At about 15:40 today, Ratcliffe on Soar Power Station disconnected its generators from the grid for the last time.
The UK's power grid is now coal-free.
It's really weird to know that this is it; never again will we see these chimneys and cooling towers releasing their plumes across the landscape.
The first bud has appeared on my Christmas cactus.
It doesn't feel late enough in the year to be seeing this yet, but time is most definitely ticking on!
A backup image again today. The title bears little resemblance to the photo, but is relevant to the day.
I spent many hours upgrading a 3D printer for a chap I met online through one of the 3D printing communities. As a result, no photos happened.
Inspired by a recent post by @_snappiness_, I retrieved my old PowerShot S95 from a family member who was no longer using it.
A good clean, a quick trip to Amazon for a new battery, and it's back in action again.
I always really loved this little camera, and I'm enjoying getting reacquainted with it again.
I think it still holds its own, even today, 14 years after it was released.
It's been a fairly busy one today, and the only photos I took were a couple of boring technical photos at work, and a few snapshots on my phone of Bailey being cute.
Here's a backup image from a couple of weeks ago.
So, it seems that my prognostications about my fuchsia having a second go weren't far wrong. It's looking quite a bit better than when I bought it.
Those little jewels of raindrops on it just set it off nicely, I thought.
A couple more after the jump.
If I was any kind of made-up-ologist, I suppose "randomologist" might be the most fitting!
Enough of the incoherent babbling, anyway; the main pic here is a backup one, taken a couple of days ago, but the second one (after the jump) is from today.
I'm not entirely happy with the second pic, but I'm posting it because an imperfect attempt is usually more valuable than an abandoned one...
One year on. I'm sometimes amazed that I'm still going at all.
Good family, good friends, and good memories are strong medicine.
You know who you are. Thank you ❤️.
This mug is part of the first present Lucy gave me. I'm picky about mugs, but she really nailed it - these are perfect.
The rain on my window caught my eye this morning, so I dug my old Sigma 400mm out to throw the background strongly out of focus.
A video after the jump.
We had one of the best thunderstorms I've experienced in the UK tonight.
Hopefully nobody ended up flooded or zapped!
My Fuchsia has come back for a second go, it seems.
I'm not complaining.
One more after the jump.
Went out for a wander round one of the local parks this evening because the weather and light were nice.
Quite pleasant after a busy day.
A couple more after the jump.
This is a 5x macro shot of the fracture surface of an M4 (4mm or 5/32" diameter) screw that snapped on me while I was working today.
MP-E 65mm at 5x magnification, Godox MF12 flashes. Stacked in Helicon Focus.
It's interesting how large the source files for stacked images end up being. This one was made up of 141 individual shots, totalling almost 4GB.
Big thing far away, small thing not so far away...
I had a trial flying lesson today - the first time I've operated a real aircraft.
Exciting and interesting in equal measure.
I have a reasonable handle on the basic principles of flight both from general interest and from doing my A2 drone certification, but putting it into practise on a real aircraft is quite a different kettle of fish.
This is the aircraft I flew today, on the flight before mine - my father-in-law was behind the controls here, having his first flight too.
We had a great instructor, who clearly loves everything about flying - he's a NATO pilot for work, and instructs for fun at the weekend.
Not bitter, not ending, that's just the name of this bit of the rope!
Playing with a mini smoke machine...
Quite fun.
A backup image today, taken a few evenings ago.
I always thought the inscription "vivit post funera virtus", above the central gate was specifically because this structure is a war memorial, but from further reading, it actually turns out to be Nottingham's motto.
Virtue outlives death. Not a bad sentiment, I think.
On a very personal note, good memories of this riverside outlive death too.
An impromptu dog walk with my friend before dinner this evening.
The moon was looking rather nice.
I seem to have reverted to my default setting of "use the 70-200mm for everything" again...
One more after the jump.
The basil that was left over from this evening's pizza...
A couple more after the jump.
Fairly late in the year to see a poppy flourishing so well; this was in a field of tall maize plants, so I suppose it has been quite well sheltered.
There were a few around, and they were catching the evening sun beautifully.
My brain is not functioning after doing battle with my dysfunctional laptop all day!
A good afternoon with the dogs, followed by a beautiful sunset.
Not complaining, on this particular occasion.
One more after the jump
Lots of signs of the year moving on into autumn now...
Or something similar.
I took a wander out with my parents this evening. The nights are really drawing in now, it feels odd to see the sunset happening before 20:00 already.
I had hoped to catch some nice sunset light, but it seems that it wasn't to be tonight.
I did have some misgivings about the quality of this lens at one point, but it is proving to be quite versatile and I'm much happier with it now. I think I was just comparing it against a sharp prime and expecting the improbable!
One more after the jump
This is a 3x Macro with the MP-E 65mm macro lens.
It's made up of 60 shots taken with the WeMacro focus rail, and stacked with Helicon Focus.
I used my Godox MF12 macro flashes, which seem to have helped cure the motion blur issues I experienced when I first started shooting stacks with this lens.
An oddity, probably of interest to no-one but myself: I have thought for years that this confection was a "Malteaser". It was only when I ran a spell check on this post that I realised my error, and it is in fact a "Malteser". 🤷♂️
