What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found (and kept)?
Hubby and I were cycling along on our tandem in the middle of the countryside. We were passing through farmland one spring when he suddenly braked to a stop. He had seen a camera in the ditch next to the road on a clump of grass. We think it must have fallen off the top of a car?
There was no one around to ask who it belonged to, so we decided to wind back the film and get it developed. The thought was to try and identify the owners. It was a nice camera with just a dent in the metal ring round the lens, it was worth a bit of money and it would have been sad to lose by the owners. It might have had important memories attached to it.
We waited a week for the photos to come back. There were three photos of the landscape, but nothing to identify the owner, no people and no houses or cars.
In the end we kept the camera. I used it for years, taking photos for college, holidays and family events. I always wanted to give it back. I used 35mm film with an iso of 400. It had a good life with us.
No, the top of a roof, one version rotated and twisted. If it was really a spacecraft it might be fast in the atmosphere, but it isn’t necessarily needed in space. Why? Because there is no air so no wind resistance. You will move in a straight line unless you use a small reaction control thrusters. That’s what they had to use to direct Apollo 13 when it was drifting off course during it’s disastrous mission . Otherwise the space capsule might not have been able to get back to Earth. Also remember there’s no sound in space so no whooshing noises!
I was out at physiotherapy today when I dropped my walking stick on the floor. Instead of doing the sensible thing and standing up, I leant over the thin chair arm and reached down. Fingertips close to the handle I just reached a bit more and something clunked in my side. It was so painful I shouted out. They checked I was OK. I don’t think I’ve broken a rib, but someone suggested I had damaged the cartlidge between my ribs as my weight came down on the chair arm. I’m OK unless I move, then it twinges. Just worried about lying down tonight. I’ve broken ribs before and that’s painful, this isn’t quite as bad, but it’s definitely annoying!
I bought a kaleidiscope as a Christmas gift today, it will be part of a few gifts for a young relative. I had one as a child and I used toove the patterns it made so I aways looking for a similar type.
I’ve duplicated one photo I took through the viewing end because it was hard to line up the pattern with the lens of my camera, it gives a reasonable example of how it looks.
I’m amazed it’s sunny today, we started it with a bright red sunrise this morning that indicated bad weather. It has been grey and foggy for over two weeks, dark and gloomy. I’d begun to think the sun would never return. Hopefully the light will last a while.
It’s expected to be sunny for a couple of days before it starts to rain. I’m sad that it’s like that as in winter we have so few hours of sunshine anyway. I suppose you just have to find a way through.
I’ve just watched the film Warhorse, directed by Steven Speilberg. It’s the story of a part thoroughbred foal that is bought by a farmer who’s rivalry with his landlord causes him to buy the young horse for more than he can afford.
The farmers son trains the horse to pull a plough and work around the farm. But his father sells it to help save the farm.
The horse, Joey, is transported to France where it becomes part of the British Army and fights in the first world war. In the meantime the farmers son Albie joins up and goes to France to search for his friend. The story has a series of incidents where awful things happen to the boy and Joey. Will they find each other? I won’t say!
The story was originally on in the theatre, the horse and other animals were puppets, the main horse was supported and moved by two men and was made of a lattice work of plastic? strips that gave the impression of a horse.
It’s an excellent story and both theatre production and film brought tears to my eyes.
An old pub in Penkhull, Stoke-on-Trent. It was once the local court house where trials used to take place. This is my photo of its public house sign.
From The Potteries.org website:
The Greyhound Inn, Penkhull pen drawing by Neville Malkin – Dec 1975 “Opposite the west door of Penkhull church is the 16th century Greyhound Inn, a building that incorporates the former courthouse of the manor of Newcastle-under-Lyme.
During the Middle Ages the castle at Newcastle was the venue for manorial courts, but the building became increasingly unsafe, and the meeting place was transferred to Stoke, where courts were being held in the middle years of Elizabeth Ist’s reign. The court moved again in the 1580s when it was first incorporated into the Greyhound at Penkhull. Towards the end of her reign the court moved back again to Stoke where it continued to be held until the mid-1620s, when it appears to have been held alternately at Stoke and Penkhull; from 1635 to about 1817 all courts were normally held at Penkhull, except a small one at Clayton. By 1829 courts were being held at the Wheatsheaf Hotel in Stoke, and from 1854 the court was held in Hanley.
The Greyhound, which is now covered in stucco, was largely rebuilt in 1936, with parts of the original 16th century wooden frame structure being preserved. The main block, which runs parallel with the main road, and a small back wing, are still of timber construction but the two-floor cross-wing at the south end has been entirely rebuilt in brick. A massive chimney between the two main blocks originally had stone fireplaces with four centred arches on both floors, but in 1936 the one in the central bar was replaced by that from the room above. A small room at the north end of the building has original 16th century panelling, partly reset, and a courtroom with oak benches around the walls; a seat for the presiding official is said to have been in existence until the major alterations of 1936. I am also told that the cellars were at one time used for the lock-up, where prisoners awaiting trial were held.”
Neville Malkin 17th Dec 1975
I hope it’s OK to publish this information. I will delete if I breaching copyright.
Mallaband-Brown 