Raining Thursday morning.

I checked the weather forecast and they said it would be clearing. I had been thinking of going down to Crowcombe Heathfield to take train pix.

What should I do? Chanced it and took off. By the time I got to Taunton the weather was brightening and the sun peeping through.

Looked in at the station and got a Gala timetable. Also took a sweep shot of the downside platform using the Tamron 11 to 18 mm. wide angle. Actual focal length 16 to 27 mm, I reckon at the widest it covers well over a 200 degree angle on a sweep picture.  

Chatted to one of the staff and arranged I would send them a series of what I took that morning.

I had as targets the two Hall Class ex-GWR locos and Britannia. Luckily they were the first three locomotives to run. I got a series of Raveningham Hall as she came round the bend and up the line from Roebuck crossing.

Britannia was 10 minutes late for the passing link and upset the timing. The wind was rather strong and very cold.

If I moved back to the car I would lose my place. By the time she had arrived and dropped off and picked up my ears were really cold. I checked and decided I had time to get to Leigh Farm level crossing to get shots of Kinlet Hall.

Because of Britannia the cross at Williton meant that Kinlett Hall was in turn running around 10 minutes late. She came round the bend going great guns, hoping to make up time I expect. By this time my head was cold and I realised I should have worn my sheepskin cap to keep my ears warm.
The wind was quite a lot stronger than it had been at Clevedon and much colder. Although it was early I packed in and got back home by 12.30. Earache, Headache but very satisfied with my results.

Ornamental Cherry today

Went down early and snipped a spray, the flowering shrubs and bushes are beginning to show blossom.

Delicate little flowers Not much leaf yet so they are not hidden.

Closer shot reveals a suggestion of pinkness spreading form the flower centre

Leaves lower down the stem are starting to sprout. But they don't cover the flowers.

Bit cold for insects at the moment. Quite a hard frost overnight. I had to use a bottle of warm water to clear the car windscreen.

Made sure it was not too hot. I once saw a man pur water from a kettle on his windscreen and it shattered.

Far too hot and almost boiling. He hadn't seen there was a small chip on the glass. Just enough to do it. Bam - screen in little bits.

Didn't require any accessories for this one The Tamron 90mm macro covered it all. 

Managed a black background in most of the shots by using the reverse side of the bits from my old printer/scanner although the shot with the camera flash at a distance had a greyish tone and unrelieved shadow.

Booked an appointment 

Went up this morning and booked an appointment with the doctor. As I left I noticed some very small white flowers in the privet hedge. Got cheeky and snipped off a twig.

When I got home I set up and clipped it in the little stand.

Put the Tamron 90mm Macro on the camera and found that it took at 2x lifesize with the tele-extender on it. Made the f32 change into f64.

Rigged the ring flash and was able to take at full power.

The ring flash permits detail deep into the flower  when the petals are parted.

Then put a 10 dioptre lens on the front of the Tamron and it increased the magnification to 3.5x life-size.The dioptre lens didn't increase the f number but brought the camera very close to the flower.

All I can say or think about it is Hooray for Minolta's 1200 AF flash and the Control unit.

Got my first wild flower shot this morning.

Growing along the path outside the wall. Looked and had a suspicion it was Shepherd's Purse. Confirmed later with the help of Octopus.

Got a good series using the ring flash control unit. Best buy I have made for a long time. Managed to get some 4x life-size of the seed head and flowers by using a 2 times tele-extender and a 10 dioptre close-up lens on the Tamron 90mm macro lens. The tiny flowers are only about 3 mm in size and when seen as macro pix are hard to take shots of the interior. Also a couple of  shots of the panicle from above and the side view.

Culpeper says of this plant :--

Shepherd’s Purse Capsella bursa-capsoris AKA Casewort, Shepherd’s Scrip, Shepherd’s Pounce, Pickpurse, Toywort, and Whoreman’s Permacity,

Time.] They flower all the Summer long; nay some of them are so fruitful, that they flower twice a year.

Government and virtues.] It is under the dominion of Saturn, and of a cold, dry, and binding nature, like to him. It helps all fluxes of blood, either caused by inward or outward wounds; as also flux of the belly, and bloody flux, spitting blood, and bloody urine, stops the terms in women; being bound to the wrists of the hands, and the soles of the feet, it helps the yellow jaundice. The herb being made into a poultice, helps inflammations and St. Anthony's fire. The juice being dropped into the ears, heals the pains, noise, and mutterings thereof. A good ointment may be made of it for all wounds, especially wounds in the head.

Add caption

Oh what a surprise.

Checking on Morguefile this morning. Out of curiosity I looked to see what a picture of myself had been used for.
Found it was on a book cover - cover number 9 - by a Swedish? author.
The book title translated is "What a Life" 
The picture was myself and Pete the cat sitting on the doorstep of my father's shop in Ken Road.
We used to sit there and watch the traffic - very little in those 1927 year's days; except milkmen's horse and carts and sometimes even a car. That was something to be seen. Mostly though people on bicycles or walking. Pete was more like a dog than a cat, where I was he came and we were constant companions. 

What use is mankind?

Are we merely insignificant dots on the landscape? Have we ever done anything as a group to help the world?

Or - are we just like a fungus that is gradually destroying Earth as we know it?

We kid ourselves on that we are masters of our destiny but nature brings us back to reality sharply.   

We conquer plagues and find new ones that inflict us. Bacteria so small that it is invisible to the naked eye, manages to kill us off by the thousand. We invent ever more powerful anti pest poisons that are wiping out helpful insects at the same time as killing off harmful ones

We spend billions of our wealth in an attempt to conquer space. Is it simply because it is there?

What benefits will living on another planet that is airless bring us? 

Even so; nations that have entered the "Space Race" have millions of their population on the bread-line of starvation. Whilst they spend vital cash in an attempt to prove how 'advanced' they are.

Other nations pollute the very atmosphere in which they live, in the race for manufacturing monopoly. Simply to get money so that they can dominate other countries by purchasing control of them.

We poison the seas with plastic rubbish that kills off marine life. Every year more and ever more species are wiped out through the careless actions of mankind as a group. 

We refuse to act as we should as caretakers of nature's wonders and dissipate natural resources in our search for pleasure ever more pleasure.

We are the creators of our own doom, and make no attempt to slow it down. 

And when we go, as go we will; we will have no one to blame except Homo Sapiens.  

The final stage of man that proved he was misnamed as sapiens.

Comments on this posting and blog are invited and welcomed 

A delicious soup.

At a reasonable cost.

Contents:--

2 packets of Lidl Tomato cup-a-Soup 25P

1 small tin Lidl carrots 17P

Optional 3 or 4 closed cup mushrooms. 25p

Total cost? far less than brand names tinned soups 

Start water boiling for the soup, open the tin of carrots and put them in the blender; water and all. Blend into a thick mix.

Make the soup in the saucepan and blend it to mix well. Add the carrot mix and heat. If you use mushrooms, peel them and chop into slices, add them to the saucepan. Heat and blend as it heats. 

This will make around a pint or more (at least 22 fluid ounces) of very thick soup. Can be thinned a little if you prefer it thinner. Salt and pepper to taste and maybe use a little grated Oregano. 

Ideal for a small dinner party, or as a quick warm up after coming in from the cold. Slices of toasted wholemeal bread cut into 'soldiers' for dipping can also be recommended. 

What a surprise. !

Looking through 'Last Downloaded' on Morguefile this morning. Saw the full sized pic and wondered if it would show as used via Google because it had had a fair number of downloads.

Up came this book cover use of the cropped image.

I believe that brings my various book-cover numbers up to eight. I can remember I took the photo when on a delivery working part time for a butcher. It was a crisp morning and I parked in the lane by Weston-in-Gordano church and got some shots across the moorland fields from the churchyard.

Made me laugh a little when, after posting on a Flickr group, one of the members said the distance was out of focus. I refrained from pointing out that I had deliberately applied differential focus to cause the eye to concentrate on the foreground. To some folk everything must be dead sharp even though it makes for a 'dead' photo. 
Probably that same person would say why did the author/publisher use it as a monochrome image. That use alone makes it clear that it was most likely selected as such as a comment, about the times when the book was written.

Sorting through again later. Found that my photo of Christmas Steps in Bristol had been used as a heading for a screen play. That is certainly a first for me. 

Look for one thing - Find another.

Hunting through scanned JPG's of pictures taken many years back on my Agiflex III camera for a picture taken from Clevedon Pier, I came upon this little treasure.

As far as I can see - by the indistinct number - she is Hall Class Collet, Dorford Hall, at that time, running under British Rail and was decommissioned in January 1965. This picture was taken around 1962 or 3. I can't be certain but it look as though she was running a mail train? That is going by the unusual carriages just behind the loco.
I wonder what she would be worth today as a running loco? even as dirty and scruffy looking as she is in this picture?

Pathway at Sunhill Gardens

Decided to post another Infra-red picture on Everything Clevedon. I selected this one as being a place in central Clevedon that people should recognise and be surprised at how bright it looks.

Made about 15% sepia and then edge colours in PSP 8 edit.

Normally this is a drak and murky looking pathway but IR has lightened it up surprisingly. 

Well I'm Blessed.

Just discovered while browsing morguefile downloads. 

I somehow became tangled with Panaramio and Flickr and found that over 250 of my pix posted on the web have been selected for Google Earth picture links. No money in it but I am very pleased to think that my pix have been considered good enough to be used internationally like that. 

One of the pix was one taken when I first had my Sony A350 converted to take Infra-red pictures without the need to use a filter and tripod with 30 second exposures.

There are quite a few colour pix of Clevedon there as well.

I really enjoy doing IR pix, specially editing them afterwards to add colour shadings.

Like this one of Kingston Seymour that I titled "The Golden Village"

Edited by turning the monochrome infra-red picture to 10% sepia to get it recognised as a colour picture. Then selecting Coloured egdes in Effects- Artistic effects  and editing to Luminescence 8
Blur 0
Intensity 9
To try to summerise this peaceful off the beaten track Somerset Village. 

Odd pictures

Funny how some pix get very popular on Morguefile. I checked this morning and uncle Bill Gale's cat stuck on a ladder after climbing it, is suddenly shooting up in downloads. It has now been downloaded over 1,000 times. 

I reckon that cat was as obstinate as uncle Bill used to be. Checked this morning and it has jumped up 2 more places. I only wish uncle Bill was alive to know how popular his cat has become.

I remember aunty Lily Lane telling me how the doctor admired her Michaelmas Daisies and when she offered to let him have a few roots when they skimmed them back he said "Oh no Mrs Lane thank you just the same, but your brother won't let me have them in my garden. He calls them damned weeds."