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A couple of years ago, our local Woolworths was actually selling them with their Christmas gear.
The shop looked as if it was going bust about a year before it actually did. There was hardly any stock, everywhere looked as if it hadn't been cleaned for ages and the staff, well, they'd have fitted in nicely in here!
A crisp, sunny morning here after a frosty night. An ideal opportunity to enjoy the late autumn sunshine and get some photos of the autumn leaves before they disappear. I decided to drive over to Loch Lomond, but not far into my journey the sky became covered with rather ominous-looking flat grey cloud, suggesting that rain was on the way. I debated changing course and heading back towards home, where the sky was still blue and the sun still shining, but I berated myself for taking the easy option. "If it's cloudy, you'll have softer, more neutral, less directional light to work with, plus the opportunity to combine the lovely scenery with some threatening-looking skies courtesy of an ND grad or two. Stay with the plan".
Two thirds of the distance to my destination, I came up to a short queue of cars, and beyond them several police cars and an ambulance. Some cars were turning back and looking for an alternate route. Shortly after I got there, the ambulance left, driving suspiciously slowly, and with no flashing lights or sirens. There had been what seemed like a fairly severe crash between a car and a motorcycle. I never saw the motorcycle or the rider, but the car was off the side of the road and was a mess. The lack of urgency from the ambulance might be because there were no serious injuries, but I feared the worst - perhaps a fatality. In my present state of mind, I tend to look on the dark side, so hopefully I was being unduly pessimistic.
I finally got to Loch Lomond, where it was bitterly cold, but there were a few thinner bits of cloud adding some interest to the sky, and painting the landscape with occasional hints of almost-sunlight. I walked to my first target scene and tried out a few compositions. I decided that an ND grad was a must because I was shooting towards where the sun would be, so there was a big difference in brightness between the foreground and the sky. That was when I found that I had inexplicably left my filter holder behind at home. Oh well, I'd just have to hand-hold the filter...but now some thicker cloud had come over and it just didn't look all that interesting anymore.
I headed up towards Rowardennan and got there just as it started to rain, albeit intermittently. The mountains to the north were beginning to be veiled in rain, leaching the colour out of the scene. By now, I'd lost the little sense of inspiration and purpose that I'd managed to scrape together that morning, and time was getting on. I decided to drive home. Total photos taken: 1, and I'll probably delete it.
One of my favourite places in the world has just burned to the ground (or rather to the water).
On our honeymoon we went watching grizzly bears at Knight Inlet, and stayed at a floating eco-lodge in a fjord north of Vancouver: it is so good we have been back twice since and loved it each time watching bears, eagles whales and dolphins. But we have just found out that at the end of last month a fire destroyed the whole lodge. Everyone got out safely which is a great to hear, but the company that runs it does so much to protect the bears and the environment we hope they can continue with that work while they get the lodge back up and running.
Jeez, that is bad news about the lodge. Can't really compete with that but for today's grumpiness I want to know why people you've not seen or had any contact with for years suddenly add you as a friend on Facebook then still don't make any contact with you! I've had quite a few people I used to know from my college days add me recently, but they don't send a message, don't comment on any of my stuff, don't do anything really.
Why did they bother? What purpose did it serve to track me down and add me then do nothing else?
Unfortunately I do Facebook admin for my employer so I need to keep my Facebook up and running otherwise I'd just do away with it. Waste of time...
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