Cassius

Probably one of my better Mondays in recent weeks, work-wise. It meant I endeavoured to stay on focus rather than chill for an hour and wander about with a lens.

Afterwards, on the way home, I parked up near Milverton church to take a wander down the hill towards the Saxon Mill. The farmer had hoed the field to the point where the path was virtually indistinguishable. Only a few recent footsteps in the dusty, rusty soil showed the way.

Passing through the kissing gate and leaving the churchyard, I noticed a man at a path intersection about a 100 yards away. He was crouching and issuing words of encouragement. It transpired he was talking to a dog, but I could only make out the whites. The rest of the fur merged with the colour of the field. They hadn't moved by when I reached the intersection. Standing a little further from me, he was trying to get the dog to come to him on his command, but the litle pup hadn't a clue what he was on about.

I asked if I could take his doggie's photo. A sweet little thing that just wanted to get close to me for fuss. Thoughtlessly, I didn't get his name, or the doggie's. I thought later, a good name would be Cassius.

Not long home and it was time to get out for skittles. Some aberation in the fixtures list saw us take on the Badgers who beat us the last game, on Friday just gone. Then we were 7. Today we were 8. We taught them a lesson, though my bowling was poor.

After that, it was over to the Case. Dave and Cedric are Monday regulars, but it was only last Monday, when they caught me with the XF1 I had bought that day, that I learned they were both wild about photography. Dave was an enthusiastic amateur and Cedric was at one stage in his life a pro. Both had taken the Nikon vow. We spoke about many things but one thing Dave told me and which stuck was that when he bought his Nikon F2, all those years ago, it came with a Nikkor 50mm f/1.2!! I mentioned I had a collection of vintage cams and earlier in the week had put my Argus C3 Matchmatic (as seen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) in the glove box to show next time I saw them. It was so long since I had used it I was unable to say much about it. So we three spent a pleasant evening trying to figure out what all the dials and buttons were meant to do.