Amsterdam Russ

One offered on here two days ago... No idea if still available or not.

Have to admit that I'd not heard of it before. According to Google Maps, it's about 2-2.5 hours away from us by public transport (we don't have a car and it's a bit too far for cycling!). Looks a very interesting place - I'll do some reading up and find out more. Thanks for the tip.

Two photos taken at visitor attractions within the woods of Amsterdam. One (you'd never guess) is the goat farm, where they also make cheese and offer cuts of goat, lamb, etc. The other is the Boerderij Meerzicht (Lake view farm), which we affectionally call the pancake house because, well, you can guess. The peacocks and hens are there partly as an attraction and partly as an alarm system for those dark woodland nights and for during the closed season. This post also marks the 1,000 post in this long-lived thread - a remarkable achievement. Thanks to everyone for posting and for providing such must-read entertainment and countless wonderful photos. More please…

I'm pretty certain it's a record that featured on one of the very first Pat Brady sales cassettes. That's where I heard it first, anyway.

Prices in dollars, I presume :-)

Again, more house martins over Aalsmeer town. I'm guessing these are just passing through - or they're local birds extending their hunting range. Either way, nice to see, even if they were in a rain-soaked sky.

Razorbill - taken on the Isle of May in Scotland a couple of years back. And I'm wondering if that's a kittiwake blurred in the background.

And caught fish into the bargain! I haven't been fishing since I was a kid and rarely caught anything more than a few tiddlers, usually roach. Like a lot of people, I really enjoyed just being there, sat quietly and enjoying nature - and especially so early evenings when the light softens and turns increasingly golden. Happy days

Saw three late last night, and not long ago spied a house martin out the front windows. The house martin is quite unusual as hardly any were to be seen from home earlier in the summer. This appears to be swift territory with the swallows and martins - I'm guessing - probably located themselves near the lake that's just behind us.

See...

Not a cloud in the sky here (sitting on the balcony with a bottle of rose)!

Maybe so, Steve, but I still haven't seen one

Never yet seen an osprey! There was a report of a sighting locally a couple of years ago; it was spotted in one of the marshland parks. I always remember Dad taking us as kids to the Loch Garten RSPB reserve after reports of a sighting (we lived in Scotland at that time). All we saw was an empty nest. Other birds I've yet to see here in the Netherlands are owls. If I cycle my way to and from the monthly Amsterdam Soul Club, I often hear them very clearly late at night on the way there and early in the morning on the way home, but I've yet to spot one. One day, hopefully.

Seen Hoopoes a couple of times - first time was in the Beachy Head area when I was a kid. That would have been 35+ years ago. Seeing it was a real thrill as it was so unexpected. Also saw one on the Greek island of Lesvos on our last holiday. Marvellous birds!

Wooah there. Hold your horses... The swifts may be making an early departure, but that doesn't mean summer's over just yet. It's only the 2nd of August. We had a BBQ in the Amsterdam woods last night, and when we got home sat on the balcony til around midnight. Just come in from the balcony a couple of minutes ago (10:30pm local time). Summer is very much still here! That said, I did notice the absence of swifts mid-week. There were a few still around, mainly making their presence known at dusk, but tonight the skies were silent. For those who may be missing them already, here's a couple of pics I took while on holiday. The one of the swift over the water isn't anywhere near as sharp as it could have been, but I do like the effect of the sea in the background. Long live summer!

The original is still the greatest? Not every time, Mr Gray...

Same for me...

Well, I finally watched it last night and have to say that I think it was very well done. Congrats to all those involved. Very clearly, the purpose of the show was to educate and entertain, and provide the general public with an overview of the early days and heydays of the scene. And in this it succeeded. The participants had much to add that was relevant to the context in which they were speaking - even Tony Blackburn, whose contributions highlighted the commercialisation of a movement that went from relative obscurity to full public spotlight. Having said that, of little worth (for me) was Lisa Stansfield. However, at the end of the day she's someone with whom an unconnected audience can identify, so I can see why she was included. Marc Almond highlighted how Northern Soul extended its influence culturally to the degree that it could provide musical fodder for the masses (and even make Top of the Pops, much to Ian Levine's chagrin based on his anti-TOTP comments throughout the programme). I think that what people on the scene forget is that there is no collective consciousness among TV producers - nor the general public - so they're not seeing this in the context of other documentaries that have come before. Indeed, some of those documentaries will have aired before the people making this programme were even born. Only people here will be comparing this documentary to previous ones. It's success therefore, should be measured on whether it educated and entertained as a stand-alone, one-off show. In my view it succeeded very well. That said, I do agree with the consensus of opinion that some exploration of the "post-Wigan" years (i.e., the 80s to the present day) should have been done. The programme did state that the scene continued, but the degree to which it did wasn't made clear at all. If any viewers gave this aspect a moment's thought at all, they probably would have concluded that it contracted in size and went back underground. An additional oversight for me was any meaningful contribution from the young people who - apparently - have given the scene the kiss of life. If that's the case then the lack of such input makes the programme more of a historical "look back" than a review of where the scene came from, where it is now headed, and all the bits in between. Again though, I thought it was a success.

Also available to watch/download on YouTube as a single file... https://youtu.be/-krEap_FGco

Another uptempo number from Mahalia...

Been a fave for years. I do love a good bit of Gospel and especially this type of style that's a mix of Jubilee and spiritual R&B. This is a great performance - and what an atmospheric set! Also available on a 45 with French and Dutch pic sleeves out there to be found.

This site (which I've never heard of) appears to have them in stock... https://www.gak.co.uk/en/numark-dust-cover-for-turntables/18669 Sorry, false alert. Just seen the small print that says the item is discontinued...

Oh, his practical photography advice is still great. No doubts about it. It's his opinions as an 'independent reviewer' of camera equipment that I'm cynical about. Bearing in mind his dominance in the search engines for anything Nikon-related, he's not going to make much revenue telling people that the standard Nikon kit lens - or whatever - is actually crap.

Yes, I've been in and out of Ken Rockwell's site since I first got a Nikon - a D40 - some years back. Sadly he's become too commercially oriented with his advice and likes - recommends - absolutely everything. And links to retailers are obviously placed in every review at every opportunity. Worse - he still claims poverty and the need for donations to support the "free" service he's offering!

Thanks, Steve. I bought a field guide for the camera and am working my way through that slowly but surely. It's much better than wading through Nikon's own manuals. I've already encountered some things that I don't like, all of which I hope I can get a better understanding of so that I can either make better use of what they do, or avoid them. The first one - and initially I thought there was a fault with the camera - is something called "ISO sensitivity setting". To all intents and purposes it appears to be an override for manual ISO settings. I was trying to get some underexposed landscape sunset shots and even though I had ISO on a manual setting, through the viewfinder it said auto - and it was impossible to under expose the shot as the ISO kept changing to an optimum level based on my aperture and shutter speed. Eventually I found the function for that in the menu and turned it off. Still need to read up on it and see what it actually does. It must serve some useful purpose. Another thing is that the camera sensor seems to be automatically over exposing shots by something like half a stop. And the colour seems to have a light but noticeable blue cast - as if white balance is set for fluorescent light. White balance and everything else can be modified using Camera RAW software settings when the pics have been uploaded to the computer, of course, but I'm keen to know if there is an in-camera setting that's causing the blue tinge - I hope so. All an adventure, I guess, but I'd much prefer to be at the destination rather than on the 'voyage of discovery' - if you know what I mean.