Pre-Birthday Conflagration

With some garden waste I'd retrieved from a house up the road (with permission), Luke and I had a little conflagration as a bit of winter warmth. There was an old chair that was to be scrapped which we burnt (difficult to tell which would create the worst pollution - burning or landfill). Strangely we managed to crated a second flame phoenix in the fire (the first phoenix is visible here).

Flames licking up the seat

The second phoenix (perhaps more of a pigeon)

fire, phoenix, conflagration

Britol to Bath Walk

Here are some photos taken on the walk from Bristol to Bath with my Brother and his girlfriend a couple of weekends back. 16 miles in total - a good long walk.

Most of the autumn leaves had fallen

Some swans that came for a little attention and bread

Chris and Chu on the riverside path

A fantastic 60's esq factory on the outskirts of Bath

Bath Cathedral maked the end of our journey

Bath, Bristol, walking

New Forest Autumn with Mum

Mum came down to visit me yesterday which was simply lovely. Apart from spoiling me with lots of little gifts, we went for a walk and meal in the New Forest. We drove along Boldrewood Ornamental Drive which was simply stunning and went for a walk around one of the parking spots doing a little bit of arty photography.

Some beautiful colours, though not all turned yet

Lovely woody openings with leaf litter carpeting the ground

Mum walking through the leaf litter

Sunset came along and enhanced all the colours

As we climbed a bank the setting sun streaked through the trees

We both enjoyed capturing the pink sunset sky

And after all that we went to the Green Dragon pub for dinner.

New Forest, Hampshire, autumn photography

Nick's Pumpkin Parade

For the first time this year I've experimented with growing squashes. From the various squashes I ate last year I collected the seeds and germinated them. Only about 10% seemed viable and after and head start on my windowsill I transplanted them out into the vegetable patch. I wasn't quite prepared for the extent to which they would spread - the longest vine was about 5 meters and meant that the pumpkins ended up growing on my new lawn.

It's been exciting watching these things grow and I've still got a few left on the various vines. I've also recently found some baby butternut squashes have begun to develop. More to come...

My pumpkin fleet

The largest is quite a size and weight

Green pumpkins are turning orange

A gaggle of squashes

Barney our free range garden rabbit

gardening, pumpkins, orange

Picasa on my Mac

Die iPhoto, die!

Today I finally deleted iPhoto from my Macbook Pro. My Mac is now free, set free from the horrid photo hell that was iPhoto.

What brought this on?

Because I now have Picasa on my mac.

You who the what now?

YES I can successfully run Google's gloriously free and super fantastic Picasa on my mac. I'll post a photo as proof shortly as well as details on how I achieved this feat.

Wondrous.

picasa, picasa2, google, google picasa, mac, macbook pro