HOME FROM HOME. (18/06/14)

I arrived safe and sound in Durness as readers of the last post know. I have a grand spot for what will be a six week stay. I’ve paid for a month but Ishbell or however I’m supposed to spell her name lets me wander off and come back. She keeps track on a really old fashioned machine. It’s called a Ledger. It’s a posh book with columns printed in it for her to write things.

    This is the view from the van. I could move to the cliff edge but for some reason it isn’t as windy one row back. I’m fine on pitch four. I’m fine here till the end of July when I will go to the Gathering and take lots of snaps of folk doing silly things in the rain.

The light is back to front today. I like the light behind me and the big black clouds in front.

   This is the site pond which does have Dragonflies and frogs. None about today.

James, the owner, rattled my cage last night and invited me out for a drink. A drink would have been fine. I had a hangover this morning, not something I usually suffer.  Apparently I am well known in the pub. Jane the bar lass said Ow yew doin. It’s a greeting, a friendly one. Half a dozen folk were Ow Yew Doins. I did wonder how everybody remembers me from a year ago. I’m sure I never did my White Eared Elephant impersonation in the land of the Wee Frees. I donated a picture of big clouds to the pub. They tell me I also played the penny whistle while Jane did that funny hopping dance they do here. Very good it is, they jumps up and cross their ankles and uncross them before they land, good ones can keep it going for ages without falling over. They had a crap fiddle band on and I got up full of Stella and was the star of the show. I’m a bugger with a beer or two inside me.

This morning I went to the shop.

    Yet more ‘Ow Yew Doins’. I do remember that I asked if he could order some campanology brand whiskey. He did and it came in at fifteen pounds a bottle. I bought the last three bottles as I left here last year. I also gave him a photo of his grand daughter coming second in the running at the Gathering.

It is nice to be remembered and even better to be remembered as a harmless fool.

HELP.

Does anyone have a cheapish manual lens. I want it clear of defects, I want it to be 28mm to 35mm. It doesn’t matter what make it is, If it has a leaf shutter in, which in all likelihood it will, no problem. I want it for time lapse video. Canon cameras can be set to manual but the aperture I dial in resets every shot and can cause an annoying flicker. I’m going to shoot a good ten minutes of time lapse whilst I’m here and edit it down to 90s. I should have asked weeks ago. I am just praying for six hours of clear cloudless sky at night. I’ll wrap up warm, take a flask of coffee and a bottle of Bells and see in the Soltice.  I’ll endeavour to film a proper dusk till dawn video. With the tide coming in or going out. I hope the waves play ball and frolic. I realise that this year I only have a couple of weeks to get the shots I want, find a lens and get an adaptor made at Griturn. Nothing is impossible but it is improbable. I’ll use the 50mm Canon lens this year.

      The sun barely sets here. I must get better organised for next year.

Have fun. I’m off to find young Jane, to see if she fancies being silly. We could have a séance and try and wake the dead.