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Post by roger on Jun 21, 2006 19:17:52 GMT
Hi Caite, With a little bit of imagination, you could be upside down with arms outstretched, about to plunge into the depths of Lake Michigan. I know we made you a US Researcher but you didn't have to take it quite so seriously! Lovely pictures. Roger
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Post by alien on Jun 24, 2006 10:59:22 GMT
Thanks Caite, these are some beautiful shots of the sunset from Michigan! Recently, I got a new Canon S2 IS as a gift, hopefully I'll be able to contribute more to the Photography thread in the future. Here's one of the few photos I took at the University on the day of my graduation earlier this month: Allen
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Post by roger on Jun 24, 2006 12:08:40 GMT
Thanks for the photo Allen and belated congratulations for you graduation!
Roger
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Post by postscript on Jun 30, 2006 18:54:19 GMT
That top blue iris, Joe, is absolutely superb: both as a flower and as a picture of a flower. Peter
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Post by postscript on Jun 30, 2006 19:20:58 GMT
You really love your roses Stuart, don't you? Lovely pics. And looks like I will be following you as that is the SLR film combinatiion i have.
Peter
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Steve H
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HWI Management Team / Official Site Photographer & Videographer
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Post by Steve H on Jul 1, 2006 10:00:24 GMT
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Post by postscript on Jul 1, 2006 11:07:44 GMT
Hi Steve. Thanks for your patience. Sorry. In fact I'll risk jumping in with all six feet flailing again! Which one of you was it who said they had a canal boat, when we supped on the side walk at Sloane Square? Have you time to look at websfor.org/saveourwharf/home/home.asp and perhaps support with a letter, though it has to be a fast response so, perhaps email will suffice. I have only discovered the situation on my return from holiday. Answering your question, I am very intrigued with the Sony video (haven' yet had the chance to look at the result) recently promoted here and if I had known about it I might well have gone for that in place of the Sony 'cigarette lighter' for sound only that I recently acquired. Otherwise, yes, I found it good using the 35mm SLR again. I too have Minolta plus sigma telephoto lens but could also do with wide angle one. My little digital is fine for general stuff but... However, my friend in the States and I have been exchanging audio tapes for thirty odd years and that little Sony video looks an interesting possibility for my domestic needs at least. Peter
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Steve H
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Post by Steve H on Jul 1, 2006 17:59:19 GMT
Hi Peter, Yes it was me who spoke to you about Canal Narrowboats, when you mentioned Berkhamsted, which I remember from my days on the Grand Union Canal. I have had three boats, MEG, a 30 foot springer, Megan 2 a 35 foot trad boat I built from a steel Hull and Superstructure, and MEGAN No 3 which was one of the first boats built in Birmingham by Orion Narrowboats. Megan No 3 Megan No 3 again with both solid fuel stoves on, one in the main cabin and one in the Traditional boatman's cabin. I miss living by the Canal in Milton Keynes where this boat was moored. Steve H
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Steve H
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HWI Management Team / Official Site Photographer & Videographer
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Post by Steve H on Jul 1, 2006 18:32:20 GMT
Peter, I have managed to find an old picture of the boatman's cabin in Megan 3, Do you ever get to wander down the canal tow path near where you live? Steve
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Joe
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Supporting Hayley since 2003!
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Post by Joe on Jul 2, 2006 1:54:10 GMT
Hi Steve H,
The pictures of the Megan No. 3. You said that you built Megan 2...did you also built No. 3 ?
I love the pic of the cabin...the paintwork of the castle is so intricate. Is that a cooker in the centre?
Joe
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Post by postscript on Jul 2, 2006 8:14:12 GMT
Hi Steve.
Do I walk down the tow path? I use it in place of the High Street! As do many people now following the renovation work Lindy instigated with British Waterways and in which I fully supported her, against some extraordinarily short-sighted opposition at the time. I've already posted one pic of that renovated towpath I'll dig out one or two others, perhaps, under the photo thread and show the journey to the station and into town generally that I take from my home. Peter
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Steve H
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Post by Steve H on Jul 2, 2006 8:39:09 GMT
Hi Joe,
Thanks for your post, Megan No 3 was built by Orion Narrowboats, unfortunately when I had this one built I was living in Suffolk!
I will dig out a picture of Megan No 2, which I did completely fit out myself, while I lived very near to the canal in Milton Keynes.
The Boatman's cabin is painted with Roses and Castles, Roses because the working folk on the canal had no gardens, and Castles because this tiny cabin of only six foot long was their only 'Home'
Steve.
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Post by postscript on Jul 2, 2006 8:56:56 GMT
Hi Joe.
Steve H is leading us into the wonderful world of canal narrow boats--not barges!. In the area shown a family of often more than 4 would live out their lives, the rest of the boat being loaded with cargo, often coal which would have to be hand-shovelled out!
The depictions of castles and flowers are part of the traditional art with which bargees decorated their boats and their utensils, such as pots and pans.
Now that you (in the collective sense) have got me going, I'll dig out those pictures I mentioned earlier and then do what I have had in mind to do for some time, contribute to Roger's creative writing thread with a poem I wrote about the canal, but for which I got it in the neck from a canal enthusiast for making the mistake of calling the thing a 'barge'. 'Narrow-boat' didn't fit the metre although having said that it has just occurred to me how it might be changed.
Peter
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Steve H
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Post by Steve H on Jul 2, 2006 9:17:59 GMT
Hi Joe, Yes, that is the cooker in picture, it doubled up as a stove and a heater for the cabin. Here is a picture of an old working boat, you can see the small cabin at the back, where the family lived, the bulk of the boat was covered and used to carry, coal and in some cases food. You will see in the picture there are two boats, the one at the front is called the 'Motor', and the one at the back is called the 'Butty'. The motor tows the butty, until the locks, where the two tie up together. Before engines, the Narrowboats were pulled by a horse. It is a subject that can take over your life, as it did mine for some ten years. I still miss the boating life now. Steve
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Post by postscript on Jul 2, 2006 10:52:51 GMT
Hi All.
To develop this theme further, Steve H I'm sure will correct me as I can't recall if one horse could draw two narrow boats (or perhaps the horses were paired), but when engines came in the boats worked in tandem, one carrying the engine the other boat giving the original living accommodation space by not having an engine and being towed..
The smallest width of the canal depended upon the traffic expected. The Grand Union canal locks were designed to take two boats alongside one another, the towed boat being brought alongside. Nowadays holiday craft operate as single units so share a lock to save water. Originally for most of the Grand union length it was possible to tie two boats alongside one another requiring only one steersman and 'paired boats' could in fact pass one another without difficulty.
Other 'side-shoot' canals only had locks built wide enough for one boat at a time.
What is rarely seen, but not that infrequently upon the Grand union are boats the width of two narrow-boats together. For our overseas friends with a month to spend in the UK, hiring a canal boat and meandering the 3,500+ miles of inland waterways is a very good way of seeing the real England: rural pre-industrial, 19th century industrial history but also incredible modern investment, such as the renovation of the Anderson boat lift (19th century creation) and the Falkirk Wheel, a multi-million pound investment to save the cost of renovating a stretch of Scottish canal containing some 32 locks. This is from memory. I'll go away and check my facts and see if I can find a picture of the Falkirk Wheel, which can raise and lower a canal boat in a cassion through over 100feet simultaneously using no more power than that needed to boil a domestic kettle.
Peter
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