BALLS. (25/10/14)

Here we are in Moffat. Would Mark like some toffee? If so he will have to e-mail me his address again and before Monday as I have to go to the Post Office on Monday. I'm leaving Tuesday and haven’t got time to hang around waiting for the Posties to get in gear. I ought to offer this treat to anyone else in the UK. Three toffees posted for the first correct IDs. Trevor will be the judge and he can have a tin full. All toffees will be checked by the dogs for purity and efficaciousness…..Just kidding about the dog bit, my dogs don’t like toffee. If they find one they have a suck then spit them out. Good as gold are the dogs and better than new are the toffees.

The weather is mixed but looking a whole lot worse for tomorrow. Not to worry I have a couple of projects on which between them will take several wet days. One is a much posher cinemagraph and the other is a short video in 3D. Not 3D where folk have to wear silly specs or squint but, 3D as in, I can use a virtual camera and pan and track round the scene that I have created; it doesn’t help that I also have a lot of particles involved. I’ll get there. I can remember the time when I had trouble drawing a 3D fence post. Neither project is going well but I haven’t run out of ideas so am happy playing. Happier than the state of the art laptop I bought only months ago. Twenty months ago to be fair. I can see father Christmas getting a begging letter.

“Dear Santa,                                                                                          Please may I have the 5K monitor from the Apple Tree along with a Pro computer from the same tree. Updates and upgrades for the rest of my life and a new truck to pop it in. While I’m on, I’d love the new Canon video camera and a nubile young porteress to carry it and all the damn gear that goes with it. You may think I’m being greedy but look at the price of a RED Camera System. 

Hope the reindeer are fit and well.                                                                                   

Yours hopelessly, Adrian.”

My laptop hasn’t stalled yet but only because I split projects into little bits, 50GB little bits and then render them out. The big problem is if you don’t start with high resolution images you get fuzzy out even for the internet. This is a man who regularly adds grain to cover his incompetence…..Did I say that? I did. I should have said, to improve the viewing experience. Nothing like a bit of Gaussian Blur to cover ones editing.

Here are yesterdays pictures……The balls.

     Earthball. Scleroderma citrinum. The powder spilling out are it’s spores. There must be millions of them.

      This one I can’t identify. It is only small as you can seen by the moss which is Tortula muralis.   It is a bracket fungus and not a polpore.

       Earthball.

       A forest of Tortula muralis. If you click and hunt around you will find some minute flowers. I’ll have to get closer and have a look myself.

       Earthball. The moss I think is Polytichum commune. Pine moss I call it but then I am not a mossologist.

       I know what this is and this is a young one. It’s a….Wait……A Many Zoned Polypore.It is a bracket fungus which could confuse folk. Coriolus versicolor.

        Earthball.

        When I found these I said yes I’ve got a perfect shot of The Deceiver. Laccaria laccata. I spent most of last night checking but I think it is something else. Deceived me they did but that’s not hard to do. It’s growing with moss on a fallen beech log. The earth round about it was very wet so wet that the water squeezed from my knees and down my wellies then came back, missed my groin and soaked my tummy. If I just had an iPhone I could have got up sooner. Cannon gear is heavy. I really do need a porteress.

Have fun. I am away to cook pork chops with all the trimmings.