Me and my pictures of the sky! - On facebook I was invited to join Peterhead Photographers, most of them far better than me, with discussions about what lens, what exposure etc. All a mystery to me. I just have a basic digital camera.However I was asked to put in one of my pictures for a photographic competition headlined "Buchan's Larder'. Sponsored by Shell, the oil people. So I did. Out of 270 odd I have been shortlisted and am in the final. My wee picture has gone off to be mounted on canvas and on one of those stretch board efforts. Wooooooo. Scary. Whether it wins or not, there then follows an auction of all the finalists pictures. Guess I will be buying my own photo back then! My picture shows the strawberry fields across the valley from our house, with barley growing in the field closer to the camera, from which they make whisky among other things. Oh and some weeds. The white panels(?) are the poly tunnels under which are the strawberries. There you go, Buchans Larder. And some sky!
Last night was Rotary. We had Fraserburgh and Peterhead Rotarians join us for the evening. Fraserburgh and us, Central Buchan, have joined together to send out these water purifying efforts to Pakistan. I was asked to take the photograph of the handover of the cheque from Central Buchan to Fraserburgh. (Why oh why do people think I am a photographer???) Usually after a glass or two I think wow and head out to press a button, if I am lucky its a memory I want to keep......if I am unlucky I delete it. But - official photographer for the Rotary? I think not. But I did what I was told to do. Then managed to use the computer to brighten it(what happened to the flash?) and remove the red eye. Hopefully it will be worthy enough to go in the local paper next week.....Didnt eat a thing. I have found I cannot eat and talk at the same time down to this breathing problem I have. Managed a few prawns, but during the meal I had the President of the Peterhead Rotary to entertain, on my left, and then to be ready with the camera. And to add insult to injury after I had took the ones for our club the President of Fraserburgh handed over his camera, far superior to mine and expected me to do a David Bailey with his. He seemed impressed when I showed him what I had done on his camera....I was impressed that I had found the right button which took the picture.
It was heaven to drive back through the countryside in the dark with El Divo as loud as possible and me joining in though I dont know what the words mean, and watching out for deer and owls. The former not to hit and the latter to go wow about. Neither of which I saw last night.
Today has been absolutely fantastic weatherwise. 31 degrees this afternoon, and apart from swatting wasps - heaven. Wasps, like the people up here, are really friendly, you wave your arms around and they go away. For a while. Apparently the wasps eat/chew up bits of wood and then feed this to the grubs that the Queen wasp has laid, the sugary stuff that comes off all this they, the wasps eat. Once she stops laying eggs, like about now, so theres no grubs, so no sugary stuff for the wasps they have to forage. Like a direct line to my glass of wine. Amazing the stuff my husband knows. I point out to the wasps that the Rowan Trees are laden with rowan berries - fruit= good for wasps.
Now Midland wasps are a different ball game. For many years I used to pride myself I had never been stung or bitten. Even camping on the West Coast of Scotland which is renowned for midges and severe bites I did not get one bite. However in the Botanical Gardens of Birmingham I was attacked by not one wasp but three, all on the underarm, the softest bit of flesh you could think of. The agony was indescribable. And those were mean wasps. They sort of flew backwards from me took aim and then - zap. The result of this was that on my return from Birmingham I took a wrong turn at the Spaghetti Junction and was heading for London instead of Tamworth. Engraved in my brain that trip. And the swelled arm.
Well - it has been a lovely day today. I think I could get used to being a retired person and not a provider of bed and breakfast. I did set up a room this morning and baked some biscuits, 'Wheat biscuits with a chocolate cover.' for guests at the weekend. And I went to the supermarket this afternoon. But I didnt have to do any of those tasks. Bliss. Then sat on my patio and watched the swallows, ignored the wasps, well I tried, and watched the butterflies, lots of Cabbage Whites and Red Admirals. Mourned the absence of the Painted Ladies and the Peacocks. In the sky were the helicopters bringing the men and women from the offshore oil stations, tomorrow will be the otherway traffic. Fed cats, talked to ducks, wondered why the hens are now refusing to go in their hut at night. Tried to sort out a mass of bulbs Mike has dug up, I cant identify them so stick em in landfill, it might just improve it....wonder whether I will stay awake long enough to finish the joint of beef, fennel and roast potatoes for our dinner.
Sometimes you think theres just too much.
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