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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O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

Yes, finally late Friday night we finally got the Christmas Decorations up.

 

 

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
Not only green when summer’s here,
But also when ’tis cold and drear.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can’st give me;
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can’st give me;
How often has the Christmas tree
Afforded me the greatest glee!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can’st give me.

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!
From base to summit, gay and bright,
There’s only splendor for the sight.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee!
Thou bidst us true and faithful be,
And trust in God unchangingly.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee! !”

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Day out at the Brewery

Leila Cottage BreweryWe love crafts of all sorts and local artisan food.  Recently I got to know Scott who as well as being an IT geek is an expert in the dark arts of Microsoft Exchange; spends his spare time at the family pub, or to be more precise in the old stables at the back of the pub.

Here Scott has converted the stables and created the first new Brewery in Ingoldmells since 1898.  Well on finding this out we had to find an excuse to make a visit, and so this Saturday we spend the morning visiting local furniture places trying to source a large dinning room table.  Afterwards we headed east to Ingoldmells to drop in and visit Scott at his Leila Cottage Brewery.  After a chat and a quick tour we headed into the pub where Scott kindly treated us to a free couple of beers.  Of the three I think Ace Ale was our favourite and we will definitely be placing an order for Christmas.

With the local baker in our village and several Lincolnshire Breweries, a local coffee roaster its seems the old arts and crafts are doing well in the Lincoln area.

If you have any local crafts people, do please try and support them otherwise all we will have left will be chain stores and supermarkets.

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Moving Home Update – Making the Office Usable

There always seems to be a never ending list of job to be completed when moving house.

This weekend saw us finally empty the storage units, so all our things are in our new home.

We are now surrounded by boxes but we our gradually getting them unpacked.

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Another big step this week was the assembly of my desk. Setting that up emptied several boxes so thing are moving a long nicely.

It was nice to edit my photographs using two monitors again but after calibrating my old Sony CRT I noticed it struggled to reach the appropriate brightness.

Looks like my decision to buy a new monitor for Christmas is justified.

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National Stockings Day

National Stockings Day

 

Today is National Stockings Day.  If I am shooting for my own pleasure in the Studio I always try to get a nice stocking top shot.

Its also a good day to for you ladies to buy some Charnos Stockings or get your partners to.  Charnos will donate 10% of the retail price to Breast Cancer Care.

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World PhotoWalk Deadline

It kind of crept up on us but Monday was the deadline for the World PhotoWalk.  With moving house I had not managed to process any more photographs, so I had to make a quick choice from the ones I had already uploaded to the local Flicker Group.

View of the lines
View of the lines

It was a tough choice but in the end I went with this one ‘View of the lines’, I like the diagonal composition with the bridge and the man in the foreground makes you wonder what he is thinking about as he looks out.

Not a great photograph but it is an interesting photograph.

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Reliance on the Internet

Macbook Air -top

 

Well the move is complete, we still have lots of work to do, including the basics like plumbing in the washing machine, but things are slowly coming together.  We have had very little internet access for the last few days, even now its still slow and flakey but its slowly getting better.

Its really surprised me how much we have missed the internet access.  Just about everything now a days is easier to do online.  Even little plumbing and joinery jobs we have been doing, I would usually just check on line and watch a few YouTube videos just to make sure I knew what I was doing.

We really do live on line lives today.

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No Blog Tuesday – and possibly Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

Steep Hill GigIts sometimes tough, sometimes very enjoyable, but when I started this blog I set the rules that I would blog at least once a month, and where possible four times a week; Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Well so far I have been pretty good and I have managed to keep to my rule.  For the rest of this week though I’ll not be blogging.  The reason is that we are moving.

No not virtually but physically.  Currently we live in a lovely village just outside Lincoln but it does lack room and when ever I need to use a studio I have to hire a space, either in Lincoln or my favourite studio in Worksop.

Studio Complex Lighting Setup
Studio Complex Lighting Setup

Well this week we are now moving to another lovely village near Lincoln but this time, we have room not only for my office, but also for my Photographic Studio; and also for Caroline’s Craft Studio.  It will be a while before we have everything fully setup, and will be welcoming clients and models to our new place but this week is the start.

So lots of hard work ahead but great times are ahead.

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iPhone 5S, 5C and iOS 7

iphone 5sWell its going to be a busy week for Apple.  We have the release of the new hardware this week, basically tweaks and improvements to my current iPhone 5.

I am more interested in iOS 7, there are some significant user interface improvements that I am looking forward to, and I will be one of the first to upgrade all of the family Brown Apple devices to it on Wednesday when its released a couple of days before the new phone.

If your after more details about the new Phones and iOS 7 check out Apple’s website and also MacRumours, as well as some interest thoughts from Chris on his Blog; (i)Phone Update Part 1 & (i)Phone Update Part 2.

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Make your own Coffee

Inventors Blend

 

I have to admit to being a bit of a coffee geek.  In the office I make good coffee with an aeropress, I hand grind all my coffee fresh each morning.  At home I tend to use a Chemex but also sometimes a Kalita pourover, and when the mood takes me even a Turkish Hob Coffee pot.

I like to support the local coffee roaster but also buy coffee mail order from great online shops like Hasbean.

Recently Hasbean have being doing monthly specials, coffee blends that are a bit risky, a bit different, some you will love some you will hate but always different and educational to the palette.

This month they are being different again and offering you the chance to make your own blend, four very different beans, which you can mix to produce your own, looks like I am going to have a fun month!