i love juice

Its very mild for this time of year and I'm desperate for the frost to really start as it always gives that winter feel and a sense that Christmas is approaching. Myself and Thud racked off the first of our cider this weekend with quite a few little surprises. the clarity and the difference in taste between the different batches. Anyone would have thought we knew what we were doing as we discussed the readings from our scientific specific gravity reading. Later i took a little wander around the garden taking the last of the apples from the trees and just taking in the immense rich colour of the garden. with some trees keeping a firm hold of their leaves the change from green to deep red then brown is striking and even though no frost or deep cold this some how makes me feel festive. After this mild sense of contemplation is was time for the long task of scooping them up and burning.

I have recently been dabbling in out of date film both colour and black and white. Iv kind of got to grips with developing my own film but found printing to paper costly and time consuming so i recently got a negative scanner for ones birthday which cuts out both those factors and fits into what i want to do. I had My first attempt at processing colour film, something that most people seem to think complicated and yet its nearly the same at processing B+W with only a little more care time and temperature. I love using this out of date stuff has your never to sure as to what your going to get from it when you process it. the results have been great so far like taking your images back in time, saturating the colour and giving small imperfections which i really like. I love my digital camera but my film cameras have personality and their own style which some presets cant beat. These images were not touched or altered in any way and taken on my Rollie xf35, processed in my kitchen.

Yesterday the Stone Roses announced their getting back together, never actually seeing them perform when they were together this has made me very excited and will definitely be looking for tickets to go see them. I just hope they don't fall out in the mean time.

Iv been to San Francisco quite a few times and feel like i know the city reasonable well, and every time i return home and talk to people about the city and the Bay the first thing i mention is the Fog. The Bay has with out doubt some of the most amazing fog that you could ever imagine, and it is literally like a tidal wave hitting the bay stretching out in land as far as the cool air will allow before the Californian sun burns it away. My mother saw the bay recently and she finally understood why i go on so much about the fog.

The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo.

After a stressful couple of weeks I took Mrs Monkey out to our favourite Scouse Italian. What you can see there is an empty plate where my favourite pizza with an egg on once lay, no in the bottom of my tummy I feel complete. Roll on the weekend.
Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone from Virgin Media

First Sunday roast since being back from the States but what makes it even more special is that every thing that is on the plate with exception to the chicken has been grown by myself and Thud. The carrots, parsnips, runner beans and King Edwards even the onion in the gravy all from the veggie patch. Although i say veggie patch it was more like a weed patch when we got to it this weekend, but after a couple of hours labour we finally found our crop.
I got my annual dose of fruit while walking round the garden as the apples, plums, damsons and pears all seem to be coming on nicely and i just cant help but sample as i walk. I do love England even though it was windy and rained most of the day i cant help but be outside looking at nature do what it does best.