a little night magic

taken from the Woodside ferry terminal late one October night . . .

Just love the Museum of Liverpool from over here - wasn't so keen on the building up close but looks stunning now - like a great liner or a whale!!

whatever happened to the pears

so . . . what did we do with all those pears last week:

Pear and Frangipane Tart!!  Just amazing warm or cold.

Recipe here 

Ours missing the flaked almonds on the top if you look at Hugh's picture but still delic!!

how would you like

Glorious day over at Mum's last Sunday and this is the apple tree that's nearly as old as I am - where the fairies lived at the bottom of our garden . .

so, setting to, we harvested bags and bags of Laxton Superbs and Conference pears

Onceuponatime there was the swing, made by Dad and Uncle Bill from scaffolding, seeming so huge in it's own private little world, tucked against the hedge behind pear tree.  But neither hedge nor swing are left now and the space seems so tiny . . .

And do you know, I never knew that song Mum and Dad used to sing to us was a Robert Louis Stevenson poem from A Child's Garden of Verses!

And the tune they always sang, I can't for the life of me find on YouTube, so maybe it was another lovely one they made up?  Jane - any thoughts??

Anyway, after reminiscing about the swing, we got down to stripping both trees for a mega harvest

 and then spotted a lone buttercup smiling up at us!  In OCTOBER!!!

then when the sun set later that night, I remembered how my old bedroom wall always caught the red glow

Sweet dreams everyone!!!

Yum Yum

 

in praise of gadgets

Just spent one happy afternoon under blue skies in the garden with my best garden gadget ever and Pick of the Pops for 1962 coming through my headphones

It might be old, it's little wheel might keep falling off . . .

but oh the joy of leaves dancing obediently in front of me into neat piles!!

rubbish picture, I know, but you try working the machine and the camera at the same time!!!

and Jane, this one's for you

 

on the straight and narrow

A musical moment today - click on this first:

because this is what confronted Audrey and I at the top of St Helena

and closer

amazingly perfect lines of sheep cantering across the fields in the sunshine!

And it was a glorious autumn day.

It started with a dentist trip, brightened by the autumn leaves dancing in the sunshine ahead of my car all along Lodge Moor Road.

Then a trip to Our Cow Molly up in Dungworth to collect our (yum yum) ice cream supplies

and, wishing I'd taken my camera for those amazing views across the hills from the farm to Sheffield, I made sure I had it with me in the afternoon up at the top of Grenoside

and glorious it was!

(and the ice cream was pretty delish too!)

being black and white

My first foray into the world of REAL photography!

Shooting, developing and printing my own photos - having dusted off my old faithful Contax 139 Quartz with it's amazing Zeiss Planar 1.7/50 lens

much loved and well used - it's been all over the world with me, never to part . . .

Most of the pics I took on our Mull extravaganza back in May 2012 and a few at home and at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

So how did it go . . .

First the excitement of the images emerging on the negative, just like in an episode of Wallander!  Then printing the conact sheets themselves.

And the first big one out of the developing baths was my shot of the amazing sand patterns on the beach on Iona.  Note I didn't say my amazing shot - I know there's heaps of learning in both the taking of black and white and the developing - but not a bad first attempt!

If you want to see almost the same shot in colour have a look at my blog on our day on Iona (it's quite a way down the page)

 and the rest were hanging out to dry when I left

next time I'll tackle some of the others, so watch this space.

And I can't leave without huge thanks to Rob and his patient tutorials!

three spoons in a pudding

three generations tuck into ginger stem pudding with Nicholl's (Parkgate) ice cream at the Irby Mill on Sunday last!  Bliss!

all creatures wild and wonderful

OK - did anyone know this was a porcupine?

Here's the rest of my favourites from the wonderful Alfred Denny Museum - right under our noses here in Sheffield but not open to the public before.
It was specially open on Saturday for the Festival of the Mind and might well have more open days - keep an eye on the museum website. It was quite amazing . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big prizes (ha ha) for whoever identifies the most species in the comments box below!

all pictures taken without flash so as not to rattle the skellies!