What I was going to tell you about yesterday? It was all very clear at one o'clock this morning but by that time bed seemed a better option. This morning yesterday seems so long ago and much less important. It was, however, a very Good Day.
The House is at the stage where all the alterations are coming to the point where the plasterers, electrician, builder and painters are all there together and there is nowhere to sit or think or eat allthough it's possible to cook and for some to sleep in their own bedrooms!
Even the pool builders have started on their bit of the job:
Martin, Jamie and Fraser are off camping with the Scouts so Wendy, David and Catriona came down for dinner (all prepared and sent down by Wendy to my oven). After we'd eaten and watched Ice Road Truckers (if you ever get the opportunity it really is worth watching) the youngsters returned to watch DVDs or whatever in the safety of their bedrooms at The House whilst Wendy and I settled down with the cheese to watch The Girl Who Played With Fire - based on the second of the books by Stieg Larsson. It is in Swedish with subtitles so one cannot even look away for a minute in case one misses an important point. It's a very intense film and rather unusual in that the 'heroine' is not the most likeable of characters. I thought I might have nightmares but I didn't and I'll watch the third film in the series very soon.
A piece of trivia for anyone who has seen the film. The name on Salander's apartment door, V. Kulla, is a reference to
Astrid Lindgren's character Pippi Longstocking and her house Villa
Villekulla?
Misty was down, of course, and, having been newly shorn looks a fraction of the size she did a few days ago.
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| Newly shorn Misty and Catriona finishing her desert. |
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| A more hairsuite Misty |
After Wendy had returned to The House I decided to experiment with a few night shots. There was some cloud and the moon was shining so I decided to see what I could do shooting North from the deck of The Cottage with Napier over the hill in front of me. The result was quite interesting because the orange in the sky which is the result of the lights in Napier was not visible to the human eye (well not to mine anyway). The visible stars were not very great either because I used a very low ISO and 30 sec exposure. There's lots of fun to be had with these yet although I've discovered that my camera has severe limitations for nighttime use.
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Good one of Orian's belt.
ReplyDeleteLoved the Stieg Larsson books, I couldn't put them down.
SP
Thanks SP. I'm hopeful that I will eventually get some really good night photos but I'll have to wait for the moonless nights to get the stars. I do have a book on the stars of the Southern Hemisphere so I shall have to do some homework as well.
ReplyDeleteOoh that star picture is good, gives a very good impression of how the night time feels.
ReplyDeleteIt's so exciting when workmen start on a project, I almost feel that's the most exciting bit, becasue you can see change happening for the better, at last (at least if you are me and only have building work done when absolutely necessary)
Nice skyline in that night photo, and interesting effect with the town lights vs the starry sky. Somehow it almost looks like if the stars were shot out of that other light.
ReplyDeleteNewly shorn Misty looks very neat :) Reminds me of my brother's cairn terrier, he's black but the same kind of difference between when he's newly shorn vs not!
I read Stieg Larsson's books, or rather I listened to them as audio books, a few years back. I have not wanted to watch the films as well.
Just like Dawn Threader, I do not want to watch the films; the books were tough enough on me and my nerves, difficult to put down!
ReplyDeleteHave I ever mentioned that Orion is my favourite constellation? Whenever I see him in the nightly sky, I greet him like an old friend (knowing full well he will never greet me back).
This is a wonderful picture, thank you for posting it!