Black and...more black

Still not quite where I'd like to be vis-a-vis my photography and darkroom work, so it's another blast-from-the-past today.  This week the weather has finally taken a turn for the better, so it's been a week spent in the garden/patio, which is always enjoyable if hard work at times.  My wife took delivery of a new planter this week - built by a family friend.  It's slightly over-engineered (I reckon it'll still be standing should The North East Liberties of Coleraine ever experience an earthquake) but that's no bad thing.  And of course it had to be stained black (my wife has an obsession with black - don't ask me where that comes from but we have black kitchen door fronts, black appliances - which cost more than the white equivalents, of course; black framed greenhouse - you get the picture).  And a new planter meant a trip to the garden centre to populate it.  It does look good though, I have to admit.  I shall try to make a decent photograph of it for your amusement - black and white, of course :)

A hot day at Montrose Beach, on the shores of Lake Michigan

Peace

Peace has descended in the house after 2 weeks of busy-ness.  Firstly with Missy's 21st celebrations and secondly with catching up and having conversations about What happens next.  Still to be decided but her wish is to continue in education for at least another year.  That all depends on her degree results, which are due...drum roll...tomorrow!  Fingers crossed she will get a good enough grade to make her wish happen.

I've not managed to do anything photography-wise or darkroom-wise this week, so here's another oldie from a few years ago.  Appropriate, since I was out looking at this year's crop of gooseberries the other day.  They're coming on nicely.  I shall try to do something involving a camera with them again, before the missus gets to making her gooseberry chutney, which went down a storm last year.

Gooseberries.  The very devil to pick but worth it...I think!

Back in business

I was itching to get back to the darkroom yesterday so I took Chairman's Action, cleared out the junk that had been resting in it and did a short printing session.  Well it wasn't that short, to be honest, as I was working with the well-past-its-prime Ilford Warmtone paper.  So it was a normal print, bleached back in cupric sulphate and then washed in hot lith.  Takes a while, that does. This was it:

Ash, before the leaves came

Party's over

Today is a slow day - recovering from a busy yesterday when we had friends and family to celebrate Missy's coming-of-age (21).  It all went well, and we've plenty of leftovers to munch through today.  Although we didn't see much sun, it was pleasant enough to be able to sit out and eat in the garden, which is always enjoyable.  Various cats wandered by from time to time to see what all the noise was about.  Our own two, plus another stray that is trying very hard to attach itself to our household.  He's only a young thing and our Tabby isn't too enamoured at having him around (our Tortoiseshell is too aloof to care much about anything or anyone - she's too much of a diva to give a hoot).  The Tabby watches his every move.  Yet to see how that will pan out but it's interesting watching the dynamics. 

Down at the sea, near the Whiterocks just east of Portrush.  I remember this being a very windy day, and I tried to capture the movement in the dune grass in the foreground.