Another Day,

with a few guests first thing, 

one was waiting curled up on the lawn, 

then a second one appeared, 

the first taking a drink, 

then a rest, 

after which they noticed me, 

so a few peanuts to chew on, 

something startled the one with the bent tail,

I have not mentioned the crows, who were no fools, almost every time I throw peanuts to the foxes, 

they land on our window sill for their nuts, sometimes even if there are no foxes as I am typing the blog there will be a tap on the window as one waits for some nuts, clever birds!

it was then time for my read and sherry,

 

for our starter today huge New Zealand mussels with garlic and toasted bread,

a quick 'Cheers!',

on to our main course, roast chicken with lashings of gravy for Diana,

sans gravy for myself, another 'Cheers!', from me,

and for dessert, apples strudel with ice cream,

delicious, next feet up for our Sunday afternoon/evening films, firstly, 

 The Incredible Shrinking Man, made in 1957 I did not think Diana would like it as it was filmed in black and white, but she was fascinated by it, Scott Carey finds that he has begun to shrink, first just a few inches, so that his clothes no longer fit, then a little more, soon he is only three feet tall, and a national curiosity, at six inches tall he can only live in a doll's house, it all sounds a bit lame, but a movie head and shoulders above the rest when it was released, keeping to a black & white theme, 

Treasure of the Sierra Madre, from the blurb:

'Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, both down on their luck in Tampico, Mexico in 1925, meet up with a grizzled prospector named Howard and decide to join with him in search of gold in the wilds of central Mexico. Through enormous difficulties, they eventually succeed in finding gold, but bandits, the elements, and most especially greed threaten to turn their success into disaster'

a enjoyable look at the power of greed and compassion, if you have not yet seen the movie and you like black & white movies give this one a try, Humphrey Bogart gives a stella performance as he spirals into madness, after a snack in the evening, 

Titanic, I had watched this once before, but Diana had not, and I have to say it was remarkably good, a different story line to the latest version of the tragedy, from the blurb:

"Unhappily married and uncomfortable with life among the British upper crust, Julia Sturges takes her two children and boards the RMS Titanic for America. Her husband, Richard, also arranges passage on the doomed luxury liner in order to allow him to have custody of their two children, Annette and Norman. Meanwhile, Annette begins a romance with a young American college student and tennis player, Gifford Rogers. Unfortunately, their family problems soon seem minor when the Titanic strikes an iceberg".

after which Diana was off to bed a 04.00AM start for her tomorrow, for myself a Have I Got A Bit More News For You before I too was off to bed.

First Thing,

a few guests, 

mum and two cubs had arrived, 

for a few peanuts, 

for some reason this youngsters tail has a slight kink in it,

Mum giving me the evils, 

after a few handfuls the cubs left, 

but the mother knew that if she waited, 

there would be a few more, 

peanuts for her,

in a couple of weeks time there will be the first of the print competitions at the club, so I spent quite some time looking through galleries of my photographs to make a decision on which two to enter, I eventually decided on, 'Mr. & Mrs. Grebe and family',

and this cheeky one, 'The frog who knew too much', hopefully they will do better that the last competition! And then my day went into a downward spiral, the printer refused to print, I did the usual things, unplug the machine, after some time plug it back in again, clear the print queue, then in the LED window I received a massage that said the rear feed tray needs removing and cleaning, 

so here goes, photographs from Northlight Images, 

I have to say all of this is way above my pay grade, 

I was really going into the unknown, 

it was not until I had completed this that I looked on the Internet and found their very handy page from Northlight Images, rather worryingly I found nothing that I could see that was wrong, 

so I reassembled it and popped it back, well I do not know what I did, but it is back to printing perfectly!

and here they are, I mounted them in the standard size mounts for club competitions, 

by now it was time for my evening read and sherry, 

for tonight Diana had left me a delicious smoked salmon salad, then feet up for my evening's films, the first Scary Movie 4.5, but here is the thing, I could find Scary Movie 4 and Scary Movie 5, but not 4.5, strange but there it is, next, 

 Gladiator II, I had started watching a couple of days ago, so tonight I finished the movie, the basic story is that after his home is conquered by the tyrannical emperors who now lead Rome, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum and must look to his past to find strength to return the glory of Rome to its people, then Diana returned from her late shift, so a coffee for Diana and another spiced rum for myself, as we settled down to watched a couple of back to back Bangers & Cash, it is amazing that so many cars featured I had seen friends or their families owning in the 1950s/60s/70s that are now worth so much! as a example a Ford V8 Pilot owned by Chris, sold for £35.00, a Triumph TR 3a bought by Dash for £375.00, and so many others, but now changing hands for tens of thousands, if only I had kept just one of the cars I or my parents owned like this one, VGP 750, and here it is,

the registration plate VGP 750 = Very Good Performance 750 (the c.c. of the engine), 

then I had a huge motorcycle accident, so it had to go,

the car was last seen at the 750 Motor Club Festival in August 2010 at Silverstone, I wonder where it is now? and after that we were off to bed.

I Had A Cracking Day,

it all went so well, 

firstly as usual I dropped Diana off for her day shift, and noticed something on the way out of the park, more of that later, arriving back home there was a message from Ripe Photography Insurance re my policy, asking me to give them a call, I could see my quote but there was no way to pay it, so I called and listened to the usual financial disclaimers and was put through straight away to a charming chap, we first had a small chat and found out it was my fault, (as usual when it comes to this sort of thing), apparently I put my full name as my first name, so the software was at a loss as to who to continue with, anyway a few questions later and I was on a secure line giving my card details and the policy was paid, and the good news Pete and myself had a interest in flying, I was chatting away about my flying a 737 and a MD11 at Gatwick when the first flight trainer for the MD 11 was installed there, and so on to Pete's flying lessons, and YAK 52's as well as a few other things, it was amazing to think that at one time in the 1980's I got so close to buying one, (a YAK 52), after thinking of completing a stint at Clearwater, Florida for my PPL, but in the end I never did, we had a great chat and in passing so nice to find a really friendly interface with a company, onto the things I was going to do yesterday, but spent time doing other bits and pieces, 

the day before,

there was a very picturesque sunset, 

going through so many subtle changes, 

I was snapping away with my wide angle lens,

but all too soon, 

the skies darken as the sun went down, then on to, 

taking photographs through a glass ball I had bought a 480mm extended rail for the tripod, the ball cup at one end,

and ball in place, 

this was the scene out of the back window, 

ball too close for the 120mm macro lens to focus,

so I tried the 20-32 mm wide angle which put the ball too far away, 

the 35- 70 zoom was as near as I could get to a full frame, I can crop this image down easily as I use a medium format camera, 

this is what the set up looked like,

the problem I had was that even the trees in the distance were too close for the shot I wanted,

 I am hopping that in the Namibian dessert the dunes will be further away, 

on to the next set up, 

using 2 cameras, my normal GFX 100S II and one of my Lumix cameras that I had changed the sensor to a infrared one, for a little more about my infrared hobby have a look here, 

both cameras mounted on the rail, above the 'normal' camera, 

looking through the screen at the back,

and the infrared, 

again through the screen at the back,

I mentioned before we left the park I spotted something, 

and here it is, 

a huge mushroom, 

growing where a huge oak tree once stood, 

I was using the 120mm macro lens, 

so I cropped out some of its growth, 

then from the side, 

and the rear, by now Diana had returned home from her day shift,

and it was time for my evening read and sherry, 

followed by a vegetable samosa, 

for our main courses, chicken and mushrooms for Diana,

a 30 day aged steak for myself, 

'Cheers!', after which it was feet up for a film, there was nothing on the normal television that we fancied and I somehow oversold, 

The Last Duel, I did not have the heart to say to Diana I had only finished watching it yesterday evening! so it was easy to spot where mistakes had been made, for instance in a village scene there was a water wheel, but it had a top (the most efficient) water feed, but the water in the building defied gravity to get to the top of the wheel! after which we were off to bed.