life, photography and other thoughts

My sense of direction has never been very good. I’m good at reading a map though, and I don’t need to turn it upsidedown!

Science tells us that mens brains work differently from womens and the average man has better spacial awareness than the average woman. A man is usually capable of looking at a map and then holding a 3D image of it in his mind while he drives the journey without needing to consult the map again! I wish I skills like that! It would make travelling so much easier. I see a journey as a ribbon. Even though I’m turning left and right, the journey imprints itself on my memory in a long straight strip. That means that I have no idea which direction I’m travelling in.

Before a journey I study the map and make a list of the main towns that I want to go through together with the road numbers and which motorway exits I need. This works well until the signeage lets me down. Many times I’ve been following signs to a particular town when I come to a roundabout and find that town is completely missing from any of the signs. Which way do I go? In an area I’m not familliar with, I don’t know instantly while going round a roundabout which town is the right direction. It’s a nightmare. It’s hard not to panic and once I’ve taken the wrong direction I can quickly get lost.

Since I bought a satnav a couple of years ago journeys have been a lot easier and much more fun. Satnavs get a lot of bad press, but it’s not their fault, it’s the way people use them. It’s a tool to be used with intelligence. They are definately not infallible, and not to be followed blindly, otherwise you will end up in a narrow lane that you can’t turn round in.

I use mine as a moving map. I still have my list and my map on the front seat, and I put the satnav out of the way on the windscreen so that I can check it quickly if I need to. It will tell me the name of the road I’m on so that I always know that I’m going the right way, and on the notorious roundabouts that won’t tell me which exit to take, it’s invaluable because my journey is highlighted in purple. All I have to do is take a quick glance at the screen and it tells me which exit to take because it’s purple. It’s taken such a lot of stress out of journeys and enabled me to go to places that I’d never have had the confidence to try without it.

It’s brilliant locally too. If I’m visiting someone whose house I’ve never been to before, instead of asking for detailed directions as I used to, I just get the address and the postcode. The satnav will take me straight to the door! No more wandering up and down the road in the dark and rain looking for a house in a street where the residents don’t believe in numbers. It’s also invaluable when people leave me stranded - but that’s another story for another day!

Did you see the match last night?

Andy Murray playing against Stanislas Wawrinka. What great tennis. Long rallies of powerful skillful shots with both men playing really well. At one point the match could have gone either way. When Murray got a break of serve against Wawrinka, he later lost that advantage when Wawrinka broke back and things were even again. After two sets each they were battling it out for the deciding set. Andy Murray looked absolutely exhausted. But he struggled on and managed to win, to the delight of the crowd whose support and encouragement he needed.

All Andy’s matches have been played third in order of play on Centre Court, which has been really good news for me! I work part time in the afternoons, and wanted to change my hours to mornings while Wimbledon was on so that I could watch it, but someone else had booked the two weeks off which meant that I couldn’t change. But it didn’t matter, because I’ve been able to see all of Murray’s matches after I’ve finished work!

Each one of them well worth seeing. He plays proper tennis, with power and skill and tactics and it’s so good to see long rallies back again. That’s what tennis is all about. There was a time after the brilliant tennis of the Borg and McEnroe era when tennis just wasn’t worth watching. Racquets were made out of new materials which made the play so fast that it just consisted of a series of aces - a fast powerful serve that shot straight past the server’s opponenet without any chance of it being returned. I even stopped watching Wimbledon in that era. I’m so glad it’s changed. I’m not quite sure what they’ve done to bring back ‘proper’ tennis, but I’m glad they have.

Yesterday history was made. The new roof which wasn’t needed during the first sunny week, was closed for the first time and Murray’s match with Stanislas Wawrinka was the first men’s match to be played under it. So Andy Murray is the first man in history to win a match at Wimbledon under the roof. That’s something to remember for pub quizzes!

It’s a good thing that the roof was closed because with the artificial lights it meant that they could carry on playing even though it was late. They didn’t have to stop for poor light. Play continued until 10.38pm, which was the latest finish in the history of Wimbledon, delaying the Ten O’Clock News by nearly 40 minutes.

If a match has to be suspended because of rain or poor light and can’t continue until the next day, it can completely change the play and the result. It’s much better to get the match finished in one go, especially for the fans on Henman Hill, (or is it Murray’s Mound now?) who have travelled a long way and probably queued for a long time to get in. I’m sure they wouldn’t want to go home and miss the end of a match because of the light. Yesterday they were able to sit in the darkness and watch the whole match on the big screen.

Murray is now through to the Quarter Finals for the second time, but it won’t be plain sailing for him. He has some challenging opponenets to face and beat if he’s going to get to the finals. I hope he recovers well from the exhausting match he played yesterday to give him the best possible chance in his next match. He still has a lot of work to do, but he does seem to be capable of it. Wouldn’t it be amazing if he became the first British man to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry 73 years ago.

When I arrived home the other day, I noticed quite a few people chatting to householders on their doorsteps or in their gardens and I wondered who they were. I did notice that one of them looked familiar, but couldn’t place him.

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and there on my doorstep was my newly re-elected County Councillor. I congratulated him on his re-election and he thanked me for my support. (See leafleting)

He had knocked on the door so that he could introduce me to the Parliamentary Candidate and then I realised who the familiar man was! Of course! I’ve seen his photo in newspapers and leaflets. So I wandered down the road to meet him. It was good to have a chat with him, but it was also good to know who the visitors were and that they were bona fide.

I’m very glad that my County Councillor was re-elected. He’s already stopped the local District Council doing something that would have been very unpopular with householders and about which they claimed to be having a public consultation. It wasn’t very public though, because I hadn’t seen anything about it, even though I had been looking out for it.

He was re-elected with an increased majority and he put that down to a letter that his opponent sent out a few days before the election. He said it was full of things about him that were untrue, and his opponent was hoping that the letter would swing peoples votes. Well it did, but not in the way he expected. It backfired and voters were so affronted by the nature of the letter that they voted for the winner even though some of them hadn’t been planning to do so before they received the letter!

I’ve heard of this happening in other areas too. What a shame that politics has to get dirty even at this level when all that should matter is doing the best for the people.

Why is it that when people speak into mobile phones they feel they have to shout?

Sometimes there may be background noise that makes it necessary to speak loudly, but I’m sure that isn’t the case all the time.

Yesterday I travelled by train on a journey of about 15 minutes. As soon as I got in, a phone rang and the girl who answered it shouted into it. I was subjected to intimate details of what she and her boyfriend had been doing the evening before. It was a lovely quiet train, and there was definately no need to shout, but that didn’t make any difference. I wanted to have a nice relaxing journey enjoying the scenery, but I had to spend my time fending off converstaions I didn’t want to hear.

Fortunately after a couple of stops and 10 minutes or so, the girl got off the train, still talking into the phone, but immediately another one rang behind me!

Maybe if I’m forced to listen to a conversation I don’t want to hear I should go and sit next to the person and join in! I wonder what they’d say if I did that!!

I pay my council tax by standing order because I like to know what’s going to leave my bank account each month. As the Council insist on being paid a year’s council tax in 10 installments, I have to set up a new standing order each year because the bank can’t cope with having a break of two months before making another payment.

April is the start of the new Council Tax year, and when I received my bill, I remember thinking that I must set up the new standing order. Having thought about it, I actually thought I’d done it, and by the time I realised that I’d forgotten about it, my first payment of the year was nearly 2 weeks late.

Within a couple of days of sending the first payment, which obviously hadn’t filtered yet through, I received a letter from the Council telling me that if I didn’t make a payment within a few days, I would be liable for the whole year’s payment at once, and they also threatened me with bailiffs and seizure of my goods.

I was horrified to receive a letter of such a threatening nature when they can see from my records that I habitually pay on time by standing order, and as it was the first payment of the year, it was obvious that it was an oversight in setting up the new standing order. A polite reminder would have been sufficient. I have complained about the intimidating nature of their letter, but they’re not interested. They say there’s nothing that they can do about it as it’s an automated letter. That’s a load of rubbish. Of course there is something they can do about it.

I’ve asked them how many elderly vulnerable people have died of a heart attack on receipt of one of these letters, but they say that they don’t keep these statistics.

My circumstances have just changed which means that for the past two months I have overpaid my council tax. I’ve filled in all the forms, but I’m told that it’s going to take 9 weeks to do the paperwork before they know what my new payment will be, This means that they will have owed me money for around three months. They don’t seem very bothered about this. They obviously have one rule for people who owe them money and another for people that they owe money to.

I have contacted them and pointed out to them that although they have owed me money for over six weeks now, I have not written to them and threatened them with bailiffs and seizure of their goods.

Later this week there’s an election. Where I live we’re voting for MEPs and our County Councillor. Our current one is the best councillor I’ve ever been represented by and I definately want him to be re-elected, so I offered to help him by delivering leaflets.

It didn’t take as long as I had expected, but it was interesting. I did the whole of the estate that I live on, and it was amazing to see somewhere so familiar to me from completely new angles as walked back down garden paths.

I enjoyed looking at all the lovely flowers in the gardens, and the variety of different designs in front doors was amazing! One thing that did surprise me was that some front doors had clear glass in them and without meaning to pry, I could see straight through the hall into the kitchen and out again into the back garden. It didn’t give much privacy. You’d have to rememeber to get dressed before nipping downstairs to make a cup of tea!

I used to have a brass backing to my letterbox, but it took to falling off so I abandoned it before it chopped my toes off. But I discovered during my leafleting that most houses have these sort of brush sandwiches to keep the draught out. The problem with them is that they do their best to keep the post out too! The leaflet - 4 layers of thick paper - wasn’t strong enough to open the brushes, so I had to push my fingers in first to make an opening for it. I tried to do it very quickly as I was a bit nervous in case there was a dog behind the door who might be unable to resist juicy fingers coming through the letterbox! I mentally started inventing a tool to use to make the job easier. I think the brushes must have made the task twice as long as it would have been without them.

I wonder what postmen do. If I had to do lots of delivering I would have a tool to help - something I could fold round the post and then push it through the brushes and push the post through the tool into the house, without risking my fingertips!

I sat out in the garden today for the first time this year. I’d gone out to check on my beans and it was so warm that I sat down on the garden bench and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on my face. It was lovely and relaxing.

I could hear the birds twittering and the bees buzzing and there was a lovely fragrance of summer. There are lots of flowers out in the garden at the moment. Pink, purple, orange, blue, yellow…. but the yellow ones aren’t supposed to be there.

Buttercups have spread out from the border and are creeping across the lawn. They’re very pretty, but they’re not supposed to be there. I ought to do something about them, but they look nice. A flower is only a weed when it’s growing somewhere it isn’t wanted.

When I went out to check on my beans, they had holes in their leaves! I’d spent weeks looking after them and nurturing them so that they were strong and healthy, and after only one night out in the real world, they’ve been attacked!

I’m sure it won’t matter if the lower leaves get eaten, as long as the growing tip is safe. So I’ve been telling them to grow so that they reach up and away from whatever’s eating them.

It will either be snails or slugs, but I can’t remember which. I heard on Gardener’s World the other day that only one lot of them was around at the moment, but I can’t remember which one. Anyone else know?

I meant to go out with a torch last night and have a look to see what was happening and see if I could pick off the culprits, but I forgot. I’ll have to get into the habit.

Soon they’ll grow tall and safe and wind their way up and round their bamboo sticks, so I won’t have to worry about them any more.

Just over 5 weeks ago, I planted some runner beans in small pots. They were ones I had saved from the plants I grew last year. I probably should have planted them out sooner, but they seemed quite happy in their pots, and I wanted to wait until it wasn’t so cold and pouring with rain.

I chose a bit of ground and dug it over to make it nice and friable and I took out any stones I found. Then I dug in some of my home made compost, and put in the little plants, heeled them in and watered them.

I started off by planting 12 beans. 3 didn’t germinate and I gave some away which left me with 4 nice healthy looking plants. That should be plenty. I’ve planted them near to the house so that even if it’s raining I can easily nip out while I’m cooking and pick a few to steam.

I’ve enjoyed watching them germinate. The bean splits open and a stalk starts to grow out of it. Gradually leaves appear. Isn’t it amazing what can grow out of seeds.

It’s a lovely sunny day today. I’m going to go out for a walk to see if I can find anything interesting to take photos of. Flowers for macro shots, insects, grasses, buildings etc. Anything I can find that I can make into an interesting image.

Tuesday was a lovely sunny day too, but Monday - Bank Holiday Monday - wasn’t. It was cold and overcast with showers. I was quite disappointed with the weather on Monday. I had planned to go and visit a very old local garden that was having one of it’s rare afternoons when they’re open to the public.

It’s a beautiful garden that is a joy to walk around and enjoy, but what I really wanted to do was to photograph the beautiful red and white striped tulips they have there. They’re stunning! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such beautiful tulips and there are so many of them. They’re everywhere. In pots, in the flower beds, all at different stages of opening and leaning over at different angles. It’s a photographer’s paradise!

I’m sure that it will be open later in the year, but it will be too late for tulips. Maybe there will be some beautiful roses out next time. That would be good. I love roses, and they photograph beautifully!

Fortunately I do have some lovely shots of the tulips that I took last year. Here’s one that I’ve enhanced with special effects.

Aren’t they beautiful!?

Click on this photo to see it on my Flickr photostream.