During a rainy night cold air from the north arrived, and the temperature dropped to around zero, with rain threatening to turn to sleet in Cardiff, but not succeeding. There may be snow and ice in the Valleys but a city in a coastal plain, is usually several degrees warmer than surrounding areas. Clare went to her study group in Penarth. I worked on a video slide show for Thursday Morning Prayer the week after next. Ruth Honey has agreed to swap days with me from Advent onwards. The daily office lectionary cycle is spread over two years. Over the four years I have been contributing to Morning Prayer one day a week, this is the second time around for the complete cycle on a Thursday. Switching to a Wednesday will give me a fresh set of Psalms and Lessons to draw from for biblical reflection and leading prayer for the next two years.
I went to Tesco's to buy some chicken to cook for lunch. I intended to cook lentils but the jar contained no more than a quarter of what I needed, which I cooked with onions anyway. It turned out to be enough for Clare along with the veggies I cooked as it turned out, but I needed a small portion of chicken as well.
Clare had a flute lesson after lunch. I went to the Pontcanna Street Co-op for lentils and a few other things added to the list, all of which I bought, apart from lentils which were not in stock. It was bitterly cold and worse with the drizzle of rain. I changed my top coat for the long fleece lined hooded coat that I bought last year, then I went out again to complete my daily step quota before dark. Street lights were just coming on as I got home. Snow and ice in November doesn't often happen. It's still a month until winter equinox after all.
I had supper on my own as Clare went out to meditation group. Then an hour scanning photos again, this time a wallet of pictures from our 1987 Teneriffe package holiday. I scanned eight negatives from this lot two months ago which got mixed up with others. I now have thirty, taken with my Praktica SLR, the full roll of film. A few negatives show signs of water damage at the point they were taken, not on the ones I scanned, but probably when the film was still in the camera. Perhaps a little moisture crept in when I was changing the prime lens for a zoom lens I also had. Not that it matters. It's strange how little I remember in detail of that holiday, our first ever in Spain.
Most of the images produced are clean and sharp, and some are disappointing as the film was inadequate in low light. Digital editing can improve some, but it has its limits if a scanned picture is extremely over or under-exposed. I still have the Praktica, but haven't used it since 2001 when I bought my first digital camera. Film is expensive, so I'm not that keen to buy a roll to see if it still works. Can I even remember how to use it? Does its shutter stick from time to time?
Bed time already.
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