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Thanks! I went to my local botanical garden on Monday and the rose garden was in full bloom; looked better than it did all summer.
I wish I could remember half of the names given to the various roses there. They have such colorful names to compliment their hues.
Trip up to the remote reaches of Western Scotland, where my lady grew up and her folks still live. My first real visit to Scotland - had only travelled through by train previously on the way up to the Shetland islands.
Beautiful, grey, bleak, barren landscapes and heavy, overcast skies. Many, many lochs. It rained constantly, and I would have hoped for nothing less. :)
Pics taken on likkle Nikon snap-matic jobby, so didn't really do the scenery any justice.
Loch Lomond, can just make out the double rainbow
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...jpg?1290681722
Inveraray on Loch Fyne
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...jpg?1290682123
Loch Crinan
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...jpg?1290682298
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...jpg?1290682348
Brief burst of sunshine at Bellanoch ...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...jpg?1290682610
Tayvallich on Loch Sween
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...jpg?1290682414
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...jpg?1290682465
The Sound of Jura
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...jpg?1290682501
Ardrichaig, the village where my lady grew up and her folks still live. Views over Loch Gilp.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...jpg?1290682782
Two things struck me on this trip, firstly how beautiful parts of this little island can be, and secondly how utterly settled some people are.
My lady's folks lived in that house since she was a baby, both were teachers at the local school throughout their careers, they've now retired in the same house and will see out their days there. My upbringing was so peripatetic, always on the move around the world, so I'm always taken aback by such localised folk, and how different that life is. Their community is everything, and they are so active in that community. It's quite wonderful.
We're spending Christmas there.
Wonderful :up:
I think I should visit Scotland soon! Looks pretty :)
That is just beautiful! Nice capture.Quote:
Originally Posted by Timbuk2
Can I give you a little compositional tip? Try not to center your horizon lines. Google the "rule of thirds", and think of it when framing your shots, it'll make you look pro. ;)
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5283/...b9f7b0e1_o.jpg
Jeebus Tim did you look closely at your pic?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...e/DSCN2929.jpg
Hah Termite!
How could TWF not have a shot of Loch Ness!
Nessie's great!!!
And so is termites Loch Ness Monster pic! :haha:
Wait, did you see what I did there?
This is one of those "not goin' on MY finger!" jobs:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5201/...cb0a5a90fc.jpg
Pretty. You should do this shit for a living.
Fanx. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Bitter Jeweler
Just looked it up. Handy tip! :up:Quote:
Can I give you a little compositional tip? Try not to center your horizon lines. Google the "rule of thirds", and think of it when framing your shots, it'll make you look pro. ;)
:headbang:Quote:
Originally Posted by termite
Actually - not such bad shopping technique there :p
Intricate - not to my simple tastes but that is incredibly ornate. Wow.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bitter Jeweler
It is a terrible technique really but I saw those little islands and instantly pictured Nessie's head craning out in front of them and did a quick chop n shop in between actually "working". :) Its mostly clone tool and softening brush and looks really crap but everyone knew what it was and the UniqeNess of it here. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Timbuk2
It looks like a substantial baroque style sculpture right there on your finger.Quote:
Intricate - not to my simple tastes but that is incredibly ornate. Wow.
It looks fantastic mate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Timbuk2
My GF comes from the Isle of Skye so I'm hoping to visit there for New Year. Her folks have also got a place in Edinburgh which is also a great place to visit. I'm moving up there very soon when I've found a new job :)
Spoiler:
Frog eggs?
Something like that.
Not the Lord of the Flies, alas :(
What's the difference? :o
Finished that book by the way. Saw your favorite quote about the rich walking among the stars with the poorest still dreaming of a enough to eat. I liked the reference to seeing what a civilization could be, in the Senders. It sort of goes hand in hand with my "Myth of Civlization" thread, that being our "civilization" is sloppy, callous (brutal?) and temporary while Lem's Senders were something altogether better. I think he must have longed for that in humanity (is he dead?). I know I do. :sour:
Interesting concept, also, about how the gap between rich and poor is the driving force behind consumerism and that if the poor ever caught up, then we would turn our resources to other endeavors. Spoken like a true communist, I suppose. But I don't agree. Consumerism, the drive to compete for and accumulate wealth, even shiny useless baubles, is rooted in our genes, not our culture. The culture's built on that foundation.
He passed away a few years ago at the age of 82.
The thing with Lem is, I can never tell if he's really serious or being a writer. I don't know how much he projected onto the senders from his own desires, and how much he was writing Hogarth. And how much of Hogarth was him. Or what he wanted to see. I can't know. His other books are as mystifying even though there's a constant undercurrent, that life's permanent transmission, that his work conveys. I think he came closest to the 'Truth', inasmuch as we can find it, about some of these things. He answers many existential crises by shifting their focus. It's a weirdly comforting sleight of hand.
If anything, our culture serves as an inhibitor towards our baser instincts. Gross over-generalization, but I just got home from a bar so cut me some slack. The drive to compete, to out-smart, struggle and triumph are the motivators behind the most barbarous cultures in our recent past. Shifting the focus of that to a more personal, consumer/worker-based apparatus is just re-adjusting the same obnoxious drive, instead of combating it. We have, in part, defeated rape, robbery, and murder. We should strive, in our lives, to defeat also greed. As is evident from the current global crisis, it is just as heinous and disgusting as those other crimes, those little side-steps we take back into the time when property was a novel concept as was the hammer.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...ra-sunrise.jpg
Early this morning I pulled into a layby to adjust a wing-mirror. Turned around and saw that: sunrise on Blencathra. The camera phone doesn't really do it justice.
Sometimes, the Lakes are generous to me.
It's 4 inches excluding the bale.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5088/...bbc8ac7a_o.jpg
Bling bling! :D
Go Braves!
I don't actually see why anyone would want to wear that, but it's quite shiny, sunshine.
By the way, I would have hugged you.
Family insisted they had to have a picture of me sporting the new do!
http://i54.tinypic.com/34j6khl.jpg
they then insisted I should act like a grown up and stop whining how I hate to pose for pictures:
I say señor, you do look much better sporting a mullet! Reminds me of a young(ish) Kurt Russell. Oh and is that your lady? If so, she's hot. :)
Zigz and Bjorn Borg, separated at birth.
http://www.tennistalk.com/images/bjorn_borg.jpg
Ziggy, I thought you were black.
I am black.
You got your skin lightened? Or is it a side-effect of reeking like burnt tobacco all the time?
OMFG ZIG grow your mullet back! This must be the cause of the all those mysterious bird deaths!