Row, row, row your boat

Continuing our Friday story, The Uncle and his friends had reached Hungary and were out and about.  From what I can glean, they managed to do a few trips to the interior, as it were.

Naturally enough, given that it was 1938 in rural Hungary, ponies and traps seemed to be common:

That's a pretty impressive looking residence in the distance, there - the roadside shop less so.

The Lads were clearly up for a bit of rowing, on the Danube, no less, but this time near the City of Esztergom, northern Hungary:

There's The Uncle's friend Balazs, recognisable with his moustache.  Afterwards they posed for a photograph:

I'm really not dying about the cut of some of those bathing trunks, I have to admit.  There's a rare shot of The Uncle himself, back right, who appears to have gone native and has a towel wrapped around his head.

All that exercise called for some refreshments, and where better than the local cafe.  Looks like either extreme boredom has set in for some of the lads there.  Perhaps they are just tired after the rowing or maybe they've just found out the cafe has no licence to sell beer:

I really like that shot.  It's such a perfect moment - The Lad's expressions and postures are just great.

Note the empty camera case on the table - some sort of folding thing.  Presumably The Uncle's, who is taking the photograph.  Unfortunately we don't have the camera, but we do have a lot of the negs from this trip - lovely big 6x9s. 

Perfect weather for it

As I left Missy to school on Monday morning it was absolutely bucketing down.  The Hound was in the back of the car, though, ready for his constitutional run on the beach - any beach - and I don't like to disappoint.   So I sat it out for 10 minutes and since the precipitation seemed to be getting less I thought I would chance it.

For a change I drove out to Castlerock - very close to Downhill Castle and Mussenden Temple that I was talking about yesterday.  The place was flooded, but we were lucky, the rain stopped long enough for a bit of a walk.  It was lovely, actually...not a sinner about except for Yours Truly, The Hound and some ominous-looking clouds.  Donegal is almost covered in cloud there, as you can see:

I like Castlerock.   Not that there's much there any more, mind you.  There used to be a half-decent hotel that you could go to in the winter-time and have a cuppa and enjoy the view while being slowly roasted beside the fire.  But it closed some years ago and has since been knocked down.  There's just empty space there now - very sad considering we had many happy times there with friends and family who are no longer with us.

Now there is a nice little cafe in the village - but no views, so I didn't bother this time.   All on the Nikon with a 50mm lens, HP5 and ID-11.  Developed yesterday morning, it was, just for the record.

While we're on the subject...

Here's another Provia-view of Donegal, but from much, much closer to home:

This was taken early October about half a mile from our house and is looking down The Bann estuary towards Donegal way in the distance there.  You might just make out that wee round tower thing sticking up near the long, low building on the left middle.  The bigger building is the ruins of Downhill Castle, which the Earl Bishop of Bristol Frederick Hervey built in the 18th Century.  The round tower is Mussenden Temple, built in the Italianate style for his cousin, as one does when one is an Earl or a Bishop, or both as in this case.  It's built right on the edge of the cliff and is pretty spectacular, I have to admit.  I should really take a decent snap of it, but it's a bit like a lot of the things around here (Dunluce Castle, Giant's Causeway), photographed to death.  So for the moment I'm resisting.

A bit behind

I'm a bit behind schedule at the minute, what with Christmas et al.  I can't seriously complain though, as the family stuff comes first.  Mrs Liberties was off her feet a lot over the festive period and that meant yours truly had to step up.  On the plus side, I can now make a decent roast dinner.  It's getting it all to come together at the same time was always the hardest thing, I found, but recently things have worked out and my timing seems to be better.  As we learnt yesterday, practice does have a tendency to improve things...

The upshot is that while I have at least 3 films languishing in various cameras nearing the endpoint, none are actually ready for dunking in ID-11 as of yet.  But I'm optimistic - now that Missy is back at school the old shutter releases might get pressed, films might get finished and well, sure you know what happens next, right?

In the meantime, I came across these couple of Provia-colour slides from our little road trip to Donegal in the summer, with Dr C and his bro.  I can't vouch for accurate representation of the conditions at the time, but all the same I do like how they've come out.  All on the Nikon FM3A, which is an absolute joy to use.

Just look at our wee patchwork quilt of fields:

Ah we are a landscape of hills and water, indeed we are:

Actually that sky looks spot on to how I remember it, to be fair.   To be honest, most of the year our skies look like that.  I know the fairly relentless cloud cover does get some people down, but I think our skies are pretty damn special. I can't help thinking how good they will look on FP4 or HP5 - and now I can add Provia to the list.

It's only a couple of hours from The Liberties, is Donegal.  I don't know why we don't go there more often.  It really is lovely, even in colour...

Well actually I do know...driving and ankylosing spondylitis are not good bed-fellows, y'see.  It's the legs.  And the back.  And the neck.  And all the bits in-between, like muscles, tendons and ligaments.  Did you know, that it's the ligaments that connect bone to bone and the tendons what connect muscle to bone?  That's the sort of thing you learn whilst at The Min.  That and all about syndesmophytes.  Heh?  That's a good one, isn't it?  Thems the things that cause all the fusion and pain in AS.  I could think of another word for them, mind you...

Practice

Here's Missy engaged in some late evening practice for her Grade 3 exam just before Christmas:

And the practice paid off - she got it.  C'mon now, was there ever any doubt?!

2016

So 2015 is behind us and we are all looking forward to a new year.

Before we push on with 2016, time to reflect.  My Big Plan for 2015 was to get the darkroom up and running again.  Plan achieved!  The 'sink' which I had spent far too long making in the garage finally got finished and installed.  It won't win any design awards but there you go.  No running water in the darkroom as yet but since I mostly use a slot processor that's not too big an issue.  I just carry in a few jugs of water to fill the tray that the prints go in when they come out of the fixer and then once I've run out of energy after a couple of hours in the darkroom I transport them back to the kitchen for washing.  Since for now I'm using RC paper the washing doesn't take long.

So I got printing again - nothing spectacular, just feeling my way.  But when I look back at prints made from 2014 I see an improvement, so I'm happy.

What else?  Oh yes, I experimented a bit with toning.  That was fun and more than a little magical.  I mean you take a normal print, like this one:

and then you bleach it until there's hardly any image visible.  Then you give it a quick wash and dunk in some sepia toner and the image re-emerges in front of your eyes:

Except of course now it looks a little different.

I tried a little street photography - and enjoyed it, I have to admit.   And I read a bit and looked at too many images on the web.  There are a lot of very talented people out there - photograph-takers and darkroom printers.  Most times it's inspirational.  Sometimes it's depressing when you realise you are standing on the foothills of a very large mountain range...

OK enough reflection!  Time to look forward.  I don't do resolutions, but I think setting a few goals does no harm.

I still spend too long sitting in front of a computer.  I intend to do less of that and more of being Out and About, hopefully with a photograph-capturing device in hand.  And there is still too much bare space on the walls of our little house...so I intend to fill that space with some hand-made prints.

On another note, when in Bath the physios went on and on about Tai Chi as just about the best thing we peeps with ankylosing spondylitis could do.  Well there's only so many times you can ignore good advice so I found a local class and have started learning The Forms.  If you don't know, Tai Chi is the one with deep breathing, relaxation and where all the movements are carried out very s-l-o-w-l-y. All I can say is, why didn't I do this earlier?  They say - whoever they are - that Tai Chi is one thing you can actually improve at as you get older.  So far so good and after a few weeks I'm already noticing a difference.

So there we have it.  Here's hoping for a creative and healthy 2016 - for me and for all you, too.  Thanks for stopping by.

Bathing

The summer of 1938, as you may recall, was pretty hot, so The Uncle and his mates headed for this place:

St Margaret's Island, as you can see from the period postcard, sits in the middle of The Danube, between Buda and Pest.  Named after King Béla IV's daughter, who he sent to a convent there sometime in the 13th Century.  Apparently before then it was called Rabbit Island...

Anyway, the lads took full advantage of the bathing facilities - but be warned...those of a nervous disposition may want to look away now.  For the rest of you, feast your eyes on this show of prime Irish and Hungarian beefcake, 1938-style:

I like the folding camera yer man on the right is holding and the girl sunbathing is taking a keen interest in things.  That would be Balazs in the middle there, all tanned and everything.  Probably for the Irish lads it would have been the first time their bodies had been exposed to the sun - they are all looking a little on the white side of bronze there and more than a little uncomfortable...

A bit shaky this one, but here they are up to their necks in it.  They're obviously a bit more relaxed now they are in the water.  I like the cigarette there - a nice touch, that, when bathing.  I suppose it was the Done Thing in them days.

Looks like St Margaret's Island was the place to be in the summer of '38. I'm hazarding a guess that yer man on the front left there wasn't Irish, by the way...