Climb, my pretty. Climb!

Following on from yesterday’s post. We’ve not seen or heard from the cat for a while now, but I snapped this one when it was trying to climb the fence to get out of the garden. It tried numerous times to jump up the fence, and failed miserable every time. The picture above was his best attempt, and he jumped up, dug in the claws, and slowly slipped back down. It was very amusing to watch before he finally jumped up and scooted off.

Photography Details: Nikon D40. Focal length 55 mm, ISO-640, exp: 1/60 sec. F-stop f/5.6

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What You Lookin' At...

I can't say I've ever been a huge fan of the everyday household cat. For me, the fascination has always been with the larger, more exotic cats of the world, but when this little thing strayed into our back garden a few days ago I couldn't resist. Grabbing a few prawns, being a fish I thought it'd go nuts for it, but no... Bowl of milk and some homemade toys made of string and golden chocolate wrapper and he was ours for an hour and a half. So grabbing my camera I started snapping away...

Trojan Staircase

Firstly, apologies for anyone who received a garbled email this morning. I’ve had a look into it and hopefully it’ll be fixed for the next one!

Today’s post is in relation to yesterday post. The gargoyle plant pot lies on the right of the staircase as you walk up, and can be seen just beyond the green railing..

Royalty and many other famous people have stayed at the mansion at the centre of the park. The rooms are lavishly decorated and the landscaped gardens take full advantage of the spectacular views of Romney Marsh.

For Rebecca...

Today’s post is dedicated to Rebecca, who successfully guessed what the background was in the Everyday Household Objects Series. In case you missed the answer it’s a Canon Pixma IP4000 printer, which produces fantastic photograph printouts.

Happy Australia Day!

On 13 May 1787, a fleet of 11 ships, which came to be known as the First Fleet, was sent by the British Admiralty from England to Australia. Under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, the fleet sought to establish a penal colony at Botany Bay on the coast of New South Wales, which had been explored by Captain James Cook in 1770. The settlement was seen as necessary because of the loss of the colonies in North America.

Chinese New Year - Year of The Ox

According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian or "Year" in Chinese. Nian would come on the first day of New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, the Nian never came to the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk. The Nian became Hongjun Laozu's mount.

Dr. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary's Descendant

Photograph /fṓtə graaf, gràf/ n. picture produced with a camera an image produced on light-sensitive film or array inside a camera, especially a print or slide made from the developed film or from a digitized array image, or a reproduction in a newspaper, magazine, or book ▪ v. (-graphs, -graphing, -graphed) 1. vti take a photograph of sb or sth to produce an image of sth by pointing a camera at it and allowing light briefly to fall on the film inside 2. vi. be photographed with a particular result to be able to be photographed, or to have a particular quality or appearance in a photograph ◦ Scenes like this photograph best in bright sunlight. [Mid-19thC]

Mini Ukulele Fridge Magnet

Ok, so this is probably not what most people have in their houses, but it’s in mine and it’s a fridge magnet so its good enough for me to enter it in as number five of the everyday household objects series.

The ukulele is commonly associated with music from Hawai‘i, where the name roughly translates as "jumping flea". According to Queen Lili'uokalani, the last Hawaiian monarch, the name means “the gift that came here”, from the Hawaiian words “uku” (gift or reward) and “lele” (to come).

The Royal Mint

Part four of the everyday household objects.


Today’s instalment is two one pound coins. The origins of sterling lie in the reign of King Offa of Mercia, who introduced the silver penny. It copied the denarius of the new currency system of Charlemagne's Frankish Empire. As in the Carolingian system, 240 pennies weighed 1 pound (corresponding to Charlemagne's libra), with the shilling corresponding to Charlemagne's solidus and equal to 12d. At the time of the penny's introduction, it weighed 22.5 troy grains of fine silver (30 tower grains; about 1.5 grams), indicating that the Mercian pound weighed 5,400 troy grains (the Mercian pound became the basis of the tower pound, which weighed 5,400 troy grains, equivalent to 7,200 tower grains). At this time, the name sterling had yet to be acquired. The penny swiftly spread throughout the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and became the standard coin of what was to become England.

Port Cork

Part three of the everyday household objects. Today’s image comes in the form of a cork from a rather nice bottle of port.

As late as the mid 1600s, French vintners did not use cork stoppers, using oil-soaked rags stuffed into the necks of bottles instead.

Natural cork closures are used for about 80% of the 20 billion bottles of wine produced each year. After a decline in use as wine-stoppers due to the increase in the use of cheaper synthetic alternatives, cork wine-stoppers are making a comeback and currently represent approximately 60% of wine-stoppers today.

The World Would Be A Poorer Place Without Tea

Hopefully the computer problems seem to be sorted now. I think I've identified the problem as Interner Explorer 8, but I might be wrong. It seemed to keep freezing my computer. I'm using Google Chrome now and Mozilla Firefox and system stability seems to have greatly improved. How odd. On the illness front, I'm still bunged up with man-flu, but last time I had this it turned out to be glandular fever. Anyhoo, over to the photograph.

Computer problems

Apologies for the break in posts, I've been quite ill, and having computer problems! Hopefully I'll get the next posts up soon!

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Happy St Knut's Day

St. Knut's Day is a holiday celebrated in Sweden and Finland on January 13. Although King Knut has been suggested to originate from Denmark, it is not a national holiday in that country. King Knut, or more commonly, Canute IV of Denmark, who ruled Denmark from 1080 - 1086 and who claimed the throne of England, is honoured as a saint for his virtue and generosity. He declared that Christmas should be celebrated for twenty days, officially ending the season on 13 January. The days between Christmas and Saint Knut's Day are filled with celebrations. Christmas trees are taken down on St. Knut's Day, and the candies and cookies that decorated the tree are eaten.

St Knut's feast day is recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as being on 19 January.


References
The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Ed David High Farmer. Oxford University Press, 2004. See the entry on St Canute.


Photograph Details: Nikon D40. Focal Length: 20mm, exposure 1/60 sec, ISO-200 F-stop f/3.8

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Happy Seijin Shiki Part 2!

The answer to yesterday's connundrum - He's copying his papa!

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Happy Seijin Shiki !

Today is the second Monday of January. Just another normal day for most of the world, but for the Japanese, it is know as 成人式 (seijin shiki) - or coming-of-age day. Many cultures all around the globe have some form of recognition when someone becomes an adult. Most commonly, they are in the form of legal rights when an adolescent turns from a minor into an adult.

For example it allows individuals the right to vote, drink, gamble, get married without parental consent (although this is 16 in Scotland), and sign contracts. Up until 1st October 2007 the legal age for smoking in England was 16, but in most European countries the age is 18.

Stained Glass

The sight of coloured bottles are commonplace in society today. Most wine bottles are green (as is this one), some ale bottles are brown, and Bombay Saffire bottles are stained blue. In fact you can stain glass almost any colour you want and there are various methods which can be employed to achieve this but where has it come from?

Coloured glass has been produced since ancient times. Both the Egyptians and the Romans excelled at the manufacture of small coloured glass objects. The British Museum holds two of the finest Roman pieces, the Lycurgus Cup, which is a murky mustard colour but glows purple-red to transmitted light, and the Portland vase which is midnight blue, with a carved white overlay.

I'm a fermata - Hold me...

Much of the most widely admired piano repertoire, for example, that of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, was composed for a type of instrument that is rather different from the modern instruments on which this music is normally performed today. Even the music of the Romantics, including Liszt, Chopin, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms, was written for pianos substantially different from ours.

The Grand

Part one of two of my first two part special. The first one will feature a grand piano made by Danish manufacturer Herm: N. Petersen & Son. The date of manufacture is not known, nor are any further details, so this post will be about the history of pianos.

The invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Prince Ferdinand de Medici as the Keeper of the Instruments. He was an expert harpsichord maker and was well acquainted with the previous body of knowledge on stringed keyboard instruments. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698. The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s.Erlich, Cyril (May 1990). The Piano: A History. Oxford University Press, USA; Revised edition . ISBN 0198161719.

New Look

Welcome to the new look RupertStClair Photography. A new year is upon us, and so is a new design! After much fiddling and tinkling, this new layout was eventually picked. I hope you like it, and please leave feedback in the comments below.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

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