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Busy day at the "Ferrymead Heritage Park" running the 35mm, giving film strips away and giving the youngsters a go on the splicer, Lost track the number of times I threaded it, every time I thought that was it, more folk would come in and sit on those cinema seats, so you can't let folk down got to keep running it. The projector is going good nice to show folk some shorts on 35mm
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I am pretty much finished on the construction side of things ""thank goodness" and to be just getting back to being just film
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Recently we took the grandkids on a camping trip to Holmfirth, Yorkshire. Managed to shoot some more super 8mm footage, a couple of shots seem to have a soft focus even though the lens was set correctly. It's a nice memento of a great weekend of fishing, boating and den building.
https://youtu.be/K-ugXXDfCoE​Comment
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Brilliant
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Phillip,
Great footage of a terrific weekend!Comment
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A bit of northern lights action tonight.Attached FilesComment
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I stay in a hostel in London. The building is nice, but located in a parc (Holland parc, for those who know the city). That parc closes at night, and the only way to access the hostel is that narrow, creepy, desert path.
By the way, the hostel name is safestay! And I had the good surprise, tonight to find my locker open (padlock removed) and empty because I used a locker with a different number that the bed number (which everyone does in hostels). The rest of the day has been fantastic, starting with a delicious breakfast, and then films at the cinemamuseum.Comment
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I had an adventure today:
I had Veterans Day off and decided to get in a little outdoors time while the weather was still friendly to it.
I found out about a pretty substantial lake about 40 miles to the East, in a part of Long Island I go to and through all the time, but this one's been hiding from me my whole life! Today I sought it out.
Laurel Lake is called a "kettlehole". This was the spot where some immense block of ice was imbedded in our sandy soil when the glaciers withdrew at the end of the last ice age. After the melt, groundwater filled it up level to the water table. We have a number of these lakes here, and at 60 acres this one isn't the biggest. What makes this one interesting is being that it is in a forested area and isolated from a lot of recreational use and agricultural runoff, it's considered to have the cleanest water of any Long Island lake.
The low recreational traffic is because the boat launch isn't next to the parking lot. You can boat there as much as you want, you just need to be willing to carry the thing down that 600 foot portage trail and leave that outboard motor back at the house! A cart isn't even an option: it's a pretty rough trail.
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A canoe is actually pretty amphibious. In ancient North America there very often weren't direct water routes between places but networks of rivers, lakes and portage trails. To get where you wanted to go, you paddled to the far shore, you got out, you picked the boat up and carried it. This went double for severe rapids and waterfalls. This often kept canoes small and light, but sometimes they got very big and then took a great many men to paddle and carry the boat and the load they were moving. There were literally millennia when trade here was accomplished in this way. It took steamboats and railroads to bring it to a close.
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I join the tradition by clamping a carry yoke between the gunwales and turning a 33 pound solo canoe into a backpack with the added benefit of shade on sunny days!
Shall we begin?
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Now, this was pretty impressive as local portage trails go! They are usually less than 100 Feet, but this is 600! The 600 feet doesn't even tell the whole story here, since this was down a pretty generous slope and there was actually a short flight of stairs at one point!
This forms kind of a barrier to entry, and while it is perfectly public access, you still need to make a decision that the lake is worth it and a commitment to hoist your craft down that hill and back up later.
-but hoist I did!
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When I was done, I put my boat back up on my car and motored back west. I stopped at a farm stand and got a cup of hot cider: basically an ideal Fall day-off by my standards.
The sun sets early this time of the year. I had to get the canoe and roof racks off the car and stow them in the garage before it got dark. I left everything in place that won't interfere with my commute tomorrow morning.
-and if they notice I have a canoe paddle in my back seat at Work, I'd say I'll have a pretty good story! (-with pictures!)
Last edited by Steve Klare; November 11, 2024, 07:01 PM.Comment
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One thing about the internet its a great way of catching up with folk you haven't seen in a long while, there is a Facebook page dedicated to HS748. I posted this old
and it would be 30 years now of a quick bit of video I took at work one weekend long long ago. The person in it got back to me today, saying we we are a bit older since that was taken ha ha.... how time passes, my biggest regret was not taking a lot more video I was simply to busy of those times working on the flying brick
. So there you have it, the importance of taking home movies either on film or video. Its later years when things and people have changed that they can be more important, and the internet has been a great way of getting those times across.
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First sprinkling of the white stuff !!
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Interesting day at Ferrymead, I was thinking of giving the place a miss today but glad I didn't. I landed up talking to two American tourists, One other tourist from Finland and some locals. Always interesting talking to folk from other countries and not just about films and projectors either I brought my splicer in so folk could have a go doing a bit of splicing, always getting positive feedback and giving strips of film away, makes it all worthwhile
Anyway that's it for the day, we are heading into summer mode, so now its time to chill out and do some other things. I did run the Westar today and took a couple of photos, this was before folk arrived. Glad I fitted some glass and more sound proofing that has worked out well. I am thinking of getting the Bauer down there as well, as I really don't use it compared to the Ernemann 2 it would be a good place for it.
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I took these photos 50 years ago this month on the North bound journey from NZ to UK. Its funny that I still remember our stop in Mexico where the young lady in question actually the same age as me at the time, when she got the idea to get her photo taken with two Mexican policemen. I did try to talk her out of it, but she got her way. They were good as gold when asked, and gave her permission for the photo to be taken. The first one with her camera the second with mine. On the first photo, one of them pulled out his gun waving it around with a smile I should add. I remember I smiled back as if to say nice but put it away. The second photo the one below... no gun....I have to add they were really good about it all, probably thought nutty tourists just of the ship after 11 days crossing the Pacific from Fiji.
The others one being the Panama canal with a stop at Balboa what a dodgy place that was. The other photos are the old tub crossing the North Atlantic, all were taken in November 1974, how time passes.
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I had the day to myself! (-a rare thing!)
I decided to go on a hike. Among a lot of outdoor-things I do, this is the best one on on a spontaneous basis. Everything else requires putting roof racks on the car and rounding up canoeing gear or inflating bike tires. For hiking I dress comfortably and put some kind of lunch in my backpack and I just go!
Being that it was cloudy on and off all day, spontaneity seemed a good policy. If it started to pour out there, this was going to become a day on-screen!
-but the skies cleared:
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The place was Connetquot River State Park Preserve, at 3,400 Acres, the largest State Park on Long Island. What's strange about that is it's probably the least known of all of them: there is no beach, no swimming, no camping, no concerts, no baseball, no soccer, no restaurants. -just fly fishing, horseback-riding, bird-watching and hiking. If none of these four are your thing, you might never know it's even there. (-Some of us like it that way!)
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The plan was simple, park at the north end, hike 4 miles south, have lunch and hike back to the car.
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There are deer there. A hundred years ago this was a private hunting and fishing club. Deer had been extinct locally for a couple of generations, but the Gents managed to get a small herd to take hold. A century later people in the area trying to grow vegetable gardens routinely curse them and their deer! Without an apex predator, there are more than there really should be.
In the southern part of the park the Rangers feed them and they have very little fear of people. I was sitting on a bench down there enjoying a Thermos of soup when I had a young buck walk 2-3 feet away and sniff my clam chowder deeply! Fortunately I was making a film and I got some really good footage!
Up North where I was today, the deer are more reserved. They are there, but on a given day, maybe you'll see one, maybe you won't! Today we got nothing but tracks!
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Bunce's Bridge and Lunchtime!
This is where the trail and a woods road cross the Connetquot River. Years ago this was a wooden bridge until one night when they were fighting a forest fire and a fire truck fell through it. A few years later this new welded-steel Bunce's Bridge filed the gap once again.
This is a big gathering spot for Fly Fishermen and there are two nice park benches there: excellent spot to have a seat, enjoy the River passing by as well as some hot soup!
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I headed back North just as the skies were starting to darken again. Every so often I'd get that tiny pin-prick feeling of an early rain drop: so subtle I had to ask myself "...what?". -but pretty soon what it was about became kind of obvious. I was something close to an hour away from the car and not extremely waterproof! What can I say at a time like that? I poured on the steam and tried to make some miles. Worst case I'd get back to the car soaked to the skin: not the worst thing that could happen. I'd go home and change into dry clothes, likely do my best to de-humidify the Driver's Seat! (-after all: I had my wife's car!) In the end, it rained for maybe a minute and I came out of it no worse than temporarily moistened!
The trail I was on is part of a 34 mile trail between our South Shore and North Shore. It happens that on either side of the our glacial moraine (kind of a tiny Continental Divide) there are two river valleys, one to the North and one to the South. Years ago some local hikers noticed the public parks strung along these two rivers and decided to blaze a hiking trail through all of them. A friend an I did the whole thing in three roughly 12 mile chunks years ago. A group of the physically fit (or intentionaly masochistic!) do the whole thing at once once a year, but that wasn't my goal for today: all I wanted was peace and quiet, some fresh air and exercise and maybe a little hot soup on a bench by a river!Comment
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Two days ago even though it was around the 30C/86F being summer I thought I might put up a little bit of Christmas decoration although not much just something to say its Christmas.
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