes, a rather weird colour to the sky.

How odd! I read the crossword clue and ‘deserted’ came to me immediately (and I still prefer it to AnonReg’s‘departed’.).

"Guilty your Worships, on occasions" says Bungus also. But where would we be without procrastination and serendipity?

’Contemporary’ (so often wrongly used to mean ‘of the present day’) would, I think have been a more appropriate word than ‘original’ for the embroidery.

Yes, the light in the JSS painting of the children is quite astonishing.

There is certainly a ‘vexation’ of something. And, being as mucky minded as you, I am afraid I can only suggest a ‘brafull’.

Jill, even I remember poppets. Like other things, I never had any of my own, but played with those of others.

On Sunday I cooked liver and bacon in the slow cooker. While browning the liver, I inadvertently and momentarily lightly sautéed two of my fingers and spent the rest of the evening soaking my right hand in a bowl of cold water.
It worked! No pain today.
And the casserole was good.

A well known Dorothy Parker quote but none the worse for that:
‘Beauty is only skin deep but ugly goes clean to the bone.’
From ‘The Observer Book of The Body’’
which also throws up:
‘French Paradox: Although the French eat more saturated fat, exercise less and smoke far more than almost anyone else in the developed world, they have a lower mortality rate from heart disease.’
There will be more from this source!

Unknown said...

No, I haven't joined the blogo-sphere! I think it's probably because I'm always signed in to Google.
I love the dramatic skies in today's pictures. We get the same sort of thing here too. I found the huge expanse of the sky in the countryside rather overwhelming when we first moved here, but I'm a bit more used to it now!

Anonymous said...

I'm a sucker for dramatic landscapes so can only add my praise to the plaudits you have already received. Cracking lighting.

As part of my job I delivered a 'lecture' to human resources students at Nottingham Trent University last night so am in a cerebral mood today. Consequently, after researching on Wiki, I would like to offer the following suggestions for a collective noun for bluetits:
a gymnasium (because they are very agile),
a demolition (because they destroy pests but not, as far as I know, bowling greens),
an education (because they taught each other how to get into old fashioned milk bottles).

However, just for Bungus, how about a Jordan of tits?

I'll get my coat.

Rob