maipenquynh

Madeira 2024 #8 | On film: On the roads of Camacha

maipenquynh on 2. September 2024

When I was in Madeira, the idea of being "on the road at home" had already matured quite a bit. To a certain extent, I had also lived out this idea and way of life in Madeira. How is that supposed to work, you ask? I was in Madeira, far away from home. Yes, that's true. But the expectation on Madeira would be short and long hikes, paths into the green and impressive views of the even more impressive landscape. I rarely got that far during my holiday in Madeira. I didn't want to drive, so I was left with my feet and what I could achieve with them.

And so I went for a walk through the town where our accommodation was located: Camacha.

I turned off the pavement next to the road and took the stairs to paths that led along residential buildings. The midday sun wasn't beating down, but it still cast harsh shadows. I remember four square metres of strelitzia. I would have loved to photograph them. But I didn't know what to do with the light and decided not to take any photos. Maybe I would come back again, at a better time? (Nope.)

Not much happened on these streets. Everyday life of the people in the houses. I see the dog, and hear the TV which was blaring loudly through the open patio door to me outside. I feel my delight at the charming street signs. And I feel happy about the flower in the pot on the wall as I enjoy the view through the gate (note the slope of the path!).

(Click on the image to see it as a whole)

Camera + lens: Minolta Dynax 7000i + Minolta AF 50 mm f/1.4
Film: Kodak Gold 200
Development + scan: ON FILM LAB

Madeira 2024 #7 | On film: moody mist

maipenquynh on 29. August 2024

Our days in Porto Moniz were not only blue and turquoise but also quite moody. Moody with all the clouds of mist that lay heavy on the heights of the mountains.

The first time I saw it was from the kitchen. I was cooking a rice soup (we were still recovering from the gastrointestinal fuss) when I saw the mist hanging over the trees. I wanted to finish cooking as quickly as possible and crawl back into bed. That's the story the first picture is telling.

The second picture was after the trip to the laurel forest. It's amazing to see how the mist crept in and approached the house bit by bit. Did the mist actually swallow the house? We will never know.

(Click on the image to see it as a whole)

Camera + lens: Minolta Dynax 7000i + Minolta AF 50 mm f/1.4 and Minolta AF 100 mm Macro f/2.8
Film: Kodak Gold 200
Development + scan: ON FILM LAB

Darning socks fever (2023, April and May)

maipenquynh on 25. August 2024

There are a lot of socks coming up in this post. While editing the photos, I realized how many photos of socks - both good and bad - will be in this post. Sock content FTW 🧦

In April and May 2023, I was in darning socks fever. There was a reason that it was just socks and nothing else. I was literally obsessed with the duplicate stitch. The duplicate stitch is based on knitted stitches. And socks were pretty much the only items of clothing in my surrounding that were knitted AND worth repairing .

This darning fever took me by surprise; from a technical perspective, I wasn't prepared at all. I was visiting my parents without any darning equipment. And you must know, darning equipment hardly takes up any space (it's just a needle, yarn and a darning egg). Thus, the fact that I didn't take this minimal kit with me is proof that I wasn't planning on darning!

One day, at lunchtime I noticed that my sock was getting thin in one of the typical places, the ball of the foot. BAM! The desire to darn this spot came instantly. And so I set off in search of materials. I found a needle and thread in the sewing box. I used an empty toilet roll as a base and replacement for a darning egg. So I was equipped and started. I sat down on the stairs where the light was good and darned and darned. My parents observed me and commented on my activities in two directions: On the one hand, they made fun of me for doing this work; on the other hand, they also found it impressive that I actually made the effort.

On another day, I met up with a friend to go to the cinema. We still had some time so we went to the Augsburger Dult (*) to stroll around a bit. This was the place where I bought darning thread ‘from the trades’ for the first time - for 50 cents! That was a bit of an experience for me as I had only bought things second-hand until then. Don't ask me why this is such an event but it was one for me 😀

And then everything went quickly, one sock after another was checked and identified as a sock of worries. And it went on this way until at some point, it ran out of steam.

During that time I started darning 6 socks. In fact, until the creation of this post, I didn't even know if they were all finished. In the course of this post I found out the following: One sock was only half darned (pink with a flower pattern, sock 5), at some point I stopped darning and used it that way. But the rest was finished. But some areas got thin again 😮 I didn't darn enough of the surrounding and which would have reinforced the area on a large scale.

And now all that's left to say is: Have fun with the results 😋

(*) Augsburg is a city in southern Germany and Dult is a term in southeast Germany to describe a fair with the character of a folk festival. This is my translation of the quote by Wikipedia.

(Click on photo to enlarge it)