aliera

Considerations from last night:
1) they are defintely NOT dogs
2) one look from a wolf and you'll know you are facing a predator, and
3) can't wait to do it again.:)

Edit: what would have been a lovely portrait had I not 'cut' her ears..........


In case anybody wants it, desktop size is here.

...I have unintentionally grown tulips sporting the colours of AS Roma:




I bought the bulbs in December, so I had forgotten what was what. Quite chuffed of course, given that Roma is my home team. :)

Also, this is what Young Jack thinks of the weather:



Both of them have been flopping outside all over the place, and it would seem that 'too hot' is my fault too.

Spent most of the day doing this:




Also this:



and variations thereof.

I have joined Alamy, and I am working on the test shots to submit.
Have discovered that: a) I need proper lights; b) one of the lenses *does* suffer from a touch of softness; c) I have dust (or muck, or both) on the sensor AGAIN.
I know that they are very fussy about quality (and rightly so), and I am now having second thoughts about the quality I can produce. We'll see.

Had a most excellent day, met some fellow photographers from the AP site, and came back with a few keepers...

Black headed gulls:

( More under the cut. )

My tulips are growing..........:)




Although it's now the third (I think) year that I plant them, I still get such a kick out of the bulbs actually flowering (and I can see where the holes left by the blasted bulb-munching squirrels are).
I can't really remember what C and I planted - there should be some black ones too, I think. Can't wait for the lot to come out.:)
And - fed up with never finding the real thing in one piece (as it should be), and given that Mother still isn't back from abroad (so no food parcels)... I am making my own pancetta. Yep.
I have done the salting thing, and the pepper crust thing, and it took me two hours to get a contraption together so that the thing can hang to dry without touching anything (I decided not to post a picture given that I have vegetarian friends...).
Now we have to wait and hope that it will cure and not spoil. First ever time I have done this.

And - the postman has been delivering a deluge of election leaflets/letters. It's election time in two weeks back home, and I get to vote by post as a resident abroad.
Now, this has made me think and read and think some more.
While the 'it's all a pile of crap, the system's so corrupt it isn't funny, nepotism's rampant' argument hasn't changed in the last TWENTY years (I have been a voter for quite some time now), what's really scary is that a comedian (yes, a stand up guy) who has a big following in Italy is telling people NOT to vote because there is no 'lesser evil' among all the parties on offer.
...I remember having stand up rows with people about this when I was at Uni... If you don't vote, you abdicate your rights as a citizen, and have no blooming right to complain afterwards.
Unfortunately, the 'complain about things without any intention of making an effort' attitude is still alive and well in Italy. It's one of the things I definitely don't miss.
On the other hand - I have no idea who to vote for. I am so far removed from Italian politics that I might be living on Mars.
Hm.
One of the leaflets delivered belonged to the party founded by HRH Emanuele Fiiberto di Savoia, the equivalent of Prince Charles.
I went and had a look online, because I was curious... The guy was only allowed on Italian soil three years ago (I believe they changed the law), and is effectively Swiss (nothing against the Swiss... I promise! Erestor can attest to that). Like he actually knows the country or something.
So I listened to his election speech - this country of ours... Our glorious past... We have to pull together... the bright future that awaits us *if* we pull together...
One platitude after another, without any real meaning or message. Bless his cotton socks.
I guess it would be a legal way for him to be part of Italian life short of bringing back the royal family (the King had no real power, same as in the UK. I guess that having a royal family wouldn't really hurt).

Anyway... The search for the worthy candidate goes on. :)