A Spider, Dunnock and Squirrel.

Whilst I had my camera out on Thursday photographing the Ladybirds (see previous post) I turned my attention to the borders in our garden to see whether there was any other photographic opportunity presenting itself.
There was.
This garden spider was out in the centre of it’s web:

The complexicity of the web can be seen in this image. I used my Ring Flash and that enabled the strands of the web to be hightlighted.

The spider quickly moved away when I tried to get closer but stopped at the outer edge of it’s web enabling me to get this image from a different angle.

I did have the opportunity earlier in the week during the sunny days to stand by our back door and see what was visiting our garden.
This little Dunnock was enjoying a meal on our feeder tray:

And this squirrel was showing an interest in the feeder tray as well:

Over an hour spent watching and these were the only visitors.

Oh well, next week may be better.
Have a nice weekend.

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Ladybirds in Colour

Wasn’t it a nice day in Ramsgate yesterday. The warmth in our garden made it hard to believe that it is late October.
I say that because we were inundated with Ladybirds. I have never seen so many Ladybirds before or of such a variety.

I have tried to identify them using my reference book but I am not sure that the markings on the Ladybirds match the drawings. As the markings on a ladybird can change or spots merge or sometimes not be present at all I find it difficult to distinquish between a different species or just an alternative marking.
What species I think they may be are in brackets.

Have I been lucky enough to have such a variety of species of Ladybirds at one time in our garden or are they solely variations in colour of the common Seven-spot Ladybird or the less common (for our garden anyway) Fourteen Spot or even the Eyed Ladybird?
What-ever, it was a pleasure to see them all at the same time.

I also spotted this late visitor:

What is missing from our garden though are the birds of the feathered variety. The Blackbirds are still active and the Dunnocks are regular visitors with the occassional Bluetit eating the nuts. ‘Our’ Robin was spotted earlier this week and last week we had Gold Finches (camera not handy though) but no Sparrows or Thrushes and none in the quantity we normally can expect to see.
Where are they?

I am thinking of asking Father Christmas for a portable bird hide this year. I’ve been a good boy (or haven’t got caught anyway!) so what an ideal ’surprise’ it would be for a photographic bird watcher.

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I Have a Plamp!

“What is one of those” You might ask.
“It is a gadget for holding things still while you photograph them” I will reply.

Let me show you.

I attempted to take a photograph of this Fuscia on Sunday. It was a nice sunny day but a bit breezy.
This photograph was taken in a shady spot out of the wind, although it was still breezy. As you can see there is a bit of motion blur. I was using my ring-flash as I wanted to bring out the detail of the flower and leave the background in the dark.

This is the Plamp attached to a branch of the Fuscia Bush. It minimises movement of the subject.

I found that even the slightest breeze was causing motion blur so I moved the Plamp closer and above the flower and cropped the image during processing. I was able to use a slower shutter speed and smaller aperture for greater depth of focus.

Here is my set-up with the Plamp and camera.

This photograph was taken in sun-light using the plamp. I found the Dahlia stem had fallen over in the wind so I cut the flower and attached it to the plamp I was then able to move the flower into the position I wanted and take this photograph.

The Plamp was a birthday present from my daughter Sharon who says she got the hint from a previous post.
Thank you Sharon. As you can see it is being put to good use.

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Callum’s Gold Medal

Our Grandson Callum (9yrs) telephoned us this evening with the news that over the weekend he took part in a Judo competiton and won a Gold Medal in his class.

Well Done Callum.

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A Nintendo Weekend

This weekend just gone saw us looking after Joseph and Henry while their father was away on a ‘boys weekend’ and Janet took a sewing class in Dorking.

A Football match took up Saturday morning. Joseph plays for Farnborough Town under 11’s. It was a good game. Joseph did a brilliant blocking tackle that prevented a goal being scored against them. They lost 1-0 though.

Henry proudly showed me this pig he had painted and asked me to take a photograph for him:

I took my Nintendo DS Lite because I thought I would be challenged to a game of Mario Go-Kart Racing. I was.
Henry won the first tournament (ten races) by 5 points because, he said, he was concentrating as I had told him to the last time we played and he had lost.
Mind you, I don’t think falling asleep mid race helped me!
Joseph won the tournament involving the three of us.

I was reminded that I have yet to show the hand-made birthday cards I was given for a recent birthday.
I will now correct this lapse of memory.
Henry drew a Lacewing on the card he gave me:

Joseph drew this scorpion on his card:

Thank you boys for my cards and for a fun weekend.

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Knyghtryders on the Fiddle . . . . . . .

and Whistle and Guitar and Mandolin and Bodhron!

Although I haven’t mentioned our Traditional Folk Music Group ‘Knyghtryders’ for a while we have been very busy arranging music and practicing and rehearsing like mad (well, not exactly like mad but pretty hard) and we have our first engagement at a Charity ‘Sausage and Mash’ Dinner on Friday 23rd October at St. Clements Church, Sandwich. Kent.

We will be playing most of the popular Irish Folk songs – you know the ones: Whiskey in the jar; I’ve been a Wild Rover; The Rare Old Mountain Dew etc and also Jigs, reels, hornpipes and some less well known songs and tunes.

The name of our group ‘Knyghtryders‘ comes from the name of the street (Knightrider) in Sandwich where St Clements Church is and where several members of the group attend and where we rehearse. Knyghtryders is the ancient spelling.

We have a domain name of www.knyghtryders.co.uk – don’t go there yet as it is not even under construction (another one of my to-dos unless I can persuade a kindly IT expert to help me).

Other dates are in the offing but have not been confirmed but as soon as I know them I will pass them on.

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Even more Images from Crete.

As promised, here are some more photographs from our holiday in Crete.

One of the places we had to visit was Knossos Palace.
On the day we visited it was packed. It turned out to be a special day celebrating Crete Tourism (or something like that) so we didn’t have to pay the entrance fee. It seemed that every other visitor to Crete had the same idea!
A little bit of History:
Knossos was the capital of Minoan Crete. It was inhabited for several thousand years, beginning with a neolithic settlement sometime in the seventh millennium BC, and was abandoned after its destruction in 1375 BC which marked the end of Minoan civilization. The first palace on the low hill beside the Krairatos river was built around 1900 BC on the ruins of previous settlements. It was destroyed for the first time along with the other Protopalatial palaces around Crete at 1700 BC, probably by a large earthquake or foreign invaders. It was immediately rebuilt to an even more elaborate complex and until its abandonment was damaged several times during earthquakes, invasions, and in 1450 BC by the colossal volcanic eruption of Thera, and the invasion of Mycenaeans who used it as their capital as they ruled the island of Crete until 1375 BC.

Arthur Evans, the British Archaeologist who excavated the site in 1900 AD restored large parts of the palace in a way that it is possible today to appreciate the grandeur and complexity of a structure that evolved over several millennia and grew to occupy about 20,000 square meters. Walking through its complex multi-storied buildings one can comprehend why the palace of Knossos was associated with the mythological labyrinth.
So basically what you see is what he thought it looked like.

I was amused by this sign above a shop outside the site:

Included in the day’s itinerary was a visit to the Heraklion Market. A must see we were told.
It was amazing. Large awnings covering numerous stall selling clothing, shoes etc and all seemed chaotic. Take this shoe stall:

No two shoes were together. I heard an english voice ask whether it was alright to try them on only to be told ‘no’. Mae found one shoe she liked!

We then visited Heraklion itself. The ‘Port with a Fort’ (as we called it)

I took my life in my hands to cross the road to get this shot. On the way back to the other side I took a calculated decison and stepped out in front of an approaching ambulance on the reasoning that it would stop because they would not have wanted to deal with a casualty or I would be in safe hands if they didn’t!
If I explain. There is no proper road markings in Crete as we would know them. When they do paint them they use ordinary paint that wears away. Pedestrian crossing are marked this way!

The next trip was a Land Rover Safari off road to the Lassithi Plateau. Here are just a couple of photographs from this day out.

This Plateau is high up in the mountains and the views are breath-taking. This was the one day when I wish I’d had my Canon 350D – if only to do it justice.

We also had the opportunity of visiting Zeus’ Cave.
Zeus Cave is known as the Ideon Andron, is nestled into the side of Mt Idi, looking over the Nida Plateau.
A brief lesson in Greek Mythology:
Mythology tells us that Zeus was born or raised in this cave, by the Goddess Rhea, to hide him from his father Chronos who had eaten all his children. Special warriors known as Kouretes danced with shields and metal weapons protected Zeus, making a clashing noise so that his father would not hear him cry. Perhaps these were the original Cretans?
Zeus, of course, went on to become one of the most powerful Gods, he was the God Mt Olympus, ruler of all the Gods, God of Thunder and God of the Sky.

This view was taken from the starting point of the 1 kilometre walk uphill to the cave. We took the view that when you’ve seen one cave you’ve seen them all and settled down for a glass of wine overlooking the Nida Plateau. And very nice it was too. We asked the proprietor for three glasses of local wine at 2 Euros each. “No” he said “Better you have a flagon at 6 Euros and have two glasses each”
Now, would that happen in England – I think not!

My final photograph is this:

As we drove through the little mountain village of Psichro I snapped this image of a shop selling hand-made linen. I was pleased with this ‘moving shot’ and it does show what the Canon Powershot can do.

I trust you have enjoyed looking at my images from Crete.
No more – I promise!

Now, what can I put in my next post?

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More Images from Crete

I took loads of photographs while on holiday in Crete.

What with the luggage weight restriction (and being close to the limit) I only took my Canon Power Shot. I would loved to have taken my Canon 350D but I think it would have put my hand luggage over weight (they weighed my back-pack in Crete!).
So I made do with my Powershot. It is a great little camera and does most things the 350D does but only smaller. I did include a circular polarizing filter as I wanted to retain the blue of the sky and sea. I had to hold it in front of the camera while composing the shot. I got used to it after a while and I think it did it’s job.

Here are some of my favourites:

This fishing boat caught my attention and the blueness sea and sky was what I wanted to capture.

This little scene is in Malia. Now, Malia was a big disappointment for us. We had taken a local bus to what is considered to be one of the main resorts in this part of Crete. The main street is the only road going from the West to East so all traffic passes through it. Off the main road towards the beach the streets are lined with bars and nightclubs and the place is clearly only catering for those on a ‘drinking holiday’. I understand that some of the large drinking holes are being shut down because it was found they were mixing their drinks with something approaching pure alcohol. They were in fact poisoning their clients!
The Island has a chapel and if you are minded to you can swim/walk to the island on a walkway from the shore.

We went on a Land Rover Safari to the Lassithi Plateau. An excellent day out. We went off-road high up into the mountains and came across these Honey Gatherers. This part of Crete is renowned for it’s honey. The hives are spread over the hills and are a colourful sight. The colour of the hives has nothing to do with ownership, bees knowing their way home etc. No, it is the apiarists using what paint they have left over!

The fresh orange juice in Crete is to die for. It is all to do with their late harvesting. Because the tree puts all it’s final energy of the season into the last week before the fruit drops the farmers wait till then when the fruit is at it’s ripest before picking them. It may not produce the most aesthetic looking fruit but the flavour and juiciness is far and away better than the glossy, near ‘perfect’ looking fruit we are offered in our local supermarkets. We were hooked and the best we had was in a little cafe near the top of a mountain. This bucket of oranges was outside ‘ripening’ in the sun.

These goats are the ones that are frequently photographed up a tree! Not for us though. They climb the trees and chew the leaves but we didn’t see one displaying this skill. The bell round this ewes neck is unique to this herd. Each bell is hand made and has it’s own particular sound. The herdsman will pick a young female and put the bell round it’s neck. Her offspring will follow the sound of the bell and their offspring and their offspring etc etc so eventually he ends up with a herd following the bell. It is how they keep them all together and easily managed. Clever!

I trust you like this selection. I do have some more to put in a later post.
You must see the ‘Port with a Fort’ and the shoe stall in Heraklion market.
Watch this space, as they say.

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Holiday In Crete

I’ve got a bit of a sun tan!

We have just returned from a week in Crete on holiday and stayed at the Hotel Despo in the town of Kato Gouves on the North Coast of the Island not far from Heraklion.

We were ‘all inclusive’ and it is the first time we have done this sort of holiday. It was great. We didn’t pay for a single drink (apart from when we were out – more on this later) or any food. The local wine is light but very nice. The local beer is a great thirst quencher. We stuffed ourselves on Greek Salads. The Feta Cheese is smooth and mild in flavour and the tomatoes are the best I have tasted. It is all locally grown and none of the food we ate came from a tin. My trousers seem to have shrunk in the heat!

The view from our room overlooked the swimming pool.

On the first day we went for a walk down to the shore, about 10 minutes walk away, and as we had missed lunch we had a bowl of chips. I know, not very adventurous but we were hungry and we would be able to have a poolside snack on our return to the hotel. They were very good and the accompanying beer was more than welcome.

The Isle of Dia is very prominent from the shore and can also be seen from our balcony.

This was once a Leper Colony but is now a big tourist attraction. We didn’t take the day trip to see it as we decided we would prefer to explore inland.

In the evenings we sat by the poolside supping the local wine and other spirits. The Ouzo was OK. The Brandy not so good but the Raki (a local spirit to be drunk in one go – warms the throat and all points south!) excellent.

It was nice, sitting by the pool and chatting away with Greek music in the background.
The holiday had started well and would continue to be so for the rest of the week.
More in my next post.

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