Photo Memories

I love my photos archive. It hold lots of memories. Many that my poor knocked about brain will not hold. So here's a few if 2011's memories for you.

The year began cold and snowy....

......making the garden a winter wonderland.

Feb. brought yet another Family Funeral. Aunty Linda's this time
on her 98th birthday. The up side was we saw family from South Africa.
  

When the snow went the sun came out so a trip to the coast was made.

You can't beat the coast in winter....Fish and Chips in Wells Next the Sea.......

.......and of course Afternoon tea in Sherringham

Television came to town in February with 'Flog It'
at the Cathedral. We took the opportunity to have a walk
around our beautiful Cathedral  

The sunny spell saw us taking a trip to Anglesey Abbey
This birch grove looked stunning in the winter sunshine.

......as did the working water mill 

In March I found long lost relatives living almost on our doorstep
Cousin Kay was born in Peterborough. 

I hadn't seen her since she was a baby and I was a nipper!

April was sunny and warm so we took a trip to Barnsdale Gardens.
The Late Geoff Hamiltons creations are kept looking good by his family.

The lush spring growth made the gardens a pleasure to walk around.

May Day and we're at Silverstone  for an 'Aston Martin' thrill......

.....007 aka "Himself' Races round the track.

Birthday cup cakes for Nathans 2nd birthday. Made by Stephanie

Nathan our great grand son loves his hats but not his pants!

June 1st we skip the country and go to Canada. 

Here we are about to embark on the

 Tall Ships for a sail out to sea 

On a cruise to Alaska we marvel at the magnificent Hubbard Glacier.

almost midnight near the Artic Circle on the summer solstice.

In Calgary we see the World famous Stampede for the first time. 

Watch the Cowboys and Girls do their stuff with bulls and horses,

watch First Nation people dance and make music,

and eat Pancakes and bacon in the street

street pancakes taste good.

In the hot desert Alberta  Badlands we see Dinosaur bones from the
worlds largest dinosaur grave yard.......

......and strange rock  shapes called Hoo Doos.

back in BC in the little village of Ladner we visit a wonderful 

Farmers market and eat Greek food with friends.

beautiful sun flowers.

Visit Vancouver's historic Gastown.....

......travel along the Sea to Sky highway to Swallow Falls near Squamish.

Cross to Vancouver Island and see the wonderful Butchart Gardens ....

...eat Posh food in the Empress Hotel.

..take a sea trip out to Coal Harbour on Steve Galloway's 30ft yacht.

Take a Harbour cruise on a Paddle Steamer.

and see Vancouver's city skyline from a different viewpoint.

on Vancouver's North shore we visit  Deep Cove..

such a beautiful sheltered place. We decided we could live there.

Whale watching in the Georgia Straits.

eat wonderful food all over Vancouver and Richmond

with lovely friends.

We came home to a brand new look in our lounge.

Lost and Found

Just recently I've had a problem with Apple iphoto. A potentially bad problem. This program is where I store all my digital photos. My photographs had been carefully stored and sorted by years, dates and events. Many of my older film photographs were digitized and stored. All my family history photos, some that were loaned and digitized and there fore very precious were all there. All our holiday photos,  from when the kids were small to our recent Canadian adventures.

You can imagine my consternation, when one morning I went to open iphoto only to find no photos. Nothing. Zilch. I panicked. They couldn't be missing. Why should they be missing. But there was the iphoto software totally empty. Not a single photograph in evidence whatsoever!

I sat and searched my Apple Mac, through all the folders and applications Not a sign of them. Now I know they have to be somewhere in the deep recesses of the system but I could not locate them. Surely Apple software, Apple, who prides themselves on their reliability couldn't have really lost them.  I knew I had most of them on a separate hard drive and all the resent holiday photos were secure on the little Acer net book.

I opened Picasa my second storage program. Phew! they were all there. So why weren't they in iphotos? I went to online forums. Mmmh so, I'm not the only one this has happened to. But there wasn't any real help retrieving  them. I could connect with an online Apple Teck. guy and pay him £36 if he was successful in retrieving them. Blanching at that, I thought, 'no, no, no, this is not going to beat me.' I figured if they were still in Picassa there had to be a way of exporting them back into iphotos. I couldn't see it though.

Eventually, after much clicking back and forth through all the options, I worked out how to do it. It was a long, laborious process that took me four really long sessions to restore iphotos back to how I want my photos stored securely. Maybe I'll use the Acer net book with Windows 7 as a second hard drive. So far Windows has never done anything so drastic.

Saying a Sad Farewell

After my morning swim I decided to forgo coffee in town today and go straight home. I had a task to get through. Not one I was looking forward to. In fact I really didn't want to do this but I'm afraid she has to go. Poor Astra.  Her age was catching up with her. She is rusting slowly away. I've had my lovely girl since she came out of the showroom all shiny red paint and with that 'new car' vinyl smell. She's been a faithful companion for 15 years now. She never let me down. Starting her trusty engine when ever I asked her in sun, rain, fog, frost and deep snow. 

She's helped the kids in their numerable house moves and never once complained. Shes hauled boot loads of fire logs to keep Jase warm in the winter. Enumerable loads of garden rubbish have been transported to the tip. So many loads of unwanted acquisitions have gone to charity shops and Car Boots. Vast quantities of shopping from the supermarkets have been transported home. She's ferried Kids and Grand Kids about the County. Took us from one end of the country to the other without a hitch and carried me back and forth to town most days for the last 15 years.

Sadly now her care is getting expensive at I time when I need to conserve the finances. Her taxes are far more than her larger successor because she's so old. The last two harsh winters have taken a toll on the fading red paint work.

So this morning so reluctantly I make phone calls, to the dealers 'Himself' has pulled from the paper to make sure I do this. I haggle. Apparently She's too old to resell and too old for parts. I know they're all spinning me yarns. Eventually find a nice chap who will come and look her over and if he likes her he will take her for her final journey to the 'antique' car scrap yard. 

'Himself' supervised her loading onto the transporter.

She's all tethered down ready to go.

the last farewell!

going.. going..

Gone...Farewell Old friend.

Oh dear, there's such and empty space on the drive. What have I done. What am I going to do with out her?

A Musical Interlude

The BBC Promenade Concerts or The Proms as they are known Have a long history. Promenade Concerts had existed in London’s pleasure gardens since the mid 18th century but on the 10th August 1895 impresario Robert Newman arranged the first series of indoor promenade concerts in the Queen’s Hall in Langham Place. Newman hired Henry Joseph Wood as conductor for the series of concerts he called ‘Mr Robert Newman’s Promenade Concerts’. Wood built up the Queens Hall Orchestra and the concerts gained a popular following and reputation. After Newman became bankrupt in 1902 Edgar Speyer took over funding the popular concerts. Newman continued the artistic planning of the Concerts.In 1914 anti German feeling forced Speyer out and music publishers Chappell & Co took over. After Newman’s death in November 1928 Wood became the name most closely associated with the concerts.

The broze bust of Sir Henry Wood attends every Prom concert.

In 1927 The BBC took over running the concerts and they have been known as the BBC Promenade Concerts ever since.Wood continued conducting until his death in 1944 when Sir Adrian Boult and Basil Cameron took on the duties. In 1947 Malcolm Sargent took over the chief conductor duties until 1966. In 1941 the Proms moved to the Royal Albert Hall and apart from a brief spell in the Bedford Corn Exchange in 1944 when the risk from war bombing was at its highest, have been there ever since.

Between July and September the BBC Proms are an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral Classical music concerts and other events held annually, Most in the Royal Albert Hall but over the last few years an additional venus and ‘Proms in the Park’ events have been held across the United Kingdom. 

the enthusiastic last 'nighters'.

The soloist Susan Bullock dressed for her rendition of Rule Britannia
 a last night tradition.

 On the most popular and eagerly attended Last Night, the program is relayed to an open air venue in Hyde Park and is joined by huge events in Ireland Scotland Wales and England. The last night in the Royal Albert Hall is so popular that people have been know to queue up for up to three weeks in advance to get a ticket. 

Dress code is unusual, from fancy dress to dinner jackets to patriotic T shirts. Party poppers, balloons whistles horns are welcome and a sea of flags and banners are waved from the central standing area. and the tiers seats.  

Last Night Conductor. The youngest ever Edward Gardner.

From the radio performances until we acquired a small black and white television I have listened and watched the Last Night since I was a kid. There have not been many years when I’ve missed this stirring performance of jubilant music. Last night featured the Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang in the first half and the soprano soloist Susan Bullock was the vocalist. The Actress Jenny Agguter read lines in humorous poetic format  to introduced the many sections of a full orchestra.

The unchangeable tradition of the last half of the last night is Elgar's  Pomp and Circumstance march, Rule Britannia and Jerusalem. The Promenaders, then after the conductors traditional speech, unprogrammed, sing Auld Lang Syne.

As I read one of my dear Canadian friend, Scorpio- Cancer’s blog this morning and to quote him 

“And there on the corner of Burrard and Davie was a 15 piece band with singer...the music was fantastic...had all of us moving to the beat! Now, I have to admit this was a time when the thought of cancer was NOT in my mind! Only memories, and the feeling a good band does to the soul!” 

I wondered how the atmosphere and music of the ‘Last night’ would feed his soul.  To overflowing I would think. It certainly does mine. As those classic Shakespeare lines go “ If music be the food of love , play on and give me excess of it”

Conquering the Car fears

Well I've done it. Got the better of the new Vectra's gear box. I said it wouldn't beat me. We've has this car for a year now, but because I still had my old faithful red Astra estate. A good old work horses that had been good to me for 15 years now. I automatically got in it when ever I went out alone in the car. Going out with 'Himself we went in the Vectra of course.  I never have the inclination to drive when 'Himself' is in the car. We work better when he drives and I navigate and that's how it's been for 48 years! I drove it once when we first bought the shiny new Vectra but then kept faith with old Astra. I didn't like Vectra's six gears. I mean why do you need six gears?
Now, sadly my old faithful Astra has to go. She's never ever given me any bother and always started on cue. The sad fact is I can't afford to run two cars now and her poor body work is suffering from winter weather exposures. She has slow creeping rust problems on her bodywork.
Since we came home from Canada I've been stuck in the house. Astra has no Tax insurance or MOT so she has to stay immobile. Tempting! Anyway I'd had enough of Cabin Fever and demanded to go out. I need to be able to drive. I really can't imagine why I find driving a different car so daunting I never have before. Do I feel unfaithful to poor old Astra? After a short drive out on Tuesday I decided today I'd conquer this reluctance once and for all.
Off then on our jaunt then this afternoon, out of the estate, the long way round passed Chequers and out on the Elton road then cutting over to Wansford through to the A1 then North up to Stamford. Out of Stamford towards Barnack and through to Helpston stopping for afternoon tea at Willowbrook Farm Granary. While we were there we booked ourselves in for their Sausage night in November and a Pudding Night next week. Next stop, into the butchers shop, for some fresh local meat. Well we had to have some of their own made Willowbrook Farm  sausages for tonight's dinner. Then back in the car through to Bretton with a stop at Aldi to stock up on their cheap but excellent products then home. Sorted. Got these gears sussed and I'm relaxed with the driving. Guess there's no reason not to get out early in the mornings now. So no reason not to go for a swim. Well my legs still not quite recovered from the allergy. So I guess I could wait a day or two longer. But at least I can get out to the shops now when I want to!

Monday Blues

It's Monday  and it's not a good day. The weather doesn't know whether to rain or shine. The winds rather blustery and cool. Tempers here are a little fraught today. It must be the weathers effect.  Every one is doing stuff in different areas of the property. Keeping their distance.  Hopefully as the day passes nerves will calm.

I had a wander around the garden this morning. There's still lots of work to do here.  But to cheer me up I took this photo of this little sunflower. Now it's only small and It's in a place where it shouldn't be but it's so cheerful I left it be. I'm assuming the seed is from the bird food we put out in the winter. The birds are usually so thorough in picking up all the scattered seed that I'm not sure how this one escaped

 The seed center is so perfect but I suspect it will never produce seeds the same size as it developed from. Note the minuscule baby snail under the seeds to the right!

 Elsewhere in the garden plants have been prolific and productive. The fuchsia is still flowering away. I love these lovely dancing bell like flowers and there are several dotted around the garden. This one is a dwarf variety, I think called Thumbellina but I may be wrong.

 The dwarf peach tree my sister gave me several years ago has up to now been a disappointment. The peaches are small, white fleshed and so sweet, that is when they manage to stay on the tree long enough to ripen. When they have done they've generally been attached and guzzled by ferocious wasps. This year however the tree is laden. They look ready to eat but they are still like little rocks. I'm undecided to pick them and ripen them on a windowsill or leave them hoping that this year the wasps will not find them.

 

 The grape vine is slowly making it's way up to the roof of the garage. Such an abundance of verdant growth. Sadly though, the grapes this year are rubbish. They're always small and have fiddly seeds in them, but are usually sweet. Daisy the resident tortoise loves them. as does the wasp population. Maybe that's why the peaches have been left alone this year. No grapes to attract them.

Blogger has changed the style of it's dashboard once again. I hope this one will not give me the grief the last design did otherwise I will have to change blog sites.