There was not much culling carried out from the post bearing these images:
Another from the garden of the Gite;
Mat, Sam, Louisa, and French farmyard fowl;
Jessica, Sam, and Louisa, watching Punch & Judy in Covent Garden;
and Jessica, Sam, and Louisa blackberrying on Tooting Bec Common.
After drafting this I read more of ‘The Brontës’.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s tasty pork and Bramley Apple casserole; boiled new potatoes; smooth swede and carrot mash; firm Brussels sprouts, Broccoli stems, and red cabbage, with a side of re-crisped crackling. The Culinary Queen drank Diet Coke and I drank Georges Duboeuf Fleurie 2022.
ALL IMAGES CAN BE ENLARGED BY CLICKING ON THEM; THE SMALLER IMAGES GIVE ACCESS TO LARGER GALLERIES.
Today, I scanned another batch of black and white negatives from 1985.
Here is a view of the garden of the gite,
where Jessica basked in the evening sun.
Here Matthew introduces Sam and Louisa to farmyard fowl,
soon attracting the usually inquisitive cattle.
Back home in London we paid one of our regular visits to Covent Garden, where Jessica, Sam, and Louisa enjoyed the Punch and Judy show. Sam entered gleefully into the spirit of the occasion, whereas Louisa found it all a little tiring.
On another occasion we walked around the corner from our Gracedale Road home for a blackberrying expedition on Tooting Bec Common. Sam, as evidenced by the purple smear across his cheeks, adhered to the normal custom of eating as much of the fruit as found its way into his container.
This evening we dined at Lymington’s Royal China, where we enjoyed our usual warm welcome and excellent meal. We both drank Tsingtao beer.
CLICKING ON THE SMALLER, CLUSTERED, IMAGES ACCESSES THE LARGER GALLERIES WHICH CAN BE FURTHER ENLARGED.
Many of the negatives from the French holiday of 1985 are in black and white Ilford film. This was my favourite in the dark ages of the early 1980s when I printed my own work in monochrome with chemicals in the blacked out kitchen makeshift darkroom. I scanned another batch today.
A useful prop in the garden of the gite, were the cartwheels.
They worked on their own, or as a backdrop for Sam’s poking about in the water.
The nearby woodlands offered contrasting light,
and lengthening shadows across the roads.
During the process of producing this post, I realised, on gazing out of the window, that a jackdaw had heard on the telegraph that I was working in black and white, and helpfully posed, perching on a pole, cocking its head to make sure that it had heard aright.
Anyone who has followed my technical problems ever since I uploaded Mac’s new operating system will be relieved to learn that this work was done on that machine. This morning, I received an update from Apple which seems to have ironed out a few problems. Don’t get too excited, but do watch this space.
This evening we dined at Lal Qilla in Lymington. We received the usual very warm welcome, excellent food, and friendly, attentive, service. My meal was king prawn Ceylon and Jackie’s chicken Haryali. We shared a naan, special fried rice, and a caulliflower bahji, and both drank Kingfisher.
On another recuperating day, I scanned a batch of colour negatives from a French holiday in the autumn of 1985.
Here Becky is first amused,
then contemplative, in the garden of the gite.
Once Sam had given her a push,
Louisa was proud to work the swing on her own. Most children wait until they are older to acquire the permanently scuffed knees. Not, game for anything, Louisa.
Behind the wire netting beyond the children lay a pair of old cartwheels.
What more could a photographer require in the way of props?
This evening we dined on roast pork, boiled and roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots, and runner beans. Jackie drank sparkling water and I drank Barbera D’Asti Superiore 2012.
