Following....

Following on from a spate of recent beer festival action that would make a Trappist Monk blush, I'm currently to be found engaged in the noble art of roofing.

I'm at my Aunty and Uncle's house near Lincoln, surrounded by fields and a veritable cornucopia of wildlife.

More to follow.



Fairly plain, but I think effective photograph of the road by Blackmoorfoot Reservoir. Possibly, in fact, an unnamed road!! Taking whilst walking there on Sunday or Monday... I'm old and I forget.

Refreshing change.

It's not often I blow someone else's trumpet. I make an odd exception today.

Today marks the launch of a new website called Freeze Frame. It's a collection of digitised images of polar expeditions between 1845-1982. Some of the images are so rare (on glass plate negatives for example, and purchased with a lottery grant to preserve them) that we would otherwise never get to see them.

There are some great pictures on there and it's a great archive of historic images - some great images from the Scott expeditions. As you can imagine, on the day of launch, it's very difficult to get anywhere near the website.... I'm sure it'll settle down and we'll all get to view these great images.

Go and have a look for yourself, but don't get too frustrated with the speed of it!!

As for me.... well I've been out with my own camera (again) and taken some almost "passable" shots today... a good thing.



One of two.... a snowdrop shot from the recent photography class that I went to. This is the image that was billed as the "snowdrop shot of the day". I quite like it, but there's a little bit of fault in the focus to my eyes.... Personally I prefer the second shot of the two, which you'll see at some point soon. Spring springing.

Excuses.

This blog entry is just an excuse for me to imitate Ron Jeremy and to blow my own trumpet a little. But then if I can't blow my own trumpet on my own blog, I'd like to know where else I might go to do it.

I've been on a "digital photography for beginners" course at Oakwell Hall near Birstall.

Now, based on the fact that I provide a digital photograph on my blog almost every day..... you might be wondering why I am going to a beginners class.... I must admit, I asked myself the same question.

It;s difficult sometimes to judge your own level of something. Alright, so I know I take lots of pictures, and I know that ninety nine percent of them never see the light of day, but it's all guesswork..... Sometimes it works for me and sometimes it doesn't.

Time to get back to basics.

Glad I went actually..... It's been a good day..... I think I've gained a little knowledge and a little confidence out of it....

The proof of the pudding, is of course, in the eating, and the photos I've taken today have actually been slightly better than my usual bunch.

A good source of inspiration.



Now, everyone today took photos of the snowdrops. I took snowdrop photos too. The course instructor admitted that he thought mine were the best ones.... and so, I give to you.... some blossom in a tree.... I don't even know what sort of blossom it is.... nice bokkeh though. I've booked on the next course that takes us a bit further into manual camera settings.

Jibber jabber.

Too much Mario Kart and no beer makes an Arctic Fox go crazy.
Too much Mario Kart and no beer makes an Arctic Fox go crazy.
Too much Mario Kart and no beer makes an Arctic Fox go crazy.
Too much Mario Kart and no beer makes an Arctic Fox go crazy.
Too much Mario Kart and no beer makes an Arctic Fox go crazy.

I knew I bought my camera for a reason.... I haven't used my new camera half as much as I ought to have.... hopefully now that the weather is slightly more cheerful this is something I will rectify.

Here are a couple of (in my humble amateur photographical opinion) my better springtime shots...


Especially for my friend spice-the-cat... this lovely picture of a blackbird with its beak chockfull of worms heading off to feed its young 'uns - This is bokkeh to the level 11!!!!


Despite my abject disappointment at losing a clutch of robin eggs during a winter storm earlier in the year when my shrub blew down, the dunnocks have made up for it and nested in the ivy that hangs over from next door's garden. I took this picture of a very young dunnock chick... probably only a few days after it fledged... still too naive to actually fly away from a twinkle toed fox and a camera!! (note totally sure it's a dunnock... might be a sparrow... they're quite similar)

It's a rap trap.....

Well, I realise that opinion on rats is very divided. I like him though. I still can't imagine a method of catching or trapping the little fella, that will not endanger any of the feathered chums that visit my locale.

Perhaps it's time for a little rodentary research?

Sunday evening eh? Where'd the weekend go?

Well, if you're sitting comfortably, and enjoying the "Goldie Lookin' Chain" that should be caressing your earlobes by now (if you have the relevant plugins and sound enabled, and choose to listen to it of course - that's a lot of variables, and I imagine most choose not!!), then I'll begin....

It was a dark and stormy night.... Well, OK, it was a warm sunny Saturday afternoon, probably about nineteen degrees centigrade, but that makes for a crappy beginning....

It was a warm, spring, Saturday afternoon, and the lambs were gambling in the fields.... most of them were hooked up to some online poker tournament, but the rest were just playing "stone paper scissors" for cash, which is hard if you only have hooves for hands!!

Me and Dawn/Dawn and I/myself and Dawn/Dawn and myself - all the bases covered - jumped in the car and began heading north....

I lie..... We actually began heading west, along the infamous M62.... M60.... M61 and then north..... This is actually turning into a pretty crappy story already....

OK, I will cut out the flowery prose of the middle man, and render this seemingly long story short, for your benefit you understand!!

We went to visit my Auntie and Uncle in Dumfriesshire.... the rolling lowlands of Scotland. It only takes two and a half to three hours to get there, and it's a great place to be, and my lovely relatives are always most welcoming.

Exactly one year ago to the day since we last visited the same area on our first "away" trip together.

The weather was grand, the scenery breathtaking, and the wildlife out there, if you take time to suck it all in is majestic.

Amongst the creatures on display - A pheasant strutting around the garden lawn. Red kites hunting the thermals, and soaring circularly skyward, out of sight. Wild partridge running along the roadside, dicing with death.

We just stayed for a day really.... not really long enough to appreciate the excellent company of my relatives, or to explore the sights and sounds, and spring bursting across the land.

What it HAS been though, is a most welcomed sojourn in Scotland. I love spending time with my folks, and I love spending time with Dawn. Quality time - that's what they call it!!

Back down to earth.....

Now, about that rat..... The fox wanders off in search of humane solutions.....

Back in the swing.

I was going to write something about my rehabilitation. My return to my own dwelling, after a week of house-sitting. Something about being "back in the swing" of it. Alas, I don't ever think I have been in the swing of anything, and as such, it would be foolish of me to think otherwise.

I have missed certain elements of being at home this last week though.

I am amazed at how much the garden has come along.

The previously stumpy, brown, decayed stands of fern, that will eventually transform my woodland glade into a jurassic park, have begun to shoot and the fronds are unclicking themselves.

The daffodils, some that came early have now finished, but the later ones are in full bloom. I have some gorgeous double daffs, and they're oh so pretty.

Harebells and bluebells are budding and bursting out.

A handful of tulips (all red unfortunately) are unfurling their scarlet petals, to reveal the alien interiors, in a brazen display of floral flashing.

The cherry tree has finally begun to come into leaf, and there are a few unopened blossoms, where it will no doubt fruit, and be ravaged by the birds.

The monumental, frankly oversized ash tree, which is always the last to get its leaves, and the first to lose them, is budding too.

There's a haze about the place, a fuzzy green haze at the peripheral edge of the garden, that hasn't been there until now. Rebirth, regrowth, resplendent. It's the heartening cycle of life that, irrespective of our short encounter with it, will rumble on regardless.

I frikking hate photos of flowers and plants and such, so here are some!!

Tempting fate.

I know I shouldn't mention this.... I know I should keep my mouth shut.....

It is officially twenty hours, since I smoked a cigarette.

This might not sound like a brilliant achievement, and I am certainly NOT looking for reassurance, or support, or encouragement. I haven't even made a conscious decision to stop smoking. I bought some nicotine lozenges, with the aim of cutting down.

It seems quite apt, that on today of all days, the budget day, when cigarettes have just gone up by a further eleven pence per pack (of twenty), that I should be kicking it into touch.

As a positive measure, this is my story.

Recently I have been smoking two packs a day. That's forty cigarettes every twenty four hours. The old price of my habit, was approximately ten pounds and twenty pence per day. The new inflated price would be ten pounds and forty two pence per day. In the last forty eight hours, I've smoked just nine cigarettes, and eaten about three tons of food!!!

I'm gonna be able to breathe again, but too fat to get out of the house.

Bugger.

Hurray, it's the first day of spring.

To celebrate this gloriously sunny day, I've been out walking. Admittedly, I took a rucksack of food with me, but I have been out walking.

I also managed to take a few pictures.... nothing amazing, but they're on Flickr of course!!

There were quite a few things I wanted to write about today.... my mind's all over the place.....

Normal service will (hopefully) be resumed as soon as possible.

Sunday musings.

It's Sunday the 4th February. It must be like 14 degrees or higher in the garden. The sun is shining, and the sky is a watery wintery blue, with white winter sun.

The trees and bulbs are all sprouting their new shoots, and it's a confusing scene. This is February, and it feels like summer. The birds are already pairing up and nesting, and there are insects flying about outside. This is all about one or two months premature, but you will not hear me complain.

I don't need to hark on about holes in the ozone layer, or melting ice caps, or global warming. The evidence for all these things is as plain as the nose on my face. The intersting aspect of this, is merely that, this week, it is finally official - Humans are to blame!!

Well, stone the crows, I could have told you that for a lot less than the IPCC charged to write their document. Personally I am chagrined with the whole debate, and the issue of whether it is a scientific problem or a political one.

Perhaps we should just accept it, drive hungrier cars, and just wear less clothing? Maybe the "oil" nations of the future will be the ones who can manufacture the highest sun protection factor oils? Maybe somewhere under the oceans there are vast quantities of factor eighty "Piz Buin" just waiting to be tapped?

All that being said, I must admit to having bought strawberries, yesterday, whose country of origin was Morocco. Think about it!!

It's a quiet day today. Dawn's gone off to the NEC in Birmingham for some sort of "buying" trip with her work. My mum wanted to go to a garden centre, but decided not to. I am enjoying the peace and quiet, but missing being with Dawn.

For some strange reason today, I have Newfoundland on my mind. I've been told it's a good place, and one that warrants further investigation. Perhaps I will look some stuff up when I have finished this blog? More likely I will go and play Age of Empires. I bet you didn't see that one coming?

I've been cooking up a storm lately. Last night I made: Spinach, rocket, and watercress soup.... Low fat fish and chips, and a kiwi fruit granita for desert.... very nice.

I think this week, I might start to be more productive around the house and try to tidy up the junk piles. Let's call it a premature spring clean!!