Winter Clings On

We may be having some lovely sunny days but clear skies at night can still means frosts:

This morning the temperature was just below 1C

Buzzing With Life

Yesterday we had wall to wall Sunshine.
The second day where the temperature has reached 14C by the afternoon.
Returning from our mid morning walk the first thing which caught my eye ...



... the various growths on the Hibiscus bush.
Its branches always looks well and truly dead this time of year.

Next spotted were the first opening flowers on ...



... the tete-a-tete miniature narcissus bulbs.

Nearby were in the order of 20 ...



... 7 spot ladybirds scattered about.

I decided to wander over to have a look at my heather plants.
Even more of them there ...



But almost deafening was the sheer number of ...

 

... bees busy buzzing from flower to flower.



Lots of background twittering from the House Sparrows.
Amazing what a bit of warmth will produce this time of year.

Lacewing

When I lifted the lid on a garden store I thought a small moth had flown out.
When it landed on the lid I could see it was ....



.... a lacewing.

Things are coming back to life.
I have noticed plenty of flies recently.
Spiders are making a nuisance of themselves building their webs in front of my cameras.
Even the occasional bumblebee has been seen.

Church of Saint Mary, Manby, Lincolnshire

It is quite a while since I took some photographs around the outside of St. Mary's, Manby. Since then I have been promising myself to have a quick look round the inside. As I had to visit two other places in Manby I took the opportunity to see whether it was open.

Saint Mary's Manby dates back to the 15th Century and may have been built on the site of an earlier church. One clue is a late Anglo-Saxon slab which was discovered during Victorian restoration work. It can now be seen embedded in the north wall of the Nave.



On entering the church through the North porch the font is the first item to be seen:

 

It was very dark inside which made the magnificent East window stand out:

 

Close view of the central figure:

 

The inscription:





Either side, behind the choir stalls, are identical windows:



From the outside I was just able to make out another stained glass window near the base of the tower.
Unfortunately this is hidden from view behind the organ loft:



A couple of views of the pulpit:





One of the roof timbers:



and finally a brass memorial plaque:



All photographs taken with my trusty Nikon Coolpix S9050 pocket camera.
Its tiny built in flash gun did a grand job dispelling the gloom.

Information found on midmarshchurches.org.uk and Lincs to the Past web sites.

Time Lapse Clouds

This time I mounted my 3D printed phone holder on a tripod.

 

iPod clamped in place and set up in the garden.
5V power bank hanging below.



That view shows why I end up walking about half a kilometre when cutting the grass.

Once again I used the Apple Camera app to take the shots and produce the video.
I let it run for about 45 minutes.



Next time I'll try to get things level!

Another Phone Holder

I have been searching through many designs for 3D printed holders for phones which were suitable for use on a tripod. Finally I found one on thingiverse I thought worth trying out.

Just three printed sections



which fit together to make



I fitted it to a universal ball joint I already had and clamped my iPod



The whole thing will fit on the standard screw on a tripod.
I also found the stand from an old 7 inch monitor and attached it to that

 

so I could stand and angle it in the bedroom window to take a time lapse video.
The block on the right is a rechargeable 5V power bank.
Useful when something may need  power for an extended period.

Not a brilliant day for time lapse photography!



If I understood things correctly the built in Apple Camera app (when set to the time lapse setting) chooses the number of frames per second so that the resulting video is no more than 40 seconds long no matter how long it has been filming. It does this after the recording has been stopped. Not exactly a speedy process but nor is it speedy transferring 100s of individual photos to a laptop and putting them together to make a video,

Spotted

A couple of nice sunny days, warm out of the cool wind.
Managed to get the grass trimmed yesterday.
Today I was checking how well some plants had survived the winter so far when I saw:



a seven spot ladybird soaking up the sunshine.