Sunday Whimsy and Other Stuff

Thank you to everyone who took time to comment on my previous blog. I thought I ought to update you on the printer front and let you know that in a moment of madness I took myself off to Comet's on the day I wrote my last blog, parted with some hard earned cash, and am now the proud owner of a proper photo printer - a Canon Pixma MG6150 no less! I did my research and spent the entire afternoon reading online reviews of various printers, several of which stated that laser printers were great for text but weren't actually up to the job of producing clear reproductions of digital art, but by common con census, the Pixma was rated one of the better choices, so I threw caution to the wind and went for it. I picked up some archival paper along the way also, and the results so far have been great - far better than the quality of the print from the shop I visited with no additional red hue, which suggests it was their printer rather than my laptop that was at fault. What I see on my computer screen is exactly replicated thanks to the 9600x2400 dpi (as opposed to the 600x600 I could have afforded had I bought a general laser printer) and I now have complete autonomy over everything I print off, so I'm currently one very happy bunny. It even managed to make a reasonably good job of this photo;



which is one I took many years ago at Lacock Abbey, on a small throw away-camera resulting in a pretty grainy image.

From the comments I received on my last blog it appears the photo of the house in the woods was the overall winner, which is odd, because it's actually my least favourite one of the three (note to self, when thinking about selling stuff do a little market research first!). Ian and myself stumbled upon the house in the woods one warm summers day a couple of years back, or rather, it was these wonderfully overgrown gates we saw first (you can just see the house tucked away behind them.)



I instantly fell in love with the place, not least of which because the outside plasterwork was covered in mythical imagery (which you sadly can't see much of on the photo I posted in the last blog) - it had tudor roses, wild boar, thistles and I 'think' (if memory serves me well) a unicorn all randomly placed in the exterior plasterwork whilst a band of vines ran in a frieze all around it. Coming home, I was determined to find out more about the place and eventually learnt that it was called Longhurst Lodge, the history of which you can read about more by following this link;

http://www.derelictmisc.org.uk/baynards.html

Ian and I went back there last year as I'd thought to photograph it's inevitable deterioration each year as something of a project, but I'm glad to say somebody has taken it in hand and it's now been sympathetically restored to it's former glory by dedicated folk who appeared to have camped out in the grounds in an old battered caravan whilst they worked on it. In many respects I'm glad it's been saved in this manner, but I confess there was something quite magical about the place as it slid into it's derelicted state as though time had stood still all around it, which can't now really be recaptured on film.

And so onto my Sunday Whimsy which has to be one of the most beautiful love songs I've ever heard.



If ever there were music that I felt I could write a story around, it's this.....