Another test roll on the FED2, which established that the Industar 61 lens works fine - I was wondering if some fault with the lens, coupling with the rangefinder, perhaps, was causing the apparent focusing problems with the FED4.
I'm trying to find a 35mm camera that I can use all the time, my main go-anywhere do-anything sort of camera. The Holga's great fun, but I need something more precise. The FED4 is the main candidate because of its light meter and flash synch, but that roll of 1970s Efke came out blurred - maybe that was the film. So I need another test roll in that camera.
And/or I might take the FED2 to bits, see what's wrong with the synch, and paint the curtains thoroughly. The wee lugs for fitting a strap are another big advantage of the 2 over the 4 - I don't like those easy open cases. And I can live without a light meter.
I've bought a 40.5 - 52mm filter adaptor on eBay. 52mm filters are much cheaper and more plentiful than 40.5s.
Window-gazing, at one time or another
In the course of travel, you must have startled at
Some coign of true felicity. “Stay!” it beckoned,
“Here live your life out!” If you were simple-hearted
The village rose, perhaps, from a broad stream
Lined with alders and gold-flowering flags—
Hills, mills, hay-fields, orchards—and, plain to see,
The very house behind its mulberry-tree
Stood, by a miracle, untenanted!
Alas, you could not alight, found yourself jolted
Viciously on. Public conveyances
Are not amenable to casual halts
Except in sternly drawn emergencies—
Bandits, floods, landslides, earthquakes or the like—
Nor could you muster resolution enough
To shout “This is emergency, let me out!”
Rushing to grasp their brakes; so the whole scene
Withdrew forever. Once at the terminus
(As your internal mentor will have told you),
It would have been pure folly to engage
A private car, drive back, sue for possession.
Too far, too late:
Already bolder tenants were at the gate.
In Sainsbury's last night they had packets of rosemary cuttings (can you call them a sprig when they aren't tied together?) which had reached their sell-by and were going for 10p. So I bought two. The were about 7" long. I trimmed off the bottom 3" or so of leaves and put them in a glass of water overnight. And then this morning I dipped them in hormone and put them each in wee pots with 50/50 cactus compost and vermiculite, and then put them in the propagator. According to PFAF, they should root in about three weeks. There are a dozen cuttings, and I'll be pleased if half of them root. The only concern is that they are quite woody. We shall see.
And a search on google scholar unearthed this gem:
Cypresse Garlands are of great account at Funeralls amongst the gentiler sort, but Rosemary and Bayes are used by the Commons both at Funeralls and Weddings. They are all plants which fade not a good while after they are gathered and used (as I conceive) to intimate unto us, that the remembrance of the present solemnity might not dye presently, but be kept in minde for many yeares (Coles 1656, 64-5).The plan is to have two on each of the steps leading up to the front door. I've got five plants now that I started from seed
