Planarchy Archive - July 2003


 

Cockerell

So here are my weekend Hoverfly pictures. Inspired by the superior efforts from Sensiti but not bad all the same.  The important part of the excercise was learning more about the camera (and the hoverflies, which were fascinating).  And they've got a good name... they hover and they're flies!  Unlike wasps, (which aren't), bees (well don't we all) and butterflies (it doesn't).

20030729   19:55

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Giraffes

Well! 

Fancy that! 

It's Giraffe week over Blue Witch's way and what should I come to find in the garden but two nearly fully grown giraffes (except one's a baby)!  They're attracted by the exotic plants I expect....New Zealand Tree Ferns: Japanese Bamboos and South African Osteospermum..... all well known habitats for Giraffes (except SA obviously).

20030728   20:09

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Fujifrog

Well, I'd had enough of not having a macro digicam (three days, guys!) and the Pentax *ist D still shows no sign of appearing. So, I went out and bought the very highly regarded Fuji S602 Zoom Pro. It's sort of a halfway house on the way to a proper SLR.

I already love it to bits. 

Despite the appalling weather I've managed to spend much of the weekend learning some it's facets.... F stops!  The joy of total control over focusing, aperture and shutter speeds once again.  The power!  The POWER! Ha-ha-ha, soon you will all be my slaves.

Sorry, err back to the pictures.  I spent an hour or so today trying to see if the East London Hoverflies were as photogenic as the beauties Sensiti has captured (they're not).  And whilst doing so came across froggy here.  I know I've done frogs before.  But not in the grass, OK!  So click to see all of him.

And yes, Friday's Fender picture was really the first outing of the camera.  But that was all on automatic.

20030727   20:51

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Machineheads

So, after the Deadhead comes this.

And why not.

It's my Photo Friday entry for Mechanism.... as if I need any other excuse to display a part of my lovely 1982 Fender Lead II geetar.

20030725   17:14

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Deadhead

Well, luckily I have some spare photos for times such as these.  Scabious, I think but you won't catch me deadheading such things. 

Oh, no!

Been there with the lilies one year.  I knew one pot of lilies had finished flowering and so deadheaded them.  Unfortunately the pot next door had unopened buds which looked very similar so they got the snip too.  Zee has never let me forget that one.  So, when in doubt I leave it until it is obviously going to seed.  Then I think about saving it a bit longer and growing on the seed.  Then, next year I wonder what on earth all the seedlings are as I forgot to use the indelible pen again.  I use the inedible one instead.  Easy mistake.

20030723   20:46

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Arrrrghh!

Well, no more close up flower pictures for a bit I'm sorry to say as my leetle Nikita 775 Digicam has broken again. Eight months old, two months from its first repair and it's fecked again.

There have been happier days.

20030722   19:29

  |   permalink    |    blog home



A Good year for the Roses

I'm not great fan of roses, they're one of Zee's bits of the garden. Nevertheless, I must admit this one (New Dawn) has been beautiful this year, it really makes you want to dive in and swim about it in it.  Like a softly whipped ice cream.

Or something.

20030720   20:26

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Empty Rooms

The house seems empty somehow.  Our eldest has gone to Paris for the weekend with her school.  But I'm not talking emotional space here, well not just that.  No, it's just that she seems to have taken everything that wasn't nailed down with her.  I've remarked on her large school bag before so I suppose we should have known that for a weekend it would be an enormous suitcase plus the largest possible rucksack for hand luggage.

As for how she's getting on well, Zee lent her her mobile phone for the weekend in case she needed to get in touch.  Yesterday I received 29 text messages from her....

"Just left school..
"On the ferry..
"Out at sea...
"Off the ferry...
"Look after the guinea pigs...
"Cuddle the hamster...

... etcetera, right up to "Goodnight!"

But today we've only had a morning greeting and a short
"Arrived at Disney..."

I hope she enjoys tomorrow (a trip down the Seine) as much.

20030719   19:36

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Marzipan

They don't really look like real flowers do they?  More like cake decorations so yellow and so pink it nearly makes you sick.

But somehow, they still fit in.

20030718   19:58

  |   permalink    |    blog home



And it was all Yellow...

But for the mild winter our borders would be a little lacking a çe moment.  But luckily these Rudbeckia survived the winter and are putting on a far greater show than they managed last autumn at their allotted flowering time.  Even on a grey day like today they bring sunshine into the garden.

20030717   7:39

  |   permalink    |    blog home



When Butterflies go Bad

Another butterfly picture I'm afraid.  This specimen was fluttering randomly around the garden but only visiting dried up old flowers.  Clearly looking for old nectar that has fermented into some kind of butterfly brew.  Good to know that there are papilonic pissheads around, I think.

20030715   20:56

  |   permalink    |    blog home



To Dream...

Last night we spent the evening watching "Whale Rider" wherein we learnt that the solution for young girls suffering the trials and tribulations of a patriarchal society is to go and sit on a whale. 

As if you didn't know!

The scenery was lovely (well it was EnZee) and the whale footage was equally satisfying.  The acting was also fine.  But as a whole I found it all a bit empty.  Poor direction I guess.

By way of a contrast we came home to see my favourite director, Terry Gilliam, suffering as his attempt at the telling of the Don Quixote story fell apart in the documentary "Lost in La Mancha", highly recommended.

Oh, and the Orca picture above is one of mine, taken during one of the most memorable half an hours of my life as our whale-watching boat was escorted by a dozen orcae.  Glorious!

20030713   21:42

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Butterfly on Bubblewrap

I was looking for something for this week's Photo Friday (symmetry) and instead came across this butterfly that had stumbled into a sci-fi world of endless pockets of air.

It's gone back to the flowers now.

And I'm still looking for symmetry.

20030711   18:05

  |   permalink    |    blog home



WMD

Thanks to my leetle bro', DeeJay, for this one.... go to Google, type in "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and hit the "I feel lucky" button.

Heh, heh.

20030710   20:55

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Blowing my Own Trumpet

OK, you'll have to read this to get it but take a look at today's Grauni letters page (also here near the bottom) and you'll find me in the "real" world too.

Hurrah!

20030710   7:16

  |   permalink    |    blog home



The Ballad of Lucy Jordan

This started with the story of the guy looking to hire a sports car in Paris so he could grant his wife's wish before she passed 37 (you do need to know the song).  Zee mentioned again that I'd failed to do the same thing for her whilst we her in Paris last year for her somethingth birthday (though having seen the driving in Paris she quite understood).  Anyway, the song was back in my head so I started looking for an MP3 out there in trippa-dubya-land. 

And what came out? 

Well, apart from loads of copies of the Marianne Faithfull version there was also one by Dr.Hook.

"What?"  I thought.   

Well, it turns out that they did it first as it was written by Shel Silverstein (a very interesting character it appears) who also wrote their greatest hit (IMHO) and was indeed part of the band for a few years.  So a few cred points to the Hook (still don't like their version though).

But is it just cos I heard the Faithfull version first?  I think not, but it's difficult when you've heard one version of a song hundreds of times

Strange.

20030708   20:53

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Happy Again

Hurrah!  My Broadband connection is now working two way.  And guess what, it wasn't my firewall, virus checker, local server or even the muesli bar I had for breakfast.

Nope, they'd set the account up wrong and when they fixed that everything worked.

Happy, happy happy.

Makes for a pretty boring post though!

20030707   20:05

  |   permalink    |    blog home



NTHell of a Weekend

Yep, we were due our Broadband installation this weekend.  Sure enough they showed up on time, but didn't know they were here to install Broadband.  Two hours later it appeared to be working fine.... excellent speed downloads.

Then I tried to send an email: no luck.

FTP some pictures to the site: no luck.

Post a few words to an internet forum: no luck.

Use Webmail: no luck.

Basically we had a one way broadband connection.  Everyone over at NTHellWorldForum has been wonderful (including the NTL guy visiting) but NTL have yet to sort it out.

In fact I've now lost the service completely!  Doh!!!!!

20030706   20:04

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Can you tell what it is yet?

No, it's not another one of those unidentified giant squid thingamy-jigs.

It's the present that Zee and her mum brought me back from the nursery whilst I was being majorly pissed off at being called in to work on a Saturday (an un-necessary trip to boot).  Still not sure what it is?

Well, it's another Datura (AKA Brugmansia AKA Angel's Trumpet), but this time with glorious Deep Purple (get riffing) flowers and similarly beetroot stem.  Glorioso maximus!

Of course, there'll be more pictures when the buds burst into flower....

20030705   13:20

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Solitude

My first Photo Friday is Solitude

You don't need to be alone for solitude... just let the focus go.....

20030704   18:13

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Could do better

Just to see what it was all about, I installed the Google Toolbar.  From this I have learnt how important my site is.  4/10 they give me in their bizarre page ranking system. 

40 percent! 

That's still a pass isn't it?  Oh, and before you get too complacent the comments section got 0/10!

Surpisingly, humble old Google only give themselves 9/10.

Next I pressed the button with a blogger logo.  I was told "This blog needs to be migrated to the new version of Blogger."

No, actually, it feckin' doesn't!

20030703   18:38

  |   permalink    |    blog home



School Days

I was at Dee's school last night for an info-meeting on her forthcoming meeting to France.  How come, I ask you, at the merry age of 42, I still feel like a kid as soon as I walk through the doors of a school?  When do I get to be one of the grown-ups?

Elsewhere, another excellent piece from Salam Pax, the Baghdad Blogger in today's Grauni.

20030702   21:12

  |   permalink    |    blog home



Flopsy

Well, another month, another glance through the site stats.  There's been a plethora of photography this month...but which was your favourite?  Mine was either the banana leaf in the rain, the butterfly, or possibly even the swimmers.

My least favourite was "Squeak!", the photo of the girls' guinea pigs.

But that was your favourite piccie!

Arrrggghhh! 

So from now on it's nothing but fluffy bunnies.....and I know it's what you want, the stats don't lie.

20030701   21:32

  |   permalink    |    blog home



 

 

 

Home to planarchy