Planting, sort of …

At the moment the weather is starting to improve here. We’re getting fairly tolerable daytime temperatures, although we are still getting a few frosty mornings. There are buds on the trees, a few small leaves and even, here and there, a little blossom. I’m not sure if Spring has yet sprung but it definitely seems […]

Smena 35 with Street Candy Mountain 100

Here we have one of the later camera’s from the Soviet line of Smenas, which all had the T-43 lens. It’s a zone focus camera with shutter speeds from bulb to 1/250 and adjustable apertures from 4 to 16. The body is plastic but once loaded it feels comfortable in the hand, like a good […]

Thieves, and work at the allotment

So I went to the allotment today and found I’d had a visitor. A thieving bastard of a visitor, unfortunately. They broke open the tool trunk, you can see the broken bit below. Didn’t look like they took much, if anything. One of the benefits of having battered second hand tools I guess. The other […]

Lomography La Sardina with Rollei RPX400

So I’ve had the La Sardina for a while, it’s The Guvnor special edition if I remember rightly. As with most Lomography cameras it is pretty much plastic throughout. Even loaded with film this doesn’t feel weighty in the hand and it fits in a coat pocket easily enough. it has two focus settings and […]

Prinz Candide Model 400 with Agfa APX 400 (plus re-rolling into a 126 cartridge)

126 film is a cartridge film format that’s been gone for a while. Gone, but not dead. Well, not exactly alive either. Somewhere in between. So, not dead and not alive. More . . . undead . . . yes, it’s a zombie format. You can’t buy new 126 film or, if you can, I […]

Kamera Baukasten (Vecco VC-20) with Agfa Vista 200

The Vecco VC-20 is a camera you build from a kit, which came free with a film box from Analogue Wonderland. Apart from a couple of springs it is entirely plastic, including the lens. According to one site I saw online it takes 10 minutes to assemble and a ten year-old can do it. That […]

More raised beds

As part of the ongoing process of clearing the allotment I decided to set up a couple of the other raised beds left by the previous owner. I picked two in reasonable condition and started clearing weeds. Then I found a use for all the packaging accumulated over the Christmas present buying marathon of November […]

Actual things growing at the allotment!

There are actual plants growing on the allotment, plants that aren’t weeds! Some of the garlic and onions I planted have actually sprouted, that’s a pleasant surprise.

Tools and the allotment

All quiet for a bit, right? Well, I haven’t posted but things have been busy – busy at work, busy with Christmas and everything else – so not many posts recently. So, on to tools. Obviously, I have read all the recommendations on other blogs and in books and come to a simple conclusion. They […]

Clearing the allotment – part 2.

More of the same – strimming, followed by covering with tarpaulin (or weed control fabric. Lots of covering up. By now I’ve uncovered one of the raised beds left by the previous allotment holder. Once again, out with the strimmer. Then I lined the inside with cardboard ad covered that with weed control fabric. Next […]