It Is The Season, Turn, Turn, Turn

Cycling back from shopping in Beeston this morning, I was pleased to still see the sun and a blue sky, even though we are rapidly heading towards winter, and the cold and those early dark nights.

Moving up one of the roads towards our house, I just had to stop to take a photo of this wonderful tree with its red and orange leaves, gently being kissed by the sunlight.

Italian Stallion

I had reason to take my Fiat 500 to the dealership today. Fortunately nothing too drastic or expensive.

While I was waiting for the return of my vehicle, I noticed an original 500, left hand drive too. It's in almost new condition, and according to the registration plate, made in 1971.

It's A Great Life On The Buses

A couple of weeks ago, the Old Market Square resembled a seaside, complete with sand, slot machines and donkey rides.

Now it has taken on the role of global market, especially with food, as there is all sorts available, French crepes, Thai street food and various curries. Local superstar butcher Johnny Pusztai was there too, offering his famous sausages and burgers to hungry passers by.

Drink wasn't neglected, with a Pimms tent, and this novel use for an old London bus. Quite a good idea, and nice to see this example of the world famous Routemaster get a new lease of life after spending years running up and down the streets of the capital.

I see this musician is wondering whether he could get a gig on board, as maybe the upstairs is a cosy seating area, where you can sit, chat, drink and watch the world go by.

Considering today is the first day of autumn, it was lovely and sunny at lunchtime when I visited the market. Plenty of people were milling around and looking at the things to buy. There was even a stall where you could obtain a mortgage, and another that was selling a special peeler for making vegetables look decorative.

Music didn't go amiss, as when I was there a singer was entertaining everyone with some reggae tunes.

The Red Side Of The Moon

I was quite surprised to see the Moon surrounded by a red sky tonight, as usually any red sky sunsets that do appear are in the opposite direction to the Earth's nearest planet.

But tonight, both the red sky and the Moon were both in the right position for me to get this photo.

I of course used my 40-150mm zoom lens, to get this shot, otherwise it would just be a small dot in the sky.

Paint Pots

There's a new exhibition on at the Contemporary by artist Michael Beutler.

A strange one too, as he has rebuilt his exhibition that he had at Spike Island in Bristol, and it's called Pump House.

The exhibition basically consists of rooms that have been made out of recycled materials and rubbish.

It's certainly different, and colourful in places, where he has made walls out of card, or plastic bags stuffed into small wire cages.

But my photographic eye spotted this little still life scene of some jars of paint randomly placed in a group, contrasted by a blue rubber glove.

Are You Redy?

From the classic elegance of yesterday's white Rolls Royce, we now see a modern Ferrari sports car, in the traditional sporting red.

I'm not really into modern cars that much, but one thing that does interest me about this car, is why it doesn't have a number plate?

Light Night

Well not long until the clocks go forward and the lighter nights return and events start happening at the weekend at places like Wollaton Park.

I spent a pleasant afternoon in the front garden, with weeding, pruning and planting. I managed to stay out until nearly 6.30, before it began to get dark and I just had a nearby streetlight for company.

Having a bit of a break from some weeding, I looked up and noticed that a very pleasant sunset had formed in the sky. The first one that I had seen at home. I've seen a couple at work recently, but it's difficult to take photos through the office windows. So I popped indoors to get my camera and fired off a couple of shots from the upstairs window.

The Spirit Of America

Wandering around Hockey yesterday with a pal from work, who also like photography, we came across this rather unusual motorbike.  Unusual, not in the sense of what it looks like, but the fact that it is red, as I tend to see most two wheelers painted black or silver.

Not being very interested in motorbikes, I didn't recognise the native American emblem, but looking it up on Google, it has been made by the Indian Motorcycle Company. I worked out from the UK numberplate that it was registered in the early 1990s, although it looks like a vintage model. So perhaps it's a reproduction.

We never saw the owner. So perhaps he was sitting in one of the nearby cafe's having his lunch. I just wonder how he was dressed. Black leathers perhaps?

Full Of Christmas Cheer

I met up with some of the other writers that contribute to The Beestonian magazine that I am involved with.

We all got together at a local pub to celebrate Christmas and how successful the local, almost monthly magazine has become this year.

I usually get an article plus some photos in every month. The latest issue contains my report on the trip to Tuscany that we went on in October.

Whilst we were chatting and drinking, a load of people piled into the White Lion, all dressed up, some in fancy costumes, all with a Christmas theme.

There were a couple of guys dressed as turkeys, a Christmas cake, some Santa's, Joseph and the star of Bethlehem.

But I was drawn to this guy in his bespoke snowman suit. He looks a bit of a joker, with his toothy grin and Christmas stocking.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Well not Santa exactly, but Toni, Beeston's famous sales lady that can be heard calling out the latest bargains outside Beeston's well known greengrocers Hallams.

Toni always enjoys getting into the spirit of different events and dresses up accordingly. She's a real character and really livens up the weekly shop.

The Burning Sky

Here's a Triptych of shots that I took of the amazing sky the other day., as I cycled through Highfields.

My EM-1 has the ability to create triptyches in camera and without any messing about. It's just a case of pointing and shooting, an the camera does the rest. The only thing that you can't change is the white border.

Wires Across The Sky

Another fantastic sunset tonight, across nearly all the Beeston sky.

Instead of looking out of the upstairs window, I tried a few shots out in the street.  Fortunately we live  on a relatively quiet road, so I could stand in the middle of the road, and not worry too much about being run over.

I think I should have taken it about 10 minutes or so earlier, as the sky might have been a little brighter. But I think that it is still an amazing sunset. Hopefully it will be another sunny day tomorrow.

Off The Rails

Besides the visit yesterday of Prince Edward, another important event that was taking place in Nottingham, namely a wedding at the Council House.

The wedding party were using this old London bus as the bridal transport and were just climbing aboard when I arrived in the Old Market Square.

While I was taking a photo or two of it, a tram just happened to be rolling by, and I managed to take a couple of shots just as it was passing the bus. Lucky eh?

You may have realised that the photo is lacking in colour, except for the bus itself. That's because I set my camera just to record anything that was red in colour, the rest would remain in black & white. A neat trick. Partial colouring can of course be done in various software packages, but this is much quicker. And anyway, I only know how to do it in Lightroom.

Tuning Into The Red

A really wonderful sky tonight over Beeston as I was cycling home.  By the time I got home, the sky was glowing.

As soon I got home, I rushed upstairs with my camera & took some photos of the multicoloured sky. Of course I took quite a few, as the colours were changing all the time as the sun was setting.

I do like this one with the silhouette of a neighbouring house, with just the chimney pots and TV aerial showing. Ideally, I would have liked a plane to be flying by. But sadly one didn't even though we are on the flightpath for the East Midlands Airport.

A Touch Of Red

I was out in the front garden this morning when I saw this red admiral butterfly land on Gail's car.

Fortunately it was still there when I returned with my camera, so I shot a few frames. As the butterfly had landed on the passenger door window, I kept dancing about, trying to get a shot that didn't have a distracting background in it.

I think I have succeeded with this one, don't you think?

Shepherd's Delight

There is an old saying which goes "Red sky at night, shepherd's delight".

Well, we certainly had a red sky last night, but I don't think too many Nottingham based shepherds, or anyone else for that matter would be pleased with today's weather, as it certainly wasn't a delight, being dull, cold and the constant threat of rain.

Lets hope the weather over the weekend will be better.

The Red Devil

Just love this model racing car that I spotted in a shop the other day. Clearly based around the cars of the 1930s, long before Formula 1, computers and 200mph speeds.

I was sorely tempted to buy it, but me and my wallet resisted, as I we have too many nic nacs around the house these days.

Red

Here's another shot taken with the Chinon legacy lens.

A blackberry that hasn't finished changing colour yet.

I think it looks a bit like a painting, rather than a photograph.

I wonder what it would look like if it was printed?

Are You Going To Strawberry Fair?

A wild strawberry growing in the garden.

I wonder who will get to eat this first, me or a bird?

Cherry Picking

We have a few fruit trees in the garden; apple, plum and cherry. For some reason there is no fruit growing on the apple tree at the moment, while tiny plums are forming on the plum tree and the cherry tree is first past the post with it's small crop of cherries.

As you can see the birds have discovered them as well and have been eating a few. I'm not sure if they are ready yet, but I have picked them all anyway, and put them in a cloth bag with an apple, just to make sure they do ripen naturally.