Blogs

Balloon Flight

After a cycle of excitement followed by let down when it was too windy or too rainy to fly, finally the gods of the weather saw fit to produce an almost perfect day for my 9 June rebooking of my balloon flight. The flight was a present from my parents over a year ago for my birthday and Christmas present and it’s taken until now for me to manage to actually get airborne. I’d booked to fly from Westonbirt Arboretum which is slightly north east from where I live. When I got there at around 0615 the balloon crew were already present and sending up a helium balloon to assess the wind direction and strength as the helium balloon rose up.

Pastoral

I've been revisting some of my old pano shots and processing them. The image below is one I took maybe a year ago when I was around the White Horse area of South West England. The actual panorma turned out completely differently than I imagined while taking it and to be honest I can't decide whether I like it or not. It's got the 'minimalist and mudane' look about it but I can't decide whether it has got anywhere near the 'minimalist, mudane and magnificent' point hat you see with some photos. What do you think? Yay or nay? You can be brutally honest, I won't be offended... The pano is 1x3.

Regardless, it means that I can pack the files away into my 'archive' folder so it won't continually torment me in the 'todo' folder ;-)

Olympic Stadium, Munich

Tuesday and Wednesday I was visiting Munich for work. We got done earlier than we thought so spent some time having a drink in the sun at the Olympic Park in Munich. While there I took the opportunity to have a look inside the stadium for 2EUR. Below is a 1x3 handheld panorama which surprisingly went together pretty easily. Munich was expecting a storm later in the evening hence the pretty clouds you can see building up! Comments and criticisms would be most welcome.

Stereoscopic Playing

It's another rainy day here in Bristol which is annoying as after a number of weeks not doing much at the weekend but recoving from long days working followed by coursework in the evening I was in the mood for going out with my camera. Browsing through W1K I found a thread on stereoscopic images which I figured would be interesting to try and also have the advantage that I could stay indoors and dry!

Stonehenge

Below is a 4 image hand held pano that I shot while visiting my brother in Reading. Any comments and criticisms would be welcome (note there is no lens flare! ;-) )

Visit to Reading

Last weekend, Edd came home for a visit and I decided to take him back home by car as he was taking more "stuff" back to his flat in Reading. I'd decided to stay overnight so took my sleeping bag and camp bed too so that I'd be rested for the 100 mile journey back home the following morning. After arriving there in the early afternoon, we went for a walk and I took some photos of Reading Abbey and Forbury Park. The Abbey's destruction started at the dissolution of the monasteries in about 1539. I believe that the lead was stripped from the roof and the fabric of the building allowed to deteriorate. Further information on the Abbey can be found on

Trust

A work colleague stunned me today. The guy I sit next to at work needs to go on a business trip next week but won't be around on Monday to make the necessary bookings. He's entrusted me with his credit card which I am to give to the secretary on Monday to make the necessary arrangements.

But whoa! The guy has trusted me with his credit card! That trust gives me a warm feeling inside.

Aged cat wins battle

For the last few months, a stray, I think, black and white fluffy Persian cat has been creeping into the kitchen at night in order to steal food from the dinner trays left out for my three black cats. The Persian was getting bolder and bolder, venturing into the lounge when it thought no one was around in the middle of the night and staying in the garden during the day sunning itself. Finally Nick, the eldest of my cats decided enough was enough and decided to fight it out. Nick is 15 in cat years which is about equivalent to 80 in human terms. He's arthritic, clingy, and likes to sit on me whenever I sit in my armchair. Nevertheless, they growled at each other and attacked, rolling around in a flowerbed. I rushed to Nick's aid and we both saw the Persian off the premises. A couple of days later, Matt noticed that an abscess had formed on Nick's head and proceeded to help it drain using kitchen towels. It's now healing but has left him with the mark in the centre of his forehead in the picture below:-

Another Necklace

I had a huge bag of matt clear seed beads bought at the Essex Bead Fair and a piece of fused and combed irregularly shaped glass that I was at a loss on what to do with it. Coupled with no projects on the go at the time, I decided to use the seed beads to make a twisted rope and the glass to use as a cabochon. I'd seen a similar idea of using seed beads to set up the cabochon in one of the beading magazines, but also Googled to find other instructions.The ones I eventually used were from an Article by Ann Brodrick published in the October 1998 issue of Lapidary Journal. The Article was reprinted at

Keeping busy

Over the last few months, I've started to learn the various seed bead stitches which can be used for all sorts of jewellery etc. Here are a few of my initial tries in following a pattern, whether it be a seed bead one or a cross stitch one I've used for seed beads. I've learnt a lot in the process, but here are some of the pieces, warts and all.

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