Michele sent me

Michele Agnew's site includes a great comment exchange. You post a comment, and get one back. On each comment you post to someone else, you say 'Michele sent me'. At the weekends (Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays) you can enter as much as you like, but on other days you can only do it a maximum of once daily.

So - you add a comment to Michele and then comment to the person above you in Michele's blog. Easy Peasy, and fun.

The Needles

Trip to Alum Bay to say Hi to the Needles before heading for the Rex Bar. Then back to the Ferry. A great fun weekend.
Tag: Isle of Wight

Julia Margaret Cameron's Photography

And so to Dimbola Lodge for cream tea and a look at works from one of the great photographic pioneers. The gift of a camera in 1863 sparked an enthusiasm in Julia Margaret Cameron for this new art form. Within a year she had begun to present her friends with albums of her work and was elected a member of the photographic society in London. Dimbola Lodge served as both her home and, more importantly, her studio. It was here that the greatest of the Cameron photographs were made.

From Dimbola Lodge Cameron welcomed - and photographed - the cream of Victorian society. Tennyson, Darwin, Watts and Thackeray lived locally, and guests often included Lewis Carroll, Robert Browning, Holman Hunt, Palgrave, Edward Lear and - as here - the actress Ellen Terry.
Tag: photo, Isle of Wight

a rum conclusion

The evening finished back at Gotten Manor, with a few additional supplies including Mount Gay rum thoughtfully assembled on the table. Earlier we had met Michael and Judy at the Wight Horse and heard all about Michael's new business endeavours.

We'd also found a way to buy beer and legitimately get great free beer glasses to keep and amassed a useful stock in boxes during the evening.

Ventnor

Julie loves the beach at Ventnor.

And who can disagree, on a bright sunny day?

Tag: Isle of Wight

Wight Mouse and Badger

By this time it was around twenty minutes to nine in the evening. Our nearest local pub was the Wight Mouse. In a spring and a bound, we had ordered steak and badger pie, amongst other things. Suffice to say the badger is a local beer!


Tag: Isle of Wight

Gotten Lost

The next stage was to find Gotten Manor. Caroline's instructions were good, but we still had a minor navigational error which left us in a small lane next to a farmhouse. The friendly local farmer smiled as we said we were lost and gave us directions to another improbably small lane around 400 meters away. We bumped our way along this to the point where we thought it had become a footpath and then suddenly the sign for our destination appeared.

A slight problem; Caroline was out. However, we amused ourselves wandering around, listening to the wildlife until some headlights appeared and Caroline showed us to our charming rooms.

The Living Room

A bedroom with cookies.

A view into our breakfast area.

To the island

Julie had planned for us to visit the Isle of Wight, starting on Friday evening. We hurridly pushed clothes into bags and headed through the New Forest to Lymington.

Here we caught a ferry at around sunset across tranquil and blue seas to Yarmouth.

Chaos is a friend of mine

With Bob Dylan's documentary in vogue and me learning guitar, I thought I'd post one Dylan lyric; and preferably something playable and recognisable to most people. And I really like this early album from the early 1960s.

I know Dylan said,"People today are still living off the table scraps of the sixties. They are still being passed around - the music and the ideas." but he also said, "The times they are a changin".

G Em
Come gather 'round people
C G
Wherever you roam
G Em
And admit that the waters
C D
Around you have grown
G Em
And accept it that soon
C G
You'll be drenched to the bone.
G Am D
If your time to you Is worth savin'
D D2/c
Then you better start swimmin'
G/b D/a
Or you'll sink like a stone
G C D G . .
For the times they are a-changin'.

G . . | Em . . | C . . | G . . | . . . | . . . | . . .

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who that it's namin'.
'Cause the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin


Guitar tabs to Dylan are here

'orchidding!

We sent this orchid to Elizabeth eighteen months ago. This is the second time it has flowered!

M25 lorry explosion

I received an email first about a lorry containing hydrogen peroxide which had accidentally exploded on the M25, right by the junction I would use later in the day. Luckily the lorry driver only had minor injuries and no-one else has been hurt. Both directions of the motorway were closed around the area of the explosion.

The lorry exploded around mid day and as I drove along the route tonight at around seven pm, the remains of the lorry (no tyres, no top) was just being lifted on to the back of a flatbed trailer. There were a lot of oil drums around the road, so maybe the contents was in individual containers before the explosion.

Bank Holiday guitar break

UK Bank Holiday and a chance to recharge the batteries after a few days of intense driving, lifting, shifting and similar. Time to get to know the new guitar and to start to learn a few chords. The easy ones first, E, Em, A, C, F, G, D and then the more difficult B.

So Jimi Hendrix had "Hey Joe" as A G D E C. Strange that mine doesn't sound anything like the original. The G-DEC amp is great for doing some practice, using the rhythm tracks as backing. It makes for a much better sense of accomplishment than simply playing chord changes.

Created a 'Clean' User preset also, so that I can play the guitar 'straight through' without echo, amplifier simulations, fuzz etc. I see there is also a new preset editor from Fender; I will need to check it out.
Tag: music, guitar