Keeping occupied

Apart from a walk which took me into town and back in the afternoon, I spent much of my spare time during the day scanning and editing photos. The negatives scan OK but many are over-exposed due to scanner default settings I haven't figured out how to change. However, I still use the last iteration of the Picasa 3 desktop app, and with a little tinkering I have learned something new about how to remedy the over-exposure issue and get good results. On the old Vista PC is a basic edition of Adobe Photoshop which still runs perfectly. It's been very useful in those situations where I have scanned a negative from the wrong side, and needed to flip the digital file to its mirror image.

Another film roll was of photos taken on a hike around Lac de Vallon in the Commune de Bellevaux, while the snow and ice were melting in April of the same year. The lake only dates from 1943 when an avalanche blocked the Torrent du Vallon flowing down the steep valley above. There was no social or economic reason to un-block it so the lake remains and the river flows out from underground down the valley. It's a bit out of the way, but I think we went there because I was interested in visiting a chapel above the lake dedicated in 1651, to honour St Bruno, 11th century founder of the Carthusian Order order of hermits. 

These solitary monks preferred to settle in remote places like alpine forests. Whether the chapel was ever a hermitage or served a group of solitaries in a place more than a day's walk from their main monastery isn't possible to say, but this dedication to St Bruno may have something to do with the positive influence of hermits on the lives of poor peasants who lived in the forest and looked after its trees and animals.

Still no news from UHW of an appointment, so I rang the surgeon's secretary, and left a message on her answering machine. It's worrying, but I guess that a blitz on scanning old film negatives will help keep me occupied some of the time.