A day out yesterday

[SidW]

Our favourite local park re-opened yesterday after the winter so we went of course, for the walk, for the coffee, and for the prospect of rhododendrons (the park has an amazing collection). We were disappointed about the rhododendrons, the early varieties had all been spoilt by the recent freak days of snow and had faded completely, while the next in line went into hibernation again.

Some memories from our day:









EOS 20D, EF 50mm/2, ISO100

[mickeyobe]

SidW,

Very nice pictures.

How did you keep the vertical lines in the second picture from converging toward he top?

Mickey

[nikonbob]

SidW

I can see why you like short teles, you seem to be detail oriented. I like the chimney detail in the first shot.

Bob

[SidW]

Thank you both. Micky they are converging slightly, but I didn't need to trim the perspective. I did rotate the image a little to bring the centre of the gable to vertical on the image. Bob, yes indeed, but not just detail (although the old brickwork is fascinating), it was also the contrasting areas of textures of the bricks in the chimney breast, the tile-like chimney pot, and the metal roof plates (thought they were slate at first). But detail - yes, that regal top to the chimney was irresistable.

[PeterW]

I say, Sid, the front of the building in picture 2 is a bit of a sham, what? Or maybe they employed midgets and those were their rooms. .

Thanks for the link to your Flickr album, I just spent an enjoyable half-hour there, and I shall go back. Far too many good pictures to take them all in at one gulp.

I loved the night-time city pictures, and the flora, but the latin names had me reeling for a bit until I spotted some more familiar names in the captions underneath. Latin names for flowers and bushes is not one of my stronger points.

Sweden, London, Spain, Portugal, Iceland, New York ... you get about a bit in your tea half-hour! .

Thanks for a most enjoyable - and inspiring - browse. I've spent so much of my photographic life taking pictures of technical things, and candid street scenes of people, that I've almost completely neglected some of the wonderful pictures to be found in building details, and lovely pictures of flowers. Mind you, flowers didn't look quite so attractive in my hey-day of black and white.

Note to self: Must get out this summer and look for more pictures in familiar things you see every day and just pass by.

But ordinary people going about their ordinary everyday lives are still my favourite subjects. I love pictures of them in books about bygone eras. Candid pictures of people tell you far more about social history than text books ever can and I don't think I'll ever tire of taking pictures of them.

BTW, western suburb of London ... petrol station on the main road to Southampton ... 1956 ... that would be pre-motorway. At that time Valerie and I were living in Shepherd's Bush, almost on the A4, and when you said western I thought first of the A4, but that runs too far north for Southampton. So was it on the A3, down past the Oval and Clapham, and fork right for Wandsworth and Kingston? If so you were on another of my old stamping grounds.

I remember the Suez crisis well, and issues of coupons ready for petrol rationing that in the end never came. I've still got some of mine somewhere. I was glad it didn't come to a shooting war as my younger cousin, one of two brothers I grew up with, was out there at the time in the RAF.

His older brother, two years younger than me, had been in the army in Korea - as a sniper! Moral: In a shooting war don't let 'em know you're a marksman and entitled to wear crossed rifles on your sleeve. Fortunately he came back OK, but mentally it affected him deeply.

Waffle over - for the moment !

Peter W.

[SidW]

Thanks for the waffle, Peter.

As you suggest, those nooks must be for the wee folk. But it's also a sham for a more serious reason. Those stepped gables were typical on the continent around the 17th c., in Holland and in the Hansa towns around the Baltic, I can't recall seeing them in Britain. But this house was built in the 19th c., a typical local wealthy merchant's or industrialist's residence, in the style of a northern renaissance palace (no stepped gables there either). The same style was adopted by the local railway for it's first stations, so maybe it's the same architect.

Sorry about the Latin plant names, they are at least recognised internationally. Popular names and local names vary a lot, and they become impossible to translate.

For pictures of those everyday details look at Gene's collection. His eye is tuned in to what we're mostly blind to.

1956 - I was staying in the Ealing-Southall area, and the petrol station was about a 15 min cycle ride, perhaps in the Brentford direction. I have an old 1961 AA handbook for these occasions. The A3 or A31 look very likely and have link roads A3xx etc into west London. Of course, I've no idea where those convoys were going, I was just adding 2 and 2 to make 7.

We have been around a bit in recent years, but Sweden is home, and London is where we immerse the old genes in some home atmosphere, a son in Ireland, a local garden club that organises trips, Madeira has always been a favourite, add to that a little panic as my legs got wobblier and wobblier .....

Stay well Peter

[PeterW]

Sid,

Sorry about the Latin plant names, they are at least recognised internationally. Popular names and local names vary a lot, and they become impossible to translate.

Don't apologise. I agree entirely. Latin names for plants are international, and can be added to or extended when new varieties are found. I'm just very rusty on them, and even more rusty on identification.

I once knew a very keen gardener who was born and bred in Walworth and had a south London accent you could slice up with a knife, full of shortened forms of rhyming slang. Even I had to concentrate to understand him at times. He was a frequent visitor to Kew Gardens and I'm sure the people there must have thought his accent was Russian or something. But he could quote the Latin name of any flower in his garden, and they understood it immediately.

He ran a market stall selling fruit and vegetables, and sometimes shouted out the Latin names of his wares just for fun - "Got some nice Brassica oleracea 'ere. Fresh s'mornin'. Wassat me ol' China? An' same ter you, wi' brass knobs on! I'll shove a Solanum lycopersicum dahn yer norf in a minit!."

Quoting local names internationally would be quite hopeless. How, for example, would you translate 'Old Maid's Frillies' into Swedish? I came across that name used in Gloucestershire for a variety of quite large white daisy with frilly edges to the petals. Don't ask me what the Latin name for the variety is, Leucanthemum something possibly.

PeterW

[SidW]

There you go Peter. The nearest I can get is "prästkrage" (priest's collar) referring to the ruff-like neckwear traditionally worn by Lutheran ministers. I'll have to ask around if there's anything as daring as "old maid's frillies". Maybe Rejo has some ideas on this?

Afterthought: even if there is a popular Swedish name like that I doubt if you'd see it on a label at Sofiero Park in Helsingborg, too prim for that sought of frivollity.

[mickeyobe]

Peter,

"Old Maid's Frillies"
I can't touch Latin but how about a close second in English "Queen Anne's Lace" - a wild type of parsnip.

Mickey