Beautiful British Columbia

Just a quick post as I haven't sorted out any internet yet.
After arriving in Claresholm and getting my medical and drugs test completed I was able to renew my class 1 licence, sort out my SS number, medical cover etc and was heading down the road within a couple of days.
My first trip took me up to Calgary to load for Myton, Utah with a back haul already organised from Topeka, Kansas up to Kamloops BC where I am now having a 36 hour reset ready for me to off load on Monday morning.
No pictures I'm afraid as I didn't have time for any photography, although I did have my phone camera on a windscreen fixture so did manage to grab some little bits of video.
It will take a while before I settle in enough to slow down and smell the coffee.

Sun Bonnet Sue and the Crafty Old Birds.

A bit of a girly post for the drivers wives in Canada who may be looking for a hobby...

We met Mary and her hubby Chris the first time we worked at Le Moulin Fort Camping in the beautiful Loire Valley in France.

Mary is in the shade with her machines humming in this picture...

When we were there in the summer of 2013 we met up again, and as she knew we had now got a granddaughter she said she would make a quilt for her, so this week we went to visit them (they are fellow Yorkies),and she presented us with a fantastic Sun Bonnet Sue quilt, so I asked her to explain the pattern, and she has made a guest post, below.

Mick has asked me to do a bit of a blog on what I do and explain a little about the quilt I made for their Granddaughter Rebecca, so here you are...

I am a crafter but my real love is sewing and when I retired, it gave me the chance to turn my passion into a cottage industry.

My friend Rosemary and I started Crafty Old Birds in October 2011 and we have never looked back.

Our student base grows each year and we have a great group of ladies who come once or twice a month to our workshops.

Have a look at our website, Crafty Old Birds and our facebook page to see what we are doing. I am the shorter one of the girls.

Rebeccas Sun Bonnet Sue quilt (it has an edging but I accidentally cut it off on the picture).

I am so passionate about sewing that I have a small machine that I take on holiday with me in the caravan or to use in hotel rooms. I can't even bear to sit in the car when the OH is driving without something for my hands to do. So, on those occasions, I do English patchwork.

Sewing the hexagons ready for putting together later on can take the stress out of a long journey. You can even be a bit disappointed when you arrive at your destination!!

When Mick and Cath told me about Rebecca, it gave me the chance to make a Sun Bonnet Sue Quilt.

Detail of the Sun Bonnet designs.

I had been told that the idea of Sun Bonnet Sue came from the Amish community. Their dolls have no faces as you should not imitate Gods work, however, when he asked me to do this I thought I better check this out and….. yes my friends, I know you will not believe it but….. I was wrong.

Sun Bonnet Sue patterns for quilts have been around for over a century and I still think that the original idea may have come from the Amish people. However in the early 1900’s. 

Bertha Corbett had a disagreement with a friend who said that facial features were what made a picture. Bertha disagreed and she and her friend Evlalie Osgood Grover designed a little girl with an oversized bonnet but no face and called her Sun Bonnet Sue.

The rest is history as they say.

Sun Bonnet Sue (sometimes referred to as Sue Bonnet, or Sue Bonnet Sue) has appeared in postcards , paintings and even on plates but has always been a firm favourite with Patchwork and Quilters.

The quilt I made for Rebecca allowed me to combine both my love for machine embroidery and patchwork.

If you would like to know more about Sue Bonnet Sue, have a look at the net, there is loads of info there, or feel free to visit our website, or contact me through the website, Crafty Old Birds.

Sun Bonnet Sue on her holidays in August

Thanks Mary, I'm sure it will remain a treasured gift.

Now, for any lorry drivers who read this, normal service will resume on the next post with pictures of trucks and other manly things taking over.

Went shooting today, no, not that kind...

... the Government took away legal guns, so now the only ones who have them are the criminals so I used my camera.

The trucking pictures for the diesel heads will be here in a while, along with some nice scenic ones I hope.

I went for a wander over the other side of the City this morning to get a few shots of the old terraced housing.
Black and white suited the mood, it often does with me, but I'll soon be seeing plenty of big blue skies, hopefully.

I will probably get one more post in here before I leave for Canada, it should be a guest post from a friend of ours... something for the ladies, not truck related.

Let's all work for free.

This isn't trucking related but it may be of interest to some friends who are into photography or video making.

I received  an e-mail before Christmas...

Dear Micky Flynn, 

I am writing to you from ++++++ Productions a television production company here in the UK. 

We are making a TV documentary about British weather, and one of our topics is the 2007 floods

Whilst looking for original footage on YouTube, I came across your video "Sheffield Floods June 2007". It's a really great illustration of what happened! I would like to ask if you shot this video yourself, and if so, would you consider letting me show it to the rest of my team, with the chance that we may include it in our film? 

In any case thank you for taking the time to read this email. If you would like to get in touch, we would love to hear from you. You can email me at ++++++++@gmail.com

Thanks again and hopefully we can speak soon.

Kind Regards,

++++++++

Researcher 

Very nice I thought, I could do with a few pounds, and I know that TV companies will pay £250  for a clip of your dog saying "Sausages" or your cat skateboarding down a slide in the local play park, so what the hell.


I checked them out...

Our critically acclaimed productions have attracted both high audience viewing figures as well as many prestigious awards, including Emmys, BAFTAs, the DuPont award for science journalism, RTS awards and many others. +++++ clients include Discovery, PBS, SKY, National Geographic, History, TLC, Travel Channel, HGTV, Discovery Canada, France 5, ZDF, ITV, BBC, Channel 4 and Channel Five.

These guys are pros!

They have a showcase of 69 full length documentaries just in one section, so I can offer them the original HQ footage I shot, rather than the puny, short clip on Youtube, great eh?

I replied...

Hi David,

Yes, the flood footage from 2007 is mine and I still have the original 8 mins which covers more than is on the video, including a fire at a factory below Tinsley Viaduct, showing their flooded yards with smoke coming out of the roof, accompanied by a report on the radio.
There is also footage of the flooding outside Hillsborough Football ground.
The footage I have is better quality than is shown on YouTube as I had to compress it in 2007 to save time uploading it.
I shoot stock photographs for Macro stock and I am aware of the value of this kind of material, so if you are interested in using the superior, more diverse video I can send you a link to it via Dropbox or similar, it's an 8 min 500meg MPG clip, and you can make me an offer for it's use in a single production, with freedom to edit picture and sound as you see fit.

Regards,

Mick Flynn.

They didn't bother to reply, BUT a month later a different researcher asked for the same clip, I replied...

Hi ++++
I already received an e-mail from +++++ with the same request which I replied to, unfortunately he wasn't polite enough to reply back. So I enclose my original reply.
Regards
Mick Flynn

Ok, let's review their pedigree before I show you what they offered.

Our critically acclaimed productions have attracted both high audience viewing figures as well as many prestigious awards, including Emmys, BAFTAs, the DuPont award for science journalism, RTS awards and many others. +++++ clients include Discovery, PBS, SKY, National Geographic, History, TLC, Travel Channel, HGTV, Discovery Canada, France 5, ZDF, ITV, BBC, Channel 4 and Channel Five.

 Very proffesional, eh?

So, 2 months later they replied...

Dear David  (yes, they got my name wrong)

Our since apologies that we did not respond to your kind email initially

Thank you very much for potentially allowing to use your great clip in our programme, much appreciated.

Since we are working on a documentary with a very low budget, we would be able to offer you a £50 fee. Would that be satisfactory to you?

If so, I would be very grateful if you could sign the attached release form.

If we do end up using your clip in the programme, we will contact you regarding the payment details etc.

Thank you very much again for your help.

Best wishes,

++++++

So there you have it, £50 because they have a very low budget!

I'm sure they don't expect Discovery, PBS, SKY, National Geographic, History, TLC, Travel Channel, HGTV, Discovery Canada, France 5, ZDF, ITV, BBC, Channel 4 and Channel Five. etc to schill them, and
obviously they must need the money more than me, so I declined their kind offer.

I also recently refused use of some pictures requested from a magazine because they said they had NO budget for photographs even though the magazine is full of them!

Would it be ok for me to just take the magazine off the shelf in the shop and walk out? if challenged I could say I don't have a budget for it, right?

I'm sure these media people pay taxi fares, bus fares, entrance fees to the cinema, I also think they pay their staff, even the window cleaner, so why do they not value everyone?

Maybe I just like to cut off my nose to spite my face, I am a grumpy old bastard after all.

FEEL FREE TO USE THE SHARE BUTTONS BELOW.

Another newspaper sale, woot!

Hopefully I'll get time to take pictures for stock when I get back over to Canada, but I doubt that i'll be able to edit them to a high standard on my laptop, so I might be saving them all for a rainy day, as my pension plan.
This one sold to a UK newspaper recently...

View across Bradford from near my home.

Messing around with video.

I've been messing around with video for a long time, it is only messing, nothing really serious, but, when I return to Canada though I intend to put a bit of effort into making videos which might be more interesting, particularly for other drivers who are looking to make the move across the pond, or who are just interested in the trucks, scenery etc.

So, if anyone wants specific things filming, leave a comment here and I'll try and do something for you.

More videos on my Youtube channel, click here.

Art while I wait.

Just over a week to go before I arrive in Canada back with Watt and Stewart, all I ask is that I get a clean truck to start off with, and not a minger.

I've been editing stock photos and getting them uploaded for the last few weeks as I might not be able to edit to stock quality on my laptop when I'm on the road.

I've also loaded a few pictures up to my Fine Art America site, these last few based on a recent visit to Amsterdam with Cath.

http://mick-flynn.artistwebsites.com/

amsterdam canvas prints