Life Observed

Sometimes dazzling new ideas take years to perfect and formulate. We must salute those brave souls who persevered against the odds to bring us such wonders as the Wheel and the Remote Control. However there are also occasions when a moment of pure Genius strikes and something astonishing is invented in a moment.  Dear reader, you are in the presence of Genius , for I have had one of these instants just this evening. After a trip to the cupboard to extract an alcoholic beverage I almost made a terrible mistake in the dark. I quickly corrected the situation but I came away with this astonishing idea. Something so obvious that has never been done. Remember you saw it here first. I present... Aerosol Beer.

Look outside. Real sun. Not grey skies and snow like we've had for weeks. People are running to and fro screaming with their hands in the air. Clearly I can't show you a picture of the Sun, that would be dangerous. Warning. This picture may contain actual sunshine.

Taking the long view:  This is apparently a horse, even though it looks like two blokes in a costume..  I wonder what its thinking?

A few years ago if you had said Bridle Halter to me I would have imagined someone who stops a wedding at the critical point. After three years working next to a horse farm I am much better informed.  (Apparently Horses are those big four legged animals you see in the countryside that aren't Cows)

I wonder how long the old brick barn stood unmolested before the first careless horse and cart cut the corner and took a chunk of the brickwork off. I doubt the incident went unremarked or unpunished These days modern lorries can give a building or a parked car a jolly good scrape and the driver may not even be aware of the carnage left behind.

Apparently snow and sub zero temperatures are the new Spring. For half a day this week there was sunshine and blue sky. For a while the birds sang and the promise of Summer hung briefly in the air.  Alas, all that was to pass. Snow is what we are getting this weekend and I suppose it is jolly good for us. So we smile and make the best of the situation. That's the British way.

Apologies dear reader, but your genial host has been laid low for seven straight days by that dreaded curse of modern civilisation, Man-Flu .  A whole week of Paracetemol and lying down doing absolutely nothing BTW: What is it with the Influenza virus? Does it not have better things to do?  You get it in your system from other people's sneezes or from infected surfaces. It then breaks into your cells, raids them for amino acids or whatever, makes lots of new influenza virus. This leaves your cells wrecked which is what gives you the coughs and sneezes, severely screws up your immune regulation which is why you feel so comprehensively lousy.  That's it. That's all the 'flu virus does. Invade, replicate, move on. What's the point?

This view of the village church and bare trees is brought to you courtesy of a thirty year old classic lens. One of the joys of the micro four thirds camera system is the ability to attach old glass to the front of a 21st century digital camera body. In this case we have a Tamron SP90 tele macro on my Olympus E-M5. The Tamron is a wonderfully sharp lens, made of metal, and very tactile in use.  Old fashioned manual focus comes hard after years of modern lenses but it is a skill worth mastering.  You feel that you have contributed to the picture in some way.

What could be more traditional than the humble anvil? The working tool of that magician of metal, the Village Smith. Even though it may seem that all anvils are the same, this is not true. They vary in detail depending on their application.  Take this one for example: It is a small model with a Hardy hole but no Pritchel and some odd variations. It is in fact a Farrier's Anvil and is quite small compared to the item in the local smithy. You don't walk your horse to the Smith any more.  These days the Farrier comes to the horse with a pocket sized gas forge in the back of his van.