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In the backyard – Berwyn, Illinois (365:291)
Today we made major progress
We made a lot of trips to Goodwill today and got rid of just about everything that wasn’t fit to be trashed. Then we started piling up the trash to be carted off on Wednesday. There was some very heavy lifting involved, we moved out all the beds and mattresses. The basement is cleared, cleaned and tidied, as is the garage. Curtains have been put up, floors vacuumed and surfaces dusted.
The local vultures removed the defunct appliances we had left out for collecting tomorrow. The only items we couldn’t donate, and can’t be left for trash are a couple of TVs.
In the front yard – I think I look a little more chipper in the backyard picture. The only problem at the moment is that the builders haven’t turned up to fix the problems that need to be cleared to get the building up to code. They say they are coming tomorrow at 7.30 am. We’ll see. In the mean time I took a couple of minutes out between carrying out all the rubbish to take today’s self-portrait.
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Making Notes (365:290)
We had a good first day clearing the house
The guys from Brown Elephant took most of the furniture – turning down just a few pieces, and the city inspector only found a couple of minor problems that need to be put right.
We took a pick-up load of stuff to Goodwill and started the process of moving and clearing – especially in the basement which was very messy.
At the end of the day I had an opportunity to catch up on some reading (I should have brought my coursework with me) and make some notes in my Journal. I’m not very good at keeping my journal. Erratic would be a good word to describe it. I normally only write when I have issues to resolve, which results in a record of my angst and frustrations rather than a glowing record of all that’s well in my world. Today I was able to redress the balance a bit.
As all the beds have been broken down, I’m sleeping in my sleeping bag on a mattress on the floor. In a day or so the mattress will have to go too. I have my sleeping pad with me so that shouldn’t be a problem.
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The quiet before the storm (365:289)
The quiet before the storm (365:289). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Tomorrow the work begins
Tom and I had an uneventful trip up to Chicago. We’re up here to clear Rebbie’s family’s house ready for sale.
Ginger and Rebbie were up here a couple of weeks ago, and they sorted through all the papers and cleared out all the cupboards, drawers and stuff. We’re here to move everything out. Some things are to go back to Springfield, the remainder is to be donated to charity or trashed. We’ve four days to get it all done, as I’m due back in Springfield Friday pm.
Tomorrow we’re expecting people from Brown Elephant to come and take away some of the furniture, and a City inspector to come and check that the house is up to code before it is put on the market.
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Ginger and Gary reading Backpacker magazine while Sprinky sleeps (365:288)
Tomorrow at 7.30 am I leave for Chicago for the week
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Gary on Hawksbill Crag (Whittaker Point), Arkansas (365:287)
Gary on Hawksbill Crag (Whittaker Point), Arkansas (365:287) – Today I had an easy day’s hiking in Arkansas with a couple of friends. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Today I had an easy day’s hiking in Arkansas with a couple of friends.
We started off with a hike up the ‘Lost Valley’, I’ll have to return when the creek is in spate – today it was completely dry; so we hiked up the creek bed instead of the trail. We crawled on hands and knees into a cave (I found out afterwards on YouTube that there is supposed to be an upright route in), which has a large chamber about 150′ in. Normally there is a waterfall there, but not this time. We took a second hike along the Buffalo river and finished the day backpacking to a superb camping spot near Hawksbill Crag (aka Whittaker point) – a rocky shelf suspended some 200 feet up on a bluff overlooking Whittaker creek. The bluffs and crag providing magnificent views across the valley. It really is a wonderful place, and it’s not surprising it is one of the most photographed features in the Buffalo River area.
I left my pedometer behind, but a rough guess is that we hiked just under 7 miles altogether.
Our campsite was under a huge rock ledge, that is normally fronted by a waterfall. However, after the long dry summer it was dry. There were a few drips of water to be collected nearby, which was lucky, otherwise we’d have been thirsty, as the six litres of water I packed in very quickly started to dwindle. The space under the ledge was big enough for several tents, so we had plenty of room with just two.
Here I am with my backpacking companions for this trip. It’s been a long time since I last used a 10 second timer to take a picture, so it took me a couple of tries to get this picture. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. 
Steve and Gary on Hawksbill Crag (Whittaker Point), Arkansas – Not taken by me, though it’s such a nice picture I wish it were. Copyright © 2011 Kirby Newport, all rights reserved. After dark we were interrupted by the arrival of a party of students who were hoping to spend the night under the ledge. They were very polite, and fortunately had a better knowledge of the area than we did, as they spent the night under a smaller overhang, that we didn’t know existed, a hundred yards further along the bluff.
Just to finish off the day we revisited the crag around midnight to enjoy the scene in the moonlight. Given the huge drop-offs perhaps that wasn’t the most prudent of ventures – especially as my headlamp batteries decided to go into terminal decline on the way back.
Bluffs on the Buffalo river near Ponca, Arkansas. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Bluffs on the Buffalo river near Ponca, Arkansas. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Bluffs on the Buffalo river near Ponca, Arkansas. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Bluffs on the Buffalo river near Ponca, Arkansas. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Campsite near Hawksbill Crag, Arkansas. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Campsite near Hawksbill Crag, Arkansas. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Hawksbill Crag (Whittaker Point), Arkansas – My hiking/backpacking companions for this trip. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Hawksbill Crag (Whittaker Point), Arkansas – My hiking/backpacking companions for this trip. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Gary on Hawksbill Crag (Whittaker Point), Arkansas – Not taken by me – there’s no way I could have set the timer and run around onto the crag in 10 seconds! Copyright © 2011 Kirby Newport, all rights reserved.
Gary on Hawksbill Crag (Whittaker Point), Arkansas – Not taken by me – there’s no way I could have set the timer and run around onto the crag in 10 seconds! Copyright © 2011 Kirby Newport, all rights reserved.
Near Hawksbill Crag (Whittaker Point), Arkansas. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Near Hawksbill Crag (Whittaker Point), Arkansas. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Campsite near Hawksbill Crag, Arkansas – What a superb spot this is. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Preparing and eating breakfast. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Campsite near Hawksbill Crag, Arkansas – What a superb spot this is. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Backpacking gear (365:286)
I’ve got a busy seven days ahead. I’ve got a busy seven days ahead.
Tomorrow I’m off backpacking with a couple of friends. Should be good; I’ve no idea where we’re going – somewhere on the Buffalo River in Arkansas. We’ll be back Saturday, and then on Sunday, I’ll be off at 7.30 am to Chicago with Tom to help clear a house and haul some stuff back to Springfield. We are due back sometime Thursday, and then next Friday it’s off to Thornfield to spend the night with Ginger’s parents and her visiting aunt who I’ve yet to meet.
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Not the best of days (365:285)
Not the best of days (365:285). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Not a good day.
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Day 284 (365:284)
Another wall shot.
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Gary plus rat (365:283)
Gary plus rat. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This plastic rat has been making appearances in lots of places over the past few days
Sprinky demonstrates that it is not only Getzger that likes to get in on my pictures. I recently retrieved this rather gruesome toy from its hiding place in the garage. Since then it has appeared in many unexpected places, including lounging on Katie’s chair, lurking behind the bathroom door, tucked up in our bed, and enjoying a meal in the cat food storage bin. Its discovery is frequently accompanied by a loud shriek of some sort.
This reminded me of a time when I stayed with my uncle. I’d bought a load of novelty toys equipped with rubber suckers and springs. I would leave them in hiding places around the house and they’d spring out unexpectedly. It rapidly turned into a competition, which culminated with my uncle climbing up on the kitchen roof to put one on the bathroom windowsill while I was taking a bath.
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Working Late (365:282)
Working Late (365:282). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Day 281 (365:281)
Today Ginger arrived back from Chicago.
I was too busy catching up to take any fancy pictures.
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Catch-22 (365:280)
Catch-22 (365:280). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Tonight I watched Catch-22 for the first time in many years.
I’d forgotten how close the movie had come to the book. I enjoyed it so much I even re-watched some of the movie with the director’s commentary on to find out more about how they filmed it.
Earlier in the evening, I took Lanie to Bass Pro where she became excessively enamored with a very sparkly motorboat.
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Chatting with Ginger on the telephone (365:279)
This time we’re only 600 miles apart, not 5,000.
Taken as a whole, today wasn’t behaving at its best. I started out working on my studying for class tonight in the hope that I’d be able to go, but because I messed up the childcare arrangements, I didn’t. I didn’t get to go to the Thursday evening service either. These both provide an anchor and quiet time for the week, so without them, I’m feeling a bit edgy. This week’s coursework was short (I am enjoying the lesser amount of work in year two – year one is two years studying compressed into one), so I was soon working on ‘other stuff’.
Back in 2008, when we were 5,000 miles apart. Thanks to JKS for reminding me of this picture. ‘Other stuff’ today consisted mainly of endless reading and web searching for a replacement computer. For some reason I’m not cognizant of, graphics adapter manufacturers no longer think it necessary to set out their specifications in terms of colour depth and image size. Making it difficult to determine if an adapter is suitable or not. Especially as I want something that’ll drive up to 2560 x 1600 pixels and operate in the AbobeRGB colour space; I have my eyes on a high gamut 30″ monitor, and it’ll be a waste of money if the graphics card can’t drive it. At one point in the process I even found myself missing my old Portsmouth based computer supplier – Novatech. The nett result of my inconclusive and many hours’ search was only to add to my disgruntlement. Though I now know more about the latest Intel processor range, graphics adapters, memory and mother boards than I have ever felt the need to previously, and I’m not interested in retaining the information any longer than I have to.
Today’s picture is a facsimile of me and Ginger chatting on the ‘phone. Ginger and Rebbie apparently spent the evening drinking with some Eastern Europeans who as a group could only communicate via a combination of Lithuanian, Russian and Polish – that’s if I understood her correctly. Just as well I wasn’t there as it appears English wasn’t on the menu of languages being spoken. Parlez vous Francais anyone?
It sounds like great fun was had even when the conversation was straying into the metaphysical – how that worked given the language issues I have no idea, though Ginger did say that the more she had to drink the better her Polish got. Yes, well, I’m sure… 😉
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Gary and Sprinky (365:278)
Gary and Sprinky Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. With Ginger away the cats have been a little uneasy.
Tubby’s gone into hiding and Getzger doesn’t show his face much. Blue Kitteh has remained her aloof self, and Sprinky has been keeping her distance – always nearby but not too close. This evening though she’s been pestering me for attention – which generally means she wants to be ‘flipped’ which in our parlance means she wants to be turned over on to her back and have her belly rubbed – each to their own I guess.
In other news, I ran some white balance tests on the camera this morning, and I worked out a new and more successful technique for fixing odd color casts in Nikon Capture NX2. After that breakthrough, I finished processing a batch of pictures and moved on to looking for a new PC capable of storing and processing our pictures. This evening I had a meeting at church, and I stayed on to eat with the kids and adults for a bit of social time.
Note: re-edited in Lightroom December 2014.
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This is how I avoided getting eye strain today (365:277)
Well it worked.
I spent the day processing pictures – a slow job until I get a faster computer. After getting the kids from school we took Alek and Katie to a career fair. Having made sure that they were actually asking questions and collecting information, Lanie and I went to the library. I couldn’t find a book that took my fancy before being called to go back and collect the big kids.
I spent the remainder of the evening working on picture processing, taking a break to chat with Ginger on the ‘phone (love you honey) before processing more pictures until I decided to call it quits and take today’s picture. I’ve always fancied playing with backlights and hair lights, so that’s what I did this evening. While I was at it I thought I’d show off my funky goggles too.
I seem be be having problems with the skin tones on this camera – I end up with a lot of post processing to try and improve them. So this morning (5 October) I took some simple shots and did some direct comparisons – subject to chimped image and subject to the image on the monitor (which is colour balanced). The results showed some ever so slight but acceptable red/orange tones in places where the actual tone was less red/orange. I tried both manual white balance and auto white balance – interestingly the later was actually better. More research is needed, but the evidence to date is that the camera’s doing its job. That’s not necessarily true for the photographer’s post processing.
Note: image re-edited in Lightroom December 2014.
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Playing with lighting (365:276)
It would have been an okay picture if the camera hadn’t focused on my ear.
Oh well, it’s the only picture I’ve got. Today Ginger left myself and Getzger in charge while she’s away on a trip to Chicago with our friend Rebbie. I get my chance to go to Chicago in a couple of weeks time. I spent my day at the computer, and by early evening I couldn’t see a thing. Last Thusday after just eight hours in front of the computer I couldn’t read a license plate at 15-20 feet. Not good. I guess it really is time for new glasses, I’ve only been putting off getting a pair for four or five years.
As I couldn’t see anything on the computer screen I thought I’d spend a little bit of time on today’s picture, so I lit the wall separately with a snoot. Unfortunately my eyes weren’t good enough to chimp the resulting picture or maybe I’d have got one that was in focus, which brings us back to where I started today’s post.
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Blessing of the Animals (365:275)
Today was another busy day.
I was up at five-thirty am and out the door at six for my lift to church, and then I spent most of the next seven hours in the kitchen helping with the meals. It all went very well (well planned and executed Kris!). We were far too busy to take any pictures. I really should have made the effort.
Clearing up took a long time, so I decided to stay at church until the afternoon’s events started. I took today’s picture after the blessing of the animals had taken place, Getzger was very well behaved and the only feline this year – there were lots of dogs but no lizards (shame).
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Incense, wine, and conversation (365:274)
Today was a bit of a mad day.
We were out taking pictures in the morning and out again in the afternoon. Then we did what all good Episcopalians should do for a Church social meeting – went on a brewery tour followed by an evening in a pub.
Yes, I said pub and not bar. There is one in Springfield. I tested the ‘bangers and mash’ not bad, but not enough onions in the gravy for my liking and more butter in the mash would have been perfect. Ginger drank some Old Speckled Hen. Jim (Ginger’s dad) joined us for the brewery tour – he was in town for a car show, and the girls helped out back at church with the babysitting. Alek was at work, so everyone was busy!
Come the end of the day I wanted to relax with some wine (I’d not had a drink earlier) and some nice incense. The only problem is I’ve got to be at church at 6 am tomorrow as I’m helping prepare breakfasts for the three services, then we have the blessing of the animals and Getzger’s annual outing in the afternoon.
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September 2011
Another month spent almost entirely chained to the computer working late into the night. We did manage to get out for one short hike, so that’s better than nothing. I started the second year of my EFM course – which is a fantastic help in keeping me sane. We also saw the Symphony orchestra (thanks John & Marsha), I renewed my driving license, which surprisingly now doesn’t expire until 2018, and I helped some friends with logging some timber.
Next month is extremely full already – I’m planning to go on a short backpacking trip and spend a week in Chicago. Ginger is also spending a week in Chicago so I’ve a week alone with the kids to look forward to. Some fishing and time in the kayak might be nice.
1. Just me – reprise, 2. More of the same, 3. Sitting at the kitchen table chatting with Ginger, 4. I was going to use a picture of me facing right for a change. But I like this one more., 5. Gary, Lanie and Ginger (hiding at the back) too, 6. 2011 Day 249, 7. Gary at the computer, 8. Tedious, 9. Gary in the backyard, 10. No wall, 11. This evening I was momentarily stumped as to where to begin, 12. Staring into space, 13. Working late, 14. Day 257, 15. Studying again, 16. Warmth, 17. On the way home from the symphony, 18. This is what results when one accidentally presses the shutter while struggling to get the camera into position, 19. I have a bolt stuck in my tyre, 20. 2am, 21. Double take, 22. Thursday evening, 23. Gary’s a lumberjack for the day, 24. Saturday September 24., 25. I eat toast and marmalade while Mr. Getzger Cat exits frame right., 26. I have a new driving license, 27. Quick shot in the hall mirror, 28. At the computer, 29. Day 272, 30. Whoosh!
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Whoosh! (365:272)
There goes September.
Hiking: 4 miles (just). Kayaking trips: 0. Nights camping: 0. Hours spent at the computer working – too many to count. I cock a snoot (metaphorically, and photographically quite literally) at September.
Definition: Cock a Snoot
Photography: Snoot
