I’M BACK. (07/10/16)

I’ll start by thanking people for their concern. How a couple of you managed to track me down I don’t know but it was very kind and good to hear from you over the telephone.

I have been without internet for weeks and it is still not reliable, I must admit I haven’t really missed it. I use Blogger as a sounding board for what works and what doesn’t…I rarely found that my audience agreed with me, I never post an unedited image. I do post an awful lot of crap but the worst of it is when I’m learning new things like,…..Multi-track video editing, multi-track sound editing, 3D animations of doors, birds, flags and rivers. In Photoshop I still struggle after the best part of ten years trying to decide how much editing to do in ACR and what to do in Photoshop itself. It’s not easy living life thick….Slipped up again….Please substitute Special Needs where I typed thick.

I have not been idle. I have been playing with machines, taking lots of video, hundreds of pictures, messing with sound sync, made a new  microphone mount, cleaned the concave on a combine, done loads and loads of jobs and went on trips to Cupar to work out why the discharge auger got stuck when swivelled out on the combine and again to retrieve a scrap net spiral for the baler. All was sorted; however life is not one long series of successes. I selected reverse on the Mule in error, destroyed the fence I backed into and broke a drive shaft. A minorish problem. Several really naughty words, a few hours work and all is back to normal. I should know to engage my brain before engaging gears on a machine.

The dogs are good and looking pristine after a haircut. The harvest is in and winter barley sown. It has been a good year so far but it is getting cooler. The geese are returning from wherever they have been. These will be Pink Footed or Feeted Geese as they live down the road on Loch Leven for the winter.

The following images are from a Working Horse Show.

The observant will see that this is shot on large format film. You can see the little notches that tell you which way up the film is when one is fiddling about in the dark. I think they should be the other way round but happen I used the camera upside down.

These have all degraded a bit with having to sit on my hard drive for so long…….

The truth is I got bored; so desperate was I for something to do that I even changed the frame numbers on the film mount. Shame I forgot to make a note of the point size but that is me. I love playing but do need to concentrate more on the minutiae.

THRESHING………..Almost straight out of camera.

Here are a few pictures of the Clydesdale horses working a Binder.

A snap of a couple of the pigs. The Boar and a Mate.   

Pigs ought not be eaten as they are lovely, gentle, intelligent creatures. I love bacon, sausage, roast shoulder, crackling, black pudding, ham, gammon, trotters, scratchings, chops, chitterlings and brawn……Where do they all come from? Not a pig I hope.  Pigs ears do obviously but the dogs can do without them from now on. I am pondering on what a Pork looks like?

Have fun I’m not sure when I will get to post this or when full service will be resumed. I’ll just have to wait and see.

JESUS WOZ HERE. (14/08/16)

Far too many years ago when I was about three and a half feet tall we used to be dispatched to Sunday school. The curate used to tell us stories, he also had less desirable traits but solved the problem to everyone's satisfaction by gassing himself in the Parish Rooms. I can remember him recounting how the Donkey got the cross on it’s back………Jesus sat on it, he must have spun the yarn out a bit but that was the gist of it. Jesus was obviously here as well. Why he would want to ride on a spider I don't know.

Garden Cross Spider; Araneus diadematus.

This morning as it was slightly cooler and windless I decided to take the MP-E 65mm for a walk.

Stilt Legged Fly?

Whilst looking under leaves I found this tiny spider. It’s about 3mm long.

Erigone dentipalpis?

It is a little beauty whatever it is. I mislaid the next few insects I came across, they either fell from their perch or flew away which is a regular occurrence whilst I’m trying to get them in focus.

This one flew away after one shot but I noticed it had only flown from a Tansy flower head to a leaf a foot away. It’s a Mirid bug. I am reasonably sure it’s a Tarnished Plant Bug; Lugus rugulipennis.

Ichneumon Wasp?

That is all for today, enjoy the coming week. I’m hoping to get some video of a grand old diesel powered generator running tomorrow as a new injector arrived for it on Friday evening.

A QUANDARY. (13/08/16)

The weekend has dawned hot and sunny and the wind has blown away somewhere else.Yesterday I found a beautiful fungus but I can’t identify it with certainty.

It was this large and almost perfect specimen I found lurking behind a fallen pine. I am almost sure they are Velvet Roll Rims; Tapinella atrotomentosa. They used to be Paxillus sp. but just to add confusion they have been reclassified. The only doubt I have is that the gills don’t seem dark enough. I didn’t want to trash this older one to check and grovel as low as I could I failed to see the gills on it.

I do know what this is, it’s Rose Bay Willowherb or Fireweed.

Have a great weekend.

BIG ONE. (10/08/16)

Monday evening just as I was finishing tea a large tractor pulled into the yard. It had only come to fetch the dumper but it was impressive. It would have taken me all on to climb into the cab. I’d have needed some soothing music and a recuperative nap when I got there.

  It is smaller than the combine but still an impressive machine.

This morning I took a couple of flower pictures.

COMMON KNAPWEED

Thank you Keith

I now don’t need to guess which one. I used to think they were non prickly thistles but I am not that daft these days.

SELFHEAL.

I then wandered into the forest.

I decided to walk anti clockwise this morning and not twenty yards from the path I noticed this strange fungus. I’m not sure what it is as it seemed to be growing on a pine stump.

It is quite large at over a foot across and I think it is Chicken of the Woods; Laetiporus sulphureus.

It isn’t it’s Dyers Maizegill, Phaeolus schweinitzii. Many thanks Trevor.

I have seen this once before but I'm sure it was growing on Oak. This was a bit slimy so even if it is Chicken of the Woods I wouldn’t fancy eating it.

A LENS CHANGE. (08/08/16)

I fancied a change this morning so mounted the TS-E 24mm. This is a lens I ought to use more It focuses at a minimum of about half a foot, less with an extension tube and the aperture is from f3.5 to f22 shut right down. It is a really great lens. Before I get into today's pictures I thought I’d show you before and after versions of yesterdays landscape.
As shot but with white balance corrected and of course compressed for the web.
Run through NIK HDR one shot and dodged and burned. This isn’t an exact copy of yesterdays image as I deleted it by mistake and did it again.
On to todays pictures.

FOXGLOVE.

RAGWORT.

RASBERRIES.

These are abundant this year and I have been getting a handful or two most days for the last fortnight.

I am still deliberating I’ll update this post if I come to a conclusion. I popped these on a gatepost as the ground was too wet to lie on. The grass is there to prop them up.
I’ll leave you with a picture of a Garden or Cross Spider; Araneus diadematus. It has spent the morning weaving a web from my monitor to the side of an overhead cupboard. It was interesting as up until it had finished there was a big blob of silk in the centre and then in under a minute it was gone and she settled down to await a hapless fly.

Could it settle down with a top or front view? Not a hope.

WORTH THE WAIT? (07/08/16)

It is a wild and windy morning but last nights rain has departed east so we enjoyed a relatively dry walk.      It looks dismal but as I write this the sun is shining so it may be a reasonable day.

As has become standard practice I checked the Stinkhorns and had a pleasant surprise.

This is the one I have been waiting for but it is still much the same. Not one foot away a perfect specimen has grown and I never realised it was there.

Was it worth the wait? Yes I think so they aren’t rare but as they only last such a short time they are quite exciting. Two more fungi today.

This is Slippery Jack; Suillus luteus. These are edible and I did try them last year but you ought to remove the orange slimy covering. They are not really worth the bother but I may pick, prepare and try drying some for popping in stews.

The last one has me baffled. It’s growing on a Beech tree and a fine specimen. I am almost sure it isn’t Beech Bracket.

That's all for today, enjoy your week.

SH 1 TE. (05/08/16)

I went out at dusk to check on the Stinkhorns and nothing was happening. This morning the oldest one had grown but minus it’s smelly end, Shite. There is still one more to fruit and I am so convinced it will be perfect that first thing tomorrow I’m away up there with LED lights and a tripod for a bit of video. If the last one fails I still have another site which isn’t showing signs of anything yet. I’m weird but I love taking pictures of tiny insects and fungi.

The Sycamore aphids were the highlight of this summer closely followed by the Lacewing. Not really a highlight but it’s something I’ll never forget was spending several hours trying to re-fit the bracing arm under the combine, two of us tried it every which way and every other way for hours; it wasn’t in jacking distance of lining up, it only had two end plates and was a straight bit of square tube. I woke up, went down presented it and all the seven holes were aligned perfectly with the new axle and the combine chassis. That is akin to feeding folk fishes and bread. I did wonder if I should try water walking but after a seconds deliberation decided one was enough. The trouble that bastard caused. I know it was only this week but I’m still happy with the shots of the lacewing.

         A headless Stinkhorn

          The last chance at this site.

That’s about it for today I spent the morning helping to sort the brush buster deck out. It hit a big rock the other day and discombobulated itself. The spinner is away for some serious attention and brush busting will resume drektly….Drektly is a lovely South West of England expression which means as soon as he, she, me, it can be arsed. We got the combine out of the shed and after all the gearbox and other refurbishments it seems fine bar a bit of a TIG welded patch on the discharge auger elbow; no more than a couple of hours work and while the TIG welder and gas are here we can do some bits on the new grain dryers auger tubes.

I am gearing up for a harvest video. I like my Adrian's Images Logo thingy running as an Alpha Channel and will keep it but keep it shorter. It’s the one with an ‘A’ and an ‘I’ that split, spin around and subtly refract the background image…Oxford level compositing.  I’ll have to do it again as I know it is saved but where. Not only where but what as.  Quicker to do it again. I may even do it better as practise is everything with image adulteration.

Have a good weekend. Sorry about the formatting it’s gone all belly up and I have to guess. Formatting now fine but still guess work.

GREW SOME. (04/08/16)

It is a wonderful morning the sun is shining and there is a pleasant fresh breeze. The Stinkhorn has grown but then something has broken it. All week I’ve been waiting then it ends in tragedy.
First here is a picture of East Lomond looking grand in the early light.






                 Now for some snaps of the upset.

This is the original one which has done very well to last a week.
              This is the stump of the new one.

This is the smelly bit but it didn’t smell too bad at all. There are still two to go so all is not lost.
    I’ll have a stroll later and see what has happened to this one.
I have noticed a white mould covering several fungi and have never seen it before nor can I find anything about it.

Very strange, it is dry to the touch and doesn’t smell. This is the normal mould that appears on rotting fungi and horse muck .
                      Spinellus fusiger I think it’s called.
I’ll leave you with a perfect specimen.

I am not sure but think this is The Blusher, Amanita rubescens. If not then it’s something else.