Finance Friday | Easy Money
When I was younger, there was a lot of industry in the Black Country. Working and making money was hard, but there was also ‘easy money’. Making beer could be considered a lot easier than working in a foundry or down a mine.
A Englishmans home is his castle
Today’s picture is of the Manor House, West Bromwich, which has a St George’s Day Family Fun Day on today. There will also be a big St George’s Day parade in Stone Cross tomorrow.
Neodigital Art | Defining Art
I used this picture last week and it was suggested that a colour version might look better. I did a lot of editing on this, cropping it and changing it to a watercolour image. I also edited out the cars in the background again.
A Black Country ramble
The weather is still very changeable in England. I need sunshine! It was a long winter and then we had snow in Spring. I want to take some photos of this beautiful landscape that we have in the Black Country.
Weekend review from the heart of England
I get a few local readers at the weekend and so I’ll explain about today’s picture. I took this at Easter at Forge Mill Farm in Sandwell Valley Country Park. From Walsall take the Birmingham Road, turn right at the Scott Arms and go up the Newton Road then left into Forge Lane. Forge Mill Farm is on the left, take the second entrance. (more…)
Treasure in the Black Country
This could be the only treasure map in existence with a motorway running through it. You may remember that I wrote about Princess Ethelfleda’s hoard of gold in my post just a year ago. We’re still looking for it. It could be buried at King’s Hill, there is a park there that’s suitable for scouring with a metal detector.
Looking forward to Spring?
Yes, it’s the Spring equinox in just four days! If you’re hoping for summer weather forget it, but we can expect blossom on the trees, tulips and daffodils and bluebells in the woods. I’ll be out there enjoying the fresh air and watching nature begin a new year. How about you? (more…)
Neodigital Art | Artistic editing
I can’t remember when I took this photo. I think it was the summer of 2011. I do remember having to take it through chain-link fencing. I have edited it again using PhotoScape using a watercolour option. It looks quite artistic now. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Changing winter scenes
I took this photo this afternoon. What do you think? These are the first ones of February. How do you think they would compare to January? It was just as cold, a biting wind today. This is the Milky Pool, that I have photographed before.
Neodigital Art | Editing for art
This picture was a bit boring, but it looks interesting now I’m edited it. It was simple a fence outside a factory. It was taken in bad light too:
Neodigital Art | Autumn leaves
Moorcroft Wood – spooky
I took this photograph on Sunday afternoon. I went to Moorcroft Wood first and the sun was high in the sky and starting to set when I got to this lake. The light hit the tree tops and lit them up making them look like they were on fire.
Neodigital art | Editing to create art
I think this photograph is quite artistic, it was a good shot and then I edited it to try to get something artistic. This is the original picture:
Neodigital Art | changing colours
At this time of year I like to record the changing colours as the seasons change. We’re are month into Autumn in England and so I expect all the colours of nature to change as winter approaches. You can see the colours better, when we have better light. In this picture you can see the first signs of winter colours.
Another week of creativity
I saw a council estate on TV last week where there was a lot of poverty and drug taking. The problems weren’t just lack of money, there was also a lack of nature. It needed green fields and they need trees to be planted. I also see lots of speed humps and traffic calming on the worst estates too.
Can the Black Country afford culture?
I went into Walsall a couple of weeks ago, before those protests by the EDL. There was a lot of charity shops around by the market. There was a pawn broker too and I’m told there are pay-day loan parasites too. Young people are struggling to find work and so can the art gallery afford to spend a quarter of a million trying to attract the Turner prize?
Neodigital Art | Getting a good shot
Neodigital Art is about creating art with digital devices, that might be a camera, scanner, cell phone or a graphics tablet. This gives you a lot of versatility and you can use different software to create different effects. The artists of the 19th century used brush and canvas, we have technology.
Protests in the Black Country
There were protests by the English Defence League (EDL) yesterday in Walsall town centre. It appears the police made 28 arrests for violent disorder. People were concerned about this protest and so 600 police were drafted in. It all costs money to police a protest that frightened would be shoppers on a Saturday and wasted money, when money is tight. (more…)
Neodigital Art | angles and depth
I went to the Oak House on Sunday and took some photographs of the house and the grounds. This is quite an unusual angle, but the light was bright and I have got shadows, giving a better view of the details on the house. The leading on the windows shows clearly, but on the photo taken farther away, that can’t be seen. This photograph still has depth as the front wall goes away from us. (more…)
Summer Sunday ramble
The sun’s shining! It cheers you up a bit when the sun shines; depressing thoughts melt away. I am writing this on Sunday morning before I start cooking lunch. It’s strange the thoughts that run through your mind on a sunny day. I just remembered that guy who kept drinking brake fluid. He wasn’t addicted; he said he could stop at any time… (more…)
This week–the sun came out
Yes, the sun came out a couple of times this week in England and the storm that was forecast was more of a whimper than a storm. I could be getting used to them though. It could go nice now, which is a shame. We did so want our overseas visitors coming for the Olympics to experience some genuine British weather. We do have some artificial clouds though. I did get out on Sunday and took some photos for the Neodigital Art blogs, then again midweek, when I took this one in the early evening sunlight. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Photons
Photons are little bundles of energy that we call light. They come from the sun (when we aren’t making our own), bounce around and get reflected off everything. They bounce around rather like a ball bounces off different surfaces, some surfaces make a ball bounce fast if it’s hard, soft surfaces slow it down. Light gets absorbed by dark colours and reflected more by light colours. You can see where it is being reflected most in this picture, by the lighter colours. Now why is the green and foliage so dark in the foreground? (more…)
Is it Sunday?
It doesn’t seem like Sunday today for some reason. I usually write my blog as lunch is cooking, but I’m late today; lunch is well and truly over. We do tend to be creatures of habit. We even drive habitually, not thinking about it too much. So I think Damon Hill has a point when he objects to the speed limit on motorways being raised to 80 MPH. People are half asleep much of the time and don’t realise the dangers for the rest of the time. I think it could be raised to 80 if it was strictly enforced but some idiot would want to do 90 or 100 or even faster. I think some changes should be made to all roads. (more…)
The Black Country Season
The London Season
It’s all go in London, after the excitement of the Queen’s official birthday. People turned out to watch the trooping of the colour and waved their flags and took up the customary grovelling positions. Some of them were hoping that, if they sucked up enough, they would get a gong in the birthday honours list. We have a season here in the Black Country. Last night the London set, went to the Hampton Court Palace Festival to partake in champagne and canapés, be entertained by the likes of Jools Holland and end the evening with a really, really expensive firework display. Up Tipton there was bingo and karaoke. The Tipton set celebrated with Banks mild and prawn cocktail crisps. Entertainment was by an Elvis lookalike from Prince’s End. (more…)
This week near West Brom…
The road in the picture is the Black Country New Road. Notice the traffic lights, that’s a pelican crossing and a bit farther on there’s a speed camera. Do we really need to spend money on such things in these austere times? A little farther down that same road on the stretch from Wednesbury to Moxley island, Sandwell council appears to be trying out a new traffic calming idea. There are lights and the kerb juts out at Moxley Island; but before you get there, we have pot holes. Yes, potholes all the way from Wednesbury to Moxley, aided and abetted by manholes that either stick up in the road or are in a hole. This idea isn’t very successful yet, but wait until those holes are a bit deeper; that’ll slow the buggers down… (more…)
