Finally fed up with taking inside photos and it was a gorgeous autumnal morning so I popped out and fired this one off after breakfast.
I just love this time of the year.
Friday, 30 September 2011
1000/576: 30 Sept 2011: Morning dew
1000/575: 29 Sept 2011: Find the cat
Relaxing in the living room for this one. We swore that we would never let Marmalade on the suite (especially after the little rat sharpened his claws on one of them) but it's difficult to argue with a persistent moggy.
1000/574: 28 Sept 2011: The Dream Catcher
This simple melody is my favourite Scottish Dance tune, and one of my favourite tunes all round.
I can just about manage it on a flute, but as it's a dance tune there aren't really many places you can breathe - which is a bit awkward.
1000/573: 27 Sept 2011: Reflection
A base shot for my degree assignment using the invisible man - he hasn't disappeared yet. Hate looking at rear views of my head - it brings home how bald I am.
1000/572: 26 Sept 2011: Room with a view-ish
Back to work today and straight into the hotel routine.Nabbed this shot from the window because I thought the sky was rather interesting.
Had to blend a couple of shots together because the sun through the clouds meant I couldn't get everything reasonably exposed with a single shot.
Should really have taken the camera to the Indian with me - the Cardamom in Stockton Heath - because the meal was superb and worth recording. Next time maybe.
Thursday, 29 September 2011
1000/571: 25 Sept 2011: Making progress
So walls now fully painted - much less painful than I expected. Back to work tomorrow so progress is going to be slower from now on.
1000/570: 24 Sept 2011: Crosby Amateur Musical Society (CAMS)
Taking a break from decorating this evening as Marion is in concert at Crosby village hall. Very pleasant evening all told - good singing, humorous dance routine (to the Time Warp) from the kids, and a huge buffet. Well done to Laura and everyone else involved.
1000/569: 23 Sept 2011:Things have to get worse...
...before they can get better. Ceiling painted, wall stripped, holes filled and sanded. Whoopee - I can paint again soon.
1000/568: 22 Sept 2011: Decorating
Says it all really. Couldn't put the fateful day off any longer - so here we go - starting with the ceiling.
1000/567: 21 Sept 2011: Dusty motherboard
Not much to say about this really - I'm always fascinated by the way that large circuit boards look like small cities.
Inter sting to think that virtually all the dust is probably dead skin or something equally edifying.
Monday, 26 September 2011
1000/566: 20 Sept 2011: A somewhat pricey jigsaw puzzle
Well - here';s the basis of my new computer. Sad beginners error means I have to wait for a case because the one I already have isn't big enough - other than that, I'm quite looking forward to this challenge.
It's based on a recipe from Custom PC, but I've saved some significant money on the graphics card, because I don't do games or video, and then spent the savings on increasing the RAM to 8 Gigs and adding a solid state drive to run the system and operate Lightroom from. I'm using my old hard drive for photo storage (as there's nothing wrong with it)
Wondering at what point I'll get the urge to overclock it.
1000/565: 19 Sept 2011: A nice new computer chair
A classic case of putting the cart before the horse. Dining room needs redecorating and the computer has given me one 'blue screen of death' too many - so - naturally it's time to replace the computer chair. In truth I was also fed up with bits falling off the old one - but now I'll HAVE to replace the computer and redecorate.
Sunday, 25 September 2011
1000/564: 18 Sept 2011: Chinese Tea
Not much to say here really. Left it a bit late to take a shot and this was sitting on the table.
Its a bag of Chinese White Tea - which has a very mild and rather pleasant flavour that reminds me of nothing else. Bought it in the Oken tearoom in Warwick
1000/563: 17 Sept 2011: Allerby Egg-dumping Champion
Bit of a party in the village tonight to start raising money for a new kid's playground on the green. Among the many fund-raising options was taking part in the egg dump - as far as I can tell a peculiarly Cumbrian activity, a bit like conkers - only with a hard boiled egg. Anyway - to cut a long story short the final was an all family affair between myself and my good lady.
Above is the winning egg - not mine:( - but hey we raised lots of money and had a fun evening to boot.
Sunday, 18 September 2011
1000/562: 16 Sept 2011: Thomas Oken tea rooms and Warwick Castle
Well, very happy to confirm that breakfast was as good as expected. While Marion is in her exam/training day I've got the day to wander around Warwick - a place I've never visited before.
Hard though it may be to believe there is a limit to the number of shots I can reasonably post, so I'm going to concentrate on the castle - surprise - but first of a shot from the Oken tea room where I took a cuppa and had an early lunch. This guy has obviously been here longer than me.. Do like his rather fancy knitted codpiece!
Just up the way from the tea-rooms were some gardens set aside for quiet contemplation, with a magnificent sweet chestnut tree. Couldn’t do the tree justice so chose a different shot.
And then on to the castle, which is perhaps best described as eye-wateringly expensive. I might not have resented this so much except that the headline figure does not include VAT which I feel is a complete con. It was fairly magnificent though. The state rooms were as good as any I’ve seen, and I had a good chat about medieval warfare with the archer.
Rather unexpectedly there was a nice set of early electricity supply equipment in the basement.
Inevitable there were battlements to walk along – up and down – and these next two shots give a decent feel for the place. the buildings on the right – which look Tudor to me – housed the staterooms, which included a clock previously owned by Marie Antoinette!
And this final shot is from the tower – centre left – which had stonking views of the whole of Warwick. The tents housed the entrance to the dungeon experience, which I declined as they added 35% to the overall cost – not forgetting the VAT.
1000/561: 15 Sept 2011: Park Cottage, West Street, Warwick
Poor Marion has an exam tomorrow - about asthma care - in Warwick of all places. As it starts at 09:15 we've driven down today. We're staying overnight in this delightful little guest house on West Street - a couple of hundred yards outside the original city gates.
If you're ever tempted by Warwick and want a bed and breakfast I can't recommend this place highly enough. Excellent and personal service, charming surroundings in an original timbered building and by all accounts an equally good breakfast - will confirm in the morning.
Going to finish the blog today with a couple of shots of St Mary's Church by floodlight.
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
1000/560: 14 Sept 2011: The Genius of Gary Larson
This arrived in the post today - 1200 pages and around 4000 cartoons - the complete works of the incomparable and completely loony Gary Larson. Total weight must be about 10 pounds.
It was a gift from my little brother in Australia - thanks Stewart - I'm going to have to bring a lifetime supply of Marmite to with me when we visit.
I have already lost 4 hours of my life reading them and feel sure that many more are going to disappear between now and page 1200. The Chicken of Depression has been chased from my life.
1000/559: 13 Sept 2011: Bristol Temple Meads
Popped over to see my mum-in-law on the other side of Bristol. Nice meal, collected bicycle for eldest daughter, failed to fix an errant printer - although we did get the spare up and running - so all in al a good evening.
AND - I took this photo of Temple Meads on the way back - which I've been meaning to do for an age.They knew how to build a railway station that said "Important City" back then.
1000/558: 12 Sept 2011: Pair of Shoes
It is what it says on the can as they say. Always been a great fan of Clark's Shoes and these are as comfortable as any I've owned so I thought I'd honour them with a photo. Not much more to it than that really.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
1000/557: 11 Sept 2011: The Invisible Girl reads a timetable
Still working up some ideas for my next assignment - it's technically about capturing the function of buildings but has the potential to be rather more than that.
Will need to use my tripod though, 'cos this one needed a lot of work to line things up effectively.
1000/556: 10 Sept 2011: Mussel Shell
Usual Saturday morning in Silloth. the weather forgot itself briefly and I had ten minutes of hazy sunshine. Was searching for interesting shots among the flotsam and jetsam but couldn't find anything of note.
On the other hand these empty mussel shells were quite attractive.
From this angle it could be somewhere rather more tropical.
1000/555: 09 Sept 2011: Insect House
I put this up a couple of summers ago. It's a variation on a bird house and is intended to help invertebrates overwinter. It appears to have been used if the blocked up tubes are anything to go by - although I think a couple of them are from last year - so I'm guessing the inhabitants didn't make it through the winter.
1000/554: 08 Sept 2011: Monty's Revenge
Stopped of at Tebay services on the wya home tonight to pick up a loaf of fancy bread - they have an excellent farm shop which sells a good range of locally produced food.
Came away with this rather impresive looking loaf which was called Monty's revenge. not sure why, but it did appear to have had several cloves of garlic kneaded into it before the final rise, which gave it a rather delicious mild garlic flavour (unless you got a whole clove).
You wouldn't want to eat it if you were expecting company though - say no more!
Saturday, 10 September 2011
1000/553: 07 Sept 2011: The Invisible Man works late
Trying out an idea for my degree course. This one has a spooky bird's head effect in it which i didn't spot until after I'd finished with it
1000/552: 06 Sept 2011: UV Flytrap
Got one of these fancy UV fly-killers 'cos I don't like using a spray with the fish-tank in the house. It seems to do a good job on mozzies and the like but house flies appear to ignore it.
If all else fails this summer I'll sit next to it and get a tan.
Monday, 5 September 2011
1000/551: 05 Sept 2011: Apples and Pears
This feels terribly uncreative but I do like this rather harsh, contrasty look.
The fruit comes from the trees in my mum-in-law's garden and smells and tastes so much better than the supermarket equivalent.
Sunday, 4 September 2011
1000/550: 04 Sept 2011: Runner Beans
You've got to love runner beans - attractive foliage, nice flowers (the bees love them as well) and then you get tonnes of beans from them - and they taste good too.
We've only got 5 or 6 canes but this is just part of the first crop. With a bit of luck and sunshine we'll have enough for the freezer as well.
1000/549: 03 Sept 2011: Beer, Beer, Beer
Not much to say about these really. Marion brought them home from the supermarket for me.
Gradually sampling a range of bitters/pales -whatever they are - because I finally got fed up with drinking lager.
Wondering if I don't take too many shots of beer and wine.
1000/548: 02 Sept 2011: Aspatria Station
Very similar shot to 1000/536 but this time I went for a long exposure to get a bit of motion blur in the train.
There are also a couple of very blurred people in front of the shelters on both platforms.
Friday, 2 September 2011
1000/547: 01 Sept 2011: Wigton by Streetlight
Took this one on the way home from dropping off youngest daughter's boyfriend (now I do feel old).
Given its nearness I have very few pics of Wigton in my collection. May have to make an effort to correct that.
This one is a bit noisy because I abused it in post-processing. May re-visit it over the weekend and see if I can address that.
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