Category: Family

Family related posts; generally only of interest to fellow members of the Brown Clan and relations by Marriage into this mad house.

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How was your Bank Holiday – Replacing the shed roof

Picture of a wooden she, the roof can be seen and a window, The sky is bright blue with white clouds

Did you do anything exciting on your bank holiday if your here in the UK.

We visited a family members house and reroofed and re-felted there old shed. Parts were rotten and water was getting in.

Not a quick job and one we had been putting off due the high heat in the UK recently, but this weekend was forecast to be cooler.

So tow bar on our electric estate car, trailer hooked up and a trip to the local builders merchant. Wood purchased and off to the shed. The rotten wood all pulled off, and replaced, a fresh sheet of wood on the roof and a re-felt.

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Dolly Parton a true saint

A screen print from Trio Album staring Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris

Dolly Parton could have been a Billionaire, but she chose to use the wealth she earned with her immense talent to help people, from funding vaccines to her book program for the under fives, even books in brail.

A true Christian who believed in love and charity, and who did not judge.

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Solar Eclipse 2026 – Partial in the UK

Last night we were in the garden with our little home made pin hole projector.

Piece of white paper, with a project from a pinhole showing the eclipse of the sun

The last solar elipse in the UK was back in 1999. I got up at 3am in the morning and rode the few hundred miles down to the line of totality. Then pointed the motorcycle at the bluest and clearest bit of sky and road to the south coast.

Piece of white paper, with a project from a pinhole showing the eclipse of the sun

Parked up in a pub carpark sitting in full biker leathers with a glass of cold lemonade I enjoyed my first and only total solar eclipse.

Piece of white paper, with a project from a pinhole showing the eclipse of the sun

Last night it was about 90% in the uk, so with a piece of card, that we had punched a small hole into, and a piece of white paper, we projected the sun onto the paper to view it safely.

It did go darker and it was a great experience.

The next one is about 50 years away so its looking doubtful that I will make that one.

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Having a break

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, been concentrating on other things. Had a few studio shoots, catch up with my favourite model and generally concentrating on the day job.

The heat and humidity just seems to go on at the moment.

Hope your all taking care in this warm weather.

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Energy Poverty

App showing energy flow in a home. This shows solar energy going directly into an electric car providing free fuel.
Screenshot

For those of us with good incomes, we can afford to install solar, buy electric cars. Install systems like the Eddi which provides free hot water from the solar.

On a sunny day like some we have had this week we are getting free fuel and free hot water. For those who cannot afford such things they are stuck with higher energy costs and fossil fuels.

More needs to be done to allow more people to get the benefits of the switch to green tech. At least electric cars as they get more popular, the secondhand market grows and prices come down.

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How do you relax – Chess

a chess board from chess.com. White and weaved a check mate net and trapped blacks king in the centre.

How do you relax. If I go out it’s generally taking photographs. Or it can be walking the dog and listening to podcasts or music is also high on the agenda. At home it’s often relaxing with a fine wine, or whisky. But sometimes I want to do something different and stretch my brain. So then I hit Chess.com, and play puzzles or occasionally a game.

This game was an interesting one. My opponent did not develop their pieces fast enough and so I pushed hard, it cost me my queen and on paper he was ahead, but I had forced his king out into the centre of the board and it was not long before I check mated him. I’ll be living with the buzz of this game for a while.

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Coffee

Local coffee shop Cafe Aroma just off Lincoln High Street by the Stonebow. Two people can be seen sat outside drinking coffee.

More and more companies are asking their staff to come in. I usually find a need to head into a clients office or a clients data centre once a week. This week it was Lincoln and they have a great independent coffee shop just off the high street.

Slightly blurred photo of a barista making coffee.

A good photograph does not necessary have to be correctly exposed or sharp. A Henri Carrier-Bresson said – “Sharpness is a bourgeois concept”.

Barista steaming milk at the coffee bar.
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Artemis II – Moon Mission and Nikon

Vintage market, people looking through the goods on the table.

It’s been a long time since we have been back to the moon.

The fashions on show from our local vintage market were likely new.

In that time NASA has moved from film Hasselblads on the moon to professional Nikon D5’s well proven to stand up to the temperature range and radiation of space.

I believe there testing mirrorless cameras but for now the trusty Nikon D5 professional camera is NASA’s main stay and is currently heading back to earth with the crew of the Artemis II mission.