Cloudy Weather

Seen this week and converted to b/w.
A reminder of how dramatic cloud formations could look before the advent of colour film:









The white speckles in the shadows are light reflecting from wet leaves.

Sunset with Moon

Shine On Harvest Moon
The Ink Spots
Written by Jack Norworth and Nora Bayes

Shine on, shine on harvest moon up in the sky
I ain't had no lovin' since January, February, June, or July
Snow time ain't no time to sit outdoors and spoon
Shine on, shine on harvest moon for me 'n' my gal

Going Round to America

One of the things I enjoy with my Amateur Radio activities is experimenting with simple aerials to see which works best for me. For the past week or so I have been building and experimenting with what is called a magnetic loop aerial. Something which has been on my 'round tuit' list for several years:



The small black 'loop' connects to the transmitter / receiver. That picks up the signals received by the larger copper loop which is about 1 meter in diameter. Just above the copper loop is the tuning mechanism which has to be designed to handle high voltages. It might be low power being transmitted but in excess of 1000 volts can be generated at the top section. These aerials seem to need little power to send signals a fair old distance. I use just 10W which is one tenth of the full power of my transmitter and one fortieth of the power I am licenced to use. Best contact to date has been 4177 miles to a station in the US using a digital mode called FT8 on the 17m band.

With most aerials the higher up they are the better they work but the magnetic loop seems to work miracles when close to the ground.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Bright and early yesterday we trundled off to the vets as Penny was to have her teeth cleaned, again. As in the past the vet thought he might have to extract one or more - one of the problems with having a greyhound. She didn't have her op until late in the day so initially they suggested keeping her in over night for observation.
Just before 8 p.m. I had a phone call. No extractions were needed and she had recovered so well she could go home. By this afternoon she was well and truly back to normal with just a shaved leg to show for her experience.

Getting ready for an after tea time meal doze:


I knew she was due for a 'clean up' as her breath had become very bad but today it is as sweet as anyone could ask for.  Paws looking better too as she also had a pedicure while she was there.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

After yesterday's enormous Sunflowers here is a tiny spider seen today.
Just 5mm across, including the legs.
Three focus stacked shots:



I wonder what the world looks like through six eyes.

Then There Were Two

Sunflowers growing in a nearby garden.
Not quite as tall as the one gown last year but just look at the size of those flower heads:

A White August?

The last day of August finishes with a storm accompanied by a hail shower:




From lightningmaps.org showing where the lightning strikes surrounding me occured - me being about centre of this map: