Pig Yard News

I finished this month’s photography challenge with photographing things that begin with “T”. Some ideas were quite obvious and others were too difficult to capture, for example a tear. How does one photograph a tear unless there’s a model to hand who can cry on demand.

For the sake of neatness some of the images in the gallery have been cropped. To see the full photo simply click on it.

As always, selecting the two images in each category (Dappled light and “T”) is very difficult however it is really good to analyse why I like one photo over another is helpful in tuning one’s eye.

It was such a slow week I took the time to clean the Kia. At this time of year the roads are so mucky that within a matter of days it was covered in dirt again.

For the time being it can remain dirty.

This month’s photography challenges are dappled light and something beginning with “T”. I’ve been taking walks in the local woods and trying to capture dappled light at a time of year when there aren’t any leaves on the trees to give the dappled effect.

At a recent Photography Group meeting we agreed to put our name on every image so that website visitors will know who the photos belong to. I discovered in Photoshop Elements a way to set up a custom brush that simply adds my name and copyright symbol.

A couple of weeks ago my backup system crashed as a consequence of the drive corrupting. It had been running constantly for about 7 years. Thankfully I didn’t lose any data because it was backing up everything I have on my main PC.

Since this failure I’ve bought two 4 Terabyte disks in a RAID configuration which means if one drive fails the other has a mirror of the data on it.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. The middle of last week found me driving down to Stamford to meet up with an ex work colleague. We talked about current innovations in local government but I didn’t hear anything of significance to make me think there were any great changes likely. The use of AI in areas like social care could make a huge difference to the admin of the service but, sadly, this isn’t being considered in Northamptonshire.

I took the Porsche to give it a run out. The weather wasn’t brilliant but the drive back along the back roads of Lincolnshire was fun.

I met with my college friends at Wentworth Woodhouse. It was cold but not raining. We had coffee in the café followed by a light lunch. Afterwards we walked down from the house through the estate. As always it was fun to catch up with old friends.

I used the Kia because on an 80% charge it was enough to get me there and back easily.

This week I travelled down to Wellingborough to have lunch with Helene and her daughters which is a round trip of 200+ miles. I decided to stop at a BP Pulse Hub just off the A14.

Despite the sleet I managed to get the process started however I did have a problem stopping the charge when I had topped up enough. I had to ask the one other person who was using the system. Thankfully together we managed to cancel the charge and remove the plug from the car socket. I’m not sure what, if anything, I did wrong so I couldn’t learn from the experience.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to do more charging away from home to get used to the different charging systems. This is the early days of EV “pumps” so there is no conformity. Let’s hope things will become similar in time. How long did it take for petrol pumps to be the same?

Lunch at the Cherry Tree in Olney was delightful – good company and good food.

My journey home from Wellingborough in the dark when it was sleeting was interesting. I wasn’t sure I had enough charge. In theory I had 35 miles spare but that surplus was slowly eaten away and I arrived home with 29 miles left in the batteries. I understand range anxiety.

As the weather seemed to be brightening I started up Piglet however after 24 hours it was struggling to go forward and gave a cutting system error.

I tried to fix it myself but failed so I took it off to the robot mower hospital (no waiting outside in an ambulance). They gave it a full service and removed the string that had become wrapped around the cutting motor. The printout from the service indicated she had been running for over 7,000 hours since the spring of 2016. She looks as good as new.

The cordon apple trees need constant monitoring or they start growing upwards out of control. I’ve learned to cut them back quite severely so they start the growing season no higher than the fence.

I use some of the cut sticks as supports for the peas which are several centimetres out of the ground already. I’ve got them covered because the weather has, once again, turned chilly.

The forced rhubarb will be ready for cutting soon. I’ve covered the peas and broad beans partly to protect them from the frosts but also to stop the wood pigeons and squirrels from pecking them or digging them up. This will be the year that I cover everything early to avoid the decimation caused by these forever present pests.

When Jane and I were designing the house we had a long debate about the flooring in the living space. I wanted laminate flooring all the way through from kitchen to living area but Jane wanted carpet in the living area and that’s what we went for in the end. After 9 years the carpet started to wear along the joins, particularly under my desk area. I decided to upgrade.

It proved to be impossible to match the flooring in the kitchen and to take up the kitchen floor would have meant completely reinstalling all the kitchen units.

I wasn’t prepared for that level of upheaval so eventually opted for Amtico. The guys laid it in two days.

The new look is very minimalist and it has taken a few days to get used to it. I’m not quite there yet but I’m getting there.

The problem with such significant changes is I started to see the areas which were not right, particularly the TV stand which was too small for the TV and sound bar.

After scouring the internet I came across this easel design which I really liked. I consulted with a couple of friends who liked it too so I decided to bite the bullet and ordered it.

What should have been a simple 1 hour construction job turned into 3 hours. What I didn’t realise and wasn’t emphasised in the instructions was, it wasn’t an equilateral pyramid… one leg was shorter than the others and had to be bolted to a particular leg. After dismantling it, stopping for lunch and coming back with a fresh eye, I saw the error of my ways and finally got it standing and the TV attached. As someone has already pointed out – my 40 inch TV looks a little small and I should be upgrading to a 55 inch. More on this later another time.

As part of the upgrade I decided to replace my overlarge, curved desk with something smaller. IKEA came to the rescue and I had it installed in no time. The hardest part was getting the desk height adjusted for me. I shouldn’t have worried because there was information on the web that told me how high the desk needed to be for my height.

One more change to get my head around and all of this in one week.

My next project is to rearrange the study so it is more practical. At the moment it has two settees in there but I don’t use them. One of them will have to go. Watch this space…

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post and life is jogging along. I’ve driven the Kia on a long journey which required a recharge before making it home, more on that in a moment, and I’ve been clearing the living space ready for the new floor to be laid.

After nearly two weeks of ownership and 500 miles travelled I’m getting used to the Kia. On the 220 mile round trip to Northampton I had to find a recharging point in Kettering. Thankfully it was a fast charger (120Kwh) and added the thirty miles I needed in about 15 minutes. The cost of charging away from home is over 3 times the cost and makes it more expensive than petrol. On a home charge I calculate I’m doing the equivalent of 150 miles to the gallon.

I’m still trying to sort out which of the three charging Apps is best – the charger (Ohme) App or Kia’s App or Octopus the energy company, App. I haven’t managed to get the latter to work yet but I shall keep trying. It feels like the energy companies and the car manufacturers are still learning the best way to blend it all together.

Helene came to stay for a few days and we managed to find the time to drive up to Cleethorpes for a walk along the promenade. e walked as far as the meridian line and then back to the car. Although the sun was quite warming on the outward section there was a biting wind on the way back.

Helene enjoyed straddling east and west.

In preparation for the new Amtico laminate floor I had to clear the living and dining space. With Helene’s help I moved most of the stuff into the study.

They started on day one by taking the carpet up, sealing the floor then pouring down a levelling solution. This has to harden off overnight before they come back on day two to lay the boarding.

There will be more photos of the space once the floor is down and the furniture returned. As part of the revamp I’m going to permanently move the bookshelf into the study and I’ve bought a smaller desk from IKEA. At the moment there are two old settees in the study and I plan to get rid of one of them.

This months challenges are “My Favourite Thing(s)” and “Abstract”. Abstract photography seems to be straightforward and I worked on the basis that if you can tell what it is then it isn’t abstract. Apart from the obvious, see below, it is difficult to imagine several favourite “things”.

I can only submit two images under each category. My preferred abstract image is going to be difficult to select.

I have taken possession of the all electric Niro EV4. I was pleasantly surprised by the colour because my recollection thought it was quite a dull blue however this has a sparkle to it that I like.

Setting up with all of the apps and linking it to the charging unit is proving challenging because there is no internet connection when the car is parked in the garage. There’s more research to be done before I’m fully conversant with all the tech.

There will be more photos and comments after I’ve had time to assimilate the driving style.

Last month’s photography challenges were Red and Back lighting. I took several approaches to the back lighting of portraits using candles and a lamp but none of them captured the essence of what I was looking for so I abandoned them. My final submission wasn’t that good and the competition proved to be better than my efforts. To see the other u3a photography group efforts click here…

The festive season is over and in some ways I’m relieved that life can go back to normal.

Helene and I went to Burghley House to meet up with some of her friends, her daughters and her friends’ off-spring.

The grounds were open to the public so we had a walk around in a biting cold wind before heading for the William Cecil Hotel in Stamford where we had a very good lunch which lasted several hours. A memorable day when I made some new friends.

We had a great New Year’s evening hosting dinner for Dave & Lucie and Val & Nick which lasted until 1am. By the time we had cleared away and completed the admin it was after 2am. Needless to say we didn’t get up early on New Year’s. We eventually emerged and headed over to the coast to see the grey seals at Donna Nook. The breeding season is virtually over but there were a couple of hundred seal pups visible. It was quite cold and wasn’t the weather for standing around but I managed to get some decent photographs using my 100 – 300 mm telephoto lens.

I cannot remember when I had so many presents under the Christmas tree.

I received, among other things, this fabulous cushion from Helene. It’s like a cubist painting in the style of Picasso. It has pride of place on the settee.

Another present was an RSPB bat box from Caitlin and Tessa. I gave the positioning of it some considerable thought before deciding to put it high up the wall above the north facing bedroom balcony.

I helped my brother build something similar when I was staying with him in California many years ago. I’m not sure whether he ever got any bats roosting. I often see bats hawking over the vegetable plot in the summer so I can only hope they find my bat box and I can watch them from the bedroom patio door.

We all deserve to have a wonderful festive season

And Be Grateful for Good Friends

Love and Hugs to All

Steve xx

The country has been experiencing a very long, cold snap as you will see in the photos below. I visited my good friends Gary and Caroline for a few days and they took me out into a winter wonderland.

There was a lot more snow in Oxfordshire than in Lincolnshire.

We visited Batsford Arboretum where the trees were hanging with snow and the typical Cotswold church looked very seasonal.

On our way back we visited The Roll Right Stones. A fascinating ancient monument with a very friendly (possibly hungry) robin too. The late afternoon winter sun created an eerie scene.

No visit to G&C would be complete without having dinner out. Having tried Voujon and The Cinnamon Stick in the past this time we went to the Pie Pub or The Marlstone Tavern, to give it its proper name.

As you can see from these beauties, they know how to make pies.

On my final day we braved the traffic to go into Oxford. The Park & Ride was very efficient going in but unfortunately the bus got stuck in traffic on the way out.

After a wander around John Lewis we went for lunch at a Mowgli which is always a great curry and rapidly becoming one of my favourites. I think Lincoln maybe too provincial to ever get one.

Gary and I left Caroline to Christmas shop whilst he took me on a whistle tour of the city centre (Radcliffe Camera) and a couple of bookshops. I had a great time.

Helene couldn’t be with me on Christmas Day so we agreed to have our own special day this week. We put the tree up together the day before.

I had decided on the menu and did a lot of the preparation before hand. Christmas is largely about food these days.

I baked an olive loaf and sausage rolls a few days before hand. I also whizzed up smoked mackerel pate the night before. On Christmas Day we had Shakshouka and bucks fizz for brunch, watched TV, chatted and then had the smoked mackerel pate on olive breast followed by duck breasts with all the trimmings and Helene’s home made profiteroles, washed down with the remains of the prosecco from the morning.

We had a really special day. The following day we went for a walk in Whisby country park then had hot soup at the café. It was a very cold day so the soup was essential.

It’s nearly the end of November so I’ve been busy taking and editing photographs that meet the brief of Food and Shallow Depth of Field. I’m allowed to submit 2 in each category so I’ve got to make a final selection in the next few days.

I’m not sure which of the egg images or honey drips I prefer.

This is a much harder choice. To meet the brief exactly there should be a very little in focus and the rest out of focus.

We can select our favourite photo of the month. This is mine, taken on my Samsung S22 phone at Battersea Power Station.