WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - London

Here is the original. I made several conversions from the RAW file and produced a colour one which was much darker and spookier. I turned it to black and white as I thought it suited it.

I met my old friends in London last Thursday. Took my camera and after they had gone home I carried on taking pics. I was walking along the embankment by the Thames.

WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - London

This is a mixture of about 3 different shots. I was very lucky to have such horrid weather. I could just picture some fantastic shots in my mind and wished of course that I'd had a tripod. I took some on a reasonable speed to keep the background sharpish. 30 I think. Then took some on 25 to get some movement and show the wind.

WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - London

Turned out Nice Again

A couple leaving the city and setting out for home to cross the millenium bridge. I blended this with a different background which shows the reflection of St Pauls Cathedral in the pavement

WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - Village Green

A bench on the village green and a rope for kids to swing on.

This stone was laid before we moved to the village. We moved there in December 2000

Daffodils planted by the people who live on the green underneath the hedge. They don't live underneath the hedge but the daffs do.

WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - Bouchiers

This old threshing machine is in an open barn right by the footpath that goes back to the village green

WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - The Street

Here are signs which are attached to the village hall

WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - Lodge Road

Here is the village sign which is opposite the pub

This is the little cottage next to The Old Crown. Sorry that shot did not come out very well but I have posted pics of it before.

WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - Harborough Hall Road

Here are the Messing utilities. The pump the phone box and the post box. Actually they look better at night as British Telecom still keep the box going and there is a light inside it at night. Don't ever see anyone using it any more.

This is Louis' front garden. Louis sings in the church choir, does all sorts of helpful things. He is on the committee of Friends of Messing Church. He likes to have a pint in the pub.

WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - Kelvedon Road

The graves inside the boneyard. We call it the boneyard to distinguish it from the churchyard. It is about 100 yards away from the churchyard. Some of the graves have horrid plastic flowers that go all brown and droopy. Our late village chairman who died back in January is buried in here but his headstone is not laid yet since they are still waiting for the earth to settle.

This is the lych gate which Friends of Messing Church paid to have refurbished back in 2006. It was our first project. We are now raising money for the church roof.

This 30 mph sign is put both sides of the road onto what is meant to represent a gate. People are supposed to think that as it is a gate they need to slow down more.

The car is off up Kelvedon Road towards Messing village

Start of Kelvedon Road. The sign is confusing. It points the wrong way to Red House. Crispins is no longer there it closed down a few years back a it is now a family house. A lovely family live there with 3 children. They used to live in New York. The only thing that is correct is the sign to The Old Crown Inn.

WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - New Road

This is ancient Messing graffiti. Can't really understand it but I imagine it has been there some time.

WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - School Road

These two are The Red House which is the next house up the road on the left. It is a centre for adults with learning difficulties. They come and spend the day here. They helped to make the ceramic sign and there are two of them working in the garden. They do lots of gardening and sell plants and look after animals. Indoors they make pottery and other crafts. You can just walk around any time during the week and also have a coffee there although it seems daft to me to have a coffee when our house is only a couple of doors away.

WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - School Road

These two are from the garden nextdoor to our house and opposite Connie's house.

A WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - School Road

As I put Lorna's house in I thought I'd best put Connie's house in. She is the 97 year old lady that I look out for. Take her shopping - yes she still likes to do her own shopping. It is her outing of the week and she takes about 2 hours to go around the Co-op Supermarket. I take her to church also.

WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - School Road

OK this is going to be rather long. No brilliant images but I just wanted to show you part of the MESSING TRIANGLE which is a 1 mile walk through part of the village plus some of the outskirts combined with the rest of the village. We are starting off opposite the village green at the front door of one of our eldest villagers who was born in Messing. She is called Lorna and my friend Chrissy who lives on the green looks out for her and does her shopping.

WALK AROUND THE BLOCK - London

Here is another one. When I first walked past her with my friends there were some photographers with big lenses taking pics of two biker buddies amongst the graffiti

Animals - Steer

"Interruped Dinner Time"

Apologies if this turns up under the incorrect month, but here goes. This fellow had such a lovely red/white coat I could not resist taking a photo in the early evening sunshine. I know some would say "remove the grass", but I like it, he was afterall eating.

Animals: Lion, Detroit Zoo

Lion, Detroit Zoo, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. I struggled a little with the lighting, which was very bright and a little washed out and there are shadows from nearby trees. I cloned out a couple overly bright branches. Click on this one for a better view of his eyes.

Animal: Tiger

Tiger, by Mary Stebbins Taitt.  At the Detroit Zoo with 300 mm zoom lens.

Animals: Baboons

Baboons, grooming at the Detroit Zoo, with 300mm zoom lens.  Mary Taitt

A Walk Around the Block

The third Thursday of every month, unless he has a conflict with
choir, Graham has piano theory lesson in St. Clair shores--it's a
half-hour drive away and if I drove home, I'd have to turn around and
drive back as soon as I got there, so I WALK AROUND the BLOCK! Here
is what I saw on this month's walk.

a face someone had tacked to a tree--I see these here and there.
Lake St. Clair from the park at the end of the block
deck furniture, newly painted placed out
the stiars for the water enter from the park--not yet cleaned, painted
and placed int he water--we could still have snow and ice!
A tree with a hug knot
a heron lawn sculpture--walking right into a taxus (yew) bush

A Walk around Cranbrook

I had to go pick up a camera from the repair shop. So I stopped for a walk.

ANIMALS - Ducks and Spiders

The ducklings have grown somewhat. There are now only 12 of them. The spider with the trees in the background is a combination of two pics. Just realised I put my last post of the ducklings into FFT. Also that in this pic there are 15 ducklings but now there are only 12

ANIMALS

I meet these horses on the edge of the woods. This day they were a bit closer than normal. I do have to crawl through some brambles to get to the fence.

A Walk Around The Block

Image 4. A part of the car roof, it had been raining , I liked the abstract design and puddle of water in the dent. Could be the beginning of greater things Mary. This is as it was but I have had fun playing with a copy in Photoshop - smudge stick, plastic wrap, film grain etc.

Image 3. Colours and Textures


Image 2. Look how the wheel rim has melted !

Image 1. Someone's beloved car - just last week, only 2 paddocks away from my house. Particularly worrying at this time of the year when the paddocks are extremely dry. Kids steal cars to joyride, remove everything which can be sold and then set fire to the car using a petrol bomb. The explosion was so loud, in the middle of the night, but fortunately they fired the car in centre of the road and not the grass verge.