Wednesday 7 October 2015

Things I didn't photograph










Messing about by the river. Well, the canal actually. We went to find some gravel ponds at the weekend where people fish, so that the middle boy could have a look. He's still desperate to take it up. I'm still not understanding it at all, but happy for him to have a go, he's so passionate about it. After we found the ponds we went to walk by the canal. There were loads of people fishing there too, most of them right next to "No Fishing" signs. It's a club with rules all its own I think. If you'd like to see more canal, CT went to one too and wrote very nicely about all the fun to be had on a narrowboat. She was on a different canal, but you can get there from here.

Anyone watching Bake Off tonight? I seem to have missed most of the series, but I have been baking. As usual I have failed to take any photos at all. But I made Bea's Apple Butterscotch Pudding and Beetroot and Chocolate Brownies as recommended by Sarah. They have thoughtfully photographed theirs as well.

Also not photographed is a blanket I'm knitting and a spider that has taken up residence on the other side of the living room window. It's a spider soap opera, I can tell you, he's been there for about a fortnight now, reeling in his prey, wrapping them in sticky silk and sucking out their innards.

I don't know why I'm so hopeless at taking photos during the day. By the time I think about it, it's all gone dark. I shall try my very best to have something photographed by the next time I write. Laters, CJ xx

33 comments:

  1. My youngest daughter and I have been watching episodes of The Great British Bake Off on our public broadcasting station. We really enjoy it and might be learning a thing or two about baking as well. We are having a gentle steady rain today in Boring, Oregon, and I am hopeful that will help our ponds to fill again after our long dry summer. I am curious about your gravel ponds...I will have to do a Google search, I guess. Remembering to take photos at a good time often challenges me, too, but I love seeing the ones you do take and share here. Thanks! xx

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  2. Conkers on the windowsill, that will sort the spiders out.

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  3. i read on CT's blog about the conkers chasing off spiders....alas, we've not got any proper chestnut trees here because they all succumbed to some marauding fungus or some-such....so now we have an asian import [or maybe that's where the fungus came from?] and they don't seem to have proper conkers. which is unfortunate because we are beset by spiders. and, as i just discovered to my horror after entering the living room, a sudden burst of warm weather has spawned an invasion of Evil Ladybugs [which are not to be confused with the nice ones who are lovely and beautiful and Very Helpful] -- these ones are orangey in colour and give a nasty bite. funnily, they're also an import -- some brilliant bio-pest-control idea to eradicate some other pest except they got loose and took over the world...and, it seems, my living room walls.

    good heavens that was a ramble.

    i never seem to have a photographing device with me when a good photo op presents itself. and i almost never photograph food. it's something to do with my policy of contrariness. also, i mostly eat food, rather than style and photograph it. :)

    xo

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    1. The conkers have failed miserably here :-(. We've also just had an explosion of harlequin ladybirds all over the walls- are you sure we don't secretly live next door to each other Mel? Xx

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  4. But you did photograph these lovely pictures. I'm particularly taken with that wooden trestle table laden with autumn goodies. I don't understand fishing at all either. I think it is a boy thing but I could be wrong.

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  5. I think your photos are beautiful and interesting, and like Sam, I love the look of the table with items for sale. I hope to never fish again, but I can see why people enjoy it. I also have a big spider at my house, living in a corner of the back porch roof. She's an orb-weaver and she is bright yellow-orange and very large. We watch her rebuild her web at the end of every day. I know she's not long for this world, so we take our time to watch her whenever we can.

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  6. It is too dark too quickly now isn't it. My camera forever remains in a bag, usually one that I left at home. I enjoyed watching the Bake-Off but I am glad to say thanks goodness I don't have to faff with sugar works and creme patisserie and other fancy stuff. Did you know there are different kinds of meringue? Why? I am not applying anytime soon :-)
    Fishing is a strange pass-time. The attraction of it completely eludes me. I am sure the urge to fish is something that is entirely driven by genes on the Y-chromosome.
    The photos you did take are lovely! xx

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  7. Your photos are fantastic, but I admit I'm completely scared of that swan.

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  8. How beautiful the canal is and those flowers for 2 Euros seems like a great price. I looked at flowers at grocery store today and it was $ 8.00 dollares. It looks nice and warm there. Our temps here in Northern US has been falling. Great photos!

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  9. Oh how I loved seeing your canal boats and waterways. I will confess it would be my dearest dream come true to live on a canal boat there and ply the waterways while waving at you while I drifted by. Tell your boy that you should send him here for a week.. my son went fishing on the Columbia River again today and brought home THREE Chinook Salmon! I'll post photos on friday. One today is huge, 38 inches long and 35-40 lbs! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  10. I'm a sucker for a trelliswork porch. And those flowers for sale - all wonderful photo fodder.
    A snail has taken up residence on the window frame in the new house. I left it there to keep the joiner company.
    I watched the Bake Off last night, I quite enjoy it but I end up craving cake and rifling through the kitchen cupboards for anything that's not in a tin.
    S x

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  11. It's a lovely part of the world you live in, CJ; it all looks so lovely and calm, quite the contrast from the canals up my way in Camden! I hope you treated yourself to a bunch of those lovely flowers! I watched the last of Bake Off last night, it gets quite compulsive viewing in the last weeks as the personalities start to shine through. And, yes, it has inspired a bit of baking - I've made a Beetroot Pie (think pumpkin pie but with beetroot), utterly delicious it is (I've made it before) - I got it from Paul Hollywood's book Pies and Puds although the recipe is up on the BBC Food website. Maybe I should write a post and photograph it before it's all eaten!! C xx

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  12. Sometimes I am very good and have camera to hand and remember to take pictures and then other times I am totally rubbish! Plus at this time of the year with the light coming and going faster than you can blink you don't get much chance even if you remember do you! You got some great photos on your canalside walk though! xx

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  13. Beautiful photos of the canal and that great Autumn display on the trellis table, how beautiful was that? I am rubbish at taking photos even if I do remember to take the camera. Both my husband and I were keen to take a course but couldn't fins anything local enough.

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  14. I love your photo of Isambard reflected in the water. It could be made into a jigsaw puzzle. Thank you for the mention. Do you know I once made a beetroot pudding cake for a WW2 exhibition organised by our local history group. The beetroot replaced any sugar and despite it being a rather alarming pink folk were keen to try it. No photo though. I always enjoy your out and about shots CJ. You have a very good eye, and a good ear too.

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  15. I'm glad I'm not the only one who watches spiders in the house. I'm also quite happy to let the odd beetle scuttle past - although I was caught out by one. Having insisted it was fine living in the lounge and running by each evening, it then turned round and bit my toe! It was time to be moved outside - immediately! x

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  16. You have some lovely images for a person who reckons they are rubbish at taking photographs during the day.

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  17. Good post with wonderful pictures. I especially like the first one ( which is also the second to last one!) Flighty xx

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    1. Aaagh, same photo twice! Sorry! CJ xx

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  18. I have really enjoyed this series of Bake Off, because they were all such lovely contestants, that I really didn't mind who won, although the person who did win, really deserved it. PLEASE don't post spider photos. I am ridiculously scared of them, if I had one in permanent residence I might have to move! Gorgeous canal photos thanks, I really must make the effort to go there.

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  19. Lovely photos of the canal. I scanned all the narrowboats to see if I recognised my sister and brother in law's boat which is moored in the marina there but don't think you have snapped them! Spiders are everywhere at the moment. It seems I can't venture into the garden at the moment without walking into a web ( followed by frantic ruffling of my hair in case one has landed in it!)

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  20. We've been spider watching too. Actually, I'm terrified of spiders if they're in the house but I'm ok if they're outside. Our spider has been there since the window cleaner last came about six weeks ago. I knew they were due again so it was just this morning that I asked Mick to put him safely in the bushes away from harm and it was in the nick of time as an hour later the window cleaners came. Eleanor will be sad that he's gone, she's enjoyed watching.

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  21. I love watching the narrow boats on the canal but have yet to hire one - it's on my list! I really enjoyed the canal journeys programme with Timothy West and Prunella Scales - does that make me sound really old?! It is the time of year for spiders isn't it. They have all come trouping into the house and it's only when I put my glasses on that I notice the swathes of cobwebs everywhere! We have faithfully recorded the GBBO but have yet to watch the final so I am desperately avoiding the papers to avoid any spoilers today. Your beetroot and chocolate brownies sound a lot nicer than my sweet potato ones! xx

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  22. Hey CJ,
    I have lost course of the times I have decided to leave my camera behind only to miss some fabulous opportunities. I don't do night pics either. Too knackered probably. I do have a very good camera on my phone. As a phone it's rubbish. But you can't have everything. I've found a nice new walk around a coarse fishing lake. I've seem lots of wildlife, and one solitary fisherman. He didn't seem best pleased when I hello'd him. It's another rule apparently. Something about disturbing the fish. Can fish even hear? And if they can, surely my dulcet tones wouldn't put them off their breakfast? Next time I'll know better, although deliberate rudeness doesn't come easy.
    Leanne xx

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  23. one of my favourite walks, I have never seen the flower table though, what a nice touch! x

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  24. I can't see the attraction of fishing either but you could turn it into a knitting opportunity whilst accompanying the middle boy?
    Conkers do deter the spiders, I don't know how it works but it does! xx

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  25. I went out to see my spider last Saturday, as I do every day and she was busy repairing her web. Sunday I went out to say hello and she was gone, just like that. I swear I haven't gotten over it yet. We had a thing going the two of us, I talked to her everyday for a month and now she is gone!
    Hugs to you,
    Meredith

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  26. Ah lovely watery stuff. I like the flower stall. Just catching up with bake off- all inspiring which is great. I have a spider living in my car. He is making amazing webs attached to the steering wheel. I have explained it's not the perfect place to make them but so far he hasn't taken my advice on board. Xx

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  27. Sometimes, we get wrapped up so much in the camera we don't actually get involved in what's actually happening. It was liberating for me to go to Venice without my camera, I did take a few photos on my phone but I just actually enjoyed Venice. I will however now have to go back, so I can actually take some photos! Love that flower stall ;) xxx

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  28. The photographing things thing ... me to a tee ... I'm too busy doing to dally about taking pics!

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    1. PS You realise we met up and didn't take a single photo.

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  29. we have a giant spider living in our bathroom. he likes to sit on the hand towel. it's hard enough to get the boy to wash his hands anyway without a spider...........

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  30. It looks lovely down by the canal and would be a nice place to fish and watch the world go by. We too have thought of taking a canal boat from Bradford on Avon down to Bristol. When we were in Bristol a couple of weeks ago we watched some canal boats docking for the night opposite SS Great Britain. Sarah x

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