Author Archives: Lewis Bates

Home Brew Beer

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One of my hobbies I don’t normally talk about is brewing my own beer and lager. Normally I place the beer in my barrels but as the barrels are all full of wine I bottled the last batches, I had some fun designing my own labels in Photoshop.

The lager kit I bought from Bigger Jugs proved to be the best lager I have made for some years. The bottle capper proved to be a great investment, making the job much easier. The new no rinse sterilizer is also a boon.

My wine brews are going well, this year has seen a huge crop of Gooseberries, Damsons and Grapes. Some 50 + odd gallons so far.

Group Adverts on Facebook

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Here are a few of the active group advert posts placed on your Facebook page, Chard & Ilminster in the past months.
We had received a good response, with many seeing our adverts, and I am sure attracting potential new members. These have been seen by hundreds of people in the past few months. I welcome new ideas on portraying to potential members just what we do. For an example, the Natural History post was seen by 121 in just a few days. This is free advertising, and we should do more to utilise it to get our message out.

U3A Social Cycling at Ilminster

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Our group met for a coffee at Riverside Cafe Ilminster. This proved to be a good venue for cyclist.

Chaffcombe Art Carving

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Dead Tree Gives Joy

A tree died in public land adjoining our church, so our local artist John who also attends to the land has carved the dead tree into a remarkable work of art for all to enjoy giving life to death. I think this is super! and would love to see it decorated by local children with fairy lights at Christmas time! A great gift to the community indeed.

Warm Colours

Here are some pictures of it, I think you will agree it is very good. The lines and curves remind me of early Christian Celtic art when the tree is lit by the sunlight it glows with a warm golden colour and is certainly enhances the approach to the church.

Sadly one or two locals consider it pagan and demand it be removed  and have even removed images of it from  the Social Media Facebook page so denying others to make a judgement….so if you want to see it get down to Chaffcombe soon.  What do you think?

 

More images of the artists work can be seen on this link Previous Carvings in Chaffcombe area.

 

 

 

Macro at Seaton Wetlands

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I went to the Wetlands at Seaton with the express intention of getting some macro shots of the insects there.
I was suprised at the lack of bees but easily found subjects to populate the Facebook Page.

The Shellduck ducklings were on show, see them in another post here.

 

 

 

Little Egret Seaton Wetlands

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Little Egret at Seaton Wetlands

Garden Bees

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Time spent in the garden rewarding for bumble bees but no sign of any Mason bees.

Cycling

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Cycled today. The field scene at Cricket Malerbie looked good at the time with the bright sunlight and menacing clouds,  but not sure now. Used a Nikon P530 went faulty just out of guarantee will not zoom properly. Will not buy Nikon again, its a cheap camera (£230) but I do expect stuff to last more that 24 months.

Rambling & Photography

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South Somerset Ramblers

Rambling and photography just does not mix well unless you are happy to take the odd snap as the rest of the group leave you whilst you try to capture a good pic.

On two occasions I lost the group and did eventually catch up with them as I gasped for air running.

I now use only a compact when walking and if the scene is really good I return with a tripod and DSLR.

This image is just 184kb to display on web.Taken when out with South Somerset Ramblers

Image of Bluebells on a walk

Bluebells on a walk

 

The Irish Stamp

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One of my images taken in my garden of a blackbird in flight was chosen by stamp designers to adorn the centenary issue stamp commemorating Francis Ledwidge death in the first world war. The issuing date is 21 July 2017.

 

Wren

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Spent some time at Seaton Wetlands, the Wren was perched on a fence rail preening. Pics are a bit oof but I enjoyed seeing it. also the robin as hungry as ever posed.

West Somerset Railway

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My Friend Richard Fisher an American who lives in Pennsylvania has a love of English Railways and plans to create a model layout based on Crewkerne Station. To assist him I traveled to Bishops Lydeard the main station to Minehead for West Somerset Railway, to photograph the Steam engines at West Somerset Railway for his project. Here are some of my first attempts at this really interesting photographic subject. I plan to go again.

Beer

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A super sunny day spent at Beer lots of subjects to photograph. Used a Nikon P530 (with zoom failed) and my Canon 5d.

A Visit to Seaton

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Sunday was a superb day with sunshine and blue skies. The evening sunset provided a soft light which any photographer would enjoy. The wetlands as always had subjects galore and the Robin kindly posed for me. Click to enlarge.

Solitary Bees

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Mason Bees matingmasonbees1

Did you know that female bees can chose the sex of their offspring? Female eggs are fertilised, males are not. Usually, female eggs are placed at the far end of the nest cavity and males eggs in the cells nearer the entrance. Males of a lot of species of solitary bee species emerge before the females, mainly so they can be waiting for virgin females to exit the nest and mate with them immediately. It therefore makes sense for male bees to be in the outer most cells.
Weather conditions play a big part in emergence timing.

Leafcutter bees pass the winter as pre-pupa, finally developing into adult bees in the spring. Bees like the red mason bee Osmia bicornis pass the winter as adults, if you open a cocoon of this species in February the bee will be sitting there and fly off fairly fast.

 Winter is the best time to prepare for the next years solitary bee boxes.Clean any boxes from last year removing carefully and take out tubes and canes which contain next years larvae and place them aside in a safe sheltered outdoor place.

If you have used wood with holes drilled these may also contain larvea from leafcutter and mason bees. Although you may not be able to see them, they may be at the back of the tube.

masonbee1

Any canes which appear unused may still be used at the rear of the cane so do not discard them.

Cut new canes, use rolled wrapping paper, drill good clean holes in timber blocks, do not use treated timber.

 
mason-bee-emerg-web
 In the past I made many boxes for sale in charity  shops, but the problem with this is people  who buy them have little idea of management and use them as garden decoration.

bug boxes

Bug boxes for Ferne Shop Chard
A miner bee sitting happily on my
thumb.

miner-slide

Solitary bees will pollinate more flowers than a honey bee.

  Take care of your bee tubes and remember that a woodpeckers tongue can reach well into a tube or cane removing all bee larvea so its a good idea to protect the box with a 1/2″ wire mesh. at least 2 inches from front of canes/tubes,

Mason bees will leave a gap at the end of the tunnell/tube blocking the entrance with mud with its brood a good inch or so behind.

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Teal, Pheasants and Moorhens

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Seaton Wetlands.

A dull day and high tide with few waders about in the morning. Spent a couple of hours here.

Some Teal brightened the morning feeding near the visitor centre. The Pheasants were evident released and ready to be shot anytime soon by someone who can afford to do this offensive “sport” Over 50,000,000 are released into the environment bringing disease and upsetting the wild bird food chain.

 

Grand Piano Returns

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The Return of the Grand Piano

An enterprising young musician living in the Chard area has decided to branch out making Baby Grand Piano Shells. He realised through his long experience as a performer that he got more attention and respect from the audience when he used his baby grand piano shell he made for his keyboard. His colleagues and friends started asking him to make one for them. So this amazing idea has taken off and orders are flooding in. The picture above is in actual fact a Keyboard placed in his piano shell!black with lid7

Replaces the X Stand

Normally a musician would use what they call a simple metal X stand to hold the keyboard into position whilst they performed, either standing or sitting. These are not visually exciting.
What he discovered was that he could sit comfortably and his equipment using a Baby Grand Piano Shell and this gave an extra dimension and an air of class to his performance.
The “shell” looks exactly like a grand piano and you would struggle to tell the difference from a real one.
You may all remember the performances by ABBA when Benny played at a baby grand, well this item will provide an on stage attraction.

Portable Grand Piano

Great part is its completely portable, with removable legs and the body will fit into most cars so its easily transported to the next Gig.

Weddings with Real Class

Those musicians who entertain us at functions like weddings are finding that this item is now a “must have” to provide that total air of professionalism. Some have ordered in both colours available white and black as they find this meets all functions and gigs.
Some local hobby music lovers who play at home have now latched on to this idea and are ordering them for their living rooms or playing area.

One Size Fits All

The Steveway Piano Shell is made to fit all keyboards currently in production, so it makes no difference whether yours is an expensive Yamaha or a low cost Casio you will look great sitting at your keyboard and be the envy of all.

Christmas Gift

Each Piano shell is made individually so you will have to place an order now to get it for Christmas.

Contact

Steve Walters can be contacted on his website www.stevewaypianos.com