Diana Was On A Early Shift Today,

so when she returned home,

it was such a nice day,

we decided to go for a walk,

turn and start walking,

it was a glorious day,

as we made our way to the mansion,

many trees still not with their summer clothes on, 

we decided to walk to the walled garden,

through the archway,

to the grounds beyond,

unfortunately the tulips had passed their best, 

but were still full of colour, 

we made our way to our usual table, 

Diana had brought a coffee with her, 

the table is beside this bee home, 

then time for our first picnic of this year, scotch eggs, sausage rolls, mini pork pies, coleslaw, cucumber and crisps, with strawberries and raspberries for dessert, 

with a wine of course!

'Cheers!',

the view from our table,

I zoomed in a tad,

we had a couple of guests, firstly one of the park's ring necked parakeets called by, 

then one of the park's better known residents, a robin, he first appeared at out feet, 

then on a bench, he did also call by for some peanuts we had left at the end of the table, but he was so quick in picking the peanuts up, by the time I picked up the camera he was gone,

 

after our picnic we made a move, 

to a bench in the sun, it was a glorious day, 

we started our walk back home,

quiet a few people under one of the trees, 

we walked towards the snail mail box, where it was soon time for our evening meal, after which it was feet up for a Deadliest Catch, followed by a Midsomer Murder, during which Kai arrived, she will be spending the weekend with us, next a Have I Got More News For You, before our last program of the evening, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, before we were all off to bed.

I Had A Quiet Relaxing Day,

and topped up the inks on our new printer, 

unfortunately our old printer after 6 years of expensive service, (in ink cartridges) finally had a terminal hissy fit, so as I intend to do a lot of printing in the future as I am now in Beckenham Photograph Society, it made sense to buy a printer that used ink tanks rather than cartridges, and this is the one we bought a Epson Ecotank ET-8550,

it prints up to A3 and A3+ sized paper, 

and here is the best bit, the cost for 7ml of ink for our old printer was £26.94 for a black cartridge and £32.33 for the colour cartridge, both the high yield type and original inks, so £59.27 every few months or so, for our new printer the ink bottles contain 70ml in each and a complete genuine Epson set is £71.90 for all 6 bottles, admittedly the printer was expensive to buy, but I look at it this way, to buy the old cartridges for 70 ml of ink I would need to buy 10 sets of our old ink at £59.27 so £597.27 just for ink for the old printer! also I have been playing with mounts for my photograph, like these:

both A4 and A3 these in white, also I had some mounts made for smaller prints,

and some mounts in black, 

for A4, 

and A3 sized paper, all of the mounts are of the same size, 55 cm x 40 cm all of the mounts were supplied by Cotswold Mounts Ltd. A great company and exceptional service, in the evening Diana was staying at Kai's home so it was feet up after my evening meal for a Tipping Point, The Chase, a Outback Opal Hunters before my film for the evening The Mummy,

although I have watched it before it was nice to see it again, after which I was off to bed.

First Thing,

I was out to visit Duncan, 

I have now totally given up on public transport and now take the car, I arrived at the nursing home to a grey, cold day,

inside Duncan was in fine sprits having a cup of tea, we chatted away until his lunch arrived and we said our goodbyes, arriving home I played with a few more photographs, 

until my evening meal, cheese with celery, silver skin onions, gherkins and beetroot, with a few cheese twist and crackers, 

'Cheers!', with a glass of milk as I am driving to the photographic club tonight, I should mention that Diana is staying with Kai until Friday and then Kai will stay with us, it is still so painful for Kai to be in the house overnight by herself, after my meal it was a night of photography at the club, alas I did not receive a mention this week, the other photographers in the standard class I was in were just so good, but it was educating to listen to the judge offer a critic of each photograph submitted in both the standard class and the professional class, after which it was home and feet up for a spiced rum or three as I watched a Yes Prime Minister and rounded the evening off with a It Ain't Half Hot Mum before I was off to bed.

I Had A Busy Day,

at Kai's home, 

Diana had stayed there overnight, I should say this will be a small post, as soon as I finish it I will be off to visit Duncan, I arrived at Kai's in the morning and picked up some bee food that Kai had found, also the yearly trophy that Steve had won, from the bee keeping club he belonged to, above is the path to the apiary, 

when I arrived one of the 'old hands' was showing some of the other members how to clean and look after the hives there, some of which were Steve's,

as well as cleaning, a weekly look for varroa mites is also carried out, these pesky parasites can decimate a colony in a couple of years and ultimately destroy it completely, 

but all of these colonies checked out to be varroa free, but it is a ongoing problem for bee keepers, next back to Kai's to drop off Diana at work, also take Kai to a cash point, when we arrived back after a coffee IKEA arrived with all of Kai's new furniture for the downstairs living room and a bed for upstairs, next the AV installation chap called round, the big television in the lounge moved from the front room to the living room and one from upstairs to be brought down, both connected to Netflix and the house Internet restored, all of this was switched off and unplug when all of the downstairs was repainted, next a builder that Steve had instructed called by to finalise plans for the outside if the house to be repaired and repainted, some of the wood work was starting to rot, everything was finished at about 5.00 in the afternoon, so I made a move for home, Diana will be returning to Kai's when she finishes her shift, in the evening after my evening meal it was feet up for a Midsomer Murder, a Have I Got A Bit More News For You, rounding off the evening with a It Ain't Half Hot Mum, before I was off to bed.

Whilst Diana Was Staying With Kai,

and going to work, I spent the day playing with photographs, 

starting with our day in Bangor, this is Garth Victorian Pier, a pretty insipid photograph, 

so change it to a black & white and add a bit of interesting sky,

next Hong Kong, again a uninteresting sky, 

so change it, 

and make it black & white, 

looking through 2 pillars in Angkor Wat, 

in Cambodia, it was also given the black & white treatment, 

at the same location, a pretty dull photograph, 

so black and white it was again with a changed menacing sky, 

at the same location, but a different temple, I decided to keep this one as a colour photograph, 

and tweaked the colour a tad, 

another from Angkor Wat, 

so black and white it was, 

a overloaded boat on the River Mekong in Vietnam, 

it looks like one wave would swamp it, after which Diana arrived home from work, armed with 2 huge 30 day aged steaks, with mushrooms and onions as well as crinkly chips we had our evening meal, later Diana made a move for Kai's home, for myself a couple of Bangers & Cash and a It Ain't Half Hot Mum, before I was off to bed.