Queen of the night.

Early this morning my friend Graham phoned me and told me about some cactus flowers that had opened over night in his garden and asked if I would like to photograph them. These flowers only open at night and only last for about 24 hours, so on my way to school I stopped at his house and took some photos.

Thanks Graham.

Click to enlarge.

Queen of the night flowers. These flowers have an extremely strong scent, almost overpowering.

A "group" photo.

In the heart of it's beauty.

I had to buy space on Google to be able to upload more photos, seems I've used up my free space. At $2.94 a month it's not to bad, but think how many millions are paying Google $2.94 a month.

First catch, no photo.

Yesterday afternoon late, after 5 pm, I walked down to the farm dam with a fly rod and some flies and tried my luck. The rod I took was a 9 foot, very fast action and stiff 3 weight, loaded with 4 weight line, casts like a dream. This might sound a bit light for bass, but  you can cast all day with it. The rod was a gift from my brother in law Grant who built it from MHX, carbon fibre blanks from Mudhole in the USA.

It was a warm summers evening with a thunderstorm approaching and the water was like glass. Bass were very active in the shallows among the reeds jumping and chasing insects. After about 40 minutes of fishing I got my first take, but lost it when the fish jumped. (Have to sharpen my hooks) Ten minutes later in almost the same spot a bass grabbed my size 14 muddlers minnow and dived, I gave it a second or two and set the hook. Well and truly hooked there was no escape. For a moment it felt like I'd hooked a trout, not the normal large mouth way of heading for some obstruction or water weeds, but a determined run for open water, and fighting right to the end.

After a minute or two I lifted a 2lb plus small mouth bass from the water, a sleek well conditioned fish. First small mouth I've caught in about 30 years. The rod did not have quite enough backbone to lift the fish so I had to grab the leader and pull it out. And guess what? the cameras memory card was lying at home instead of being in the camera, so no evidence. Not the first time I've forgotten it.

Sunsets.

On Saturday and Sunday I went out and photographed sunsets among other things.

Click to enlarge.

The photo above was taken on Saturday, late in the evening. The sun was going down just behind my left shoulder, with a few rays coming through beneath the low clouds. Those clouds were not just empty threats, during the night it started to rain and continued until 11 am the next day.

This photo, taken yesterday, looks as it could have been taken on Mars or some other strange planet, but this is how it looked. The sun had just gone behind a thick cloud-bank, creating an almost eclipse of the sun effect. The light was very erie with the cloud patterns and colour adding to the strangeness. In the foreground is a field that has been lying fallow for more than six months, with sparse, almost desert liked plant growth, also adding to the weird effect.

A more conventional sunset taken about thirty minutes later than the one above.

Natures bounty.

As a fly tyer I'm always on the look out for feather. On my walks I pick up any interesting feathers I see, especially next to farm ponds where ducks and other water birds gather. Several days ago I came across a whole pile of guinea fowl feathers, where some animal had made a kill. It must have happened the night before as the feathers were in perfect condition, bright and shiny.

Amazing that this black and white pattern camouflages the bird so well. The imagination runs wild thinking of the flies that can be tied with this lot, soft hackles and streamers. 

Detail of a single feather. The fluffy filoplume at the bottom part of the quill is great for tying nymphs with lots of "life". Dubbed onto a hook using the split thread method some great effects can be achieved.

Smokey. (aka Cattoo)

Smokey has made himself totally at home. Have you ever tried to write a post while a cat is walking over your laptops keyboard? Well that's what I'm trying to do now.

Click to enlarge.

Smokey on the back of my chair, playing King of the castle, daring the dogs to knock him off. The dogs have been very protective of "their" cat, chasing away the neighbours dogs if they dare come close. 

Sunset.

Walking home with the dogs late this evening I took this photo below. Now a days the camera means walking to the dogs, so when I take it out of the cupboard their joy knows no bounds.

Click to enlarge.

This photo above is as taken, no editing done to it.

I've also been experimenting with a photo editing program called "Photomatix", used to make HDR photos. (HDR high dynamic resolution). 

I took three photos of the scene above, one normal exposure, one under exposed by 2 stops, and one over exposed by 2 stops. Load the photo onto the program and you get the result below.

This is a trial version thus the Photomatix watermark on the photo. Cost of the licenced version is US $99, (+- R900 in SA money), next month is bonus month, (13th cheque) for me so maybe.

Meet Cattoo, (Cat2)

Well his real name is Smokey. Smokey and three siblings were found abandoned on a farm road by Hazel, a grade 5 teacher at our school, on her way to work this morning. The four of them were sitting huddled together in the middle of the road. Hazel stopped picked them up and brought them to school. Three of them were adopted almost immediately, with one still to find a home.

One wonders what type of person would do this to small helpless creatures. The Estcourt SPCA premises are only about 6 km away from where they were found, it would have been so very easy to leave them there. 

Now you can see why he is called Smokey, (the most beautiful blue-gray colour), and not Cattoo. Smokey made his first acquaintance with the vet this afternoon, for de-worming and first inoculations.

Smokey must be about 5 weeks old and fits nicely into the palm of my hand. Introduced him to the other animals, Cat had a good sniff, then yawned as if to say, "if you've seen one you've seen them all'" then he walked away. Lady, Tombi, and Sissy all gave him a good sniffing and going over. Bruno wasn't to sure about this funny little thing and is still holding back judgement till he has made up his mind.