Inside most of today…again.
It has been cooler and tomorrow we are to get a cold front and rain to continue through the weekend.
But, the Yellow Jackets still plague us and will continue until a killing freeze kills them off.
Wild Thing…
…she is off getting washed and waxed.
And when she returns, we just might load up and go.
No, NOT another wedding for me :) …although just because I’ve failed 3 times, that does NOT mean I wouldn’t try a 4th!
Never, Never, Never give up!! – I think Winston Churchill said that.
I digress.
It is almost the end of July and that means it is almost birthday month!!! – YEA!!!
And after birthday month is September and if I live that long it will mean that I have survived yet another Summer.
I digress yet again – back to birthday month and something old, something new.
I ordered a kind of birthday present for me…from Etsy. …from a seller in Bulgaria. A very nice seller who sent me a wonderful note about being glad I was giving this item a home.
A new camera!
Actually, it is an old camera: a 35mm film camera.
My first “real” camera was a Minolta that my father bought me for my 16th birthday. I remember the story being that he found it in a used “bin” at a camera store. My brother, who is ALWAYS right, tells me that my father got it at a silent auction.
Whatever.
The Minolta that I was given was old(er) even then, but I remember it as wonderful and I have photos from it that are spectacular – in my opinion – and given what I know now.
I don’t think that this camera is the same as what I had but there are definite similarities.
When I saw the listing on Etsy, I just bought it.
Two of the food bloggers I follow shoot film and I’ve been thinking about film and wondering how I would do with film, knowing what I know now and understanding the timing issues as well as the shooting and processing issues.
We shall see.
I have 4 rolls of high speed color film zipping their way to me as I write.
A local photo store still develops film.
I will post the good, the bad and the ugly…hopefully the good will prevail.
As I waited for the camera and researched processing options and thought about the food bloggers and about things in my own life I’ve been thinking about… it occurred to me that this fits a theme I’ve been mulling: a “slowing down” theme. I’ve been simplifying and slowing down for years now, but lately…probably because it is Summer and I always think about changing things in the Summer (because I very much DISLIKE Summer!!!) – I thought about what it might mean to shoot film.
Film is slower in that I will shoot a roll of 36 photos before I take the film to a lab and wait 7-10 days for its return. And since I am paying for EACH, it is a vastly different exercise than digital which costs nothing but my time to take and review 50-100 images. And I am very good and very speedy at reviewing and deleting!
So…what will the film shooting mean to what I choose to shoot? And obviously, if any of the film images become part of a blog post, they will be somewhere in the 2-4 week time frame post shooting.
Slowing down.
I am not giving up digital – I LOVE digital, but I am certainly interested to see how shooting film turns out.
Something old, something new.
I should probably have titled this post: How to drown Yellow Jackets.
No, I am not sorry!!!
Yellow Jackets reportedly have a role to play in gardens…
Unfortunately, they tend to turn aggressive mid-Summer through early Fall, i.e. until the first killing frost.
This year, a hot summer following a mild winter, the yellow jackets have been plentiful.
Stepping outside and/or walking in the woods…constant buzzing!
Bob, Bear and I are on the defensive…
BBQ chicken suspended over soapy water = drowned yellow jackets.
4-6 mason jars…in the yard and in the fringes of the woods…
And then…AND THEN!!! – blog reader Steph emailed me about Bounce fabric softener sheets being a yellow jacket repelling force!
Bear and I made a quick trip to town to get the most fragrant Bounce sheets we could find. They had us sneezing all the way home.
And they cleared the front porch of yellow jackets.
Go Bounce!
Thank you Steph from OR!!!
This afternoon.
Bob.
Light and shadow.
*** 8 days, maybe more…90-93F. The nights cool to upper 50/low 60’s. BUT, we are having a Yellow Jacket year… I have traps made of meat hanging from skewers over soapy water in mason jars and have been drowning over 100 yellow jackets daily. I fear for the boys being stung – especially Bob, so we’ve all been inside except for a couple of hours in the morning. Bear and I go out – carefully – at noon and dinner and then at 9-10 ish p.m. And I take Bear for some Jeep excursion when I can break during the day. Hurry up, Fall!!
Aside from some early morning chores both inside and outside, I mostly close the house, fire up the A/C and we hibernate in the cool, dark house until early evening when the temperatures become comfortable enough to venture out again.
I was watching a movie in the bedroom Saturday afternoon and noticed the light and shadow in the living room.
Something about the contrast, the bounce of light against the ceiling and the red glow through the shade enticed me to fetch my camera.
And then a shadowy head appeared: Light and shadow.
It has been hitting 90 during the day and forecast to continue. But the air is very dry so we drop into the 50’s overnight, making morning prime time to be outside.
By 8:00 a.m. this Saturday morning, we were back inside.
After breakfast, some of us went back to bed…
Most of us went back to bed.
At first separately.
But then together.
Saturday morning lie-in.