To be honest, for the last couple of weeks, I have been extremely lazy. In my defence, my knee was killing me and I’ve just been feeling under the weather.
However, I forced myself out of the door this morning to go and take some photos. As I mentioned a couple of posts back, I have rekindled my interest in photography but it’s taken over a week to actually get around to going out with the express purpose of taking a few snaps.
I didn’t want to walk too far so I plumbed for Hams Hall. Although Hams Hall is a large distribution centre, it also contains a few areas where nature can thrive. I parked at the end of one of the access roads and took a short stroll (with modded walking stick – see later) to walk alongside the River Tame and, hopefully, grab a few photographs.
The section I chose for my mini adventure contained the river (obviously) and some light woodland. There were plenty of wild plants growing alongside the path which became my subjects.
I didn’t walk far before turning around and returning to the car. I didn’t walk far but managed to clock up 0.72 miles without overtaxing the knee.
Returning home, I uploaded my photos to Lightroom and did an initial cull deleting those that were obviously out of focus, duplicates or that I didn’t think came out as expected.
After breakfast, I further edited the remaining photos and was fairly happy with the results …
On the whole, I’m happy with the pictures but best of all, I’m happy with the fact that I got out and about instead of starting what could easily become another lazy day.
Pimp my Stick
To help me get around by alleviating the pressure on my knee, I bought a cheap walking stick. You know the sort that folds up (hopefully not when in use) for easy storage.
Being cheap (it was more a proof of concept thing) I wasn’t expecting it to last too long but was a little surprised that after only around ten miles, the rubber end (or ferrule in stick speak) had worn through, and I was tapping away at the ground with the end of the steel tubing.
Removing the old ferrule revealed a very rough end to the tubing which I assume rapidly cut though the rubber end.
A quick search on Printables supplied me with a file to 3D print new ferrules. I chose to print them in TPU which is very similar to rubber being more flexible than the usual filaments.
However, with the rough end of the tubing, the new foot would soon be destroyed so I printed (in PLA) a bung to fit over the end of the tubing over which the ferrule would slide.
This morning’s sojourn was the first outing with my pimped stick and I’ m happy to report that all is well.