Charlie's Worldthe green green grass of home part 2
Posted on November 13, 2009
The grass I planted last weekend has already started to grow, Quite a lot, actually.
Its like the dirt has suddenly gone hairy.
Its awesome – even the grass seed that I tossed on the bare and thin patches of lawn has sprouted in a few places. So I’ll be mowing the bits of the old lawn that I can tomorrow and seeding the rest of it right after. Houston, we have grass.
Well, that was interesting, wasnt it?
stormy
Posted on November 12, 2009
we’ve had some really muggy days this week and last night we had the mother of all thunderstorms.
It was rumbling and grumbling away as we went to bed and then at 2am we were woken up with an almighty bang, shaking the whole house. Must have been a really close strike or sheet lightning right overhead – I’ve never heard anything quite so loud.
Dog and big un’ came in shortly afterwards, timid dog and teenage tears – we quickly whipped around the house unplugging computers and modems and stuff before waiting it out for 30 mins. A violent rain front came in, thundering off the windows and overpowering the drains in seconds and then that was it – the storm moved away and peace was restored.
We had another one this afternoon as its been 30 degrees + and muggy. I’ve been working at home and listening to massive thunder rumbles across the bay all afternoon. There are some huge thunderheads (sadly its too hazy for a good pic) to the west over the ocean right now – we’re probably in for another treat once the sun goes down.
In other news, we got our tax returns done today and all I can say is – wooooohooo!! Thanks Mr Accountant, you’re a star 🙂
sunsets
Posted on November 11, 2009
Its been quite a warm and hazy day today which usually bodes well for a corker of a sunset.
I sat on the front porch for a bit as the sun made its way down and lit up the sky
sunset palm
I popped out to get a few beers and a couple of bottles of wine just before the sun went all the way down, then headed a couple of minutes down the road to where all the big posh houses sit high on the dunes overlooking the ocean.
The sunset was lovely and mellow – there’s no wind today and it was so peaceful on the beach. A school (or is is pod?) of dolphins were swimming lazing circles in the bay and a few people were swimming in the last light. Perfect.
steps
sunset
The best thing about really still and quiet evenings is I can hear the ocean from my bed as I fall asleep.
photography club
Posted on November 11, 2009
I signed up to join the local club a few months back thinking it would be a good way to meet a few people with similar interests, maybe make a few friends etc, and by and large, I was right. The second Tuesday of every month an ever larger band of people attend Rockingham Photography Club to hear about latest camera gear, tips and tricks, techniques, look at other photographer’s work, enter competitions etc.
I’ve met some nice folk, learned a thing or two and even entered a few pics myself and done rather well so far. Last night there was a small technical issue and my batch of photos wasn’t included (along with a few others) but I didn’t really care – it was nice to see what other people had done without the pressure of my own stuff being judged. The standard of work submitted is quite good – there are some very good photographers who obviously work hard and have a good eye and then there are some others who are still learning.
Kingsley, the club founder and the guy who does the most organising and presenting was talking about backing up digital files last night and what he said made a lot of sense.
He suggested organising photos in folders by year then by month and then by date taken (I do this, just not the month, they are in the folder name of date taken) and then once that month is done, to simply back it up onto a DVD for long term archiving.
Unless you shoot more than 4.7G a month (which is possible with todays large files, however blu-ray will sort that out with 25G disks) it’s such a simple and inexpensive way to back up data in addition to the normal external hard drive method which most people do (I hope) The most it will cost you is 12 DVD’s a year plus cases and somewhere to store them.
So thanks Kingsley – a great idea – I use Time Machine, a second external drive and I shall also start doing this and keep the disks somewhere separate from the computers in case of fire or something.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, my entries for the monthly theme of “looking down” were:
missed a post
Posted on November 10, 2009
I forgot to write about this in the excitement of something or other..
Went shopping for wedding suits with my best man (Jay’s ex) on Saturday up in Perth.
The whole thing done and dusted in a morning including 2 coffees and a trip to Lomovember, a Holga and Lomo exhibition arranged by the fine chaps at Pigeonhole Awesome.
We now have matching fantastic dark grey pinstripe suits and gorgeous white shirts, just need for me to get a tie to go with the bridesmaid colours and some swanky shoes and its all good 🙂
food photography
Posted on November 10, 2009
Jay and I were talking about this a while ago – we should really document our food preparation!
Jay’s gone back to being Vegan again and I’m edging in the Veggie direction, although having been there and done that for 2 years, I know I’m never going to go that far again.
With all this new found healthy food comes preparation. Lots and lots of it.
So I’m going to document some of the more good looking food.
“Thats great love, hold it, pout, yeah, you’re a tiger *ceerrchick* (is that how a camera sound gets written?)”
Ok, I’m taking the piss a little, but I do love looking at people’s blogs where food is a strong theme, especially when backed up with photography 🙂
some excellent examples of this:
The Kitchen Wench – Ellie makes the best food and takes some wonderfully appealing shots of it too. Tell me you’re not hungry just looking at it?
Lauren – she’s into baking – cakes of all kinds, cookies and cupcakes. Nom nom! Really looking forward to more from her (and not looking forward to resulting exercise I have to do in order to not become a total lard-arse 🙂 )
Ok, its not a huge selection so far, but I’ll add to it as I weave my merry way though the hallowed halls of cooking blogs.
My first effort for this was posted way back on an old blog I used to have, the one where I met Jay, no less. Thats a story for another time 🙂
Apple Crumble
Ingredients: some apples, plain flour, butter and sugar, cinnamon.
the ingredients
Peel and and core apples
how'd you like them apples?
Chop apples into small bits, place in pyrex dish
Add a desert spoon on sugar and stir in well
Microwave for 2 mins to soften then add 1/2 a teaspoon of cinamon powder to apples and mix in well
an apple a day keeps the doctor away
In a mixing bowl, add together 6oz flour, 4 oz butter and 3oz sugar. Mix up with fingers until all the butter has broken up and you are left with a fine crumble mix. Taste to check sweetness (shouldn’t be too sweet, its not a cake!)
mix mix mix
Place crumble mix on top of apples and level out
smoooooooth
Place in oven at 200ish degrees for 30 mins until crumble is brown
ready for eating 🙂
Serve with custard (and red wine, apparently)
and scoff
Now, clearly I wasn’t focussing on the presentation and photos back then when I did this (more than 3 years ago) but even so, I can *taste* it from these pics.
So, watch this space!
claps hands with glee
Posted on November 10, 2009
No, not the High School Musical cheerleader-style TV show, the proper dance and jump around kind. Only not so much of the dancing. Or the jumping, come to think of it. I’m not much of a jumper really. There was hand clapping though, only in a manly kind of a way.
The subject of the excited hand clapping? my wedding ring arrived this morning in sunny Perth from San Diego – Kathleen @ http://www.etsy.com/shop/studiometalsmith makes some lovely stuff, including this 🙂
wedding ring
Its amazing in the flesh, very chunky and solid with such a nice finish – well worth every $
Not that long to go now..
