Hairy hotdogs or my legs?

perhaps my legs are not as sexy as real hotdogs

2015-09-27

Nasturtium leaf from behind and other macros.

I've had my 35 mm lens on so much recently that I felt it was time for a change. Out with the macro lens while the sun was shining at the weekend. Actually, the sun was a little too bright at times leaving me to resorting to sun effect shots through the leaves and petals.

nasturtium leaf from behind

yellow and blue

prickly echinacea

dahlia from front

dahlia from behind

a yellow what's it called

pompom dahlia

fly on cornflower

cornflower up close

my son eating the garden (nasturtiums are a favourite of his)

2015-09-06

I was mesmerised by this bamboo shooting through my sedum, a lovely colour combination.

bamboo with sedum

my favourite dahlia in deep near-electric pink to which the camera doesn't do justice

this years new cute rudbeckia 'Prairie Glow'

Protecting my chopping boards from black mould using garlic

I did a search a while back about mouldy chopping boards, specifically black mould which seems to particularly target wooden boards. I came across this post by the frugal girlabout how to how to get rid of black cutting board mildew. This confirmed my suspicion that it was mildew, but that brings up a whole heap of issues for followers of Leviticus. Thankfully I don't follow Leviticus.

But I do have a mould problem. Dr K has a small chopping board which became 'infected' a long while ago back in Southampton, I suspect as a result of having been left standing in stagnant water around the kitchen sink. I took action to try and save the board by chopping off the lower section where all the black was visible plus a buffer zone of about a centimetre for good measure. I lovingly rounded the cut edge to match it with the old edges.

black mould creeping through the board.

However the mould came back. It took a while, but gradually the blackness reappeared at the bottom of the board which I had cut. I tried again to slice off the bottom to eradicate the problem, but yet again the blackness returned. What I realised is that the black mould was already far within the heart of the wood and travelling up the cell structure long before appearing on the surface, so the whole piece was probably infected deeply rending this board unsalvageable. So I have now retired this board from active use in order to isolate it from my other boards to prevent cross infection.

The board after the second reduction.

I have other chopping boards which are very precious to me. In fact one of these has just celebrated it's tenth birthday. When I first got this board I was so impressed with it that I started buying it as a wedding gift (which I thought was quite a nice gift) as it should last a lifetime or perhaps two. They are simply a thick slice of tree, in the round, Chinese style. I was fed up with the plethora of crap block-work chopping boards which are simply glued together and as such almost designed to fail with time.

As a result of the preciousness of these boards, and in an attempt to see them though my lifetime I decided to take pre-emptive action against the mould by implementing an approach that I have no idea the effectiveness of. I remember from a Gardeners' World last year that the application of Garlic juice to trees - almost as an intravenous drip - is being trialled, with some success, as a treatment for various diseases. So with this in mind I augmented my usual oiling procedure (which I do about every time I remember to) by rubbing the oil in with half a garlic clove as an applicator rather than my finger as I was using previously. The next time I tried this I actually rubbed raw garlic into the board before the oil, forcing the natural garlic oil into the grain of the wood. It took about two cloves per side, and seemed reasonable effective at 'wetting' the board with garlic. Then rubbing in the oil with the clove provides a further garlic application. As I say, I have no idea to the effectiveness of this approach, but seeing as I use the boards for garlic frequently in the first place, I felt that the addition of some extra garlic could not hurt and should only help I hope.

one of my lovely Chinese chopping boards - simply a slice of tree

large garlic cloves halved

raw garlic cloves rubbed into the grain of the wood

olive oil then rubbed in with the cloves

Oh I do love garlic. Have a go and try it yourself. I guess as a real test I could attempt to garlic-ify the already mouldy board and see if it stemmed the mould. Hmmm, perhaps I might give that a go...

2015-09-23

Hexagonal jam jars pictured for scale (available from: @JamJar_Shop)

It's jam time of year and so far we've made three batches of cherry jam, three of mulberry, a mirabelle plum, an exotic greengage pickle and assortment of fruit mushes. There is a bucket of damsons to process as well as a few bits and bobs for gin and a demijohn of blackberry wine on the bubble. Safe to say it's been a good fruit year so far.
Therefore it is also that time of year when empty jars become rather important. We tend to keep most, but even still supplies are running low. Also, while it is good to recycle used jars (unless health and safety have got to you) and the quest for the nicest shop brought jars is satisfying, there is something much more pleasing about having all your jars the same size and shape. Very pleasing indeed. That is where The Jam Jar Shop comes into its own. You can buy case-loads of lovely jam jars all the same size. You can even buy ones in different sizes and have a little family of them. I much prefer the hexagonal variety as they stack so nicely and afford a good view of the jam inside. Specifically the 8oz size as this is a good balance between a practical amount of jam to enjoy per jar, but filling lots of jars generating plenty for you to give away. The 12oz are best if you're going to eat your own jam (or are really super generous to give away large jars). Meanwhile the 4 ozers are really cute but don't contain enough jam to make their gift-bestowal adequate. When it comes to lids I'm on the side of black looks best. I've found that the silver/gold ones tend to decay a bit over time and with repeated usage.
The only problem I have with the shop itself is the pictures of the jam jars. It's really quite hard to compare the different sizes when the images have no frame of reference. Hence why I have tried to take the photos below. In doing so I have discovered that it is quite tricky to give jars that are the same shape but mildly differing in size a sense of proportion. I walked round the house looking for something suitable. I tried filling them with whole cloves as these have a very definitive size, but then there are just too many to make the comparison useful. In the end I found that standing them on the newspaper was as effective as I could get it.
As a side note I do use these jars, the 8oz size, as spice jars. They look fabulous, naturally tessellate on the shelf and you don't need labels as you get such a good view of the contents. Sometime I find the 12oz more appropriate for some of the bulkier spices which tend to come in larger packs.

jamjarshop 12oz hexagonal jar filled with whole cloves

jamjarshop 8oz hexagonal jar

jamjarshop 4oz hexagonal jar

jamjarshop 4oz, 8oz, 12oz hexagonal jars all together for scale
2015-09-08

The @Wittertainment podcast made it into @Honda_UK new 2016 Jazz printed brochure.

The chap in the Honda dealer had let me know that a new Jazz was coming and that perhaps I might be interested to wait until then. The current model that I tried was the 2013 version. Today I popped into the dealer to see the new one. It is indeed a good improvement over the old version. The styling on the outside is improved and it felt a lot more finished and swish on the inside. There is now a large touch screen computer interface which looks promising. However I think they have made the classic Samsung mistake of adding additional "touch" buttons to control the air conditioning. I.e. buttons that don't exist, but simply glow out of an otherwise shiny piece of plastic. These are horrible as they give no feedback. Agreed that neither do screen buttons, but they tend to compensate with more pixels and a pressed visualisation. Yuck. Shame, as otherwise it was looking good (other than the fact that I've now brought a car).

New 2016 Honda Jazz brochure featuring Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo podcast

2015-09-08

Testdrive review: Honda Jazz

Car:

Honda

Jazz (but not the 2016)

With panoramic sunroof

3/5

Dealer:

John Banks

3/5

This was my first attempt at showing interest in buying a car and trying to book a testdrive. The process was quite painless and had I been organised enough to bring my driving licence in the first place I could probably have done it when I first showed up. The chap was friendly enough, he took me round the car and some of the options. The smart seats were indeed rather cleaver and nifty giving a full height option for large items and packing flat for more usual haulage. This was a good point as it is likely we will carry lots of stuff (logs and the like).
For the drive itself I was able to drive home to my driveway which is a little fiddly and have a go at parking in it. This also allowed Dr K to take a look around the car without their need for travel. The drive was pleasant enough, but very little to say about it. It felt spacious inside and a little like my mum's Renault Espace, but it didn't feel swish, in fact the inside felt a little overly practical, perhaps a little cheap. The sunroof was lovely although I didn't get to testdrive one with it. Overall a good size car, spacious for the footprint, but it didn't make me feel much wow, and quite expensive for that.
2015-07-21

Unfortunate subtitling from a local news bulletin

Testdrive: Toyota Yaris

• Car: Toyota Yaris
• 3/5
• Dealer: Lancaster Road, Cambridge
• 5/5
• 

The Yaris was a bit of a disappointment to me I'm sad to say. The brochure was exciting and enticing, the outside has a rather nice exciting and sharp styling without being overly aggressive. The inside boasts a massive touch-screen display, but the rest of the inside felt surprisingly cheap and a bit overly functional. The excitement of the exterior isn't carried over inside, and that seems quite a shame. The software on the touch-screen was also quite weak, not as bad as the Vauxhaull, which is horrendous, but certainly dated and clunky - missing the simplicity and elegance of the Polo's UI.
The drive was pleasant enough. Nothing to really say in it's favour or detriment. Perhaps the gearbox was a bit on the loose side, the steering not super precise. The indicators were annoyingly loud. But it went round and seemed to be reasonable on fuel efficiency. The sound of the rain on the roof was a problem - it felt exceedingly tinny and cheap as a result. However, the Andy from the showroom was really a big plus: honest, relaxed and friendly - exactly what I want from someone trying to sell me a huge (non) investment.
2015-08-18

We brought a car. *hangs head in shame*

We just brought a car. Really didn't mean to, but it just sort of happened. We went to the show room for a quick check of the details and ended up walking out having ordered a car which is currently on a ship heading to port in Southampton. I had hired a car for the week, a Toyota Aygo from Enterprise Histon and it was fine, a nice tiny car which did well to nip us round the flat lands and briefly to the mountains of Milton Keynes. It was also the car that took us to the showroom.
What have we done? It seems a little like we've failed and a little like we've succeeded at the same time. There has been some pride in not having a car, doing everything by bicycle until now, with a 5 month old (having had him on the bike trailer). But increasingly we have been relying on friends with cars to get us around more easily, and hiring more frequently. So it does feel like this is perhaps the natural time to relent and join the motorised masses. And in this way it oddly feels like a new age is dawning, like the 70's all over again (not that I was there the first time round), the prospect of having our own family car, the freedom to drive around and go where we like. Most importantly the ability to escape the oppressive confines of flat Cambridgeshire. Unfortunately, I fear we could discover that East Anglia is even more remote than we realised, taking at least an hour to get anywhere worth going.
The one positive thing living as we do in a village on the outskirts of Cambridge, is that driving in and around Cam is akin to having your brain repeadtedly smashed by a brick. It is a frightful "city" to attempt by car. Utterly ghastly. So this will mean that despite being motorised, any need for Cam will be bike bike bike. (It's worth noting, that even finding a place to park your bike can be difficult, but that is an entirely positive problem for a place to have.)
Just to be clear I do love our little village of Histon and I do like Cambridge, but I don't like driving round it and I'm not keen on the county it's in; too far right. Oh for the hills (and rain?) of the West.
2015-09-04

Astrophotography again

A beautiful still warm evening encouraged me outside to take some more astrophotography shots after I'd had a quick go a couple of weeks back. This time I think I achieved better success with 30 second exposures at higher ISO. I found that again focusing to infinity is hard with my 35mm prime, but the live view enables a zoom in which does just about work when there is a star in the view. I;m particularly pleased with the wide field view showing some detial of the Milky Way and the fennel shot which has a couple of clusters in the view. Next time I need to improve on the colour cast which is a bit pinky here at my chosen manual white-balance (~4500K). These first of the cropped shots below show detail of the camera shake generated by passing lorries due to the night closure of the A14. The second demonstrates the slip over time from my rather cheap and cheerful tripod. Ooh for a Manfrotto.

35mm - f/2 - iso 1600 - 30s

35mm - f/1.8 - iso 100 - 30s

35mm - f/2 - iso 1600 - 30s

35mm - f/2 - iso 200 - 256s

35mm - f/2 - iso 200 - 417s

2015-08-22