Blackbirds, Holly Tree, My Cats & A Box of Prints

Blackbird alarm calls got me up and out into the garden, I knew there was a nest in my Holly tree. With the weather being so poor earlier on this year I never managed to give the tree a good pruning, a painful process (for me that is), the leaves are very sharp. The cause of the alarm calls were my two cats who were mooching around the tree looking for somewhere out of the sun to settle down for a sleep.

So now I’m fretting for the well being of the Blackbird chicks. I’ve talked to the the cats about them but they weren’t impressed. My old Tomcat (Orlando) never bothered about birds too much, but the girls are fascinated by them.

Later on I decided to do a bit more sorting out of the spare bedroom/ex darkroom and came across a box of prints I had forgotten about. They are all from infrared film, and were very tricky to print, but scanned in well.

North Wales

The ones above were taken on the way to Barmouth and Portmeirion.

Near Settle – Yorkshire


These were all taken on Kodak HIE infrared on my Olympus OM2n.

Old Footbridge, Rundale Pils, Latvia

This was taken on Konica IR750 film on my Rolleiflex in 1993. Rundale Palace has been beautifully restored now.

Places I’ll Never Forget (Hopefully !) #2

Bay of Riga

This was taken on the Bay of Riga near Apšuciems, (a place I have great deal of difficulty in pronouncing correctly) After a hot day it’ was lovely to walk along the beach and feel the soft cooling breeze.

Thursday Doors

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I haven’t been out and about much this week, taking the opportunity to do a bit of tidying up in the garden when the weather has been good. Did manage to get into town on Monday though and captured a few doors for the excellent Norm 2.0 blog.

Cherub

Another former Hosiery factory, the stone and brickwork set the door off.

Former Police Station #1

Former Police Station #2

The police station was built in 1933 of Portland stone and is Grade 11 listed.

I couldn’t finish without a Blue Door.

Took this one in 1993 on my first visit to Riga, Latvia. I liked the old cannons embedded into the pavement and the two imposing faces. (The door has now been restored and to me at least doesn’t look anywhere near as good)

5 Days of Grey

That’s the BBC weather forecast for my part of the UK, so I thought I would cheer myself up by posting some photographs from summer 2016 in Latvia.

Lying On The Beach And Looking Up

Olympus EPL1

Beach Bums

Olympus EPL1

Flower Boot

Olympus XA – Ilford HP5+

Hopefully I will be going back to Latvia in June to visit my lovely relatives.

Thursdays Doors

One for Thursday Doors at Norms Doors

Back Doors to the Apartments , Riga, Latvia

Olympus EPL1 – HDR

Thursday’s Door

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For Norm 2.0 Thursday Doors

Riga Latvia. So many amazing doors, could have spent the whole holiday searching out and photographing them.

Last few from Latvia visit

I was hoping to post some images from my replacement Olympus OM40 that I bought a couple of months ago, I scanned the negs and when I opened them in Photoshop there were dust specs all over them. I am a man of patience but… so I will re-scan them later in the week.

So here are the last images from my Latvia visit.

Wild flowers at the family cemetery.

Grandfather, Grandmother and my Mum

Half of my Mums ashes are buried in Latvia the other half in the UK.

Three Trees

On the family farmland, one tree planted for each of my Mums brothers.

Sigulda National Park from Turaida Castle

Sigulda is a beautiful park, looking forward to visiting it again.

River Gauja

We stopped off here early evening on the way back to Riga, it’s a popular swimming and fishing spot.

Russian Orthodox Nativity Cathedral (recently restored)

Latvian Freedom Monument

Can’t wait for my next visit.