Slides

Healthwise I'm suffering again, which is not much fun. This time it's largely my legs which hurt, which keeps me awake at night, which in turn makes me groggy (and in pain) the following day. Luckily I have some slides which need scanning to keep me busy, and away from the TV. The set I'm working on came from eBay - described as a journey from Austria to Yugoslavia in 1961.



The slides are variously labelled AUG61, OCT62 and OCT64, but they do appear to be from the same set and the same holiday. Most feature people, but quite a few have some interesting scenes, such as the one above: a petrol station somewhere in Austria with an Austrian Opel Rekord PII and an Auto Union 1000 from Ljubljana both filling up.

Many of the slides need a lot of work doing to them. Apart from the usual dust marks which the scanner copes fairly well with, some are (very) badly taken - the exposures are too short or long, and there are blue hues. The editing is slow, but I am getting there...and since it all involves just sitting on the sofa, it means I'm not sitting around doing nothing.

Once the set is finished I'll upload them to Flickr, probably on an account separate from my own photos; partially because these shots are not mine, and I want to reserve my account for my own work, and also because I'm unclear on the copyright situation. I own the slides, but didn't take the photographs; I think that owning slides or negatives gives me the 'right' to use them, but I'm not willing to bet my account on this!

Courgette Crop

The courgettes are growing fairly rapidly, and are now at the point where they are ready to be picked.




Picking them was a bit of a pain - armed with a very sharp knife, I easily went through the stalk of the courgette - and some of the leaves. The courgettes picked were about 4 inches long, and the flowers just fell off, so I assume I've picked them at the same time. I think it would have been better had I planted them out into larger pots earlier as they're still a bit wobbly - but it looks like there are still plenty of courgettes developing, so with luck the roots will establish and it will last through the summer.

Elsewhere in the garden, the runner beans are really taking hold now, and are about a third of the way up the poles. The two Brussels sprouts have established and the slug pellets have worked to stop them being eaten, and the chicken wire has stopped the cats crapping on them. I've pruned the tomatoes of the extra leaves in the hope that more nutrients go into the tomatoes themselves - there's about half a dozen on there at the moment. It looks like it will rain for most of this weekend, which means I'll not be spending much time in the garden, but on the plus side everything is getting a good watering.

Almost ready

Things are coming along in the garden; the broad beans are almost ready to start picking (well, a few of them are) - with luck I should have a nice supply of beans ready to freeze. The courgette plants given to me by a friend, and planted out in large pots, have started to flower and some fruit are currently a couple of inches long. I've heard that courgettes grow quickly so with luck I should have a few ready to eat very soon. There's a few tomatoes in the hanging basket - still green, but cherry sized at the moment. The runner beans are growing slowly, as is the beetroot, and the sprouts. I appear to be holding the slugs off for now, so with a bit of luck (and more slug pellets) they will remain uneaten for the near future.

de Havilland Vampire

At about 9:30 this morning, what I believe to be the last de Havilland jet operated by the Vampire Preservation Group flew over the house. Very loud, very low (low cloud this morning and it was flying below the cloud cover), very fast and incredibly impressive to see. The Vampire Preservation group are based in Essex, and today is the RAF Cosford Airshow; RAF Cosford is near Wolverhampton, and the direct line of flight goes over my house. Sadly I didn't have the camera (and even if I had I wouldn't have had time to take a picture), but I'm pleased that I've seen this late WW2 jet fighter actually flying, rather than just seeing it in a museum.