the-fridge-mag.net

She's Twelve You Know?

2008-01-13T19:09:00.000Z

Snaps of the Rudester.

Happy Christmas!

2007-12-25T09:00:00.000Z

Christmas shots

2007-12-09T18:00:00.000Z

Here are a few pics I took for the family just before Christmas.

Did someone say Fireworks?

2007-11-03T21:29:00.000Z

The obligatory bonfire and sparkler shots:

Afternoon photoshoot

2007-05-27T17:25:00.000+01:00

Sometimes it's hard to catch that shot

What?

2007-05-26T12:19:00.000+01:00

Stop following me...

2007-03-18T20:45:00.000Z

Uninvited guest

2007-02-18T14:12:00.000Z

Found this little chap in the garage; he'd broken into a box of grass seed and was making himself at home.

Yes, another blog with pictures of the snow

2007-02-10T16:53:00.000Z

Snow stayed long enough to have some fun with the kids building snowmen and throwing snowballs.

Winter walking

2007-02-03T17:53:00.000Z

Some pictures from another of our walks around the local farmer's fields.

Christmas Table

2006-12-28T14:50:00.000Z

I miss my camera

2006-12-03T22:24:00.000Z

I can't say I've taken many pictures since that pigeon below; I've been rather neglecting my camera. And it miss it. It's not like I haven't snapped a few, and on the odd occasion you may have found some at Mrs. Edwaado's (who is much more diligent with her blog).

Anyway, in lieu of anything recent, here are a couple of shots I took in the Summer. I thought perhaps because of the time of year, sunny pictures may bring back memories of childhoods past, watching BBC's Holiday programme on cold, dark, winter supper-times, probably just after The Antiques Roadshow.

What do you do with a lost pigeon?

2006-09-17T20:18:00.000+01:00

To the delight of my elder daughter a pigeon came to roost at our bedroom window this evening. I thought this might be worthy of a photo-op so camera in hand a carefully crept up to the window and fired off a few snaps.

The bird did not appear to be too flustered by the flash-gun, so I thought I'd try taking a shot from out of the window.

It appears this is a tagged bird, don't know if this is a race bird, or whatever? I guess he's either lost or tired and just needs a rest; we shall see.

** Update **

After a brief internet search I found some helpful instructions at the Royal Pigeon Association:

The majority of birds that are found are perfectly capable of finding their way home, they just need a little time to recover before they continue. If you can provide water, preferably in a deep dish and a little food; uncooked rice, maize (popcorn) or lentils are good food substitutes. Wild bird seed is perfectly acceptable. Please do not give the pigeon bread as it is not good for them. Only feed for a couple of days at most or it will think you are its new mum and dad!

So with the help of some double-sided sticky tape...

I've just read on another site that the water needs to be approximately 1-2 inches deep, so will be replacing this with something more appropriate.

Garden spider

2006-09-10T11:16:00.000+01:00

Freya excitedly told me she'd found a massive spider in the garden. What I found was quite a nice example of the common garden spider (about 10-15mm in size, so female). Whilst taking a few pictures a fly hit her web - it didn't last long!

One from the archive...

2006-08-20T23:22:00.000+01:00

Haven't really stuck anything new on 'the fridge' so here's a few pics I took a short while ago.

Cabbage White

Feel free to leave comments and view larger sizes on flickr by clicking on the photos.

Best of both worlds

2006-08-06T21:26:00.000+01:00

I've been a little distracted of late. Geeky I know, but I've recently switched from Windows XP to Linux Ubuntu. Number of reasons, but basically 'cause I like messing about with things like this. I'd resisted for a while, mainly because, being an iPod owner, I wanted to use iTunes and they don't make a version for Linux. Then I thought why use iTunes: I can burn all my purchased music to CD and re-import using the Linux music players.

So that's what I did. Only it didn't work. Linux support for iPods is Ok-ish, but for whatever reason mine is not supported - and went through a few hoops before I came to this conclusion. Damnit. Because everything else was fine and dandy. I've got image tools, a Flickr uploader, I can watch movies and tv shows - all great.

Then I remembered that at work we've been using virtual machines - operating systems running inside other operating systems. Normally this is Linux running within Windows, useful for testing and evaluation, but in this instance I wanted to try the other way around.

I followed a very simple and straightforward how2 and then finally here we have it:

This should tide me over until they fix those last few compatibility problems. It was seriously easy to install and configure, and now everything works. It takes only a few moments to boot up the XP virtual machine (oddly less time than it did when it was installed proper). It's not quite as quick as when it was running native, but honestly, it's not far off. Anyway only want to sync my iPod with it.

MyHeritage

2006-07-15T22:17:00.000+01:00

I just found this site MyHeritage.com which is a family network site whatever that is. Anyway it has this neat feature Celebrity Face Recognition where you can submit a photo and get it matched with their celebrity photo database.

So impulsively I snapped a quick photo off from my phone and uploaded it. Initially things went well:

Kevin Bacon Yeah!

Dustin Hoffman err OK	Albert Finney Wha?

Michael Moore Doh!

Phoebe

2006-07-15T21:40:00.000+01:00

Cloudy skies

2006-07-12T19:01:00.000+01:00

Bubbles

2006-07-11T23:11:00.000+01:00

Boat

2006-07-10T16:24:00.000+01:00

The field out back (HDR)

2006-07-09T13:39:00.000+01:00

Rudy get's a try-out

2006-07-01T00:36:00.000+01:00

These pictures may look familiar to you, but they are new. I was messing about the garden this evening and thought I'd shoot some more pics of the dawg.

I have cropped them a little and warmed the colours - the flash makes everything a little blue. I also pushed the contrast up a notch and sharpened.

I thought for comparison I'd post the original pics I took way back last year. As with all Flickr images you can click the pictures to go straight to my Flickr photostream where the pictures are available in a range of sizes including the original high resolution image.

New Images:

Old Images:

Robin

2006-06-28T20:41:00.000+01:00

Previous photo sessions in the back garden have yielded nothing other than a rather dull thrush, and the odd sparrow. I was rather please with myself tonight to catch a robin.

Still not a bear or racoon though.

My camera is broken...

2006-06-25T22:11:00.000+01:00

It is, but to be honest I've been a little busy recently to get around to blogging. Still not being able to take pics (other than porridge!) does slow my output down a little. So it's been sent off to get fixed, but it's gonna take at least four weeks - yes four weeks!

Well Mrs. Edwaado and I had been thinking of upgrading... so in one foul swoop I'd spent our savings and kissed any hope of getting my hands on a Buffalo Link Theatre goodbye. But I don't care; this was worth it.

You're gonna have to bear with me for a week or two, because I'm still finding my feet with the new toy. Here are some of the better ones:

Don't forget

2006-06-02T21:58:00.000+01:00

OK back soon with some more fridgemag.net pictures, but first a little reminder to vist Porridge-Art.

I've started to build up quite a collection of useless naff pictures but only one from a contributer - thank you Herge, although I have had plenty of offers to buy viagra, visit questionable websites, and participate in doomed share dealings.

So slackers, get to it: mail 'em in!

The first thirty two

And a whole bunch more coming soon...

Gastropod Mind Control

2006-05-14T15:49:00.000+01:00

Look into my eyes!

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

2006-05-01T08:24:00.000+01:00

You don't need to spend long on Flickr's Interestingness page to find HDR pictures. Digital cameras have a low dynamic range, that is they cannot see the same tonal range visible to the human eye. HDR images attempt to compensate for this, multiple images with different exposure settings (speed not aperture) are combined resulting in increased tonal range.

Using software such as Photoshop CS2 it is possible to create these images. Newbies like me tend to create cartoon like pictures, which whilst they can still be interesting aren't really what we were seeing with our own eyes. For True Tonal HDR checkout the group on Flickr.

The following is one of my first attempts. The first three images were combined in Photoshop using the Automate->Merge HDR... feature. These images were created using my camera's bracketing feature, although I've later learned its probably best to create the alternate exposures manually; many HDRs use around seven images. The HDR images have 32bits per layer, photoshop allows this to be converted into regular 8bits per layer using a number of techniques. I used Local Adaption as it was simply much more fun! I still wasn't happy with the contrast balance so I masked out the sky and lifted the brightness and contrast of the field - but most of the work was done in the HDR processing.

EV: -1.0

EV: 0.0

EV: +1.0

Going walking

2006-04-22T22:44:00.000+01:00

Well I've been living here for (what ?) four years now and I've never followed the trail that leads into the fields beyond our house. It was time.

Start here

Past the pigs

Some run down derelict buildings

Fields

No bears though.

Rear window

2006-04-15T14:27:00.000+01:00

I've not been well. Quite poorly. Feeling sorry for myself. So for the last few days I've been stuck at home watching daytime TV; suffering a double insult.

Luckily we have a large patio doors that look out onto our garden, and I could observe the local bird population doing what birds do. (I dunno, finding worms, nesting, establising pecking orders, and courting?) I figured since I was pretty immobile I could at least take a few snaps.

Caption Competition
If anyone is still with me, which I doubt, try coming up with a suitable caption for this:

Click for a larger image

New site

2006-04-10T23:15:00.000+01:00

With my high posting rate it wasn't going to be long before all this creativity leaked into another blog. Well maybe not, but now we do have: PorridgeArt a site dedicated to syrup doodlings in porridge and other breakfasts.

If you send me a pic I guarantee* I'll post it.

*Not a guarantee

Rudster

2006-04-05T20:37:00.000+01:00

That crazy dawg

Any ideas

2006-03-12T22:23:00.000Z

Found this chained to railings outside a music school in Tewksbury (UK).

Now one on its own might suggest that someone was 'cuffed to the railings and escaped, but no, both were there:

Which is perhaps not as interesting, but then you are reading my blog...

By popular demand...

2006-02-19T22:48:00.000Z

...I thought I'd better post (thanks April). Trouble is, as usual, I've very little to write about. I do have some more kitten pics:

...but that's getting a bit tired.

So I went out for beers with Herge last night. He kindly put me up - I slept in the spare room - sharing with a Dalek:

It was as I reached for the light I realised that the Dalek had somehow begun to influence other objects in the room...

...as the clothes basket took on an all too familar aspect.

Got my eye on you

2006-01-22T19:24:00.000Z

Phoebe Bernie Maureen
...and here too

(By the way) this isn't me

2006-01-22T00:29:00.000Z

You've all seen my avatar, it's right there up on the right. Well I frankly was stuck for something to post, no new photos for a while, and so I figured I trot out something you'll all seen a million times (OK maybe about 20 times then).

Just maybe not at this size:

It's my daughter Anja, who next month will be enjoying her fourth birthday. I took this pic way back in December 2002. Anja was very interested in my camera, so I just let her get up close and investigate while I snapped off a few pictures.

Anja has a big sister, Freya, who looks after her and is her best friend.

Freya & Rudi
(July 2001)

So these are my little girls.

Freya and Anja
(Nov 2005)

Bunch O' Fours

2006-01-17T20:00:00.000Z

Thanks Kirsty for this tag!

Four jobs you have had in your life:

Fir tree planter at nursery (I'm allergic to Fir)
Pulled pints at pub
Err, some work experience thingy at a niche engineering business
What I do now: computers and stuff.

Four movies you would watch over and over:

Sci-fi: Bladerunner (Director's cut - when this meant something)
Drama: Fight Club
Adventure: Starwars (Episodes IV, V, and maybe VI)
Comedy: (and no apologies for my favourite) Dumber and Dumber

Four places you have lived:

Four TV shows you love to watch:

Battlestar Galactica (2005)
Lost
My favourite procedural: CSI (all of them)
My bread & butter sci-fi: Stargate (all of them)
I love TV at the moment, there are so many excellent shows and the rest are just good fun: The Wire, My Name is Earl, Medium, Surface, Invasion, Supernatural, Criminal Minds, Bones. But not Threshold, that is shit

Four places you have been on vacation:

Four websites I visit daily:

Four of my favourite foods:
Italian, Indian, Crumpets with thick marmalade, and Rich fruit cake & cheese.

Four places I would rather be right now:

Down at Currys with a thick roll of cash in my pocket
Sitting at my PC typing... oh wait.
Leaving work on friday
Having a root canal

Four bloggers I am tagging:
Ship, Toothfairy, April, and MHN for short

Big eyes

2006-01-12T22:22:00.000Z

My youngest daughter can be tricky to photograph, bit of a fidget. But every once in a while I steal one...

Best kept chocolate secret

2006-01-10T21:18:00.000Z

There's an oft overlooked chocolate wonder, the poster boys Kit Kat, Mars and Snickers have nothing on this.

Anyway I was going to post some macro shots...

...showing the crumbly chocolate...

...with signature green centre...

...but it's just too darn tasty...

...and I'd eaten the lot before I got my camera out.

Nestle Aero

Get Firefox #2

2006-01-07T23:00:00.000Z

Couple of weeks ago I did a post extolling the virtues of the open source browser Firefox.

One of the features of this browser is its support for extensions and plugins - there are loads out there: development tools, RSS readers, all kinds of stuff.

Well Google have a few too, one of them is the web comments extension.

Once installed it sits unobstrusively in the status bar of the browser, but as you browse it searches for web comments on your current page, and when found, pops up a little message box like so:

It is very nicely done and works a treat.

So ditch IE, get Firefox, and start playing with extensions.

Cheese it!

2006-01-02T00:19:00.000Z

I am rather partial to a good slice of fruit cake, but we're missing something here: cheese.

Yes cheese.

You may have heard of this particular predilection but perhaps thought it was a joke or an urban myth, but believe me it's real, and damn tasty.

Try it.

That's better

Edwaado at the flicks

2005-12-29T22:22:00.000Z

Like most at Christmas, offered the opportunity to sneak away for a few hours from family, TV and turkey sarnies I found myself at the cinema on Boxing day evening. Better still it was the 2nd remake of King Kong which would afford me a good three and half hours.

Here are my top 30 thoughts in chronological order on entering the cinema.

1. Ahh good there's Herge and my sister in-law - why are they waiting out here in the cold?
2. Brilliant they do hot chocolate!
3. Oh so that's Naomi Watts, better looking than I expected, although a bit generic.
4. They're looking for a size 4, what?? Mae West wouldv'e been brilliant - now that would have been a movie.
5. Sod it, its only just started and I've finished my hot chocolate.
6. Ahh this is good, just relax 3 more hours to go.
7. Oh look it's that bit they showed on the Jonathon Ross show when he had Billy Elliott on.
8. Ahh the island, who built the wall? Must've been aliens.
9. Uh oh, I need to blow off.
10. Oh no, there's going to be some jumps coming up, God I'm crap at this. Maybe if I look to the left of the screen and tense all my muscles I wont jump
11. Ahh a Dad taking his 12 year old daughter to the loo - thank God I don't have to contend with that today.
12. I wonder if they had to pixillate anything like they did with that Crazy Frog
13. Finally, yes love he's looking out for you!
14. Why doesn't she explain to the monkey that they're her friends, yeah that would work, none of this it's beautiful crap.
15. I bet Herge is fantasing about seducing Naomi Watts.
16. Ahh! Shit, jumped. He's going to be merciless, that bastard, I know it.
17. Hang on what is Herge doing, he's not... Dude, not in front of my sister in-law please!
18. Just keep a lid on it - I do hope there isn't another scare - it could be disastrous.
19. Back in New York, what's happened to Billy Elliott - did I miss something?
20. Too in love with the subject? Too in love with special effects more like.
21. I'm sure Herge is thinking up something really clever to say about this that no one will get. You know something that has always bothered me was that when Derek says I'm a Derek, and Derek's don't run he isn't pushing the button to talk but it is still heard and responded to.
22. I hope he can be trusted taking my sister in-law home. Mental note: I should offer.
23. Six days till back to work. I bet they call me tomorrow regardless.
24. Why is someone else climbing a computer generated building giving me vertigo?
25. That's it he's put you inside the building now, you're safe. No don't climb out!
26. Hmm bit like that DiCaprio bit when he slides off dead into the water. How did he not bounce off the side and tumble? Rather too neat.
27. Right. Climb down, it's windy up there you don't want to fall.
28. Oh my God, I am going to do the biggest blow-off ever when I get out of here.
29. No don't stop the movie there, they haven't climbed down yet.
30. Right, he's definitely paying for the next one.

Top Ten Pics

2005-12-28T16:40:00.000Z

As any regular may know I have a fondness for Flickr, a picture sharing site. One of the features of this site is that you can view your pictures by various ranking criteria: by most viewed, most "favorited" (sic), by most commented, and most interesting.

So in a kinda top 10 count down here are my most interesting pics for 2005:

10. Sunflower (18 views)

9. Hard at work (104 views - why?)

8. Rudi relaxed (4 views)

7. More Rudi (47 views)

6. Bumble-flower closeup (12 views)

5. Alert hound (30 views)

4. Catch me... (13 views)

3. House spider (25 views)

2. Philip glowers (44 views)

1. Big dead moth (50 views)

Thanks for visiting!

More kitten pics

2005-12-28T16:28:00.000Z

Just a few shots I took over the holiday.

Give a dog a bone

2005-12-22T16:43:00.000Z

I'm sure there'll be some far cuter pics over at Angry Chimp sooner or later, no doubt featuring daleks too, but until then:

Subversive Tescos

2005-12-22T16:13:00.000Z

Popped into Tescos to do some last minute shopping before it all gets rather silly this weekend. Got some dog food, cereal, milk; you know Christmas essentials. On the way out a Tesco Santa jovially approached my daughter and gave her a goody bag (crayons, colouring-in book, balloon). My daughter (Freya 5 years) was a little suspicious and is now wondering if there may be more than one Father Christmas as the one she is more familar with, and frequently chats to on the phone, has a deeper voice.

At home Freya started on the colouring-in book, which includes pictures, dot-to-dot and word searches. Here was the Christmas word search:

On closer inspection I was startled to notice the subliminal message Tescos were attempting to imbue on innocent minds. We all know we shouldn't eat yellow snow, but this?

And before you ask, this is completely undoctorer.

Phoebe Bernie Maureen

2005-12-13T21:27:00.000Z

My parents have overcome the sad loss of Philip moved on and got themselves a new kitten. Well the rodents were becoming a problem. And as is traditional with grandchildren around, the kids were asked to name the new family addition. So here she is, introducing Phoebe Bernie Maureen

Can I just say, a big thank you to Herge for his birthday post, and a rather neat present which hopefully will make an appearance in the near future...

Get Firefox

2005-11-30T23:48:00.000Z

The latest version of Firefox is out, so what?

Well for starters you can now view the wonderful cakesniffers unfettered and unbothered by popups - yes I know everything's got a blocker nowadays, but these were nasty buggers that somehow got around it:

Whereas Explorer has a slightly more cluttered view:

OK I might have hobbled IE this time, but believe me those popups were pretty persistent

So what else do you get?

Tabbed browsing - woo wee, sounds really exciting. Well try it, you'll never want to go back. Just click your scroll wheel on a link and pop, opened in a new tab while you keep browsing.

Themes - look I've even taken the screen-shot with the Windows XP theme so as not to scare you I'll-only-ever-use-IE people out there. Although a visit to the chimp warrants something a little more, err, severe:

RSS - all you bloggers out there are also publishing using RSS, what that means is that I can add your site as a 'live-bookmark' that cleverly updates with your latest posts. Well it's OK.

Anyway I heartily recommend it. Give it a go now: Get Firefox

A tag I couldn't refuse

2005-11-25T23:40:00.000Z

I've been tagged, and this time by Mrs Edwaado, aka Rudishoes - so really not the done thing to ignore this.

2 names you go by - You and Oi
2 parts of your heritage - bad circulation and teeth
2 of your everyday essentials - Moist wipes and 'product'
2 of your favourite bands or musical artists - err I dunno, quite like some BLOC Party remixes by The Go! Team at the mo, but who am I kidding, Britney Spears.
2 favourite songs - Honestly? Err, Just Like Heaven and toxic
2 things you want in a relationship (other than real love) - god you can tell this is a girl tag. Umm, understanding and empathy.
2 physical things that appeal to you (in the opposite sex) - boobs and bums and boobs again.
2 of your favourite hobbies - tv, lots of tv (but only scripted drama for me), and geeky stuff on 'pooters
2 things you want really badly - La-Z Boy in my own media room
2 places you want to go on vacation - anywhere that isn't work, and Space.
2 things you want to do before you die - actually do something productive for myself rather than watch pointless tv shows (scripted drama), catch the rest of Battlestar Gallatica Series 2.
2 ways that you are stereotypically a chick - what!? I think CBeebies' Charlie and Lola is really sweet and I hate it when men leave the toilet seat up.
2 things you are thinking about now - can I go to bed yet? Can I have a lie in?
2 stores you shop at - Matalan and eBay
2 things that scare you - (OK take spiders as read) Herge's wit and Tina's wrath
2 people I would like to see take this quiz - finally I can dish, I think Ship and Toothfairy are due.

Sunrise

2005-11-21T18:33:00.000Z

Shortly before the mist came down (see cakesniffers) we had this glorious clear sky and sunrise. I thought this cloud formation was rather odd - at first I thought it was a contrail, but I'm pretty sure it's just a cloud.

Sorry more frosting...

2005-11-20T20:42:00.000Z

Frosty morn

2005-11-19T12:36:00.000Z

Footprints...

Left home

2005-11-16T20:33:00.000Z

Tree bird

2005-11-15T22:54:00.000Z

Filtered rays

2005-11-14T20:27:00.000Z

Bison in Malvern

2005-11-13T23:17:00.000Z

Took some snaps of the cows grazing on the Malvern Hills...

...one looked a little out of place.

Fireworks

2005-11-12T21:18:00.000Z

Forget me not

2005-11-01T21:19:00.000Z

The driveway

2005-10-30T15:21:00.000Z

Ever since we moved in 4 years ago, our driveway has become evermore threadbare. It was time something was done; the potholes were turning into small ponds every time it rained and I was starting to worry I might ground the car.

I measured it all up, we share portions with our neighbours - its a basic T shape, the cross of the T being the shared bit. Anyway, it all added up to 130m2, at a one inch thickness this equates to around 6.5 metric tonnes (see how we English love to mix metric and imperial). So I ordered 7 tonnes just to be on the safe side.

Here you can see all 7 bags lined up:

This took me 2 days to complete, for day 1 I used my webcam to create the following AVI Download here its about 6.5Mb. It then rained like hell, but that only stopped me using the webcam (window misted up).

I toiled for a further 3 hours on day 2 (had the good sense to borrow a wheelbarrow this time) in the pouring rain until I had finished. It then stopped raining and the sun came out.

And this was the result:

Visit to the zoo

2005-10-25T10:02:00.000+01:00

Me and the girls visited my sister and her family last weekend. During the visit we had a day at the zoo, these are some of the creatures we met.

Then a visit to the creepy-crawlies section:

The black and yellow bug at the bottom, that's an Assassin Bug. Pretty nasty. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of species of Assassin bug, of various sizes, shapes and colours, but they all share a common distinguishing feature - a large rostrum, or beak, that protrubes from their head (sorry I couldn't get a pic of it here). This is what they use to kill and eat their prey. They inject venom and digestive juices, then suck up the liquified innards of the pour unfortunate. Unlike other creatures that feed in this way, like the spider, in which the venon delivery system and mouth parts are separate, the Assassin bug does it all through one tube. Having just the one tube allows it to be as much as twice the size of the feeding tubes of other insects that use two. And that makes it pretty mean, it can deliver much more venom and digestive juices, and suck up the results much more quickly. It also means they can tackle insects much larger than themselves, and some species even feed on mammals; drinking their blood. Some species can actually squirt saliva as a defence mechanism, up to 12 inches, which if you get in your nose or eyes can lead to severe irritation, and even temporary blindness. Yikes!

Missed me?

2005-10-18T23:53:00.000+01:00

Any you guys using the new google desktop search with the 'desk-bar' thingy? It's got a built in slide-show that randomly shows pictures from 'my pictures' as well as from websites you've visited (yeah I know, you can turn that off if you want). Anyway, now and again it throws up a pic you'd not see for a bit, like this one:

The Cotswolds

2005-10-17T22:11:00.000+01:00

We popped into the Cotswolds this weekend, had a wander around one of the many picturesque villages that can be found there. With chocolate-box cottages, and old mill and a stream running through, this is a typical example. So what were they thinking calling it 'Lower Slaughter'?

Life on the lilo

2005-10-09T13:52:00.000+01:00

Honestly? I'd been putting it off for a few weeks. The kids' inflatable bouncy castle has been standing out in our garden for the best part of a month, burning a neat yellow square onto the lawn. And in that time, through all the wind, rain, and a bit of hedge trimming from the farmer which sent much of the cast-off flying into our garden, the big yellow, blue and red monstrosity had collected one or two inhabitants.

Shield bug, off for a walk

See you later!

Spider on the prowl

Hello, what's this?

Yikes!

Better off on the grass

So in the end the ten minute job of deflating and packing away the 'castle took over an hour.

So chimp is closing shop...

2005-10-08T23:38:00.000+01:00

What can I say?

Mind where you step...

2005-10-08T23:04:00.000+01:00

...never mind

Sunset

2005-09-26T22:14:00.000+01:00

In the midst of a rain storm there was a glorious sunset.

Long shadows

A particularly vivid full rainbow, I really needed a fisheye lense

Pleased with the way the rain came out in this one

Was lucky to catch the bird flying across this shot

Busy Bee

2005-09-25T10:20:00.000+01:00

Freaked out by ponies

2005-09-20T21:57:00.000+01:00

Maybe it's just me, but I do find the blank stares a little unnerving.

Car port

2005-09-19T20:14:00.000+01:00

I've been driving past this for weeks, I thought it was time I should capture it.

Judging by the square headlights I think this might be a Hillman Avenger Tiger. Apparently it could do 0-60 in 12.2sec and with a following wind could reach 100mph.

The climbing tree

2005-09-18T13:45:00.000+01:00

In that it is a tree for climbing.

I remember this from when I was a kid. My primary school had this small copse right next door, with this hidden at the back. Kids would climb on this waiting for their parents to pick them up after school. The tree is still there, the school is not, now a row of houses stands in its place.

Gnarly

What's in your wallet?

2005-09-10T13:06:00.000+01:00

Well actually what's in mine. This is a meme that Ship creak and I guess obliquely Toothfairy proposed I do.

Top row
- My wallet
- Too many credit & debit cards
- A battered picture of my eldest
- Some store loyalty cards
Next row
- Two Blockbuster cards
- Company car fleet card, although I don't have a company car any longer
- Driving license card
- AA membership card
Next row
- Empty pill packet for some hayfever remedy
- A collection of till receipts
- An Argos gift voucher (classy!)
- Hair salon cards
Bottom row
- Business card for a guy who fits handsfree kits
- Prescription reminder
- Some spare buttons for one of my suits

I know I'm supposed to suggest some other bloggers to pick this up, but I'd rather not. If you wanna do it then that's fine, post a comment here so I can link.

Alright petal?

2005-09-08T19:24:00.000+01:00

The lost eyebrow?

2005-09-05T23:49:00.000+01:00

Found this little fella traversing the garden. 'Bout inch & quarter long.

It's the Grey Dagger Moth Caterpillar for anyone interested. So called called due to the dagger like markings on the moth's wings.

Spinning leaf

2005-08-30T22:46:00.000+01:00

I don't normally have much to say, and there's no change today. Just some pics I took of a leaf spinning on a spider's thread.

Not your average house spider

2005-08-28T12:54:00.000+01:00

We don't see many traditional house spiders at our house, we tend to find these little fellows instead. They appear in corners or creeping across the floor with their ungainly walk. I thought it was about time to find out a little more about them, so using the excellent ID Please group on flickr I posted a pic.

Here's what I found out:

Like many people I had mistaken this spider for the Harvestman , which isn't actually a spider at all. Spiders have two body segments, the harvestman has only one and amongst other things cannot spin silk. No this is spider is commonly referred to as the 'Daddy Longlegs' spider or to give it its correct title Pholcus phalangioides.

The most worrying aspect was to find that this little blighter is actually poisonous, although thankfully its fangs (chelicerae) are too small to puncture your skin, so we're perfectly safe!

The little dot on its back is where its heart is located. Spiders have boomerang shaped hearts but quite a simple circulatory system.

They feed on other insects and spiders, infact they can regulate the insect population in a home, which explains why we don't often see other spiders or insects.

Normally they live in corners, building an untidy web. Once the web is too dirty, or if no food has come along, the spider will abandon its location and wander off in search of food and a new home. We often see them scrambling across the floor or up a wall.

They catch prey by throwing tough stiff web around them, then once disabled, engulfing the creature in more web. The spider then bites a hole through the web and the prey into which it spews with digestive juices. Spiders have sucking stomachs which work not unlike the human lung.

These pictures show a daddy longlegs with a woodlouse meal.

[Thank you to gravitywave for the identification and link]

Born free

2005-08-20T15:50:00.000+01:00

For those of you concerned that poor little Rudi does not get let out of her pen...
Born free, as free as the wind blows

As free as the grass grows

Born free to follow your heart

Live free and beauty surrounds you

The world still astounds you

Each time you look at a star

Bath time

2005-08-20T15:30:00.000+01:00

We we all thought it was time for Rudi's bath - except Rudi.

So it was time to get our hands wet and give her a good lathering.

Naturally there was the obligatory shake down

And pretty much everything got wet.

Finally it was time to come out

And get dried off

For a big cuddle...

...with some gomer.

Well done Angry Chimp

2005-08-20T09:05:00.000+01:00

I just thought we should congratulate Herge on a gargantuan effort he made yesterday to get all thoses contributions up and posted. He worked so furiously a column of steam was seen rising from his house:

And was visible throughout the county:

(Thanks for Tina for getting the links organised)

Here are just some of the posts from yesterday

We love each other by Tina Cakesniffer

Dalek & Borg by Dr Max

The truth via greeting card, by CK

The Librarian Degree, by Dave

The Monday Interview, by Invisible Lizard

Missing Scenes from Star Wars and another Missing Scene from Star Wars by Steve Dix

The Truth via Greetings Card, and Never Trust a Dalek and Dalek and Borg by Lord Bargain

We Love Each Other, by Garfer

What's yur take on Ghosts by MHN for short

Missing Scenes from Star Wars by Swiss Toni

The Librarian Degree by Me!

We Love Each Other by Faltanus

Your mate Dave by Spirit of Owl

The Librarian Degree by Ship Creak

Rudi, what have you done?

2005-08-18T17:31:00.000+01:00

So I was out in the garden preparing (yet) another panorama pic:

As you can see we have a special doggy area for Rudi (far left) which helps us ensure the kids get no nasty surprises when out in the garden. During the photo-shoot Rudi was sitting watching me from the pen - you might be able to make her out if you look closely.

Now she is pretty much happy as Larry in her own cordoned off bit of the garden, but occasionally she does try and join in with the kids' games, chase a ball or play fetch.

And sometimes she tries to squeeze out of her pen.

Only she doesn't fit.

As you can see:

She's OK, it normally pops back out again after a few minutes.

Getting carried away...

2005-08-15T23:35:00.000+01:00

OK after a bit of experimenting I've managed to stitch together about 10 pics of my living room into 3 panoramas, I've put the best one here, check-out flickr for the others - although why anyone would be interested in this is beyond me.

That blurred reflection is me.

Another panorama

2005-08-15T21:53:00.000+01:00

OK this time its the view across the fields, I wanted to capture this big scary cloud heading our way - not sure it came out that well. Anyway this was stitched using Paint Shop Photo Album 5 and was incredibly easy, it did it all for me. It's comprised of 3 pics, the packaged offered to trim to a square, but I've left the rounded edges in so you can see where it joined. I took the photo hand-held - without a tripod.

Worrying development

2005-08-14T10:14:00.000+01:00

I let Rudi out just before bedtime, only to hear an unusual amount of barking and whining. Going out to investigate I found that an unsuspecting hedgehog had wandered into our back garden and was now being subjected to a furious barking assault. Naturally I scooped up the Rudster and popped her back into the house - but not before I took a few snaps:

Get orrfff my laaannnndd!

It later became clear that this was no ordinary hedgehog, but was a 'barrel artist' commissioned by Rudi's arch nemesis Dixon:

(thanks to Herge for pointing this out.)

Waiting to escape

Second look...

2005-08-11T19:40:00.000+01:00

You may have seen my recent post Useless Entomophobic Photographer. I shot a bunch of pics, but none turned out because I am tiny bit afraid of wasps.

Well I guess I didn't look at my results closely enough, can you find what I missed?

So I thought I'd review some of my other pics. I'd taken some macro shots of some pods on some shrub. They're quite dark coloured with light fluffy hair.

Then I noticed one that was not like all the others, thanks to Herge for pointing it out:

I'd welcome any suggestions you may have on what this may be, but you might like to know the rain has been a bit, err, 'lumpy' recently.

What are you doing...

2005-08-10T20:30:00.000+01:00

...reading this.
[UK readers] Get yourself organised and tune in Channel 4. Now!

So did you watch it? What did you think?

MISSED IT? Catch the repeat on E4 2nd chance Sunday: 9pm 14th August.

Useless Entomophobic Photographer

2005-08-09T20:52:00.000+01:00

I mentioned in Bumble Blog that I was a bit of a jessy when it comes to insects, or to give it its proper medical term I suffer from entomophobia. Now bumble bees I can just about handle, but wasps - even pathetically small ones like this - give me the willies. I think this snap effectively illustrates that I really was not concentrating on composing the picture.

This is England

2005-08-09T20:21:00.000+01:00

Well yes these are quaint, but there is something quintessentially English about these pictures. The rolling hills covered with a patchwork of fields, hedgerows, and copses with the village church poking out above the trees.

You can just about make out a small dip in the field as it stretches out towards the bordering trees, this was where clay was once excavated for use in the local pottery.

Granny Greys

2005-08-08T22:10:00.000+01:00

It was Mrs Edwaado who introduced me to the name 'Granny' for woodlice. I'd always called them 'woodlice' as a kid, but have found that there a number of nick-names for the little grey insect - and would you believe it a recipe!

I think 'Granny' comes from 'Granny Grey' which comes from the Rhondda - that squares with Mrs Edwaado's family history.

I'd love to hear of any alternate names you may have for the little blighter.

Rudi cam#4 Abort, ABORT!

2005-08-07T19:36:00.000+01:00

I've been rumbled. The once docile and accomodating pooch is now wise to my scheme, and refuses to partake any longer.

Bumble-blog

2005-08-06T23:04:00.000+01:00

Spurred on by recent macro photography exploits at cakesniffers and ship creak I wandered around the garden looking for suitable subjects.

Now I am one great big jessy when in comes to insects - as Mrs. edwaado and the little edwaados can testify - so I was not without some trepidation that I took these pics. (You might like to know that I actually took around 15, most of the blurred and out of focus due to my preferred technique of holding the camera at arms length whilst looking the other way)

Wide shot:

Panorama

2005-08-05T08:17:00.000+01:00

Have you ever tried creating a panorama? Bunch of software available, often bundled with digital cameras, and you can of course do it manually. Anyway this was my (rather ambitious) attempt on my work room.

Also thanks to tina for reminding me that I'd done this when she posted her Warm welcome to my chambers post.

Its a regular room with 4 corners and a door, but the changing lighting can make it look a bit octagonal.

From left to right
Door, double bunk bed with Mrs. Edwaado's desk underneath, Mrs. Edwaado's scrapping corner, window (with blind down), Edwaado's desk, magazine rack, and finally the DVD stands.

Clouds

2005-08-05T08:11:00.000+01:00

The weather has been typically British the last couple of weeks. But just before the sun broke the change threw up some interesting cloud formations.

Cloud pictures:

Cloud Nine from Outer Space!

Puffy Cloud

Cirrus Cloud?

So what type of clouds are these?

OK not that interesting, but the weather never is in Blighty

Rudi cam#3

2005-07-16T14:39:00.000+01:00

Rudi cam is offline

To view highlights click the doggy

Image046.jpg

2005-07-13T15:17:00.000+01:00

Image046.jpg
Originally uploaded by edwaado.

Make do and mend

Rudi cam#2

2005-07-09T14:04:00.000+01:00

Rudi cam is offline

You missed live images of the star of Pupkiss.

Here are some highlights:

Some more pics - click and off to flickr you go...

And the Rudi-cam itself:

Office art

2005-07-08T12:55:00.000+01:00

Image036.jpg
Originally uploaded by edwaado.

The walls of my office.

Pupkiss

2005-07-03T20:50:00.000+01:00

Five years ago the Angry Chimp and I messed about one afternoon in the vain attempt we could record something meaningfull. Well I sifted through the footage this afternoon, and cobbled together this little beauty, named after what we'd originally planned as a chapter in our little story.

Anyway, for you're viewing pleasure: Pupkiss (You'll need the divx codec)

Starring Rudi
Filmed by Edwaado and Angry Chimp
Based on an original concept by Angry Chimp

Rudi cam

2005-07-02T11:16:00.000+01:00

Rudi cam is now offline

In the grand tradition of web cams, nothing did happen.

Here are some of the more exciting images:
Rudi rolling
Strimming
Collecting...
Mowing
Taking photos
Now what?

Remember me

2005-06-30T21:15:00.000+01:00

At last I have an identity for my (first)
unusual moth

It is an Elephant Hawk Moth.

A big thanks to buckeye1 for identifying it.

Flickr rules again.

New strange moth sighted

2005-06-26T20:58:00.000+01:00

I ventured into the garden this evening to discover that yet another strange species of moth had descended on our humble home.

It appears this little wayward fellow must have been blown off course during a migration flight. Any help identifying it will be gratefully received.

We're safe now it's dead

2005-06-25T17:11:00.000+01:00

Tina's recent post (Attack Attack Attack) reminded me of this little beauty which flew into our home last week.

The following day it had dissappeared, but then alas turned up dead on the bathroom windowsill.

This is surely not a native of this country?