Reading Brian’s “Lets go for a drive” post yesterday prompted some memories of visits to my Mother-in-Law’s farm in Zimbabwe. It was the similarities with the crossing of the Mupfure River that caught my eye. Here’s that river crossing…
…And the view downstream from the bridge where the children swam or fished while watching the washing dry…
…I believe they were playing on the remains of a dam built by a local farmer to hold back water for his crops. There were many such temporary structures that sometimes failed during the rainy season and caused flood issues further down stream. Looking at google maps, I see that there are now some more permanent structures in place and modern circular cultivations can be seen in some of the fields around the Mupfure River. Time and farming methods have moved on.
The road across the river used to be the main route into the local town of Selous until a new road and bridge were built to carry ore from Ngeysi mine to the railhead. I don’t think the old bridge would have handled these…
Back in 2013 I wrote about the pain of changing my mobile phone. Back then I bought a Blackberry. It has served me well but time has now caught up with it. It has had a couple of cranky moments in the past year. The weekend before last I found it had totally flattened the battery while in my pocket and deleted all my contacts 😦 Sadly, that was the last straw – time for a change. Blackberry have just recently turned off their servers (not a part of my issue) and the rumoured Blackberry smart phone has never materialised. In those circumstances, I was going to be looking at a new manufacturer.
The good news is that my Son has been using smartphones for a number of years now and I could draw on his insight while choosing my replacement. He has used Motorola almost all the time and currently has the g10. He did have a brief flirtation with Nokia but that didn’t work out. As he seems very happy with Motorola, I decided that would probably be a good option for me and Epi. Alasdair and I spent some time comparing specifications and prices over the last days of the Christmas break before he went back to Uni and by the time he departed I’d narrowed down the shortlist to the Moto g9 or the g50. When the Blackberry bowled its last googly, I checked the prices again. As luck would have it, several outlets had the Moto g50 reduced, so I opted for that.
As you may imagine, Epi and I are now getting up to speed with our new phones. It’s been a blend of confusion and enlightenment as facilities gradually get tried out 😉 Trying to answer the first incoming call was fun – I thought you just had to press the virtual button but no – you have to swipe up! I rang back and was pleased to find Noel at the other end – a lost contact reconnected 🙂 One thing I did notice is that the phone warns you if a number that’s calling is suspected to be spam – big thumbs up for that 🙂
Since I bought the Blackberry all those years ago, one thing that has improved beyond recognition is the phone camera. Last night I tried it out on the way home from the football match – photographing an oversize load convoy that we were passing…
..Not quite as good as I would expect with the Canon but not too shabby either. This morning I took a stroll in my local area to try out some less challenging shots on a gloomy winter’s day. Here’s a selection…
Just crops and resizes, nowt else done on all of the above. Colour rendition and clarity seem very good and I shall be happy to use the phone when I haven’t got one of my cameras with me 🙂
Passing almost unnoticed behind locked gates at Willesden Junction, this cobbled road is a relic of the past. The road originally led down to cattle pens where cows and other livestock could arrive or depart by train. It was constructed circa 1880 when, apart from Harlesden, much of the surrounding area was farmland. Today its 140 year old cobbles are used by Network Rail to gain access to the lineside. Who’s to say it won’t still be there unchanged in another 140 years – or until the cows come home?
Images from Finchley 