PutPut Pictures, rides again.

Well after posting blogs that could be interpreted a suicide notes I though I better put my dear readers at their ease, Just a change just a re -focusing and that’s a good word. Even my written work is supposed to be visual. But back to the start where did it all begin and I must admit to Photography. Love it, loved it, hated it, despaired of it ,divorced it, died from it, raised from the ashes and railed into the night for the hate of it. Re-invent myself for the love of it and discovered it had not gone anywhere and cared not for my antics. And I will give no credit at all to Tim Starchuck.   But I do love the Solitude and Minimalism, as if someone walked out the room as if there were lonely ghosts . If you were to wander into the frame and pause and for a moment be isolated alone, got me I like it. But its not what I claim to do, well not what I am comfortable doing and yes photographed everything for money being a paid Professional Photographer for a time, and my passion LangScape or should I say Landscapes for thirty years banging them out and I can see my footprint .   So we have Derbyshire, Moray -Scotland the Falkland- South Atlantic, Elk Island, AB. Jasper AB and Robin Hood’s bay. And how do they manage to be all together and mounted well I can thank the good lady wife for buying the camera , # 1 Daughter for negotiating the on line printing and my good sense in outputting them on KODAK glossy paper at 8″ x 10″ and the song remains the same. Can’t guarantee the printer new what he was doing but a bit of judicious pre-proces prep on my end and voila. Time stood still. Of course up until now I did my own printing (Its what I do Yall) but now some  dude at the photo lab not even doing his own sensometric testing but hooked up the the interweb, For all that turned out nice again.     PutPut Pictures that’s the enterprise where I shoe horn images in to mounts and frames. All sorts of printed ephemera from the last 150 years. Photography vintage and original (My stuff), advertising,...

BBQ Mojo

Well what happened to the BBQ MOJO, it was there and now its gone. Sure I still put on some burgers for the kids cook a few chicken thighs skin on and once in a blue moon do a Steak for my good lady wife. (when I can afford one there may be allegedly no inflation but my wages are not going up and although the same price is on the stuff in the supermarket the boxes packets cuts of meat are smaller, thinner, sadder how long will it be before I can no longer pay for my gas/petrol or the shopping in my trolly.) So why do I have to admit my MOJO has wandered away? Well it became embarrassing it went from that to laughable and on into panic I had held great store by my ability to cook stuff and turn out a half decent party in my yard; and to those friends at work that I have premised/promised a BBQ to after years of having to put up with me describing  the BBQ’s of the past I am sorry. I know its been four years or more but I just can’t do it. I want to but every time I think about it and think I have a menu a solution, fear and inadequacy grip me and well I don’t deliver, I cant deliver (Maybe I take myself too seriously). So how did this BBQ MOJO come and go? (So all my North American buddies understand this I am not talking about good old BBQ, Brisket ribs sauce and stuff I am talking about BBQ Grill as a tool for cooking and cooking other nations influences on it. I am also not talking about Ninja BBQ which I can still do.)   So a long time ago possibly back in 1983 we rustled up some of these newfangled BBQ grills and once we figured out how to light the charcoal BBQD everything in my mums freezer. Can’t tell you if it was any good but we certainly got in deep shit for eating everything. So back in the day we wrestled with the art form of BBQ my best buddy Mark is still a master he has the faith and what a journey . Whole salmon, Spiced  Pork chops, Lushous  Lamb and Whole Chickens, things...

The Kitchen Sink

What the heck, 2 posts in one week! whats going on? Well its been a year since the Blog re-launched I have a steady seven Subscribers ( Its that box on the right saying subscribe) and all is well. Major drive to increase my fan base having no success I have told three more people (look at me go). So its time to throw more resources at it, everything including the Kitchen Sink. As you can see I even employed time travel in order to spice up my past and make myself more interesting, only time will tell if this will work. The penguins have devised a very clever marketing strategy and are offering a riseanddeardemise.ca mug to the 25th subscriber, or more accurately raffling a mug when we get to 25 subscribers. (May be an Antique by then.)     I have made my photo content more available and have signed up for a second Flickr account under the fantastic moniker (no not Monica) Funky Nomad, not to be confused with FunkyNomad that’s the me that builds 40k Space Marines. so what have I put on Flickr? Well so far Charlie Don’t Surf, Kings Croft common room (That’s where I went to school 6th form) and First 35mm, the first roll of 35mm film I took; in which the usual suspects appear. The Hare and Hounds, The Devonshire Arms and The Crown  (Pubs in case you were wondering).  Going forward you can just click on the photo to go straight to it ( If its in an Album in my Photostream, some stuff won’t be) or use the funky new menu button  Flickr Photostreamits at the top of the page.     So what else have I done to entice you funky followers? You can see at the top of the Home page a shiny new Logo, and we have a wordle or what ever it is in the side bar, this was made for my by #1 Daughter for Fathers Day 2 years ago and is as far as she is concerned the essence of who I am to her. I am so impressed with myself through her eyes I have been trying to live up to it ever since. By sporty she means Mountain Walking , Biking, Canoeing  and general summer outdoor stuff. Don’t ask me to kick a football the end results will be...

Big Surprise

If you go down in the woods today you are sure of a big surprise! I was, this is TED my teddy bear he has had the same number of birthdays as me and has been living a peaceful retirement at home on the spare bed at my Mum and Dads house. Never being foolish enough to stray and join me on my adventures. It’s a big scarey world out there for teddy bears and no picnic I can tell you. How did I get to own such a fantastic yellow teddy? Well I picked him out, chose him personally and looking back on it now set the tone for everything that would unfold as time went on. Some time in late 1964 or possibly early 1965 I was given the task of picking a teddy, not in a toy store oh no, a home interview. Very serious business this teddy bear selecting lark, Grandpa had brought a hand full of bears of different sizes and temperaments over to the house and they were all sitting politely on the couch awaiting interview, I was let in the room and promptly picked the biggest bright yellow teddy with velvet red feet who at the time was as tall as I was. (Knowing me now I can hear you say not totally unexpected) but my initial choice left some concerns with the the family members in residence. I was lead back out into the hallway and the teddies were musical chaired and I was let in again. Now I might look a bit daft and my reasoning has been proven to be flawed at times but I stand by everything 110%. Even at 1 year old I could tell there was a teddy missing! You guessed it no sign of the big yellow bear, now not easily being defeated and having vast mental powers (or possibly just vastly mental) I used my Peanut and Curly Fu powers of deduction, I had not seen him leave so he must be here somewhere, there sticking out from under the curtain a suspicious yellow leg with red paws aha problem solved and he was mine and the rest is history. So I hear you ask if TED is supposed to be in retirement at my Mum and Dads house how come he is sitting...

Penguins in Boxes don’t you know.

So what happened to October & November? Well to tell you the truth the same as what usually happens each October. I have a birthday and its sort of the same one each time but with a different me standing there. You would think after having nearly half a century of them I would have got the hang of it. But I do not go gently Old age should burn and rave @ close of day. November drifted away with NaNoWriMo, sort of and NaBloWriMo wasn’t what I thought it was either. I sat for a long time trying to remember as many of them as possible (Birthdays that is), although it is not recommended, the memory part of your brain  the short term part anyway forgets things unless you re-live them    (and its not completely wise to do so as  a bad memory can re-scar you as much as a good memory can hold you back. New memories is what you need something to tell you you are alive and moving forward.) This is the problem, this is where my particular kind of broken crowds in and fills up all the available memory  boxes, well the ones that are not filled with Penguins. “Insofar as she recognized at all that she was dreaming, she realized that she must be exploring her subconscious mind. She had heard it said that humans are supposed only to use about a tenth of their brains, and that no one was really clear what the other nine tenths were for, but she had certainly never heard it suggested that they were used for storing penguins.”  Douglas Adams   I read and understood this fundamental truth in 1991 and I recognized it for what it was, my universe instantly made sense here was an operating system that I understood ,this was my operating system better than windows no blue screens of death etc better than what I had before which was just plain bewilderment. Of course I have had to redefine it as new and modern technologies have become available but essentially imagine the mind is 10 square boxes 9 of them filled with Penguins and the 10th crammed with memories all of them the useful as well as the unhelpful. The entirety of  knowledge from which you have to operate….. So with a...

Battle and Humbug.

Well that’s another 5 pubs off the list, thanks to Mr Battle. Yet another good friend who after approaching 20 years without saying hello was willing to to throw caution to the wind and agree to drink beer and talk up a storm. I have to admit in hind site that I had no idea how fundamentally important we were to the well running of trade group 14 and the Air force in general, but there you are. Some names from the past came up and they were the usual suspects. For the more senior of you that taught me the fine skills of Beer drinking and Pond building BBQ and the ninja deployment. It’s all gratefully received. And believe it or not frequently used to show those in civi street how to party properly. Well in the theme of partying properly I am about to undertake another night out knock off some more of those elusive pubs and stuff myself with CURRY. No wife to complain about the smell however my mum has already opened my bedroom window and laid on the breath mints. The night was further enhanced by my top decision to knock on my good friend Peters door on the way home after a bus ride (even the bus has WI FI what’s wrong with my old mum and dad I keep telling them to move with the Times but they just think I am annoying whine to be ignored) Anyway thanks Peter for opening the door in your wife’s dressing gown the image will stay with me. I am not sure what she thought when she came in and a strange man was sitting in the front room with her scantily robed husband but I think we coved it...