Contemplations of a Closet Curmudgeon

danabren

Anyway, after a momentary dither about what to try first, I fired up the kettle and measured out some Pure Bud Silver Strand" First Flush.  I completely forgot to check the website for brewing/steeping recommendations (turns out, there weren't any), so I used the green tea setting of 175F and steeped for about a minute.  Anyway, I got a pale golden tea in my white cup with a fresh, spinachy scent, vegetal flavor with little astringency. A very nice, refreshing sipping tea that was still nce when it went cold in the cup. More of same on the second steep (I gave it about 30 seconds that time, would add 15 seconds for each additional steep). 

I'll probably do another cup for a third steep and then throw the leaves in a spaghetti jar and cold brew the rest. 

Observations:

1. Film loading went fairly smoothly once I got the paper lined up with the spool. The winding knob moves smoothly, which means (a) the guts of this thing are in as good condition as the outside and (b) my alteration of the plastic spool ends took enough of the plastic off.

2. The little red window at the back of the camera was probably made that way to reduce the chance of a light leak, but it makes the numbers on the film very hard to see. I need to have my reading glasses with me when I take this out.

3. The viewer is going to take getting used to. The image is bright and clear, but it's flipped because of the internal mirrors. I think I need to adjust the view to the right, but no, it's to the left.

4. The shutter feels slo-o-o-o-w. No vibration stabilization electronic wizardry. At the same time, you really have to press that button to get it to click.

I do have the choice of three F-stops (for the non camera nerds, this means I can control how wide the shutter opens to let light hit the film). And there is a movable collar around the Kodar lens, which might conceivably affect focus, but I'm not sure. I turned it, but the viewer didn't show me anything because it's looking through the top lens, not the bottom one. (There is a manual for this particular model coming in the mail but it has not turned up yet.)

EDIT: I took a look (glasses on, better light) and there is an indicator notch on the Kodar lens ring and tiny numbers etched beneath it. It looks like you can adjust the lens to focus at 3.5', 5', 8', 15' and "INF" (infinity) by lining up the indicator with the number - which assumes you have a decent grasp of how far away those measurements are.  

(Not my camera, but a similar one courtesy of Google Image Search. Mine doesn't have scratches and rusty screws.)

5. I can't see what I shot. Yet. I have to finish the roll, get it to the lab and wait like it was 1951.

Note to self - Ilford makes infrared film. If I get *any* good with this weird little box, that might be fun to try.

From what I have been able to figure out based on release dates, when Mom went to Europe in the early 1950s, and the time I asked to borrow a camera in 7th grade, I *think* she had a Kodak Dualflex. Process of elimination. Remember, Kodak was THE camera company in 20th century America, the dates they were being sold line up pretty well with when she would have graduated from high school, went to nursing school, met Dad and so on. 

       
Left: A Dualflex III, from about 1950. Right: Dad and me from 1958.

From that 7th grade "Can I borrow a camera?" request I do remember a black, boxy camera you had to look down into to see a dim, monochrome view of the thing you wanted to shoot. And I remember the roll I shot had a lot of blurry duds and a couple of ok shots around Sterling Forest Gardens. Long gone, no idea what happened to them. 

The Kodak 104 Instamatic. Released by Kodak in 1963, it's the camera I remember my Mom using. It was a revolutionary little beast at the time, taking a film cartridge that was easy to load and unload, and using a flash cube good for four shots. IN COLOR! Ridiculously easy to use and compact too. I know I got pressed into service to be the one holding the camera a few times with this thing. No wonder they were everywhere. 

    
A classic Instamatic came with one film cartridge and a flash cube. Right, me with my sisters Elaine and Miriam, 1963.

Around 1967 or 68, my sister Miriam ended up with a Polaroid Swinger as a Christmas present. It was very cheap and the film was also relatively cheap and OMG you could see the your pictures in 60 seconds! I don't have any memory of getting a turn taking pictures with it, but I probably did. Besides, the best part was shaking that piece of film around and waiting for the image to appear. There was also a catchy jingle sung by Barry Manilow - and yes, that's a young Ali MacGraw in the ad. 

My first camera that I bought with my very own money from one of those gray market camera stores in lower Manhattan was a Fujica Auto-7. It used 35mm film rolls, but it was completely automatic. I bought it because my then roommate Joan and I planned a trip to England and I wanted something to take pictures with. I don't remember what I paid for it, but it was a decent little camera, Fuji always did have nice glass, even in their starter cameras and I shot travel snaps and horse-related stuff with it for years. Mom continued to use it for years after I stopped using it. 

Behold the late 80's Chinon Genesis (I think I had the G-7),  that zoomed from 35mm to a mighty 80mm, with infrared autofocus. Decent optics, IIRC took nice clean shots. 

And then, some time around 2005 or '06, I won a digital camera in some contest at work. Two whole megapixels in a sleek, pocket-sized body that made the Chinon look like a dinosaur. And the whole front of the camera was designed with a slider to protect the lens. Tiny little display on the back. Instead of film that I had to send away, just use a memory card that came with it and load the pictures to a computer. Olympus D-390. Did I mention I'd won it? So yeah, free camera. 

Yeah, but - I missed having a zoom.

The Fujifilm 3800 (came out roughly around the same time that Olympus did) was an accidental eBay find. I was looking for something else, the seller wanted to trade up to a better camera to catch new baby moments and I got it at a pretty cheap price. 6 megapixels, pretty good zoom range, somewhat limited in low light. I know I was shooting by 2007 when I got a Flickr account and started putting things on it. 

   
Tripod shot of my kimono-silk regency, using the Fujifilm Finepix 3800. 

The 3800 wasn't quite as bulky as the Genesis, but it was blocky and squat. The technology was improving, so I did some research on point-and-shoot digitals and swapped the 3800 for the smaller, sleeker Fujifilm F100fd in spring 2009. 12 megapixels (double the 6 on the 3800), a bit more zoom range, and it was even more pocketable than that Olympus. Great little camera with lots of shooting modes programmed in and they performed pretty well. Decent sized screen too. 

   
The F100fd. Right, a night-mode shot of the Port of Oakland the day I got it. 

My sister Elaine came out to visit in the spring of 2014, carrying a Nikon P7000 (hit the market in 2010)  that she really didn't know how to use: it seems a friend of hers had talked her into buying more camera than she was willing to learn to use. I offered to trade and bet I could get some decent shots on the day without having seen the manual. The trade became permanent.

Nikon P7000 with all the knobs on. Right: Shot at Monterey Aquarium, there's Elaine and I had that camera less than an hour with no instruction book. Not a bad start.

Nikon had come up with a point-and-shoot camera that had some DSLR-like controls in addition to menu-driven pre-set modes - I think the idea was to give Seerius Fotografers something pocket sized for occasions when they didn't want to lug a big camera. Remember, I was doing ZERO editing except for the odd crop at this point - the color quality was beautiful, even though it was 10 megapixels instead of the Fujifilm's 12. The autofocus could be a stupidly laggy, and like the F100fd, the lens cover blinds started to need a little help opening over time. But hey, free camera and I was willing to try to learn how to use those additional features. 

The P7000 got me thinking about eventually making the step up to a DSLR (digital single lens reflex). I picked the brains of friends who shoot with them. Almost all of them shot Nikon instead of Canon. I did my homework, I tried to learn how to use the controls on the P7000 that gave *me* more control of what came out of it. This was also around the time that camera companies were introducing mirrorless cameras for the consumer market. (An SLR film camera uses a system of mirrors to transmit light from the lens onto film. The digital equivalent sends the light onto a sensor. Eliminating mirrors from the guts of a camera allows for a smaller, lighter camera body.) They were expensive, and they were still pretty new technology.

No, I would be smart. I would save up, buy a good used DSLR body and budget for investing in the lenses to go with. In 2018 I found a gently used Nikon D7000 (released in 2010, 16.2 megapixels) on eBay. I sent James the link because the price looked very good and the seller was throwing in a Tamron zoom lens. "Ask the seller for the shutter count," he said. If the shutter count is high, the camera's gotten a lot of use and may be on the road to needing repair. This one turned out to be pretty gently used and it was a case of the owner wanting to sell it and upgrade. So for about $450, I got a very good camera and a decent lens. Since then, I've been able to add a couple of better lenses, again by buying used - with the mirrorless cameras getting more and more popular, DSLR components are easier to get at favorable prices. 

 
Hakone Gardens, first test batch shot with the Tamron zoom in 2018 with James helping me with settings. Right, the D7000.

Will I move to another camera in the future? Who knows? Right now I can do a lot and learn a lot with what I have, and have some fun with it. 

 Sometimes a cup of tea is not my cup of tea and this is one of those times. 

Pu-ehrs are aged teas. Raw or sheng pu-ehrs are harvested, processed (withered, fired or steamed, etc.) and then pressed into cakes and allowed to age in a process that dates back to the days of Lu Yu and the Tang Dynasty, when tea might take months or even years to get to its final destination. Ripe, shou pu-ehrs are a 20th century development: when demand for sheng pu-ehrs became high, growers looked for a way to accelerate the aging process. The tea would be sprayed with water and left to ferment in a hot, humid environment for several weeks, then made into cakes. 

My first pu-ehr was some loose leaf abomination in a foil bag from Cost Plus World Market several years ago. It tasted fishy. I ended up throwing it out. 

When Jade sent me that amazing tea sampler, she included two very nice sheng pu-ehrs that have "Like" checked on my tea spreadsheet. 

Yunnan Sourcing has sold me some very nice teas, this was marked "premium grade," came in single serving mini-cakes which is convenient and appealing, and for four bucks, it ticked the "cheap enough not to feel bad if I hate it" box. 

Fired up the kettle for a 200F brew after looking up what to do with caked tea. Broke up the little cake with my fingers easily enough, then rinsed the leaves twice with hot water (the first pour looked surprisingly silty from tiny fragments of tea). Short steep of 20 seconds still produced a dark red-brown cup of tea. 

It's earthy, complex and weird as opposed to rich, mellow and smooth (the qualities that made sheng pu-ehrs the choice of Emperors). You can taste and smell a sort of grass-clippings-left-out-in-the-sun thing going on, simultaneously green and a little musty at the same time. 

I'm glad I gave it a shot, but no, this is not a tea I am going to reach for again.  Prices for sheng pu-ehrs are eyewateringly expensive, so there's obviously a difference. 

 (Meant to post this yesterday and got sidetracked by going back to the first season of "The Expanse" for a re-watch.)

This is another dragon ball. As it's a white tea, I did 185F at 30 seconds for the first steep. The tea took on more color than I would have expected from a white tea, honey colored in the cup. I'm not certain how much of that was the orangey brown chrysanthemums. It had an autumnal scent like the vague memory of burning leaves. Or that cedar, pencil-shaving smell. Woody, anyway. The flavor was lightly spicy with a sweet finish at the back end. 

On the second steep (45 seconds), it was about the same. By the third steep (60 seconds), the leaves had unfurled all the way, the color had gone the reddish brown I would expect of a black tea, and the flavor had opened up a bit. Warm, cedar-y and still sweet. 

Definitely not what I expected based on the name, but a nice tea nonetheless.

9oz (2 cups) self raising flour (If you can't buy it, add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt to each cup of all purpose flour.)

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (this is baking soda.)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon mixed spice (Our equivalent would be similar to the dreaded Pumpkin spice. I figure I'll use ground cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and allspice.)

1/2 pint (2 cups) Earl Grey tea

Preheat oven to gas 4/350 F/ 180C/ 160C fan.

Make the tea and put in a saucepan with the butter and sugar. Stir until melted (do not boil). Add the fruit to the liquid.

Pour into a 1lb loaf tin and bake for 30 minutes (plus or minus - my (Ed) recipe says 40; I usually check it at 25; 30 seems right on my current oven). It is ready when a skewer goes in and comes out clean.

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I already have a cranberry apple pie planned for Christmas, but this sounds like it would keep well in an airtight container, so I may make this as well, because tea cake. 

INGREDIENTS: Spring harvested full leaf Mao Feng China green tea, Pacific Northwest spearmint leaves and Australian lemon myrtle. TASTING NOTES: Fall squash, lemon, mint. BLEND NUMEROLOGY [#39] Steve Smith’s age when he got his first Fez.

Preparation blurb: For best flavor, bring spring or freshly drawn filtered water to 185 degrees. Steep 1 sachet or 1 heaping tsp (2.6 g) loose leaf for three minutes. Use an official Smith sun dial to be sure of absolute accuracy."

Green tea flavor is mild with no bitterness. The spearmint is at the forefront. I am not getting any squash flavor at all.

If you like mint, you'll like this. 

Third steep at 60 seconds, the ball held its shape but has begun shedding outer leaves. Tea color has gone distinctly if palely gold, cinammon and peach flavor has opened up very nicely. Yunnan Sourcing says this should stand up to 7 or 8 steeps easily and I believe it.

Steep four, 90 seconds, ball is falling apart now, tea color remains pale gold, spiced peach flavor is holding steadily. 

Lovely stuff. Will absolutely have to try a loose leaf silver needle at some point.

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I was expecting a fabric delivery of linen, but NO! The UPS box turned out to be six boxes of tea bags from Steven Smith Teamaker of Portland, courtesy of Staffan. He says they were out of gift assortments he thought I'd like, so he just created his own: two herbal infusions, two greens (one blended with mint), two blacks (a nice chai and a breakfast blend). I generally don't care for chamomile, but it looks like it might be an interesting blend. (And I just fainted when I looked up how much a box of "sachets" goes for. That's love, that is. Because he probably won't come out and say "I miss you." )

What with the time change and it being the first Sunday of the month, I was up an hour earlier than I had any need for - except having to pee. So it was I decided to take a stab at the Antiques by the Bay flea market over on Alameda Point. 

This used to be fun. Now not so much. Even getting there at 8 AM, there's a ton of people hoping for bargains, many dragging carts or wagons, bonus points if there are recalcitrant children along. Sure, masks are required, but people are so focused on looking at the stuff around them that they tend not to look where they're going. 

No decent Japanese antiques to speak of. Lots of shabby chicified crap, tons of old clothing, plenty of mid century furniture which was uncomfortable in 1965 and still is, you suckers. I was, however, keeping an eye out for, yes, you guessed it, Yixing wares. I even found some. One vendor had a couple of pots but they were really small and I wanted something that will hold 100/150 ml water at a serving. Kept walking and dodging. Found someone else had a couple pots but without lids, and no marked prices (the woman had to ask her husband for prices on every little thing, so I moved on). 

Saw another table vendor on a corner, had several pots about the size I was looking for (and that was either old tea or dust inside some of them), prices ranging from $60 to $150. Told him I would think about it and made a mental note of where he was located. 

Kept walking, braved the portajohns (which at that time of morning were in good condition and the pump sinks still had soap, water and towels), and found another Chinese couple with easily half a dozen pots in varying shapes and sizes, prices attached with blue painter's tape. And the guy was happy to chat. You like tea? Yes, I'm looking for something for oolongs. What kind you like? Ti Guan Yin? (Smile.)  This good for one cup. This good for share. This (an ox with long horns and a child sitting on his back as the knob for the lid) to look at (miming putting it on shelf). Which is how I ended up with a $50 pot for $40.

Was home by 10:30, and put it into a pan of clean water to warm on the stove for about an hour on basic general principle, simply because I have no idea how old the pot was. Found some black floaters when the water had cooled and I poured it out. Jade had suggested to sniff the wet pot - yep, smells like clay, so that is a good sign. I did notice that the water doesn't absorb the way it does on the other pot, but that could be a result of the construction - the outer carved wall gets smudgy grey spots on it as it dries, but then they go away. I don't want to apply soap though - it could get absorbed and screw up the flavor of anything I try to brew in it. 

Just did a comparison brew with Old Ways Teas Jin Mu Dan, a nice roasted oolong and honestly could not tell the difference between what I brewed in the gaiwan and what I did in the pot. Jade says it depends on the tea. Some teas it's more noticeable than others. And this could be a young pot. ;)

Going to go back for a second cup. Maybe a hint more minerality in the flavor.