Pig Yard News

Last month’s challenges consisted of: Creative – Blue; Technical – Contrast; and my favourite of the year.

1 Creative – Blue

I started with the thought of taking a close up of the Lindor chocolate using an lens extension tube however having taken several shots I saw the shadow the sweet wrapper left like an angel’s wings and decided this image was different.

2 Technical – Contrast

The Humber Bridge is a superb structure and lends itself to photography. I walked several miles up river taking many shots as I went to get different angles. In the end I settled for this view. I then processed it using Photoshop Elements to increase the contrast and outline the edges.

3 Favourite of the Year

And finally my favourite of the year. Choosing a favourite from the hundreds of images I had was, as you might imagine, very difficult.

The photo of the parliament building in Budapest is magical.

I’m experimenting with using a voting plug-in and for the first time you can vote for which of the three images above is your favourite…

After three days of log splitting I decided I wouldn’t ask the tree guys to come for a fourth day and would cut the last few logs myself. After only 2 hours of cutting I’m beginning to regret that decision. Ash is a very hard wood and it soon takes the edge off the sharpness of the chainsaw. It is also resistant to the splitting axe despite my best efforts. As you can see below I have to cut it into manageable sized pieces but it will require further splitting before it’s small enough to put on the fire next winter.

In the spring of this year I had a very large Ash tree felled. The logs have been sitting around for nearly 12 months and at last I’ve managed to get the guys in to split them.

What you see in this photo is what is left after two days of splitting and below is the pile of logs they’ve created.

I estimate these logs will keep the log burner fuelled for the next three or four years.

What concerns me a little is that I have another Ash tree which has been given planning consent to remove because it is diseased and becoming unsafe. Thankfully Nick has agreed to take the large pieces from the trunk which will leave me with the smaller branches to cut and split.

Some months ago we planned a few days in London staying with Richard and Nicola.

The highlight was going to be A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Barbican theatre.

To start our first day we visited Abney Park cemetery. A fascinating place and quite eerie on a dull Wednesday morning.

Later in the day we made our way into the city to see the London Mithraeum. This roman relic has been restored in it’s original place which happens to be in the basement of the Bloomberg offices.

There was a brief reenactment of how it might have been 2,000 years ago. It was quite spooky.

In the evening we went to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I think I’ve seen the play a couple of times but this has to be the funniest version I’ve ever seen.

It’s a comedy of course and the cast took a lot of pleasure in making it a laugh out loud event.

The Royal Shakespeare company, as the name suggests, know how to put on a Shakespeare play. This was no exception – a perfect evening.

The following day we caught a bus to Hackney Wick to meet up with Helène’s sister. She gave us a guided tour of what was the 2012 Olympic village and now a thriving community of apartments, restaurants and galleries.

Before we headed back to Lincolnshire on the Friday we had enough time to make our annual pilgrimage to Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum.

Amazing photographs which have taken skill, patience and some endurance.

At the end of our four day stay we headed for home from King’s Cross feeling culturally uplifted and satisfactorily exhausted. Our train ran to time and we arrived back at the car in Newark with 6 minutes to spare on our parking time. Timed to perfection.

Helène bought me a wonderful birthday present of a days vegetarian cookery class at Lincolnshire Cookery School. We went together (I needed the moral support) and had a superb day making loads of delicious food: Emerald Isle Green Soup; banana muffins; chocolate brownies, Chestnut mushroom bourguignon; and a Sri Lankan Tofu Curry. We came home with enough food to last a week. I didn’t have any vegetarian dishes in my repertoire but I do now.

The following day we drove over to Donna Nook to see the seal pups. This is becoming an annual event and we chose a perfect day – not too cold or windy and bright sunshine. I finished up taking over 90 photos and it was difficult to choose the cutest of all the images but eventually settled for the one below.

For the first time since July we haven’t been away. August: Scotland; September: Cotswolds; October: Provence. It’s been good to settle back into a routine.

I have spent a couple of weekends down in Northamptonshire with Helène helping with her daughters’ old cottage. Plenty of jobs to be done before the place becomes habitable but that’s another story and not for this blog.

I’ve struggled to take any exciting photos for the u3a Photography Group. This one was on the theme of “mono” and is a National Air Traffic radar centre which sits on top of the Wolds.

It was a rather boring photo taken on a dull day so I made it a little more extraordinary by removing all the colour and then making it negative. The group liked it.

I also had my Covid/Flu jabs. The nurse injecting me seemed to make a bit of a mess of the flu jab and managed to make it bleed a little where a bruise developed over the coming days. Other than a bruised arm I didn’t have any other repercussions.

November was my final month as Interim Chair of West Wolds u3a. The last committee meeting was business as usual and the AGM went to plan. I will continue to support the web site however the design of the site has been taken over. One less thing to worry about.

I had my annual eye test. My cataracts are the same as last year and my epiretinal membrane hasn’t worsened. The optician said it can be slightly improved by adjusting the spherical prism of the lens. I need a new prescription so I’m hoping to get completely round glasses like these.

And finally, I decided to change the hosting company I use for the website and email. I’ve used UK2 since 2001 but their service has slowed and the support has been less than satisfactory. I set up Market Rasen beekeepers site using NetNerd as a host so I’ve now moved www.pigyard to NetNerd. The website moved across without a problem and no loss of up time however my email has been a little more problematic. It’s virtually back to normal apart from copying all my old emails from UK2 to NetNerd.

Our week in Provence was in three parts – Avignon, Aix en Provence and Arles.

We flew out of Stansted. Ryanair took off 45 mins late which meant our arrival in Marseille gave us only 15 minutes to get from airport to station. For the first time ever, I used Uber and the driver managed to save the day, delivering us to the station with 2 minutes to spare.

Avignon

Two nights but only one full day here so we had to make the most of the town. Our hotel was close to the station and just outside the town wall.

A walled town is great to explore because you can never get lost once you are inside the walls. We visited many of points of interest including the Papal Palace and of course the bridge (sur le Pont D’Avignon). The area was under a flood threat and it wasn’t possible to walk on the bridge but I don’t think we missed much.

Aix en Provence

We caught an early morning train via Marseille to Aix en Provence. It was straightforward to call an Uber to take us to our hotel on the edge of the city. I’d never used Uber before and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was.

After checking into our hotel we met up with Clive and Tricia. We walked through the Saturday market before heading up to a location used by Cezanne. I managed to capture a similar view to Cezanne’s over 100 years later.

We arranged a rental car through our travel agent on the understanding we could collect it in the afternoon. When we arrived we were told the car had been hired out because we didn’t collect it by midday. We were given no alternative but a much bigger car at a cost of 100 euros more. We weren’t given a handover and simply told the car was two streets away. Appalling service from Europcar and my review reflected it.

We did park the car in an underground car park in the city centre one night only to find we couldn’t get it out because of it’s size and poor turning circle. I had to reverse it into a space at the bottom of the ramp and then get out. It was very, very close.

On our first night in Aix, Clive and Tricia took Helène and I out for dinner for my birthday (75th in case you were wondering)

It was a great meal with an excellent maitre d’.

On day two in Aix we collected Clive & Tricia from their hotel and headed up to the Luberon Valley.

Cute village after cute village and the views kept coming. Sometimes it’s worthwhile to stop taking photos and just appreciate the sunshine and atmosphere.

Arles

The following day we drove to Arles. The hotel wasn’t in the best of locations and unfortunately didn’t meet our expectations. The room was hot and infested with mosquitoes. In the first 5 minutes I’d used a hand towel to kill 20 and the towel was blood stained. It seems the air conditioning had been turned off because it was out of season. The mosquito situation wasn’t helped by the fact the swimming pool was partially drained with green algae on the surface.

Arles is a beautiful town with a lot to offer. Roman mosaics in the museum; attractive outdoor nightlife; an amphitheatre; roman theatre and of course Van Gogh.

From Arles we drove to Pont du Gard and Nimes

The Pont du Gard has been on my bucket list for many years. To be able to spend a couple of hours walking around it, along it and looking down upon it was wonderful. The weather was marvelous.

We drove on to Nimes (let’s forget the drive in and problematic parking). We walked down from Tour Magne through the water gardens into the city.

As you can see from this photo of Helène in front of the amphitheatre Nimes was not overrun with tourists.

We sat in a square behind the roman temple soaking up the sun and enjoying a pot of tea.

On our way back to Aix for our final day we stopped near to St Remy to visit the Roman city of Glanum and Saint-Paul Asylum where Van Gogh lived up to the point of his death.

On our final day we dropped the car off without any additional scratches, visited a couple of places of interest (museums and churches) before walking back to the hotel then catching an Uber to the station. We had to change once to get to the airport but everything went smoothly.

We arrived back at Stansted early. By the time we left the airport, charged the car on the way to our stopover hotel in Kettering, taken a detour because the A14 was closed it was 11.30pm. Over all it was a great holiday – we saw everything we wanted to see and more.

After the excitement of the week away in the Cotswolds it would have been easy to slip back into the humdrum life of home however Helène and I decided to break the week up with a tour in the Porsche. First stop was brunch in Woodhall Spa before heading for Tattershall Castle.

I last visited the castle in 2014 when it was cold and damp. This time the sun was shining and a wholly different day.

The building is very impressive. The stairs up the tower are a challenge but we made it to the top. The views across Lincolnshire are incredible and we had the good fortune to see a Typhoon take off from RAF Coningsby.

After spending a couple of hours at Tattershall we drove over to Chapel St Leonards for a quick cuppa in the Observatory and a walk along the beach.

We headed for home still with the roof down, enjoying the Wolds and what might be the last of the summer weather.

On Thursday I collected Helène from her home and we headed for Banbury. After a delightful lunch in the Bell Plantation in Towcester we made our way to the Premier Inn Banbury. We were collected by Gary & Caroline and spent the afternoon catching up before heading for Voujon Indian restaurant in the centre of town. It was a great evening and we ate far too much.

Friday morning we had breakfast at Costa whilst charging the Kia to 100% ready for the week.

A pleasant drive to Stow on the Wold and afternoon tea in Huffkin’s then headed to the barn where the others were waiting.

After selecting our rooms by taking a number from a hat we settled in for the week.

As always our first evening meal was fish and chips – Greedy’s in Stow on the Wold was perfect.

Stow on the Wold is famous for it’s cutsie shops and cafés and Huffkins was recommended so we had to give it a try. Helène had a scone while I had carrot cake (my first of the holiday).

As usual when visiting holiday destinations we looked in several estate agent windows and rapidly came to the conclusion that the Cotswolds is far too expensive for us.

Dinner that night was fish & chips for everyone from Greedy’s in Stow.

Saturday – the whole crew travelled to Hidcote Manor (National Trust)

The gardens are set out as if they are rooms spread over 10 acres. Despite it being September and the end of the season there was plenty to see. Each “room” was wonderfully tranquil.

Lunch in the cafe was pretty good.

Sunday – Snowshill Manor & Gardens is another National Trust property (thank goodness we joined the previous week)

This is a unique collection of odd items. The owner, Charles Paget Wade, was an inveterate collector. In modern parlance he was a hoarder and it could be said he had a mental health issue with his hoarding whereas others might describe him as an eccentric. Despite having a multiple bedroomed manor house he lived in a small cottage alongside the manor.

Monday – Croome Estate (National Trust). A wonderful expanse of English landscaped countryside. Originally the house was brick and the stone facade was added much later.

An interesting visit however the interior was pretty empty with signs of tasteless development in the 1990s and of when it was a Catholic boarding school run by nuns.

Monday late afternoon – the barn accommodation is owned by Donnington brewery which was a short walk away. Helène and I decided to take a stroll around the trout lake to the brewery. The evening had the feel of autumn but it was an excellent end to another busy day.

Tuesday – We took another walk to the brewery with the rest of the crew and had an unofficial guided tour. The brewery is still run by the watermill alongside. Lunch at the barn before heading off to Chedworth roman villa which is another National Trust property.

The star of the show has to be the mosaics.

Wednesday – A number of places of interest to visit and we managed them all: Kingham village which is a typical Cotswold hamlet. We had a coffee in the Plough Inn before heading off to the Rollright Stones; and then on to Batsford Arboretum where we struggled to charge the car with their pathetically slow chargers. We had lunch then a stroll around the grounds before heading back to the barn.

Thursday – A visit to Sezincote manor modelled on the Taj Mahal… why? The eccentricities of rich never ceases to amaze me.

Beautifully laid out gardens with an delightful curved orangery on the left of this photo. The tea and cakes were nothing special – served in paper cups with paper plates. Not what we were expecting.

To end our week in the Cotswolds we were lucky enough to see Guy Tortora performing at a local pub.

He’s a blues guitarist and I used to see him a couple of times a year when I lived in Northampton. He hasn’t lost any of his skills and I was impressed enough to buy his latest album. Thankfully Helène enjoyed the evening too.

Friday – on the way home we went to Beckworth Emporium for an afternoon tea using a gift voucher a friend of Helène’s had given us last Christmas.

Despite eating well all week we managed to demolish all the sandwiches, scones and cakes. And we had two pots of tea each.

A lot has been going on over the last couple of weeks so this post is an abbreviated version of everything. We went to the Edinburgh Fringe for 5 days, then off to the Highlands for a long weekend and stopping off in Northumberland to visit the Roman Fort at Vindolanda.

We continued our Scottish adventure by travelling up through the Highlands to Tony & Jude’s on the Moray Firth. We had a relaxing time – good company and excellent food.

Finally we headed south stopping overnight in Northumberland to visit Vindolanda.

They have been undertaking archaeological digs since the late 1960s and there is another 200 years of work to be done to uncover everything. We really enjoyed the 3 hours we spend wandering around the site and the museum of artefacts.

We arrived back in Lincolnshire with horrible colds – another gift from Scotland.

The themes this month have been “Getting down low” (Technical) and “Patterns” (Fun). In the technical we are required to show the original, unedited image as well as the edited version. We will then explain why we edited it in the way we have as part of our self critique.

When I’m in the garden I tend to focus on the weeds and the plants that are not doing too well. It makes a pleasant change to walk around the garden with camera in hand and capture the flowers that are adding colour to the garden.

Antipodean Visitors

My Australian friends, Ian and Sue, visited for a few days this month. Helène and I wanted to give them an interesting time so we took them to Yorkshire Sculpture Park as well as a tour of Lincoln city and the Humber Bridge.

A walk across the Humber Bridge is always pleasurable and the weather was very kind to us.

The Garden

We also spent some time sitting in the garden and appreciating the good weather.

The raised bed behind Helène is at it’s best and I’ve never seen it so full of colour. I think my gardening skills must be improving – about time.

Garden Clearance

We spent a weekend helping Helène’s daughters with clearing the garden of their newly acquired house.

The garden has been allowed to go wild so it required a lot of cutting back. Helène spent most of Sunday back and forth to the recycling centre with bags and bags of green “stuff”.

We also knocked down an old garden shed which had been absorbed into the undergrowth. I took the chainsaw to a row of Holly hedge which was at risk of knocking down the neighbours fence.

It was an exhausting but very satisfying weekend.

I struggled to find the time and be inspired by this month’s photography themes but I managed to cobble together three photographs. The themes were Window Light and Fasteners plus the usual favourite.

The format has changed because the u3a Photography group has grown to about 15 people and it was taking too long to review 90 images. We now submit only 3 images and we are expected to critique one of our own photos.

My pride and joy has let me down… it failed its MoT due to a leaking brake pipe. I was warned about potential brake pipe corrosion last year but ignored it.

The MoT garage couldn’t fix it in time so they recommended another garage in town. He’s had it for two days and it still isn’t finished. Hopefully I’ll get it back for the weekend when the weather improves.

Last week the Kia displayed an error message. It was telling me that a parking sensor was not working. It doesn’t tell me which sensor – less than helpful.

I took it to the Kia garage and initially they told me their diagnostics didn’t show any errors however they did discover that 3 sensors were not working. Two at the front and one on the rear. Apparently the two on the front are corroded. Who would design a car where electronics on the front can corrode.

I have to take it back next week for the garage to remove the front and rear bumpers and even then I don’t think they will fix it.

Over the past few weeks I’ve experienced a number of technology failures, some of which are in my control and others I’m reliant on others to fix.

The battery on the robot mower failed (the second battery in 8 years). Unfortunately it isn’t something I can do myself and it has to be fitted by the mower services where I bought it. It was a 30 minute job so the grass didn’t grow too long while I waited for it to be fixed.

• The App that runs my Sonos sound system was updated and like thousands of other users across the globe it lost many of the features that were in the older system. The Sonos community website has gone into meltdown with users calling for the resignation of the CEO.
• The home car charger is struggling to charge the car overnight due to a firmware upgrade
• My smart meters have stopped sending meter readings to Octopus Energy

The air circulation system controller died.

This unit in the loft extracts air from inside the house and through a heat exchanger brings in warm air from outside.

It has been working non-stop for the past 10 years however the system controller went blank.

After discussing the issue with an engineer at Systemair (suppliers & installers) I ordered a new controller. On fitting the new controller it still didn’t work. The suggestion was it might be the cable between the controller and the unit so I changed it – that didn’t get it working. It now points to a failed board in the main unit. This requires a service engineer visit. Watch this space

I think we all rely on technology to make life easier but when it starts to fail we sometimes find it very exasperating.

This month’s themes were “Leading Lines”, “Machinery ” and the usual favourites. I must confess I didn’t find the subjects inspiring. Finding something different, that would stand out from the rest, was always going to be difficult.

Here is my final selection:

To view the other u3a photography group images click here…