THE GOOD AND THE BAD. (30/03/13)

I’ll start with the bad. On Thursday there was a terrible fire in the L’all Ratty Workshop. It is destroyed. They had as far as I can gather two or three locos in the building. The River Esk and the River Irt where pulled to safety. All their machinery is, I suspect, beyond redemption. The boilers for the two narrow gauge locomotives were already away for a rebuild. The boiler ancillaries are buried in the roof collapse.

  I hope it is insured. This is the third fire in as many years so should they have another I doubt it will be.

The good news is that they are running a full service as you can see from the carpark.

More good news………………………………………..

  My axles are back….all sparkling bright and with no droopy bits. Wish I could say the same for myself! We are fitting them on Wednesday and I should be away to Darlington for a full service and a new throttle cable and a bit of exhaust pipe on Friday.

I am looking forward to moving on but not looking forward to shifting these buggers into the chassis. I’ve organised Gordon and just hope he turns up with a couple of big bottle jacks and a tub of grease. I will have new wheel bearings, I hope, but there is a language problem round here. Great folk for doing and making do they are. Near enough is good enough…..not……visa versa!

This is a bit of a gloomy post so I’ll leave you with this……………

       And remember Jesus had it a whole lot worse.

Eat chocolate tomorrow or pray the choice is yours. I will be messing with a tripod head for a perfect spherical stitch.

Have fun. I’m away to the pub.

HAPPY EASTER. (29/03/13)

Here is a card wishing you all a very Happy Easter. Have a great weekend.

I spoke to Keith from Holding Moments this morning. He is fine and has been dug out. His internet is intermittent but his Bells are ringing out for Easter. He asked that I wish all his readers a good weekend.

Have fun.

PLAY TIME. (27/03/13)

MARIA asked whereabouts we are. We are here.

I have my own pole dancer and a real beauty it is. She costs four fat balls a day.

     This Rook is clever but the Jackdaws are cleverer still, I’ve had to wire the feeder on as they just unhook it and chuck it on the ground. The Siskins are back and so are the Goldfinches. It costs a fortune in bird food. I’m running low………Where do you folk get seed, fatballs and peanuts from online?

The snow has virtually gone but it still keeps snowing.

       I like planets…..this one is the quick and easy way. Quick and dirty I should have said.

      This one is almost as good as I can do. Twenty two images stitched together. I have downloaded HUGIN but I used PS Elements9 for the stitch. Hugin is a better stitcher but it will cough now and again. You then have to go back to the old way of stitching and start the hunt for anchor points…..it’s a real pain. I’ll try to use it soon or as the West Country folk say Drektly!  This was shot in low resolution JPEG. The file size is massive  over seventy thousand pixels wide and my poor CPU was hot enough to heat the van. This isn’t too bad viewed large. I did include a zenith shot  or two but Elements was having none of that nonsense so I ditched them. Play time. I used to own Flexify. I tried to download it today but went on the wrong site and now have Dale as my search engine. I found the programme and deleted it but not well enough. It is Mal Ware. I’ll let Windows find it. Bloody internet or bloody fool me.

Wrap up warm for Easter.

BEAUTIFUL WEATHER. (25/03/13)

Yesterday was bright and sunny but blasted cold. We had a long walk and spent ages watching Redshank and Turnstones.

It was then Grand Prix time which I watch on I-Player.  I love motor sport….the precision and skill not to mention the endurance of the competitors. I really detest the BBC’s new format. The opening credits are a series of crashes and disasters. The programme starts and we are treated to Suzy Perry. She was a pain when she presented the motorbikes, she is unbearable presenting Formula 1. I’ll have to see whether the French or Spanish have coverage on the internet.

I still haven’t got the axles back so another day of cage rattling is on the cards. I’m going to spring clean the van. It will make me feel better even if it makes little difference to my environment. I’m not a very good cleaner.

Three pictures from yesterday.

   Ravenglass.

   The Salt Marsh.

  Ravenglass………Contre Jour.

Have a good week…..keep warm.

DULL PICTURES. (23/03/13)

What a night……its great. Ice blowing from the trees, clattering on the van roof. This morning I put on as many layers as I thought appropriate and headed out into a near blizzard. The snow has stopped falling but it is blowing the fallen snow everywhere. It was difficult to stand in the gusts, hard work wading through the drifts. The dogs were struggling but excited by the wind and snow. A wonderful though tiring walk.     Not a day for photographs.

  Things are looking up with a patch of blue sky.

The path through the woods.

      The dogs on the beach. Alf sticking his tongue out at the camera.

    We walked back through the village…….it kept us out of the worst of the wind.

    No trains today…..and the road is blocked so no newspapers I really don’t know how I’ll manage without news and pictures of the doings of Katie Kambridge. I hope she is not snowed in, the country will grind to a halt without her wandering around grinning at folk or is she laughing?

  The view from the van……back home for breakfast.

Keep warm.

 

VOYEZ LA DIFFERENCE

This mornings wander to the estuary was a bit on the wild side. Very windy with driving snow. Not very nice at all.

Today and yesterday.

Yesterday and today.

You’ll have guessed which is which by now.

A strange country is the UK.

The other day GLO at PorcelainRose. posted some grand images of a girl in wind. I commented that it would be good to have hair. Glo is like having my very own Genie. 

Thank you Glo.

That’s all for today, have a good weekend.

SHOCKING. (19/03/13)

I was undecided whether to post today SCRIPTOR SENNEX upset me with his post. Shocking it is. I mean really sad.

I wasn’t in the best of humours after listening to the smug bastards in Westminster congratulating each other over their victory for press restraint. As is Dithery’s way he commissions an enquiry costing millions. Then ignores it’s findings. I can’t understand what they were doing Sunday night and into the early hours Monday. They have had months to sort the job. Friday Dithery does what all kids do. He spat out his dummy and threw his teddy out of his cot.

I can’t see a problem with a free press. I accept that the law wasn’t being enforced whilst Dithery was getting free use of a police horse to go courting Rebekah Brooks. Being a useless ride doesn’t draw him any sympathy from me, nor is it an excuse for getting caught playing away games.

I must admit to being envious a year ago but I really don’t want to have chatting up jail bait or gaol birds on my CV.  She has got wonderful hair….perhaps I too could have succumbed. I’m cheap…two pints of lager at eight pounds sterling tops. No Lord high advocates advice or enquiries needed. Given half a chance I’d have been there like a rat up a drain. Talking of rats and drains that Aussie Rupert has much to be deported for. Forgot his ancestors were. Bet a pound to a penny they were into sheep. It’s the curly hair what attracted him.

We already have laws that control invasion of privacy and these are now being used. I suspect the devious devils were discussing other loopholes to increase their remuneration and avoid getting caught with their filthy sticky fingers in the till.

It is still wet and cold.

  This image is straight but you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. I’ll commission an enquiry. Well I would if you paid and I knew a Lord Justice who would give me ten percent of the fee you are paying him. Having run guide lines over this image and listened to Clegg and Moribund…..Dithery wasn’t available as it was a Sunday night and he was too busy explaining to Samantha why after a trip to the pub he was one of her issue short.

Sleet this morning….Oh what fun.

Wait…….the sun came out for half an hour this afternoon.

Lambs sunbathing……Mums a mumming…..all is well with my little world and theirs.

This mite was born last night……Spring is great. In another week the lambs will start getting adventurous. They are wee Houdini. They will be bleating outside the van and hungry but can never find a way back to mum and food. The following day they will repeat the trick…..its what lambs do. Brilliant they are. I will eventually get tired of lifting them over the fence. Not long now and summer and warm rain will arrive.

Tomorrow I am away to Whitehaven. I’ve not been for weeks and could do with stocking up. I’ve spoken with the axle man and he will deliver them Sunday and combine it with a day out and Sunday lunch. There is no rush as the weather here is not of the best for axle fitting.

Waders wading…..I’ll give Bertha an outing first thing tomorrow. I’ve not been birding for a while.

Have fun.

SUNDAY SURPRISE. (17/03/13)

I woke before dawn and could hear hail lashing down, I thought….Not again!

Got up had a shower and struggled into my customary ten layers. By the time we were ready to go out things were looking good. The sun was trying to make itself felt through the cloud and the precipitation had ceased. Not a bad morning……plenty of new snow on the fell.

  This and the previous image are both HDR. I downloaded a couple of years worth of Photomatix updates and am very pleased with the new algorithms. The Canon 5D II is back with a new shutter and a firmware update so is acting a little strangely. All my cameras act oddly so nothing to worry about there.

      Alf found this mooring pickup buoy and was convinced it was a ball. Took him a few minutes to realize that he had bitten off more than he could chew.

        This excitement promoted a five minute rough and tumble……..I just hope that there was no one wanting a lie in. The barking, snapping and snarling is deafening.

The dogs are asleep now so with a bit of luck I’ll get a peaceful day.

The van axles haven’t arrived yet but I’ll rattle a couple of cages tomorrow.

Have a good week whatever you are up to.

STICKS. (16/03/13)

It’s raining again so I’ve been playing with macro. Not very successfully. It is a year or two since I've tried focus stacking and I wasn’t any good at it then. I’m a bit better now but not much.   Two sticks a mussel shell and a cockle shell. I am not sure whether the bits on the cloth are dandruff or fag ash. I never noticed when I took the snap.

        Baby limpets on the mussel shell. This wouldn’t focus stack. The exposure is apparently out though How it can be I don’t know. The camera was set to manual and the flash was the same for all shots. I’ll look into the matter. This is a single shot.

The cockle shell was an even bigger disaster. So I said ‘I’ll be Blowed!’ And had a go at the sticks.

          For some reason these worked better. There is a bit of a halo. There is a tool for getting rid of it but I couldn’t make it work. More to this job that I thought. These little Lichen florets are about a millimetre in diameter. There was a tiny little creature running about but it disappeared. I think this Lichen is Hypogymnia physodes. Knowing my abilities it could well be something else.

These were all shot at twice life size using the Canon MP-E 65mm and stacked in Helicon Focus using fifteen images give or take. I’ll make the effort to try and master this job. I’ll have plenty of rainy days now summer is on it’s way.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

I have had another go…….I hope, well I know, theses are better.

  Limpets on Mussel shell. It was getting on my nerves. These still are not perfect but I am on the right track.

Enjoy Sunday.

ALL GONE. (14/03/13)

It has been a raw, vile, wet and miserable day.

I ricked my ankle on the salt marsh this morning and am feeling sorry for myself. Come on…..altogether now…..AWWW!

There was no sea about this morning as we are experiencing the vernal equinoctial tides. These are both the highest and the lowest spring tides one can get. Amazing what they expose but there was little interesting exposed here. The odd old tyre took care of items of interest.

All Gone.

That’s about it for today…………….I did find a Shetland pony but I only got one shot as it tried to bite the camera. The pony came out too blurry. Vicious little devils are Shetland ponies. Pity Tesco can no longer use them.

These common birds were taken last week.

Male House Sparrow.

Female Chaffinch.

Male Chaffinch.

Lets hope for a better day tomorrow.