I was fortunate to spot a couple of Long Tailed Tits visit the bird feeders. It is quite a while since I last saw any visit my feeders. Unfortunately they didn't stay long as there were scared away by the noisy arrival of a Wood Pigeon. When I checked the automatic camera recordings I saw that Great and Blue Tits are also visiting. Not recorded by the camera was a brief visit by a Coal Tit.
You may have noticed some late Sunflower plants growing near the feeders. In the late Spring I tried twice to get some seeds started in pots for planting in the front garden. They all failed to germinate! These plants are the result of randomly scattered seeds dropped when the birds drop them whilst feeding.
Tuesday, 27 September 2022
Monday, 26 September 2022
A Cloudy Tiny Planet
I am still out of inspiration for suitable mystery objects at the moment. To fill the gap here is a tiny planet video I put together a short while ago.
I had been searching for the one and only timelapse I made of a Sunset but it has eluded all efforts to find where I stored it. This timelapse was of daytime clouds which looked a bit insipid until I added the 'blast' clip filter in iMovie.
As we are heading to longer and longer dark evenings and nights I have been adding to my stock of audio books. I do use Kobo for eBooks and audio books. They are limited to use on their apps and hardware. I also like to have audio books in mp3 format. I can have them on a USB stick so I can play them on anything, especially my audio system. To that end I found quite a few download sites with free to download and use recordings. Two I have used a lot are Digitalbook.io and audiobooksworld.org. Most books are decades old as they are now out of copyright. They tend to be Librivox recordings which are all in the public domain. You could, of course, go direct to librivox.org though I find their site a bit more daunting to sort through. As far as I can tell all the books can be listened to on line as well as being available for download.
I had been searching for the one and only timelapse I made of a Sunset but it has eluded all efforts to find where I stored it. This timelapse was of daytime clouds which looked a bit insipid until I added the 'blast' clip filter in iMovie.
As we are heading to longer and longer dark evenings and nights I have been adding to my stock of audio books. I do use Kobo for eBooks and audio books. They are limited to use on their apps and hardware. I also like to have audio books in mp3 format. I can have them on a USB stick so I can play them on anything, especially my audio system. To that end I found quite a few download sites with free to download and use recordings. Two I have used a lot are Digitalbook.io and audiobooksworld.org. Most books are decades old as they are now out of copyright. They tend to be Librivox recordings which are all in the public domain. You could, of course, go direct to librivox.org though I find their site a bit more daunting to sort through. As far as I can tell all the books can be listened to on line as well as being available for download.
Monday, 19 September 2022
Monday Mystery
After watching and soaking up the atmosphere from the live broadcast of the final journey of the late Queen Elizabeth II I must say I feel somewhat melancholy this evening. I think it brought home that this really is the end of an era for the UK.
I've not found anything suitable for a new mystery photo yet but here is the answer to last week's close view. I showed ....
which was in fact part of a multi sharpener for various items with cutting edges ....
A simple but very effective manual sharpening device. The end section which some thought was like a tiny pair of scissors for cutting wire in fact is designed for sharpening secateur blades. The white strip is for scissor blades and the darker strip for garden shears. At least that is what the instructions indicate. The round knob at the other end unscrews to reveal a small oil reservoir with a sponge built in the knob.
Thank you Adrian and Ellen D for having a go. All being well things will be back to normal next Monday or at least what passes for normal in the Midmarsh household.
I've not found anything suitable for a new mystery photo yet but here is the answer to last week's close view. I showed ....
which was in fact part of a multi sharpener for various items with cutting edges ....
A simple but very effective manual sharpening device. The end section which some thought was like a tiny pair of scissors for cutting wire in fact is designed for sharpening secateur blades. The white strip is for scissor blades and the darker strip for garden shears. At least that is what the instructions indicate. The round knob at the other end unscrews to reveal a small oil reservoir with a sponge built in the knob.
Thank you Adrian and Ellen D for having a go. All being well things will be back to normal next Monday or at least what passes for normal in the Midmarsh household.
Monday, 12 September 2022
Monday Mystery
I thought that last week's close view ...
... was going to be an easy one. In the end only Adrian worked out it was ...
... a shower gel container. Very convenient for hanging within easy reach on the shower rail. Well done Adrian. Thank you to all who had a go.
I think this week's close view ...
may well be difficult. Anyway, prove me wrong by leaving your guess as to what it is by leaving your guess in the comments. They will be revealed, with the answer, next Monday.
... was going to be an easy one. In the end only Adrian worked out it was ...
... a shower gel container. Very convenient for hanging within easy reach on the shower rail. Well done Adrian. Thank you to all who had a go.
I think this week's close view ...
may well be difficult. Anyway, prove me wrong by leaving your guess as to what it is by leaving your guess in the comments. They will be revealed, with the answer, next Monday.
Monday, 5 September 2022
Monday Mystery
Last Monday I showed ...
which was a close up view of ...
.... a battery powered chain saw. Congratulations and well done to Adrian, Ellen D. and Ragged Robin. I will admit it was difficult as I showed just a tiny section of the chain. Many thanks to all who had a go.
Another close view for this week's mystery object ..
... which is part of - what? If you would like to make a guess please leave it in the comments. They will be revealed, with the answer, next Monday.
which was a close up view of ...
.... a battery powered chain saw. Congratulations and well done to Adrian, Ellen D. and Ragged Robin. I will admit it was difficult as I showed just a tiny section of the chain. Many thanks to all who had a go.
Another close view for this week's mystery object ..
... which is part of - what? If you would like to make a guess please leave it in the comments. They will be revealed, with the answer, next Monday.
Tuesday, 30 August 2022
Tiny Planet Movies
I dusted off my old iPad 2 the other day. Not been used for many a Moon so the battery was flat. Pleasant surprise - it charged just fine and is holding its charge. I was going through the apps on it and deleting some which no longer worked or I had no use for when I found one I had completely forgotten about. 'Living Planet'. I searched the app store in case there was an update but it doesn't seem to be available any more. Fortunately the original app works just fine and I found I had a copy of it on a newer iPad.
Living Planet is, as far as I can gather, the only app which can take a 30 second movie and turn it into a Tiny Planet or Wormhole video. I just had to have a play with it. First with a cloud timelapse video:
A screenshot from the movie:
The resulting wormhole movie: (cropped to 16:4 ratio)
Next a screenshot from a harvesting video:
The uncropped tiny planet movie:
I was tickled by the way the earth seems to be made to revolve under the combine.
Living Planet is, as far as I can gather, the only app which can take a 30 second movie and turn it into a Tiny Planet or Wormhole video. I just had to have a play with it. First with a cloud timelapse video:
A screenshot from the movie:
The resulting wormhole movie: (cropped to 16:4 ratio)
Next a screenshot from a harvesting video:
The uncropped tiny planet movie:
I was tickled by the way the earth seems to be made to revolve under the combine.
Monday, 29 August 2022
Monday Mystery
Last week's close view ...
was indeed part of
my old sugar tongs. When I was a youngster my mother would often have a bowl of sugar lumps on the tea table. These are made of good old Sheffield steel. Well recognised by Adrian ( yes you can still by sugar cubes), Ellen D., Ragged Robin and Jane. Thank you to all who had a guess. I hope I didn't delete any other guesses accidentally during the week while I was deleting a load of spam comments.
I hope the new close view ...
is easier than I have a feeling it may be. Have a go anyway. If you would like to have a guess please leave it in the comments. They will be revealed, with the answer, next Monday.
was indeed part of
my old sugar tongs. When I was a youngster my mother would often have a bowl of sugar lumps on the tea table. These are made of good old Sheffield steel. Well recognised by Adrian ( yes you can still by sugar cubes), Ellen D., Ragged Robin and Jane. Thank you to all who had a guess. I hope I didn't delete any other guesses accidentally during the week while I was deleting a load of spam comments.
I hope the new close view ...
is easier than I have a feeling it may be. Have a go anyway. If you would like to have a guess please leave it in the comments. They will be revealed, with the answer, next Monday.
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