Month: February 2023

Three Different Picture Recovery Procedures.

One set of posts to which I am struggling to recover pictures is the A Knight’s Tale series. This morning I worked on

A Knight’s Tale (90: More Successful With Written Than With Oral French)

in which there were neither pictures nor header. I am not even sure I have inserted the correct images, but these will suffice.

Thatching
Misty Morning Mizzle

These next two were examples of the “Attempt Block Recovery” sets, which required insertion into WP media files in order to produce a feature image as a header. The Thatching one was part of a tiled gallery of 5 , for all of which I used the process. Other images on the post, I left as they were.

The cyclists in the Misty Morning Mizzle picture was a block of one. I left all the others alone.

Later this afternoon I visited Birchfield Dental Practice for an hygienist clean from Georgia Warne.

These evening we dined on succulent roast duck with crispy skin; crisp roast potatoes; firm carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli; and tender runner beans, and tasty gravy, with which Jackie drank sparkling water and I finished the Malbec begun a couple of days ago.

Recalling The Arrival Of Nugget

Towards the end of the morning we gleefully unplugged all the very costly electric oil-filled radiators that have been devouring our power for the last couple of months. Stuart, from Tom Sutton Heating had replaced the contaminated fuel pump from the boiler and serviced the system. The central heating radiators gurgled with pleasure. So did we.

On perusing earlier posts

Mudlarking

this afternoon I believe I found a way to recover the original pictures belonging to them. It is a bit convoluted, so I won’t go into detail here, except to say that I had to enter and save the pictures into the WP media file via my Mac desktop.

This enabled me to preserve the picture of this little chap at the moment he adopted Jackie as his mother, the story of which is one of those recorded in the Mudlarking post. I was also able to repeat him in this post and make a header feature of him.

This led me to another post –

Portrait Of Nugget

Although that publication bore the header post, it did not appear in its place in the text, and could not be moved. Neither did the other images. Fortunately I was able to trace these in my iMac Photos and apply the procedure mentioned above.

The colouring of our familiar robin suggests I was referencing the very juvenile earlier photographs.

This evening we celebrated the return of an effective boiler by dining at The Smugglers Inn in Milford on Sea, where I enjoyed a plentiful starter of whitebait with salad and tartar sauce followed by spicy Mexican Chilli Burger, salad, and chips; the others, including Ellie, shared a Nachos starter and also chose excellent burgers, namely Moroccan lamb for the ladies, and Cajun chicken for Dillon. I drank Sol Del Oro Merlot 2022, Jackie drank Amstel, Dillon Inch’s cider, and Flo apple juice.

Afterwards we departed the pub in a temperature just below freezing and returned home with bursting stomachs to a warm house.

More Attractive Than Triffids

Bright sunshine casting shadows beneath a clear blue sky shortly before midday when I took a chilly walk around the garden belied the temperatures skirting freezing which, during a current further cold spell below 0 centigrade sending rivulets of condensation from our bedtime breath dripping down walls and misting tightly closed windows until we were able to fling them open and dash shivering downstairs to our electric portable radiators timed to ignite at their lowest heat level an hour before Jackie but perhaps a couple after I expected to emerge.

Snowdrops and hellebores share the limelight with, at a higher level, a

variety of camellias;

daffodils are following up fast;

fern filigrees and honesty seed bud traceries are picked out by the clear light, as are

new shoots from our recently pruned roses.

When we first arrived here the garden of the then abandoned next door house, North Breeze, rampaged through our land, as demonstrated by

The Day Of The Triffids

Now we have the benefit of attractive, sweet scented, acacia,

currently in bloom, hanging over the Back Drive fence.

This afternoon I watched the Six Nations rugby match between Scotland and France – probably the most impressive contest I have ever seen.

For dinner this evening Jackie produced her omelette-topped egg fried rice on which to bed hot and spicy, and tempura prawn preparations, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Malbec.

Continuing Picture Recovery Problems

After lunch I published

Droll Tales 9

then attempted to recover the photographs for

Portrait Of A Lady

Two of the pictures were unrecoverable, although there was a header. The pencil drawing from 1966 was the most important absentee, so I substituted it with a scan, produced today without removing the image from the frame, and therefore replaced the earlier header with this.

Quiet Days

Quiet Days, from 21st July 2012 presented an example of what I have discovered in the run of posts in those early months which do contain all their pictures and have headers in place. That is that none of the images can be enlarged by the viewer. On the whole this is not disastrous, but it reveals that they are not in my WP image library. The picture that appeared in the header above but was not present in the text. When trying to click on the images I receive the following message: “We cannot complete this request, remote data could not be fetched”. I was unable to do anything with it until I clicked on the Classic editor box and was then able at least to move it and transfer it to the image library. This seemed to link with the fact that these posts were produced on the old Classic editor.

I will not attempt the same process with the other images in this or previous posts, unless the images become crucial.

This afternoon I watched the Six Nations rugby matches between Italy and Ireland, and between England and Wales.

This evening we all dined on Jackie’s spicy chicken jalfrezi, vegetable samosas, and Flo’s crisp and tasty sweet potato rotis, with which Mrs Knight drank Hoegaarden and I drank Mendoza Malbec 2021.

Droll Tales 9

The ninth tale in the first Decade of Balzac’s collection of bawdy tales contains snippets of the life of a worldly cleric which to my mind to not constitute a coherent whole.

Entitled The Curé of Azay-Le-Rideau by the Folio Society (featuring

Despite her great timidity the fair maid at once laced laced her plump arms about her horseman's breast-plate

an illustration by Mervyn Peake),

and by The Bodley Head featuring one by Jean de Bosschère;

and The Vicar of Azay-Le-Rideau by The Bibliophilist Society’s

edition featuring Gustave Dorés work.

Further details of each of these publications is given in https://derrickjknight.com/2023/01/06/droll-tales-1/

Dillon And Flo Finished The Job

The neat stack of bricks beside the Florence sculpture yesterday doesn’t look like two full wheelbarrow loads, but, having wheeled them from behind the old oil tank last week, and having wheeled them back again today, I can assure you it was.

Afterwards, I photographed a few garden views, demonstrating the proliferating snowdrops.

There was still clutter behind Florence.

Afterwards, Dillon and Flo finished the job.

Later, I continued my reminiscences through my older posts and found a photograph I could usefully add to the text of

Flytipping

This evening we dined on Jackie’s tasty beef pie in shortcrust pastry with roast potatoes, crunchy carrots and tender runner beans, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I finished The Guv’nor.

Florence Is Regaining Fiveways

Martin had a skip delivered yesterday to take the rubbish from the patio project. After lunch

I transported some of the rubbish surrounding Florence sculpture

to add to the container

Later I spent more enjoyable time working on archive posts. This involved adding photographs and header pictures to

Bayko Building Sets
Geoff Austin’s Shoes

and

Raincoat Or Umbrella?

Having reached 24th of June 2012 I came to the point where posts seem to have recovered spontaneously. However I will continue to peruse them to make sure. This is where the enjoyment comes in. My early posts, before https://derrickjknight.com/2012/06/24/choosing-a-camera/ have even provided me with entertainment.

This evening we all dined on succulent roast lamb; sage and onion stuffing; roasted normal and sweet potatoes; crunchy carrots; firm Brussels, broccoli and cauliflower, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of The Guv’nor.

Changing Skies

The Modus can still be driven for journeys as short as to Ferndene Farm Shop and back, so this afternoon we purchased provisions there, and without moving away from the Modus I photographed

the changing skies within half an hour.

Later, having discovered how to add photographs which had not been included in my earliest posts, I upped the ante on their illustrations. Here are a selection of those to which I have added photographs and/or header pictures:

The Gite from Hell
Sacred Copulation
Le Code Bar
Jeux De Mots
Busking On The Underground

This evening we all dined on barbecue sauce marinaded spare rib racks and Jackie’s tasty savoury rice with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank The Guv’nor Spanish red wine.

Archives

Having recovered the pictures for the months from August to December 2022, casualties of the transfer of my blog site, this afternoon I decided to go back to the beginning – 5th May 2012, and check on the posts going forward from this date.

This may take some time and will be tackled sporadically – that is, when I am in the mood. I had not even known that blog posts could be illustrated until a chance meeting with my friend Dominic, who said he preferred those with photographs. It was another month before I acquired my first digital camera which would be essential for the immediate accessibility required for a daily diary blog.

There were therefore very few photographs, from film images, in those early weeks.

I added header pictures to the following posts:

The Bees
The Scent Of A Squirrel
Nettle Rash
A Pair Of Sandals
The Dragon’s Tears

Elizabeth visited for convivial conversation and a cup of tea this afternoon.

This evening we all dined on Hordle Chinese Take Away’s excellent fare, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the cabernet zinfandel.

Boiler Fuel Pump And Modus Brakes

Norman’s Heating men installed our new oil tank today, left it half full with clean fuel, and attempted to fire up the boiler which they found needed a new fuel pump.

I left a message for Elaine at Tom Sutton Heating asking her to ask Stuart to bring a new pump when he comes to service our system in a week’s time.

In the dying light of a dull day I photographed clematis Cirrhosa, snowdrops, camellia buds, verbena, and Daphne Odorata.

We are somewhat confined to barracks at the moment because an unpleasant acrid smell has indicated that the Modus brakes are binding and can’t be fixed until 1st March.

In keeping with the nature of the rest of this post, I published https://derrickjknight.com/2023/02/20/droll-tales-8/

This evening we all dined on oven fish, chips, and onion rings; pickled onions and cornichons; and mushy peas, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Cabernet Zinfandel.