… evening today.
And what first drew my attention to it was the sunlight reflecting off the windows at Agon-Coutainville, about 30 kilometres away across the bay.
And this photo was taken with the 18-105mm lens, and hand-held too. It’s not come out too badly either. And in case you are wondering, the Nikon D3000 camera.
Here’s a similar photo taken at lunchtime with the Nikon D3000 and the 70-300mm zoom\telephoto lens.
After its exertions last night when the storm whipped the set-up off the concrete bunker, I gave it a good going-over this morning to see what the damage might be.
And much to my surprise, not only is there no visible damage, everything seems to work just as it is supposed to. It must be more robust than I was expecting – and certainly more robust than the old Nikon D5000
So while you admire a few more cropped and enlarged photos of the coast out past Agon-Coutainville (and if you think that they are blurred, they are cropped and enlarged segments out of a photo taken at a distance of 30kms), I can tell you a little about the morning.
Once again, the body clock works in spades as there I was, wide awake at 05:59 precisely (because I checked). One minute before the alarm was due to go off.
But badger that for a game of soldiers. I’d decided to have an extended break (to reimburse myself for my early Sunday), turned over and went back to sleep.
10:25 is a much more respectable time to haul myself out of the stinking pit.
And a breakfast at 11:15 is a very bourgeois way of starting the day in a relaxed and leisurely fashion.
All of this sleep had given me plenty of time to go off on a nocturnal ramble or two. And much to my surprise I could remember quite a lot of it, although I’m sure that there was so much more to be going on with.
First off, I’d been on my holidays again and we had had a delay, just like when we were off to the Arctic. There were 50 of us and we were being taken around to some temporary accommodation that had been found for us. And it ended up that we were being lodged in different log cabin or garden sheds, depending upon the class of accommodation that we had booked on the holiday. I trailed along behind everyone else who was given some higher-class cabins and ended up in a cheap garden shed. Seeing as it was in a warehouse it wasn’t too bad and I wasn’t too disappointed.
This bore quite a resemblance to a conversation that I had the other night with Alison, as well as another reminiscence about my legendary trip to the Far North.
Later on, I was doing my Sherlock Holmes impressions back in Victorian times, with my sidekick and a police inspector. We were trying to work out how someone had been shot and murdered in a house where the only other occupant of the house was visibly not involved with anything. It was a house in some kind of upmarket terrace with front gardens with brick walls and gateposts with ornamental pillars. It suddenly occurred to me how it happened and I went off to rig up a system to prove my point. A shotgun wired to the door with a time delay worked by a set of pulleys would blast anyone coming through the doorway a couple of seconds after opening the front door.
And sometime during the night Nerina put in an appearance. It’s a long time since she’s come to visit me, isn’t it?
And while you admire the photo of the beach at Donville-les-Bains and the miserable place where I looked at an apartment, then this morning (or what was left of it) I attacked a few more of the outstanding photographs.
This marathon session, which took me almost right up until tea-time (with a few interruptions) means that I’m now up to date as far back as a week ago.
You can see the efforts by going here and working forward.
With having had a late start this morning, I ended up having a rather late lunch.
And it was such a beautiful afternoon that I made my butties and went out to sit on my wall overlooking the harbour.
No lizards unfortunately – I think that they have gone into hibernation – but there were lots of other things about.
One of the Ile de Chausey ferries was leaving harbour and heading off out to sea.
Not to the island by the look of things, but probably a five-bob trip around the bay for sightseers – unless it’s a private charter because it didn’t seem to be going along any route that I recognised.
But this was when I tried out the zoom/telephoto lens to check that it was working. That’s miles out into the bay near Jullouville
I had a few more goes with the zoom/telephoto lens to make sure that it wasn’t just a one-off success.
Thats the Boulevard des Amiraux Granvillais with the climb up to the Roche Gauthier and the blocks of flats up on the skyline.
There doesn’t seem to be much wrong with this photograph
And to underline everything, round on the other side of the Pointe du Roc, the weather was even clearer.
Jersey stood out clearer than I have ever seen it and so I took a photo of the island with the zoom/telephone lens.
Hand-held again – no tripod. And I cropped out a couple of small sections of the photos and enlarged them to see what kind of results they would give.
And if you remember from the other day when I took a few photographs of St Helier and enlarged them, then if anything these today have come out even better than those previously.
St Helier has certainly come out more clearly and more distinctly than it ever has done before.
And in case you have forgotten, that’s about 54 kilometres away from where I’m standing.
Ingrid rang me up this afternoon and we had quite a lengthy chat. So much so that it was rather late when I went for my afternoon walk.
At lunchtime someone had asked me the directions to an exhibition on the Granville soldiers in World War I
I didn’t know where it was but I made a few unofficial enquiries and managed to track it down – in the public rooms at the back here.
And one of the things that impressed me – or should I say “depressed” me was the fact while there were those who were honoured as being tué à l’ennemie, those who died of illness or disease in the army were treated less honourably, and those who were taken prisoner were treated little better than deserters.
One prisoner who escaped and made his way back to his unit via the Netherlands and the UK was treated as a spy or collaborator.
By now, it was quite late, and as I went outside I noticed the crowds gazing out to sea in the direction of the Ile de Chausey.
We were having yet another beautiful sunset this evening. The good day was drawing to a perfect climax. It’s been quite a while since we’ve had such a nice evening.
Apart from that, there wasn’t much else going on and I completed my walk without any further interruption.
Tea was a vegan burger with vegetables, and then I went off for a walk around the headland.
And what a beautiful evening it was too. Not a cloud in the sky, but thousands of stars clearly visible. Just like back in the Auvergne.
So I’ll leave you with a few more photos. I’m off to bed.
One of the ferries for the Ile de Chausey
Canoeing in the sea off the Pointe du Roc
A cropped and enlarged section from a previous photo
A cropped and enlarged section from a previous photo showing Breville sur Mer
A bit more of a beautiful sunset
