Greetings from the allotment where I’ve been preparing the ground and planting out kale plants and sowing broad bean seed.

It was the autumnal equinox this week, and for the first time in a while I felt a little cold wearing shorts and swapped them out for a pair of jeans and socks. Porridge has returned to being my breakfast staple of choice. We’ve had some clear nights and it won’t be long before we have some frosts I think. I’m getting the plot ready for winter and this is probably the last planting round of the year.

I got all my rolls of film back from processing over the course of the week. Disappointingly my roll of infrared was heavily underexposed. I was using a filter to totally block visible light, and long exposures (40 secs) to try and capture images, but probably the exposures needed to be maybe a minute or longer. The roll of black and white that I had, which was over 16 years old and date expired back in 2004, produced some good results. As far I can see there was only one frame on the roll that looked like it might have deteriorated with age, the rest were great and some very pleasing images.

It was my Mum’s birthday this week, because of the new covid restrictions the care home she is in has gone back into lockdown and so visits are not possible again, but we dropped off some presents and a card the day before and had a good chat on the phone. She had a good day by all accounts with a tea party and cake on the afternoon of her birthday.

I was sorting through some books at my Mum’s house this week and found an old bible. When I looked inside I saw the inscription in the picture. My assumption is that it was presented to me, but I never knew I owned it. The day I found it was also the 24th September. Very strange coincidence. If you’re interested the verse referenced reads:

“And now, my friends, all that is true, all that is noble, all that is just and pure, all that is lovable and gracious, whatever is excellent and admirable-fill all you thoughts with these things”

I’ve been reading Desmond Bagley’s – High Citadel – this week, originally written in the 1960’s and despite a slightly unbelievable closing, it stands up well, unlike some other books written in the same period.

I’m reading less “news” nowadays. I just find the latest screw-up by our government or Trump outrage something that I just don’t want to know about. I think this probably means that I am missing some other interesting stuff but to be honest I think I’m better for it. It does mean that these posts are a bit more, me, me, me, rather than a broader view, so apologies for that.

That’s it for this week, stay safe and take care.