Macro on Monday - What's That?

Oh dear. Last week's What's That must have been a lot more difficult than I anticipated so the Gold Star has stayed snugly tucked up in the safe for another week. No one managed to work out that it was a part view of a snail shell....

Obvious now you can see the original shot.

I wonder how you will get on with the new mystery macro shot.

Guess What:

iPhone4 with mini microscope attachment

More of this about than usual with all the dull damp weather.

No prizes, just for fun.

_______________________________

How many people buy the Daily Express I wonder. If so they must be gluttons for bad news. Each day I have a look at the front pages of many UK dailies on the 'frontpagestoday' web site. It appears to me that the Express deserves a gold star for frequently having the gloomiest front page. Today the banner headline is a weather forecast. We are in for temperatures down to -15C by the end of the month with two weeks of "freezing misery". At least I have got my shoe spikes ready. In fact I have had to use then twice already this Autumn and Penny has worn her nice padded waterproof coat.

Friday at the Flicks - Great Tit Roosting

Stumped once again for anything really new or outstanding this week. It seems that the Great Tit is roosting in the camera nestbox every night and leaves by first light. This was taken last Sunday morning as she (well it was a she which roosted last year) woke and left the box.





Rain Gauge:

Making progress slowly. Last Saturday I decided to start programming the section of code which counts the number of times the seasaw in the rain gauge flips. Most of the time the seasaw is moving the reed switch is closed so I had to devise a way of constantly and rapidly checking when the flip had finished. I thought it would take about an hour experimenting. In the end it took about two and a half hours as initially I just couldn't get the code to do what I expected. Anyway solved it eventually and set it up in the kitchen sink to give it a real test. You can hear the seasaw flip over and the count shows every other flip which relates to 1mm of rainfall.




I searched high and low for a box to put the electronics in but all those I had were too small so I ordered one which arrived yesterday. I had 'fun' cutting a rectangular hole in the plastic front for the LCD readout but got there in the end. First I drilled a few holes as guides for the corners and then used a side cutting bit from a RotoZip in my battery drill to make a rough rectangle and finally filed it to shape.



Still a long way to go to finish all the coding for storing and displaying rainfall records. At least it keeps the remaining grey cell active.

Who Put That There?

Fireworks were much nearer and louder last night. Initially Penny was a bit restless, mainly because she could see the flashes on the monitor. Then she moved to a darker spot and went to sleep so all in all the evening passed well. There have been nowhere near as many noisy rockets this year - another sign that money is tight for many families.

About 9 p.m. she decided it was time to go in the back garden and water the grass. I think we were both surprised to see the remains of a rocket had landed, burying itself nose first in the soggy ground. Usually the morning following a nearby firework display I manage to collect a few of these. They make excellent garden canes for tall flowers.

I'm sure that wasn't there at tea time!

The flash from the camera shows how well her reflective collar works. That is often the only piece of her I can see when she wanders round the garden at night.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Brilliant, a full house. A Gold Star and my congratulations to Adrian, Roy, Keith, Jan, ImaBurdie and Glo who all correctly identified the blurred photo of a pine / fir cone. I was experimenting with long exposures with a rotating object to see how they would look.









This week I have a close up partial view.
The crop was then modified with one of Harry's Filters in Elements.
The filter set is shareware and a free download from The Plugin Site.

Guess What:



Not a Danish Pastry nor a Curly Wurly.
No prizes, just for fun.


Answer and any guesses will be revealed next Monday.

Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November ...

Remember, remember, the fifth of November
The Gunpowder Treason and plot;
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

So the rhyme goes in remembrance of the failed plot by Guido (Guy) Fawkes and his fellow conspirators to blow up the houses of Parliament in 1605. Background information can be found on Wikiquote.

With the 5th being a Monday this year those who celebrate with bonfires and fireworks will mainly use the weekend nights. Bobby never bothered about the noise of invisible (to him) explosions and whistles nearby but I wasn't sure how Penny was going to react. She does have a nervous disposition. When we are out she is easily startled by any sudden noises, especially from behind her.

Fortunately last night's displays were not too close nor very loud. At first she kept coming to me for reassurance but in the end decided that she would cover up Freddy the Fox's ears and catch some shuteye herself.



I just hope that tonight runs as smoothly.

Remember folks - if you are having a bonfire then check for any hibernating Hedgehogs as to them it is a nice cosy hibernation spot under piles of wood and leaves.

Crane Fly

Very little of note going on here recently. Not as many birds visiting as I would have expected once the temperature had dropped though there are plenty of sparrows and a group of Goldfinches visiting every day. On top of that the light levels have been abysmal with all the heavy cloud cover.

This morning there was a Crane Fly, Daddy Longlegs, on the outside of the kitchen window which gave me my first photo opportunity for several days.





Taken with the Lumix TZ7 lens touching the inside glass of the double glazed window.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

One outright winner for a correct guess last week. Congratulations and the virtual gold star go to Glo who guessed it was a wasp. I will admit that it was far from easy to say what sort of winged insect it was.

It looks to me to be one of the many varieties of ichneumon wasp.
Amazing the size of the compound eyes compared with the rest of its body.

iPhone with mini microscope attachment

My thanks to all who gave it a whirl and had a go.

On to a new Guess What.
Not a micro or macro shot this week but the whole object for a change:

A four second exposure

No prizes. Just for fun. Answer next week. All guesses will be kept hidden until then.


Goodness me how I do rabbit on. I though I was getting somewhere near the 1000 posts mark and a quick count shows the total is now 1013. How quickly four years have flashed by. To think that when I finally got the project off the Round Tuit pile I wondered what I would find to write about and how long the enthusiasm would last. Ah well, me thinks you will have to put up with my ramblings for a lot longer yet. Writing this blog and perusing the many informative and entertaining blogs out there is firmly entrenched as part of my daily, or at least weekly, routine.