Ploughman's Lunch
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The red kite appears to have missed the food and picked up a leaf!
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After a chase these kites glared at each other and seemed to attach each other in mid air.
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My Great Grandparents were Victorians, and after a dinner party, my Great Grandfather used to enjoy sitting with his male guests in the dining room, after the ladies withdrew to the drawing room, where they drank port, brandy and muscatel, smoked cigars and were treated to a slice of Stilton from a large cheese wheel. Stilton is an English cheese, produced in two varieties: blue, which has Penicillium roqueforti added to generate a characteristic smell and taste, and white, which does not. My Great Grandfather only ever ate Blue Stilton. Even on nights when they weren’t entertaining, my Great Grandfather used to indulge in a snifter or brandy and a slice of Blue Stilton in his study after dinner. I remember him doing so, and it is he that I have to thank for my love of Blue Stilton and other blue varieties of cheese to this day. He used to indulge me, in an effort to teach me about cheese and broaden my palate, by giving me a small slice to eat. The more time that passed, and the cheese wheel reduced in size, the stronger the taste and aroma of the cheese became!
The theme for "Looking Close on Friday" for the 13th of June is "cheese". Now, I know you are going to say that this should be a macro shot: and it is. What might surprise you is that everything in this photograph, from the flowers to the cigars, the bottle and glasses to the paintings on the wall, and even the cheese itself are all in fact 1:12 miniatures from my extensive collection which I use for photography purposes. Although not exact, this image very much reflects what the sideboard in my Great Grandparent’s dining room looked like when I was a child: very much of that Victorian and Edwardian era. My Great Grandfather was a cigarette smoker more than a cigar smoker, but he always had a box of them to offer to guests. Anyone who follows my photostream knows that I love and collect 1:12 size miniatures which I photograph in realistic scenes. The artifice of recreating in minute detail items in 1:12 scale always amazes me, and it’s amazing how the eye can be fooled. I hope you like my choice of this week’s theme, and that it makes you smile!
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
As the main focus of my image, the cheese wheel of Blue Stilton came from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. The knife, gilded white plates and stained wooden box of cigars also came from there.
The vase of red roses on the sideboard is beautifully made by hand by the Doll House Emporium.
All the brandy snifters on the silver tray in the background I have had since I was a teenager. I bought them from a high street stockist that specialised in dolls’ houses and doll house miniatures. Each glass is hand blown using real glass. The carafe on the same tray I bought at the same time. The tray was made for me from silver metal by my Grandfather, who was very clever and gifted with his hands. The 1:12 artisan bottle of brandy was made by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire, and is made from glass and the label is a copy of a real brandy label.
The paintings on the wall are from Amber’s Miniatures in America, and the flocked wallpaper is beautiful hand embossed paper given to me by a friend to use with my miniatures.
The Queen Anne sideboard I have had since I was six years old.
Milvus milvus
Stilton, Cambridgeshire
A great day at Stilton. Luckily I had the place to myself so could get some nice shots from the car window when the birds came down to feed!
If you look closely you'll see the bird examining what's in (or not in) its claw.
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They glare at each other . . .. then . . .
Thanks to everyone who takes time to view, fave or comment on my pictures.
Have a great weekend!
"When they took a young man into Tellson's London house, they hid him somewhere till he was old. They kept him in a dark place, like a cheese, until he had the full Tellson flavour and blue-mould upon him." - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire is famous for its Stilton cheese and its pork pies, but it also has a fabulous street market dating back to before the Domesday Book. Melton has been a market town for over 1,000 years. Recorded as Leicestershire's only market in the 1086 Domesday Survey, it is the third oldest market in England. Tuesday has been market day since royal approval was given in 1324.
Judy was keen to pay a visit and so we drove there from home, and bought several different cheeses, three pork pies, some fruit and several non-food bits and pieces. It was a very enjoyable visit.
It was a little while since I'd attempted to capture busy street scenes and I'd forgotten how difficult it can be, with continual "photo bombing" and various other problems. In the end I probably got half a dozen useable shots out of maybe fifty.
I took a walk today starting in the nearby town of Melton Mowbray, proudly known as Britain's "Rural Capital of Food" particularly famous for it's pork pies and stilton cheese.
I followed part of the Jubilee Way through the country park and along a disused railway track north to the beautiful village of Scalford.
It was just outside of the village that I startled this young Fox who ran away at great speed, then stopped awhile to look at me, before darting off again the moment I raised my camera.
This is a photo shot at full zoom.
It's not a common sight to see them in the daytime out in the fields but many are more commonly spotted in the suburbs from dusk onwards. Some have even become quite tame and will interact with humans to some extent.
On the return trip I followed the course of the river Eye, as the railway route had been hard going as it was so overgrown, beautifully so, with a profusion of Wild Geranium, Knapweed, Yarrow and Willowherb, also nettles and brambles!
Predictably, I had to cross through a large field with an equally large herd of Cows, including some who thought it'd be good sport to charge towards me the moment my back was turned.
Fortunately, I'm an old cowboy who knows their ways and how to encourage them to back off and give me safe passage.
This is a fraction of a second later. See also image 5708 uploaded earlier in the week.
Thanks to everyone who takes time to view, fave or comment on my pictures.
Have a great weekend!
I have never quite understood why one kite was chasing the other, but this carried on for a few minutes, with no clear outcome. Talons were out in quite a few of the shots I took.
Thanks to everyone who views, faves or comments on my pictures.