October 2022 - Favourite Uploads

[Alan Beastall]

A great afternoon at a womens English rugby union game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alan Beastall]

A day in York with the Q.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ed Rooney]

 

York, love it! 🙂

 

This is one of my two alternating breakfasts. I tend to capture a lot of food but it is not my best-selling subject. 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by Ed Rooney

[Steve F]

On 05/10/2022 at 21:31, Alan Beastall said:

A day in York with the Q.

 

Great photos Alan! Liking the viewpoints and focus points

[Martin L]

Flock of Knots with illusions of grandeur trying to be a Swan 😃

 

[gvallee]

Devil's Marbles, Northern Territory, Australia

 

 

 

 

[gvallee]

In line with the 'Olden days' challenge, I visited a very remote disused homestead in the Australian Outback: Old Andado Station. What a tough life it was!

Old Andado Homestead on the edge of the Simpson Desert, NT, is an extraordinary, very remote outback museum that has retained all its rugged atmosphere and authenticity as if Molly Clarke, the pioneer owner, had just popped out for an hour.

 

 

Imagine living in a flood prone house with three young boys, no enclosed verandahs, no windows, no fly screens, and no doors where summer temperatures frequently rose to over 50 degrees Celsius with ant plagues, hundreds of thousands of flies, snakes and other creepy crawlies to deal with.

There was no plumbing to the old homestead; water had to be carried to the kitchen, bathroom and laundry area from the river. Kerosene lanterns were the source of light, kerosene powered fridges kept food from spoiling and the wood stove cooked food and boiled water.

 

There was no way of communication initially apart from the camel drawn mail cart which would have only come by every couple of months between the 1890’s and 1930’s. In the 1930’s the radio telephone was invented by Alf Traeger for the Flying Doctor Service and fast became an essential communication tool for the isolated station people. Molly was still using the radio telephone well into the 1980’s until a satellite phone tower was installed.

 

The 1970's witnessed a catalogue of personal crises: one son had a life-threatening accident; Molly's husband suffered a fatal heart attack after crash landing his light aircraft; and her eldest son was killed by a freight train whilst driving his prime mover across a railway line at night.

 

By the end of the decade, Molly lost her livelihood from cattle, when the Northern Territory government were forced to destroy all her stock following a brucellosis scare.

When asked about this hardship in later life, Molly said 'I was dealt a certain hand in life and I just got on with it.'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Betty LaRue]

What a fascinating story. I don’t know how people made it through such hardships. They were/are tough with a grit most of us don’t have. I guess you just carry on because it’s all you can do.
That’s the pioneering spirit the people in the US had when their wagon trains headed west often in conflict with native people (whom I don’t blame). I know many settlers settled in lands with little to no trees nearby and made their houses out of sod.

The indigenous people lived with those hardships constantly, but were one with the earth.

[gvallee]

11 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

What a fascinating story. I don’t know how people made it through such hardships. They were/are tough with a grit most of us don’t have. I guess you just carry on because it’s all you can do.
That’s the pioneering spirit the people in the US had when their wagon trains headed west often in conflict with native people (whom I don’t blame). I know many settlers settled in lands with little to no trees nearby and made their houses out of sod.

The indigenous people lived with those hardships constantly, but were one with the earth.

 

Exactly. It's a sobering story, not uncommon at all in those times unfortunately. Suffice to visit pioneers' cemeteries and gasp and the average death age. Accidents, drownings, horse falls, illnesses, young children. Ghastly! These days, you were mostly on your own if anything happened.

[Betty LaRue]

5 minutes ago, gvallee said:

 

Exactly. It's a sobering story, not uncommon at all in those times unfortunately. Suffice to visit pioneers' cemeteries and gasp and the average death age. Accidents, drownings, horse falls, illnesses, young children. Ghastly! These days, you were mostly on your own if anything happened.

With all of that, women often lost babies before they were born or shortly after, and many died in childbirth. It’s not as if they had a doctor at the end of a telephone. If by chance a family member could ride for one, the victim often didn’t survive long enough to be treated. That’s why the graveyards were like you saw. And without accidents, the hard life made for short life spans. Like you, I am fascinated by olden times.

My grandmother had 5 children, all born at home, and had one or two stillborn. They lived on a small hardscrabble farm. My grandfather was kicked in the head by a plow mule, and I’m sure he had a severe brain injury because he became paranoid and killed himself with a shotgun. My mother was six.

My grandmother took in washing and ironing and mending, and had a garden, and barely scraped by. She was often ill with a particular complaint and had to take to her bed, sometimes for a week or two. I think it was with her back.
My mother quit school after the 5th grade so she could help raise her siblings and help her mother with the work, at the age of eleven. She could throw together & bake biscuits by the time she was 8.
My mother was a voracious reader and educated herself. To speak with her, you would never know the quiet, well-spoken lady was formally uneducated. Any new word she read was immediately investigated as to meaning and pronunciation. But she always had low self-esteem because of her lack of advanced schooling. She kicked my alcoholic dad to the street, worked at a job, sewed our (three girls) dresses and matching panties from floral cotton print flour sacks when we were preschool, after cutting out patterns from a newspaper. Later, after remarrying, she still sewed for us.  We were still poor, and she went without a winter coat so she could cut it down and make me one.  

Later, when life was easier, I remember designing my own dresses and she’d make them. They were as nice as store-bought, often nicer because they were tailored to my measurements. This was the lady who taught her daughters to make wonderful pies and those throw-together biscuits.

And that was nothing compared to the lady’s life in your story.

 

[gvallee]

We've been 4WD'ing in the Simpson Desert for a few days. Unfortunately, unseasonable rain forced us to get back to the safety of the black top. I was in no hurry to leave this spectacular scenery. We even saw a rare roll cloud or Morning Glory, but I haven't uploaded the images yet. We'll be back!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[John Mitchell]

Little Blue Electric Scooter (a bit tame compared to Gen's images) 🐊

 

[gvallee]

2 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

Little Blue Electric Scooter (a bit tame compared to Gen's images) 🐊

 

 

John, I bet your scooter is a much more saleable subject than my wilderness images. And blue is my favourite colour. 

[John Mitchell]

3 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

John, I bet your scooter is a much more saleable subject than my wilderness images. And blue is my favourite colour. 

 

I'm always blown away by your dramatic "outback" images. Have to admit that I'm not very adventurous these days. The blue scooter is always parked in the same place a few blocks from my front door, and I walk by it often. I finally got around to photographing it last week. Who knows if anyone will be interested. Blue is probably my favourite colour as well.

 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by John Mitchell

[gvallee]

1 hour ago, John Mitchell said:

 

I'm always blown away by your dramatic "outback" images. Have to admit that I'm not very adventurous these days. The blue scooter is always parked in the same place a few blocks from my front door, and I walk by it often. I finally got around to photographing it last week. Who knows if anyone will be interested. Blue is probably my favourite colour as well.

 

 

 

We carefully analyse the risks of a remote off-road destination beforehand. Is the dirt road heavily corrugated? Are there washouts? Creek crossings? Deep/shallow/steep exit? Soft bottom? Is the track too narrow for our vehicle? Is the road restricted to 5t vehicles? Etc. We phone rangers or the local roadhouse/pub/cattle station, whoever is in the know locally. Then we weigh the risk. If lucky, I might have another 15 years to go to have fun, so I bear this in mind as part of the decision. There was no ominous adverse weather forecast for this trip. If caught by rain on a muddy track, you have to stop and wait for a week for the land to dry. If caught while travelling on a closed dirt road, the fine is over $1,000 per wheel, including the spare wheel. We would never do that because 1/ you're stuck in the mud anyway and 2/ it destroys those tracks. However it recently happened to a young family when the rain started while on the road. They got bogged and had to be evacuated by helicopter.. 

 

On that trip, we got to a very remote pub/restaurant/camping place located at a crossroad of 3 adventurous 4WD tracks. We celebrated my birthday there in a very convivial atmosphere. A group of bikers had just completed the Madigan Line. One had taken a tumble and had an arm in a sling but it was good news according to him because his right handlebar was now straight and in line with the left one. We all watched humbled and aghast an old film about a scientific mission going through the area we were at, using camels. It didn't matted if the film had turned magenta and was the wrong format for the screen, we were left open mouthed at the guts it took.

 

We were told at that place, which helps with breakdowns of vehicles crossing the Simpson Desert, that should we break down, we would be up s**t creek  because they didn't have a trailer for our 5.7t vehicle. I'm a risk taker no doubt, but not irresponsible.

[Martin L]

We used an ancient Holden Gemini (similar to a Vauxhall Chevette) to travel around the outback when we were younger and stupid. 

The corrugated roads were the worst but we worked out if you came back the same way you went in, you could pick up all the bits that had been shaken off

[Steve Hyde]

Here are a few recent uploads that came about as a result of tips picked up off the forum 🙂

 

I took The Greek Taverna image as a direct result of Edo’s Alfresco challenge. I had none in my portfolio so I targeted a few on a recent holiday. The other night time shots are a result of buying DxO Pure Raw (that’s part of my workflow now) and the new Topaz Photo AI. Gen and a few others commented on how good the Topaz software was so after trialling it I’ve bought it.
 

Finally, the spooky Mummy biscuits were a trial run for making a few Halloween treats with the grandchildren who are here for a sleepover next week. I took the easy option and, instead of making my own biscuits, bought a pack of Oreo’s and dipped them into white chocolate 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by Steve Hyde

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, Steve Hyde said:

Here are a few recent uploads that came about as a result of tips picked up off the forum 🙂

 

I took The Greek Taverna image as a direct result of Edo’s Alfresco challenge. I had none in my portfolio so I targeted a few on a recent holiday. The other night time shots are a result of buying DxO Pure Raw (that’s part of my workflow now) and the new Topaz Photo AI. Gen and a few others commented on how good the Topaz software was so after trialling it I’ve bought it.
 

Finally, the spooky Mummy biscuits were a trial run for making a few Halloween treats with the grandchildren who are here for a sleepover next week. I took the easy option and, instead of making my own biscuits, bought a pack of Oreo’s and dipped them into white chocolate 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice! I particularly like the cookies. Biscuits, to you. Cute!

[Bryan]

Autumn colours starting to appear in Durham

 

[Betty LaRue]

A mix of vanilla pecan and cherry pecan homemade divinity.
 

 

 

I thought I’d add my home grown sweet red bell peppers to the thousands already on Alamy.

Edited October 13, 2022 by Betty LaRue

[Martyn]

My neighbour enticing his two dairy cows along our lane to their pasture using fresh apples.

[Betty LaRue]

18 minutes ago, Martyn said:

My neighbour enticing his two dairy cows along our lane to their pasture using fresh apples.

The horses we once had were suckers for pears. I actually saw my mare roll her eyes back in her head while pear juice dripped off her mouth. So yeah, I can see the apple enticement for sure.

[Steve Hyde]

13 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

A mix of vanilla pecan and cherry pecan homemade divinity.
 

 

 

I thought I’d add my home grown sweet red bell peppers to the thousands already on Alamy.

interesting, looks tasty. l’d never heard of Divinity. I googled it to see if I could find a recipe to try but Corn Syrup isn’t widely available here. It looks quite tricky to get right.

[Betty LaRue]

11 hours ago, Steve Hyde said:

interesting, looks tasty. l’d never heard of Divinity. I googled it to see if I could find a recipe to try but Corn Syrup isn’t widely available here. It looks quite tricky to get right.

It is tricky to get right. At the age of eleven, I discussed how to make it with a man across the street, who was a good candy maker. Cooking the syrup, sugar and water to the exact temperature is paramount, plus never make it on a wet, humid day. Low humidity is good. My failures then was because I didn’t have a candy thermometer and tried to guess by testing a thread while dripping a bit of it. The humidity tip was the best tip. At the time, my town was often very humid, so waiting for a low humidity day was hard. It is my favorite homemade candy, ever. It’s very good with small pieces of black walnuts in it, too. My favorite for making divinity.

[gvallee]

Rainbow Valley in Australia Red Centre, Northern Territory

 

We were the only ones camping there, just underneath this cloud. There was wind, lightning and thunder above us but no rain. Very impressed with this stupendous show of nature we were.

 

 

Sunrise over the dried seasonal lake

 

Sunrise