Dorothy was right

Back home now, from our week in Porto.  Enjoyed the week enormously.  Although it's very hilly, our little aparthotel was right bang in the middle of the action, so perfect really.  We still did a fair bit of tramping around - well you have to really, don't you.

But as lovely as Porto was, it is very good to be back.  Dorothy was right, y'know - there's no place like home. It's a lot cooler of course (17 degrees vs 28) but as my mother would say, 'It's a nice air'...you can breathe.  And I missed the clouds - really!  I mean, all that blue sky - it's not natural. It gets boring after a while.

Have a bunch of films still to develop but got 2 done the other night.  Had a little session in the darkroom last night.  I don't know if I was a bit rusty or what, but everything was a little disappointing.  Actually that's not correct - it was a big bit disappointing.  Perhaps I had me hopes up too high for some wonderful masterpieces but as yet I haven't come across any.  Ah well, maybe in the next batch, eh?  We live in hope...

This gives some idea of the general chaos in the streets during the festival of São João (St John).  Busy, busy streets, temporary fires set up for the cooking of sardines (or rack of pork if you prefer).  I'm not a great fan of hordes of people, as I'm not too steady on my feet at the best of times, but I have to say I felt very safe in Porto.  I know this shot has loads of hand-shake in it - I should have pushed the HP5+ a bit but I was half-way through the film so it was too late.  Probably around 1/4 second, hence the problem.  I was in two minds whether to take the M6 or not but opted for the Nikon FM3a.  In retrospect the M6 would probably have been the better option, certainly for shots like this anyway.