Pete has the Met Office weather app on his iPhone and I had the BBC one on mine. Today Pete's predicted rain at 13:00 hrs. and mine predicted sunshine at the same time. Yesterday Pete had spent the day gardening - planting bulbs. Gardening has no attractions for me, and planting bulbs which will give no results for several months is against my nature which demands a bit of action immediately following my efforts. A notable example of gardening patience arises at Inverewe Garden in Scotland situated on an exposed coast. The founder wanted shelter first. He went to an island on Loch Maree and obtained pine tree saplings and planted them to form a windbreak, then waited twenty years for them to provide enough shelter before he seriously embarked on constructing his garden. That would not be for me, but the results are magnificent.
Pete's gardening had left him more than usually tired and we opted only to walk about two snd a half miles. We had not placed bets on which weather forecaster would prove correct. Pete's Met Office app came up with the goods as we felt the first spots of rain on the stroke of 13:00 hrs just before we got back to the car.
I have now deleted BBC and installed Met Office.
Our routine takes us to Café Ambio for tea snd cake. Ambio is attached to the purpose built livestock auction mart near Jct. 36 on the M6 and is frequented by farmers on auction days and we are fascinated and entertained by observing these characters with their flat caps, old tweed suits snd waistcoats and long shepherds' crooks. We suspect that meeting at Ambio is as much a social occasion for the farmers as is the selling and buying of their livestock. Today, with s bit more time on our hands, I took some clandestine photos without using the flash. I am not sure about the ethics of this kind of photography and I did feel s bit guilty about it, but you can see the results bellow.
Today's photos are a bit dark although I have played with some of them in Photoshop, and especially the Ambio ones will benefit from "click to enlarge."
Our routine takes us to Café Ambio for tea snd cake. Ambio is attached to the purpose built livestock auction mart near Jct. 36 on the M6 and is frequented by farmers on auction days and we are fascinated and entertained by observing these characters with their flat caps, old tweed suits snd waistcoats and long shepherds' crooks. We suspect that meeting at Ambio is as much a social occasion for the farmers as is the selling and buying of their livestock. Today, with s bit more time on our hands, I took some clandestine photos without using the flash. I am not sure about the ethics of this kind of photography and I did feel s bit guilty about it, but you can see the results bellow.
Today's photos are a bit dark although I have played with some of them in Photoshop, and especially the Ambio ones will benefit from "click to enlarge."
I have three weather forecast apps on my phone. I usually use the Met Office one, but if it gives an unfavourable forecast then I look at the others and choose to believe whichever gives me the answer I want to hear. Unfortunately, as you might expect, this approach can lead to disappointment.
ReplyDeleteConrad,
ReplyDeleteWhere exactly is that millenium clock tower? I suppose you realise the attached plaque mentions planting 2000 bulbs - your never ending nightmare.
As for the photos I thought your last one an excellent character portrait, the sort of character who may take offence at your photography and exact justice in the only way he knows. Maybe you had a lucky escape or is he viewing your post at this very minute, lock your doors securely tonight [sorry to mention locks again]
ps
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read you title I thought it said 'Exmoor and a bit of paparazzi', a long way for your Thursday walk.
Lots of people do that these days but one guy who was snapping people emerging from a packed Piccadilly line train a few years ago lived to regret it seconds after he tried to include me in his effrontery. No criminal damage or assault - but he would be more circumspect for some time after, of that I was quite confident.
ReplyDeleteExcellent. The shorter the walk the more you are forced into thinking about things instead of simply recording one plodding step after another. In my world photos are no substitute for effortful and characteristic words; pictures aren't included in grown-up novels, you know, though I'm prepared to consider rough sketches by the author. Why am I convinced that Marcel could draw?
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised by Gimmer's response to what he calls "effrontery" (A fine word, rarely used in blogging. Let's bring back more of them.) I would welcome having my cadaverous face included among a stream of anonymous, broken-by-life images. It's a form of recognition even if words would be better. ("Clearly a simulacrum of disappointment. A face from the land of small achievements and even smaller expectations." - I'd be prepared to write the caption myself.)
"Simulacrum" isn't as good as "effrontery" - it strains too much.
Gayl - Bravo! That equates to my inadequate flirtations with science.
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BC - Grid reference SD 540 849. On the road junction off to the right in Endmoor heading towards Kendal on the A65.
As I said on s comment on one of your posts I think there is a distinction between deliberate and potentially malicious photographs invading people's privacy and the kind of anonymous photos I took, although I do confess to feeling a bit uneasy about it, but pleased with the result from that final one you mentioned. Do you want job as a bodyguard?
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gimmer - I can imagine the scene and I'm glad I wasn't there.
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RR - I guessed your journalistic background would not object to my candid photos. Dare we start a competition for the ugliest word? I reckon this one of yours could be a strong contender. However good, or bad a word may be it has to flow within its sentence and that would not be easy to achieve with "simulacrum."
I quote from The Elements of Style.
"Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute, Do not be tempted by a twenty dollar word when there is a ten- center handy, ready and able, Anglo-Saxon is a livelier tongue than Latin, so use Anglo-Saxon words. In this, as in so many matters pertaining to style, one's ear must be one's guide: gut is a lustier noun than intestine, but the two words are not interchangeable, because gut is often inappropriate, being too coarse for the context. Never call a stomach a tummy without good reason."
It wasn't your photos I was praising - surely, surely, I make this clear. It was the stuff you wrote about weather forecasting.
ReplyDeleteSimulacrum dates back to the 16th century and therefore may well be as Anglo-Saxon as White suggests. It isn't pretentious, coy or cute. It is very hard to put a value on "flow within its sentence". Are you absolutely sure your reaction to it isn't based on unfamiliarity and, in any case, God help me!, I make the point that the word is inferior to effrontery. Perhaps you'd like to suggest a single-word synonym because - at the drop of a hat - I'm not sure if I can.
ReplyDeleteRR - -I know, I know - it was the ethics involved in taking those candid photos I was referring to.
I suggest "icon." It would work and with less letters. BUT, I suspect you have ingeniously found a long held wish to find an opportunity to use your word by making it fit perfectly by linking it with the word "small" in the next sentence.
Fewer letters.
ReplyDeleteIcon is over-used and over-misused; it needs a long rest in a care home where no one gives a damn about the patients.
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ReplyDeletegimmer's comment was removed at his request.
ReplyDeleteMy weather app is called Sheila. Works every time and always right, obviously.
ReplyDeleteAlan R - you are blessed.
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