The Photographic Club I Belong To,

was having a few happenings in the school where we normally meet, 

so out into a not too cold but drizzly day,

a nice show of crocus looking through the wire fence of the cricket club, 

I walked to and through the green,

the church on the right, 

on the ground a few clumps of snowdrops, 

quite a few as it happens, 

at the club I was along with one other member being shown how to mount prints for the home and for displaying at exhibitions, all very useful and helpful, many thanks to Marcia, the club as many regular readers know is the Beckenham Photographic Society, 

I made my way back into the park, passing Foxgrove Lodge, in just a few months it will be a riot of wisteria, 

arriving home I spent that afternoon playing with photographs from our last visit to Thailand, today changing the background of the orchids, waterlilies and Desert Rose, (Adenium obesum), like the ones above,

from as they come out of the camera, 

to a black background, it took an age, but there it is, in the next few weeks/months I can go back to each folder and hopefully make subtle changes to each photograph to make them more appealing, which brought me nicely, 

up to my evening read and sherry, 

for tonight Diana had left me a chicken supper, 'Cheers!', I did not watch the usual weekday programs, there was some sport nonsense on that took over all of the usual channels, so a film it was, I decided on,

The Promised Land, a surprisingly enjoyable film, loosely based on true events, from the blurb:

"The 2023 film The Promised Land (original title: Bastarden) is inspired by a true story, but it is not a direct documentary-style retelling. It is based on Ida Jessen’s novel The Captain and Ann Barbara, which chronicles the 1755 attempt by real-life Danish army captain Ludvig Kahlen to cultivate the harsh Jutland heath. While Kahlen and his rival, Frederik de Schinkel, were real people, the film takes significant creative liberties with the plot and characters to create a dramatic narrative."

the location, sets, costumes all seamlessly put together to make 2 hours pass by so quickly, as it finished Diana arrived home from work, so we settled down for a coffee and a chat as a Midsomer Murder entertained us in the background, after which 2 from Bangers & Cash before we were off to bed.

First Thing,

Diana was off to work,

so for myself time to try out the new camera, at last it was not raining, and what better than a bed of crocuses? the first signs of spring in the park, 

back home I had a busy day. preparing two boards for the next photographic competition at the club, 

the first a number of photographs of The Peanut Seller that we used to see whenever we went to the Thepprasit market when we lived in Thailand,

the second panel as they are called at the club, (you can enter 3 to 9 images of a related subject), a study of Busy Bees at Tulleys Farm in Turners Hill, Sussex, we went there a few times when the sunflowers were flowering, which brought me nicely up to my evening, 

read and sherry, the latest issue of Private Eye arriving yesterday, which I followed with, 

a huge chicken curry that Diana had left for me, in the evening after the usual Outback Opal Hunters I decided on a film, 

A Bridge Too Far, a all star cast to say the least, the film features a massive, star-studded cast portraying real figures like Lt. Gen. Brian Horrocks (Edward Fox), Maj. Gen. Roy Urquhart (Sean Connery), and Lt. Col. John Frost (Anthony Hopkins), often with high physical resemblance, and as might be expected it was pretty true to life, the film was considered highly accurate, remarkably capturing the chaotic, failed nature of Operation Market Garden, based on Cornelius Ryan’s book, it utilized military advisors and was filmed at actual location, it was a long film at nearly 3 hours, luckily it finished before Diana arrived home, so it was feet up for a coffee as we watched Have I Got A Bit More News For You, before we were both off to bed.

I Had A Very Interesting Day,

it is no secret I am struggling with my new camera,

as it happens another club member has a very similar model, and as a ex-professional photographer knows exactly how his one works, Brian agreed to meet me for a one on one session, so out into a wet, cold day, 

no sign of spring in the park yet, 

we meet here for a 101 class on my,

 Fujifilm GFX100s II, photo credit Andy Westlake, Amateur Photographer, I thought we might sit chatting for a hour or so, but time just flew past, well over 2 hours later Brian was still patiently showing me short cuts, and things my camera could do that I did not know about, some so simple, like by clicking inwards either of the two wheels I could seamlessly toggle the same wheel between aperture and shutter speed, amazing! many, many thanks Brian, I am so glad I joined the Beckenham Photographic Society, and indeed meet Brian amongst others in the club,

in the afternoon I was walking past Foxgrove Lodge on my way home, no signs of the springs buds of wisteria so far, arriving home Diana was getting ready for her evening shift, so I dropped her off at work, then spent the rest of the afternoon playing with my new found skills, or lack of them! After my evening meal I watched a couple of programmes that brought back so many worry free childhood memories, that centred on on a elderly gentleman in his shed in the garden,

his name was Jack Hargreaves, I remember from my school days he would start every programme with a talk about country matters, it could be about horses, thatched homes, carts, ferreting, or my favorite, fishing, from the blurb:

"He was the first man to be filmed catching a fish on television in the late 1950s in the programme Gone Fishing and went on to expand the format to all matters rural in the programme's eventual replacement, Out of Town, which started as a fifteen minute local broadcast in the Southern Region but grew eventually to be a truly national phenomenon as it was taken up by all the regional franchises in the 1960s and '70s".

what more can I say? from the opening theme tune to its close each program was a pleasure to watch, if you have time look him up on YouTube, a real national treasure, after which it was a Poirot until it was time to pick up Diana at the end of her night shift, arriving home it was one more from Poirot before we were both off to bed.

I Had A Slightly Busy Day,

a minor problem with a invoice for the shop, 

which will hopefully be sorted out in the next few days took some time, then time to play with the camera, in a couple of weeks time we will be going to Kew Gardens, for the annual orchid exhibition, every year a country is asked to make a display of the plants of their country, this year it is the turn of China, 

the exhibition takes over the Princess of Wales Conservatory from Saturday 7 February to Sunday 8 March 2026, happily as we are members of Kew gardens we can arrive early in the morning where the house is open for members only, we have booked a slot, so I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing with the new camera, the trouble being I forgot I could change the IOS in the main camera menu, not on the dials, D'Oh!, 

this brought me up to my evening read, 

'Cheers!', with a glass of milk, I am driving to the club tonight and then picking up Diana, 

I did actually enter 2 prints in tonight's quarterly competition, neither did well, firstly early morning Venice,  

secondly a view of the inside of the Cao Dai Temple (Tay Ninh): Located about 90km from Ho Chi Minh City, the religion called Caodaism, and has it is estimated 4 million followers, swelling to over 6 million if other branches are added, it takes a number of tenants from other religions and includes in its list of saints figures such as the Buddha, Confucius, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Pericles, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Victor Hugo, and the Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen, these are honoured at Cao Dai temples, along with ancestors, and amongst its hierarchy it has a Pope as well as Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, and further ranks, the church also uses many symbols, I guess most of us have heard of yin and yang, the two forces that balance the universe, this religion is where the symbols come from, we visited there in November 2015, in any event no mentions for either of them, then I was off to pick up Diana, arriving home it was a new one for us, a episode of, 

The New Avengers, it had a short run, 1976 to 1977, it was great fun to see so many actors and actresses as they were all of those years ago, Joanna Lumley looking quite different in Ab Fab for instance, after which we we were off to bed.

During The Day,

I played with a couple of photographs, 

both of these, 

taken on our last trip to Thailand, it was Diana's day off we had plans to go out, but it just rained all day, so we stayed in, as Diana busied herself around the flat I played with the photographs, in the afternoon we hatched a cunning plan, we would brave the rain and go out for a meal, and as we did not have a Sunday roast together where better to go, 

than here?

the Toby Carvery,

at Eden Park,

 

a premeal drink, a Diablo for myself a lemon sprite for Diana,

next off to the counter, 

Diana's with lashings of gravy,

sans gravy for myself, 

a 'Cheers!', from Diana,

and one from me as well,

we only had one dessert which we shared, we were both so full, a ice cream with pieces of honey comb, drizzled with Belgium chocolate, Diana had made the booking and joined the Toby group and had received a 25% off voucher for her first meal, so our bill for this evening was just £43.00, bargain! the downside, it took 3 different buses to get home, public transport at its best! arriving home there was nothing much on television, so,

Anaconda it was, as it happens a trip in a boat along the Amazon and Orinoco is one of the many places I would like to go to with a guide that specialises in photography, but leave the big snakes to one side

please! after which we were off to bed.

I Had One Of Those Days,

when I took 1 step forward, 

but was pushed 2 steps back, take the above, this is now the Third time I have had to prove to BT that when the shop closed, 

I sent all of their equipment back, complete with a coving letter and the extra Jiffy bag they sent me, 

all packed up and ready to go, 

and here is the post office receipt to prove it, enough you would think, but not for BT! every 2 weeks I have to go through the same 50+ minute telephone call to establish that yes I have sent it, and no they will not ask me again, I will not hold my breath, the same for some of the other utility suppliers as well, then the big one, our car insurance for no apparent reason had risen from in round figures £600 to £900+, I called around and found that Aviva for the same cover was £680, so I took that, emailing Admiral to cancel my insurance with them, I was told they could come down on price, £750 but why did they not give me that price first? for all of the faffing around it took trying to obtain cheaper quotes I would have stayed with them, too late I am with Aviva now, so in one long paragraph that was most of my day, I only had time to play with one photograph,

and I was not very pleased with that, so I will try again at some time, tomorrow is Diana's day off so no playing with photographs tomorrow, after my evening meal it was the usual Outback Opal Hunters, and as I was watching Deadliest Catch Diana arrived home so a coffee and a chat it was, as we settled down to a Midsomer Murder, then a treat a Sherlock Holmes we had not watched for more than a few years was playing, so we watched that until the midnight hour after which we were off to bed.