weather – Fraggle's Otherverse

Day 239

August 27, 2019Posted in 365, B&W, Fuji X100F, nature, Photography, weatherTagged 365, 365 project, Black&white, Fraggle, Fujifilm X100F, Photography, weather7 Comments

Another blue sky day here for most of the day, but the forecast was and is thunderstorms and rain on and off through the night. The first one turned up here about 7pm, its leading edge illuminated by the sun for a little while until the sun was subsumed and the air grew dark and rumbled and grumbled. A few flashes of electric light and not much rain, it passed over quickly. Waiting for the next one now.

In other news, another attempt at catching the hedgehog on the trail camera last night. Abject failure yet again. 🙄 The hedgehog came, ate his biscuits and left without us seeing him, and so we put some more out incase he came back and caught Mrs.Fluffy the mouse botherer stuffing her face with them. None of that turned up on the camera. Sigh. I’ve reset the settings and will try again tonight! 3rd time lucky and fingers xt!

Day 235

August 23, 2019Posted in 365, B&W, FujiX-T2, nature, Photography, Uncategorized, weatherTagged 365, 365 project, Black&white, clouds, day235, Fraggle, FujiX-T2, Photography, weather15 Comments

I’m still doing the Sunday challenge every week over at Ipernity, this weeks theme made me snigger – clouds – 🤣 I mean, how many do you want!?

Also apparently there’s a stage 3 heatwave going on this weekend, which means it’s mad hot and you can die of boilingness from it. But that’s down in London and the South, so that’s fine by me. It’s overcrowded there anyways. 😂 Very pleasant here at 25/6 degC with a gentle breeze. Not so ‘grim oop north’. 🤪

Day 207

July 26, 2019Posted in 365, B&W, FujiX-T2, nature, PhotographyTagged 365, 365 project, Black&white, day207, Fraggle, FujiX-T2, Photography, storms, weather14 Comments

The day after the hottest day ever since records began! Thunder, lightening and rain most of the day. 🙄☔️⚡️

Day 115

April 25, 2019Posted in 365, B&W, Fuji X100F, nature, PhotographyTagged 365, 365 project, bloody rain, day115, Fraggle, Fujifilm X100F, Photography, weather19 Comments

I suppose it’s my own fault for getting the car washed yesterday. 😦

Day 21

January 21, 2019Posted in 365, B&W, Fuji X100F, PhotographyTagged 365, blackbird, day21, Fraggle, Fujifilm X100F, Ice, weather4 Comments

The worst part of winter happened today, scraping the godanged ice off the car at silly o’ clock to get to work early this morning. 🙄 Ice mountains on the roof, and crystals on the mirror tops.

Film Friday

April 20, 2018Posted in B&W, Film, Friday, landscape, PhotographyTagged Film, Fraggle, Friday, Fujifilm Superia Extra 400, Ilford HP5 plus 400, Minolta Riva AF35EX, Minolta Riva Mini, nature, Photography, UK, weather18 Comments

It’s been a long while since Film Friday made an appearance, but it’s back to being a regular thing now. My Rollei has been at the menders for some time now, and finally they gave up trying to find the part necessary to fix it, and by passed the problem. What had happened was the focusing knob gave up working, and it’s apparent that the lugs on it’s gear wheel have sheered off. This I think was my own fault, but no use crying over spilt milk. The mender has done a work around for me so I can still use the camera by moving the lens in and out itself, that’ll take a bit of getting used to. In the meantime I have been shooting 35mm film on 2 Minolta compacts. I had been wanting to purchase a Minolta Riva mini for some time, by all accounts it’s a bit special and is a close cousin of the Leica mini, made to the same specs. I found one on eBay for £20 and sent off for it. But when it arrived it actually was a Minolta Riva AF35 EX, and not so special at all. I double checked the listing and sure enough, it was my error. Never mind, I put a fuji colour film in it and took it out and about with me. Then I found the Riva mini by accident one day in an Etsy shop, so I sent off for that, a bit more expensive as they are quite rare. When it arrived a put an Illford B&W film in and took that out and about too. I’ve just had the 2 rolls developed, and you can tell the difference in the quality of the lens of the river mini. The AF35 pictures all have blurry edges whereas the Riva mini is sharp throughout. I like the blurry edges though so it’s a win win for me.

Here are a few from when we had snow, the colour shots are on Fujifilm Superia Extra 400, and the B&W are on Ilford HP5 plus 400.

Tuesday Tree

April 17, 2018Posted in FujiX-T2, Photography, UncategorizedTagged blossom, Fraggle, FujiX-T2, nature, Photography, spring, tree, weather20 Comments

Spring is fighting it’s way through the gloom, and now we are due summer temperatures by the end of the week. My tree is doing it’s Spring Thing whatever the weather. I think it’s quite magnificent this year.

Thursday Thoughts

March 1, 2018Posted in birds, Cat, FujiX-T2, Hipstamatic, nature, Personal History, Photography, UncategorizedTagged Fraggle, FujiX-T2, Hipstamatic, nature, Photography, thoughts, Thursday, UK, weather30 Comments

It’s all about the snow of course. The pesky white stuff that is inundating the British Isles at the moment. Facebook is full of camera phone shots of people’s back gardens or streets, the news is all about the disruption to schools and travel. The met office is issuing yellow, amber, red weather warnings. (Don’t go out if you’re in the red area as you’re likely to die!). People went out and stock piled food items so nothing is left in the smaller shops. 20 vehicle crash on the A19, the A1 is closed now too and police warnings telling people to stop being stupid and stay home. The whole of the North East is shutting down. People living in Canada, USA, Finland et al look at us and laugh at our inability to cope with this weather. We have a few gritters careering about ineffectually, and there is a tractor company that turns them into snow ploughs for rent here and there, but on the whole we just shut up shop and hunker down until it’s gone. Disfunctional Britain due to snow. Our excuse is that we don’t get snow very often, have even heard that we haven’t had it for over 30 years! I must have been living in a parallel universe most of my life then. This is me back in 1961, I’m the cuteypatooty on the right…

That white stuff happened every year of my childhood, for a couple of months at a time, didn’t stop us going to school, we walked as we got older. Didn’t stop Mum from going to work in her car. The roads were cleared every night and we had heaters in the classrooms. This was in Yorkshire by the way, I wasn’t living in the arctic. Oh but that was back in the olden days our snowflake (!) generation say, less traffic on the roads – what they really should say is less idiots on the road. I drove to work yesterday and the amount of stupid I saw had me swivel eyed all morning.

In 2009 here we had a month of snow, and I went to work as usual

but came off worse for wear when going downhill in Newcastle and an idiot in a great big Landrover pulled out of a side road and hit my car, knocking me into several other cars parked up on the other side of the road

I was really peed oft at the driver, he blamed me!! The insurance sorted that one out so no harm done, and I continued to go to work in the replacement insurance vehicle.

The following year we had even more snow,

I went to work then too, without incident that year thankfully, but had to take Phil to work and pick him up a couple of times as his car couldn’t get off our estate, we live at the bottom of a little hill. So why on earth everyone thinks we don’t get snow so it’s not worth investing in the equipment needed to keep the country going is beyond me. I’m lucky to be off for the next few days, but come Monday I’ll be going back to work no matter the weather, if the roads are open that is! No metro service from here to there and the buses are irregular if at all. 🙄

Phil and I took a walk to our local shop this morning

for milk and vodka supplies 🍸 so we’re tucked up indoors with the heating on. Of course I’ve been taking pictures, (hasn’t everyone?!) mostly on film camera’s but also with the fuji,

and I’ve been making sure to put food. out for the birds, they’re having a right old time at the Happy Eater tree, and I got some shots of our Bobby Robin in his element

and finally for a quick giggle press HERE

🙂

SaveSave

End of year Photography review.

December 30, 2017December 30, 2017Posted in B&W, birds, Cat, Frego, Friday, FujiX-T1, FujiX-T2, landscape, Mundanity, nature, Photography, seascape, Uncategorized, urbanTagged adventures, Fraggle, Frego, Friday, FujiX-T1, FujiX-T2, nature, Photography, thoughts, weather39 Comments

I like looking back over the year, and reliving the places and events I got to see, my travels and my outings with Sophie. This is the first year I’ve had 2 blogs on the go, so am picking my favourites from across both blogs and posting on both. I am multidimensional!

Back in January I decided to embark on a walking project to do 1000 miles over the year, and do a 365 photography project. This was a complete debacle as 9 days into it I got really ill with the flu, and it took me a month to fully recover by which time the impetus for both projects had disappeared. Frego accompanied me on the walks I did do and we got some nice pictures around the area I live in spite of the freezing weather.

February was the first opportunity to go on a photography trip with Sophie, and we went off to shoot the bridges of Newcastle, a sunny day but cold. We also visited the quayside market which was full of interesting arts and crafts, and yummy food.

Phil had a joint birthday party with 3 of his colleagues from work, and though his is the last one in March, the party was organised for the end of February. Family and friends of all the birthday people attended, some in fancy dress, and a good time was had by all.

March came in with Phil’s Birthday on the 2nd and we celebrated in our usual fashion.

Phil also started work on getting my shed ready for habitation, but also a sad time as our cat Skye, who had been diagnosed with an inoperable tumour, declined in health, and finally at the end of the month had to have that last trip to the vets. Our hearts are still not mended.

April was a busy month, I went with Phil to the model show at Darlington, then the following weekend an outing with Sophie to the food festival at Bishop Auckland. They had opened up the castle for the day and so we took the opportunity to visit.

then at the end of the month, off to Poland to meet Eddy, Gosia and Malina. What a fab long weekend! Days out with Eddy and his lovely family, delicious home cooked food from Gosia, just great company and good fun. Can’t wait to go back and see the new arrival!

Another busy month in May. Sophie and I went to another food festival, this time in South Shields.

Phil’s daughter Shelley had bought a nights stay (with evening meal!) in lovely Dunsley Hall near Whitby in Yorkshire for Phil’s Birthday present, and after we got there, we went off to visit the abbey in the late afternoon.

Phil’s son Carl had got him a day out in a tank so we did that too!

In June Sophie and I had a great day out visiting Tees cottage pumping station in the morning and Hardwick Park in the afternoon.

Phil and I had a day out at The Hoppings Fair in Newcastle, on the hottest day of the year, there were fairground rides, army displays, police dog displays all in 32deg C which we are not used to at all! Of course I got sunstroke 🙄 but for a colour~junkie like me it was worth it!

July wasn’t as hot, thankfully and Sophie arranged us a trip on the River Tyne. Lots of riverside industry to see from a different perspective out on the water, and many bridges to sail under.

We also managed a trip out to Teesmouth nature reserve which is a mix of coastline, meadows and industrial complex.

Also in July I went down south to dogsit for my son, and had a couple of days out photographing with my pal Helen. We visited The Swiss Gardens at Shuttleworth, beautifully landscaped gardens with follies and quirky buildings to come across. And peacocks!

She also took me to Jordans Mill which has a smallish garden but is great for macro photography. Although it was raining we walked a fair way up the river Ivel too so got some mileage done.

Sophie was away a fair bit in August but we did manage a day out first to Cresswell Hall ruins, and then on to Druridge Bay where they had a vintage rally going on.

Another busy month in September, Sophie and I visited Pow Hill Nature reserve which is the current Fraggle report over on the Universe Blog

and Northumberland Zoo was a great fun day out.

We also visited Bolam Lake just as Autumn was beginning to take hold, and the 1000 yr old St.Andrews Church nearby.

I also went to a work conference with my boss and friend Brenda, stayed in a posh hotel and had fun meeting people I hadn’t seen in ages. They put on a swish dinner in the evening and the guest speaker was Ben Cohen, formally a rugby player, then on Strictly Come Dancing, and now runs his own charity which he gave a talk on. So I did my first ‘celebrity’ shot ever! He is quite buff in the flesh!

In October Phil and I did a mini tour through Belgium and Holland, visiting loads of WW2 sites and museums, what a great holiday! We ended up in Veldhoeven for a big model show where Phil was judging. Hard to choose a favourite as everywhere we visited had some great photo ops, but am going with this shot taken outside the Arnhem museum, of an old chaps hand feeding the deers so I could get a good shot of them. Nothing beats the kindness of strangers when in different lands I think. That touched my heart.

Of course it was Halloween at the end of the month and I did the usual thing of swapping treats for a photo when they knocked on the door.

November saw Sophie and I off to Jarrow Hall and the Bede Museum. They have an outdoor medieval village and Sophie tried her hand at grinding flour for bread.

We also did a long walk around the Rising Sun nature reserve, but man was it windy and cold!

I did a B&W project for 30 days too.

December has been switching between very cold and very mild, and Sophie and I went off to an open day at the 17th century Guild Hall in Newcastle, afterwards we watched the sunset over the Bridges and got some lush photo’s of it.

We also went to the Camel Parade in South Shields, and as well as camels they had drummers and light walkers on stilts followed by a firework display.

Frego came round to do a fashion shoot with the Orientals.

and we had a Christmas party with our family.

So that’s the end of the year just about. Not a bad one, except for Skye.

Thanks to all who follow this blog, and also to the Fraggles Universe followers ~ you all make blogging a fun thing to do 🙂 so Happy 2018 to all 🥂🍻

And stay tooned!

Thursday Thoughts

November 30, 2017November 30, 2017Posted in Cat, nature, PhotographyTagged Cat, politics, snow, thoughts, Thursday, Trump, weather28 Comments

Woke up to this today! We haven’t had proper snow up here for 7 years, so it was a bit of a shock. The last time was bonkers

but I don’t think it’s going to last this time, it’s almost all gone now. It was nice to see it, well at least I thought so, but most people don’t seem to like it. Our country seems to have lost the ability to cope with snow, more than a day of it and schools, trains, the roads come to a standstill. People don’t know, or haven’t been taught how to drive in it. When I was growing up in Yorkshire every winter would have weeks of snow, I think they still get more of it there than anywhere else in England, and Scotland gets the main share of it being the Northest (yes it IS a word, it’s in Fraggles Dictionary) part of GB. Ah well, icy roads in the morning will cause a bit of chaos, then slush and rain and then back to rainy normal winter.

Tomorrow night is the Camel Parade in South Shields which I did attend last year but only managed a few decent shots, you can see them HERE but am (weather depending) going again tomorrow evening and hopefully this year will do better, I managed not to get a decent shot of a camel last time. Or the drummers. And my fireworks were a bit dodgy 🙂 so fingers crossed for a better result. At least now I know what to expect and get in position, there were a lot of pushy people getting in the way last time so I will need armour plating this time!

I was going to give y’all my thoughts on Trump’s latest fiasco, I mean, why is he having a pop at us?? WTF was all that about? But I won’t, because really I can’t stop sniggering about the fact that he mistakenly sent his tweet to our Prime Minister initially to a lady called Theresa May Scrivener, who had 6 followers , then had to delete it and send it to our PM Theresa May. Ms.Scrivener lives in Bognor Regis (how awful is that name for a place) a seaside town in the south of England, and of course now she is being interviewed by the press and now known as ‘the wrong Theresa May’. (honestly I’m laughing whilst I’m writing this! 😀 ) Her responses to the interviewer from Associated Press are a joy,

“If I wanted to be famous, I would have gone on ‘X Factor,” – “It’s amazing to think that the world’s most powerful man managed to press the wrong button,” she said, adding, “I’m just glad he was not contacting me to say he was going to war with North Korea.”

Ah the mind boggles. I keep thinking, what would you do if apropos to nothing in your life, you got a tweet from POTUS to say he was going to war with North Korea?

I wonder how many followers Ms.Scrivener has now . He managed to increase Britain First’s followers by lots of thousands. I bet they’re over the moon.

I know it’s not funny really, but if you didn’t laugh sometimes, you’d face~palm yourself so hard you’d knock yourself out. To cap it all, at the end of his tweet to the PM he says, “We are doing just fine!” Yep, you’ve not long had the worst mass shooting, a Right Wing fracas where someone killed a girl by running her over, Tillerson is about to be dumped, your son in law is under investigation over your Russia collusion, and your people are even more diametrically and vitriolically opposed than our Leavers & Remoaners, yep, you’re doing fine Trumplestiltskin, doing fine. 🙄. Whatever I think of our politicians, and it isn’t good thoughts people, not good at all, even our worst (Boris, Rees-Mogg, Davies, Gove I’m looking at you) are not in Trump’s league of stupidity , incompetence, and national self-harm. But close enough.

So that’s me not giving my thoughts on Trump’s latest fiasco. 🤪

Laters Gaters

Thursday Thoughts

September 7, 2017September 7, 2017Posted in Photography, UncategorizedTagged bloody rain, climate change, fires, floods, Fraggle, Hipstamatic, Iphone6, Mother Nature, Photography, thoughts, Thursday, weather11 Comments

The weather is crap. All day grey, dark and rain. Last week I wrote that I was looking forward to the colours of Autumn, but this isn’t quite what I meant! But, I have a roof on my house, the garden furniture is still in the garden, soaked, but there, my car is not upside down over the fence. I didn’t wade to the shop up to my knees in muddy water to find no supplies, and I have water coming out of the tap to fill the kettle still working through the wonder of electricity. Chopwell Woods are not on fire and blocking out the daylight, and I am not packing a bag to head to a shelter. I’m warm and toasty in my home, and bloody grateful I live in a land so far not plagued with extreme climatic conditions. I cannot imagine how the people in Irma’s swathe must feel, or those living in the path of the fires in Montana, Oregon, Washington & California, or the family’s of over 1200 people killed in the floods of India, Nepal and most of South East Asia, they are devastated for being through it or panicked that it’s on the way, nothing that I’ve ever experienced, or am likely to. Or maybe I will?

I wish the world and the leaders of it would see this as an apocalyptic warning, that instead of political point scoring, instead of religious persecution, instead of killing each other, instead of funding terrorism, instead of being isolationist, instead of being greedy, instead of all the shit we do to each other and the planet, we should be doing so much better for each other and this ball we live on. Mother Nature has had enough.

In other news, I burnt my fingers this morning after stupidly heating up a cup of tea in the microwave in a metal coated mug, then even more stupidly attempting to pick it up. I give myself todays Darwin Award. Surprisingly the metal didn’t create an arc in the microwave thereby blowing it up, and even more surprisingly the cup and tea survived. I however, have sticky plasters over blisters and hurt too much to do my mosaicing. 😦

Shout out to a fab blog time!

This time I’m giving a shout out to Sarah at https://travelswithchoppy.com. More or less it’s the dressing up adventures of Choppy and Schooner, a dog and a cat, the celebration of mad national holidays in style, but also of travels and bad puns 🙂 a smile a day guaranteed.

tell her I sent ya.

British Summer Time

July 4, 2017July 4, 2017Posted in flowers, FujiX-T1, nature, Photography, UncategorizedTagged birds, blackbird, bluetit, flowers, Fraggle, FujiX-T1, nature, Photography, rain, sparrows, starling, summer, weather21 Comments

It was my day off today and really hoped to go out with the rollei, but we had a day of incessant rain, again. Still, I was determined to do some photography, so invented a waterproof housing for the fuji (a freezer bag and cat collar) attached it to my trusty tripod, donned my waterproof jacket, and sallied forth into the garden. Within 5 minutes I discovered my jacket had the equivalent waterproof capabilities of a colander, but hey ho, sometimes you have to suffer for your art. 🙂