Friday at the Flicks - Some Regulars + A Sneak Thief

Some of the regular visitors to the bird table on a dull Winter's day:



I decided to place a suet log on the bird table so the small ground feeders would have a chance to peck at it. Needless to say that lasted less than ten minutes as a sneak thief made off with it before any birds had a chance to sample it:



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

A Winter Sunrise

 Tuesday morning dawned cold but very cheerful with a glorious Sunrise.
 Viewed from my front garden:









A great pity that such views are so short lived but that makes seeing them all the more special.

All taken with the Nikon S9050. Apart from cropping only the first photo was modified using the Mac app Snapheal to eliminate a telephone pole and wires.

Tuesday Twister - Guess What

Congratulations and the virtual Midmarsh Gold Star go to TexWisGirl, Adrian, Wilma and Ragged Robin who all spotted the twisted dragonfly last Tuesday:

     

The site I was going to use to make this week's twisted picture wasn't working when I tried to access it so here is a tiny planet type twisted photo of an object.
Guess What:


Please leave any guesses in the comments which will be revealed, along with the answer, next Tuesday.
No prizes. Just for fun and maybe a Midmarsh virtual Gold or Silver Star.

Friday at the Flicks - A £2 Heart Scan

A couple of days ago I had to visit.....






.... Louth General Hospital as an out patient for an ultrasound scan of my heart to check on a suspected heart murmur. Results will take a week or so to come through as this was done by a private company outsourced by the local health authority.

The video is of my journey home.  (Normal speed, 11.5 mins)

I have often said that I can see the spire of St. James' Church sticking up well above the town which is mainly built in the bottom of a steep valley.  As I leave the hospital entrance you can see how much of Louth lies well below me. The journey then travels down to the bottom of the valley until I reach the traffic lights next to St. James' parish church. The road I am on was once the main London Road and carried all the heavy traffic through those narrow streets. Fortunately there is now a by-pass so things are much easier. Once through the lights the road soon starts climbing again.

Leaving Louth I am in open countryside. I did notice a great number of Wood Pigeons on one of the overhead power lines. Looking at a still from the video it looks as though there were over two hundred congregating there. Turning left on to the B1200 at a roundabout there is one more low but steep hill before reaching the flat coastal part of Lincolnshire and the last stretch home. The video ends at temporary traffic lights at the village cross roads where it is taking twenty days of disruption to replace the old traffic lights which are said to have reached the end of their useful working life. The building upper left covered in solar panels is a new extension to the village primary school.



Where does the £2 come in? That was the cost of a parking ticket to use the hospital car park.
That is what can be seen reflected in the windscreen until I noticed and removed it.

Old is When .........

'OLD' IS WHEN...
Your friends compliment you on your new alligator shoes and you're barefoot

'OLD' IS WHEN...
Going bra-less pulls all the wrinkles out of your face..

'OLD' IS WHEN....
You don't care where your spouse goes, just as long as you don't have to go along.

'OLD' IS WHEN...
You are cautioned to slow down by the doctor instead of by the police .

'OLD' IS WHEN
'Getting a little action' means you don't need to take a laxative today.

'OLD' IS WHEN....
'Getting lucky' means you find your car in the parking lot..

'OLD' IS WHEN... 
An 'all nighter' means not getting up to use the bathroom.

'OLD' IS WHEN....
You're not sure if these are facts or jokes.

PhotoSpiralysis

I was reading an article about the Droste effect on the DiyPhotography site and decided to have a search for any programs or apps which could create similar effects.  Basically the Droste effect reproduces and repeats a diminishing sized part or all of a picture. On a quick search I couldn't find a stand alone program. There is at least one plug-in for CS5 but there is also an on line facility which can create a similar effect at PhotoSpiralysis which is free to use. That at least is platform independant and works as though it is loaded on your own computer. The only provision is that your computer is running Silverlight. So I just had to have a play to see what I could do with a few of my own photos:



Basically you start by choosing a photo from your computer. That uses your normal file selector. Once loaded it is then a question of experimenting with the choices on the left hand side. Lots of experimentation needed in the choice of photo and the settings. Depending on your choices part of the photo will be covered by a tinted rectangle or circle. These have three dots (for a circle) or five (for a rectangle)  The pink dot marks the point at which the process will be made and the purple ones adjust the size and / or shape of that area. It can be moved around the photo for different effects. Once finished the result is saved to your computer. This can take a while as the finished photo has to be generated and that can be quite a slow process with a large file.



A few experiments from last night:

















Watch out - Tuesday Twisters could get more complicated in future!

Tuesday Twister - Guess What

No problems with last week's twisted photo. Congratulations and virtual Midmarsh Gold Stars go to TexWisGirl, Wilma, Roy and Adrian who all recognised a twisted cricket match:

     


I don't think this week's twisted photo should give too many problems either.
Guess What:


Please leave any guesses in the comments.
They will be revealed next Tuesday along with the answer.
No prizes. Just for fun and maybe a virtual Midmarsh silver or gold star.