Fabric of Life

The photo challenge on SCS this week was Fabric.
Like cooking, I've loved sewing as long as I can remember. I was making little skirts and waistcoats and pinafore dresses by the time I was seven or eight, on my own old Singer machine - even if I did run the needle through my finger the very first time I tried it. It was an old one Dad got from somewhere, and painted blue and white with little flowers on it for me. And up till recently I still sewed a lot; but when C stopped being away overnights it meant tidying up all the time, so it's been a while since I've made much. When I got out some fabrics to pile together for my photo, I realised I really need to do some sewing this summer. For starters I'd like to use that grey, black and white print from Italy to make C another shirt. He had one made from it years ago, and the other half of the fabric was meant to be for me. But he wore his shirt till the cuffs were frayed and it was going at the elbows before he finally let it go, so maybe he deserves the other half of the fabric too.

My other photo is an old linen tablecloth, from my grandmother, maybe older. I use it quite often, despite the fact that it takes AGES to iron, even if I am organised enough to do it while it's still slightly damp. The piece of embroidery sitting on it is also Irish linen. And goodness, it was expensive - I think it was something like £60 a metre, but it's quite wide so I've fitted several embroideries out of it and there's still plenty left.

No photo, but when I was walking to the bus after work today, I saw someone ( a supermarket delivery guy, his van was parked along the quays) throwing pieces of bread into the Liffey. One solitary seagull in sight...and two minutes later they were mobbing the bread as he threw it in. I don't know how they communicate, but I now know that if I want to get some good seagull shots, all I need to do is save up some stale bread and bring it along. There were at least three different types of gull, and it was interesting watching their different flight patterns.

Developing Photographs

I'd really like to say a big thank-you to those who appreciate my photography. When I started my blog I wasn't sure what way it would take me - as things have turned out, it's more a photo blog than anything else.
There have been a couple of questions about the camera I use, so I thought I'd go back a bit.
When I thought about titling this some way to do with developing, it brought back such vivid memories of watching my dad develop photos when I was little; the glow of the safe-light in his darkroom (the old larder off the back scullery), the smell of the chemicals, the shallow trays and smell of chemicals, the glass rods with rubber stoppers for stirring things around...the magic of seeing the negatives develop and trying to work out what, and who, they were with the inverted colours, and then the even more amazing magic of watching the black and white images emerging from nothing on the paper - first the palest hints of the image, growing stronger until it was time to stop them at just the right point and fix them. That's something that has been lost with digital photography.
I got my very first camera the Christmas I was thirteen, from my half-brother. I think it was some sort of Kodak instant camera, with those flash cubes that you popped on top. I still have some photos from back then, but I was always aware of how expensive they were (that's a big plus for digital!).
My first real camera was a Minolta range-finder, manual focus. Try as  I might I can't remember the year. I am sure it was when I was still living at home, so before I was twenty, but in that case why didn't I have it with me when I was working in the UK? The manual focus didn't work with close-up filters, so I had a little notebook with all the right settings, and a piece of cord with knots in it to mark the different distances.
This photo was taken on my first outing with that camera, at Kilmacurragh gardens. Now they are run by the Office of Public Works and run by the Botanic Gardens, and have been done up enormously. Back then it was a ruined house in a decaying garden with a wonderful sense of being lost in time. As you can see, I always had an eye out for reflections.

 

(and yes, this is upside down, but that's how I have it hanging on my wall)

My next camera was an Olympus IS-2000 for my 30th birthday, from all the family. My half-brother was working in Riyadh at the time and was able to get it at a good price, but even so it was a munificent present. It was one of Olympus' hybrid cameras, SLR capability but no interchangeable lens, just a built-in zoom.
The cow picture was maybe the second roll of film I took with it, when we took a cruiser on the Shannon for our holidays. Yes, it really was that blue-green colour, it was heading rapidly towards dusk on a sunny June evening.

 

The two swan pictures were two years later, when I'd acquired a tele-converter to extend the zoom range. Again it was a cruise - this time on the Erne; we were out in the dinghy when I took these.

























My first digital camera was an Olympus Camedia, which someone gave me when he was upgrading to something better. Like the IS it was a hybrid, with a built-in fixed zoom,but SLR capabilities. And even then, the peculiar memory card it took was already discontinued and only available on eBay. But it was a wonderful gift to receive, and when the time came to pass it on, I FreeCycled it to someone who had had the same model and knew the vagaries of the battery performance. I could take it to the Botanic Gardens and the batteries would be flat in over an hour, and yet on one trip to Paris the batteries lasted the whole trip.
A photo from my first outing with that camera, May 2007. I loved the macro capability...

Then C gave me an ultra-compact Olympus point and shoot for my handbag, Christmas 08.
When I decided to finally buy my own camera so that at long last I could have interchangeable lenses, I read all the reviews in WHICH Camera Buyer and various magazines.Nikon and Canon always came out tops - but you can see that I've used mostly Olympus cameras (the "family" camera as we grew up was also an Olympus Trip), and I'd always had positive experiences with customer support and getting cameras serviced. So I tried the feel of a Canon in my hand to keep an open mind, but as I liked the feel of the Olympus just as well, and was used to their commands and menu system, that was what I bought. That was back in October 2008, when I bought an Olympus E 520. I mostly use a 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 lens. Because of the sensor size and crop ratio on Olympus' Four Thirds mount, this equates to 80-300mm on a 35mm camera, but my new lens is a faster f2.8-3.5 model.

Staying on Track

Mr UPS man delivered in the afternoon, and oh my - I am going to start saving NOW for an E3 body to go with my groovy new lens. C says it had ought to be groovy - he was the one who got the call from our card-issuing bank to check was it OK to authorise the transaction.
Actually, I wasn't expecting it today. I saw this morning before work it had arrived in Ireland, but when I got home it was still just showing the destination scan, and not as out for delivery. I have been tracking something else too - C used his Christmas money to order a new bigger windscreen for his bike.
The DHL tracking page may have fancy little logos to show you what stage your delivery is at, but with the poorly translated descriptions, it certainly needs the logos. The UPS interface is much cleaner and easier to read.

 

(The On Track photo is obviously from the snowy weather in January. While there has been some snow on the mountains the last few days, that's as far as it goes)

And how can I not post my first shots with my new lens, too :D.

We are off to visit my brother and his family tomorrow. It's about a three and a half hour drive each way, so it's going to be one long and tiring day, but it will be great to see the family.
And right now I smell that French Onion soup, and I'd better go and dish it up.

Cold and Bright

Today was bitterly cold in the morning - but by the time I was coming home from work there was real warmth in the sunshine.
The photo of James Joyce Bridge was taken on the way to work.

The one of the lamp-post and rooftops was taken on the way home.

Next week is another busy week till Friday - I hope nothing comes up to make it any busier than it already is.
I ordered a new lens for my camera. Despite adverse weather conditions in Kentucky this morning, it's now arrived in Germany. Please Mr UPS, deliver it in the afternoon and not in the morning, whether it's tomorrow or Monday.
p.s. Elisa - as far as the colours of the water marks go, it was a matter of the sunshine enhancing them. The greens are always there, and sometimes a sort of purple - but on a dull day they just make you think of heather-covered mountains on a cloudy day. It's amazing the difference a bit of sunshine makes.

Cold, Light and Refreshing

In chronological order, I snapped the empty Coors bottle the last weekend in January, when I was walking down to get the paper and whatever else.

Just last week the ad on the hoarding opposite my bus stop in town changed from one for Volkswagen to this one for Coors...

The lamp post photo was taken yesterday. I took a lift to the dentist with C. He was always going to let me off a bit before the dentist, so that it would be easier for him to turn and get back in to work himself without being too much later than normal. As we left a bit earlier than called for in Plan A, I got off the bike at the Leinster Road junction, and walked on out to Terenure crossroads. I noticed this lamp post somewhere along the way, and had time to stop and take a quick picture.

Embroidery

Cindy's MMTPT challenge this week took us to Provence. I haven't been in Provence for 30 years, so I am very glad of a chance to revisit some of my memories. In fact, just last week I received in the post a large B&W photo of the house I stayed in - sadly it was a letter to say that the daughter of the family had died. I remember her as a sunny, happy young child. (It was evident that Irish postal workers don't understand that "Priez de ne pas plier" means Please do not bend, but luckily I retrieved it from the post box within a few minutes of it having been stuffed in.
I am planning to make a card with an iris on it for the challenge.
This iris embroidery is one I did about ten years ago, buying all the vast  and expensive amount of cotton it needed with a gift-voucher I received after making the bridesmaids' dresses for a friend's wedding.
Normally when I take an embroidery to be framed, the conversation runs along these lines.
Framer - do you want non-reflective glass in that?
Me - I don't want any glass at all.
Framer - but you need glass to protect it.
Me - I don't want glass, I don't like it with embroideries.
Framer - are you really sure you don't want glass?
Me - yes, I am really sure.
This is the only embroidery that does have glass in it, so it was hard to get a really good picture - along with the fact that it's a dull, cold grey day.

These close-ups are from a Tree of Life embroidery which I had framed as a fire-screen. Despite having no glass, and many years of getting up-close and personal attention from small toddlers and older kids, it's only just getting to the point where I feel I need to take it out of the frame and give it a wash.

 

 

Caught Peanut-Pawed

C was out for a motorbike run this morning, but it was so foggy that they called it a day after they'd had a short run to Blessington and stopped for breakfast.  So I went out to open the back gate shortly before I expected him back, and spotted the grey squirrel. I dashed upstairs to get my camera and he was still there when I got back. The first picture is taken through two windows, so it's a bit hazy. I managed to get the back door open without totally startling him, but after a minute sitting on the wall, then he made a dash for it. The other day C saw him running along under the fascia board on the shed, and was worried that he might have a little tunnel into the shed. But I think he just uses it as a safe, sheltered run to get to the back wall and into the trees again.

If it's just one squirrel, I don't mind a few nuts here and there, but if he keeps on stealing the fat-balls, I'll have to start investigating the more expensive so-called squirrel-proof feeders.

Bridge over Liffey Waters

After a week of wet, dark, grey mornings, today was bright and sunny - so I tucked my big camera into my bag before work, as I knew it would be fairly low tide when I was walking along the river. Not a duck, not a heron - not even a seagull! But I liked the colours on these supporting pillars from the different water levels.
If I have time over the weekend I'll try to find a photo of one of the bridges in Paris which has a sculpture carved on it, which is used as a gauge of high water levels...

Flying Visit

And I thought this week was going to be less busy than last! What gave me that impression, I wonder.
These photos do not bear much enlarging, but just for a change from birds on the feeders or the wall...Because of the grey overcast day I had to use a high ISO setting to be able to get any photos at all, and this is my full zoom as far as it will go, so they are a bit grainier than I would like.

Blue Tit

 

 Coal Tit

They are singing so loudly at the moment, it amazes me to stand in the back garden and listen to the volume and variety of sound coming from these tiny birds.
They are perched in  tall trees which grow between the end of our garden and the railway station - I can see the tips of them through my skylight.

After Double Trouble - Two's Company

I was sowing some sweet-pea seeds in pots this morning, camera handy:

 

  

It had been a lovely sunny morning, but by the time I walked down to get some meat and vegetables for the week, it was dark and overcast.

Very atmospheric for capturing this crow perched like a weathercock on  a steeple - or an angel on a Christmas tree!

 

 

Unfortunately not so good for trying to take a picture of some little long-tailed tits I spotted in another tree. They were making such a loud noise for such tiny birds - I was looking for something much bigger. I've only ever seen them once before, in my aunt's garden. But some years back I did an embroidery with long-tailed tits on it, so I have no difficulty recognising them.

We had this lovely warming carrot and cumin soup over the weekend. It's meant to be blended till smooth, but C prefers his soups to have some solid content, so I just pulsed it in the blender till it was only partially liquidised.
Carrot and Cumin Soup - serves 4

3 tblsp butter1 onion,
1 clove garlic
2 large or 3 medium carrots
2 sticks celery
1 medium potato
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tblsp tomato paste
3 bay leaves (I like my bay - you could just use 2)
2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 Imperial pints of water or stock - 3 3/4 US cups
1/2 Imperial pint skimmed milk 1 1/4 US cups (I use full fat, as it's all we have in the house)

salt and pepper.

Melt the butter, gently fry the chopped onion and crushed garlic for a couple of minutes.
Add the chopped carrots, celery and potato and fry gently for about 5  minutes.
Stir in the cumin and fry for a minute.
Add the tomato paste, water, bay leaves and lemon juice, and cook for at least half an hour to forty minutes till vegetables are tender.
Blend to suit the texture you like, add the milk, season to taste and heat just to boiling point.
It's meant to be garnished with chopped celery leaves, but the way celery is sold here, there aren't really any leaves worth talking about - so use parsley or chives, or whatever...
If you're going to blend it till smooth, then obviously you don't need to go to much trouble chopping the vegetables too finely in the first place.