Monthly Archives: April 2015

Aaahhh … Positano

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Positano from the seaRegular readers will know that Positano on Italy’s Amalfi Coast is one of our favourite places to visit. We’ve taken many picture of the view from the village looking out to sea and of the village from the beach, but it’s not often that we venture onto the water and see the village from the sea.

Good news though – it still looks great.

This picture is actually from a few years ago when we were returning from a day tour along the coast. Thanks to Gennaro and Salvatore’s boat hire for many great days on, and in, the water. As I look at the photo I can still hear Capitano Salvatore singing as we make our way home at the end of the day. Multo bene.

Echos of summer in Toscana

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After the PoolFor the northern summer of 2011 our life consisted of doing very little – but doing it very well. On the fine sunny days – pretty much every day between May and October – we spent time at our villa pool.

And after a hard afternoons sunning and swimming it was a short walk back to the cottage for a G &T, a beer and some time to recover from the stress of the day.

 

It’s been a while since a puppy shot has featured

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This morning young Bella quietly disappeared upstairs. Time passed and, as often happens, we suspected she was up to no good – but it turned out to be the opposite. She was curled up on the bed, on our pillows, asleep.

So not only was she rudely woken up but she then had a camera shoved in her face.  What does a girl have to do for a good sleep around our place?

Colourising old photos

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I’ve been playing around with colourising old black and white photographs using Photoshop. The technique is quite simple – if a little time consuming – and makes use of various blend modes to overlay colour on black and white while retaining the detail of the photograph.

Rather than trying to mimic a colour photo, the technique replicates the days when colour photos were simply black and white prints that had been hand coloured. Part of the fun is selecting the colours for clothes, backgrounds and the like. There is no reference colours so it’s all up to the imagination.

Below are a few examples of what can be done – using shots of various members of the family – well mainly me from many years ago.

 

Spot the problem

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356 stuckI was driving home Thursday night. It was a beautiful evening, the rain that had hung around all day had cleared. It was still and clear. I had just picked up the 356 from the Powerhaus where it had a new ignition switch fitted and it was running like a dream.

All was well with the world.

I was winding around the hills of Wellington on one of those narrow roads that is only wide enough for two cars when a bus approached from the other direction. A bus always looks big but on narrow Grafton Road it looked huge. The only option was for one of us to mount the pavement to let the other pass. As the bus approached I realised that was going to be me. But no problems, it was a lovely night, there was room for both of us.

I used a driveway ramp to get my left hands wheels up onto the pavement. All went we’ll until my front and rear wheels dropped into the gap between the driveway ramp and the pavement and I was stuck. Completely stuck – I couldn’t move forward or backward. No amount of power would free the wheels.

Bugger.

A call to the AA rapidly had a service vehicle on the scene. The bemused AA man admitted that this was a first for him but with a gentle pull the 356 was free and the journey home was completed without incident and only a slight denting of pride.