Trinket on The Singemonkey

June 26, 2024

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 09:59:14 +0000

Caught Bun’s little fuzzy face this morning next to my old Fuzzface.

June 10, 2024

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 15:12:58 +0000

We got more secure AirTag holders for the cats and changed the batteries because it’s been a year. Naturally Bun here thought she’d been subjected to war crimes.

We chose AirTags because they only require this annual battery change. The range is limited (about 10m) but they will ping off any Apple devices with the “find my” app enabled - which in practice gives them endless range at least insofar as getting close enough for fine tracking.

April 15, 2024

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 15:37:42 +0000

I grabbed a pic of Trinket aka Bun aka Bunbun just before taking my dad’s camera back to him. It was my first ride since I recovered from a bout of COVID at the beginning of last week. I discovered there doesn’t seem to be a way to take an “easy” ride in Cape Town thanks to being in the foothills of a mountain. Still needed to change my shirt on the other end.

July 16, 2023

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 17:06:22 +0000

Boi has finished his eight weeks of isolation and is hanging out on the couch while I read Tintin. Bun’s in a sock drawer. There’s a fire.

January 21, 2023

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 10:05:21 +0000

Bun’s current top-favourite spot. We call it her tube.

November 20, 2022

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 17:44:07 +0000

Bunday morning.

October 31, 2022

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 10:03:53 +0000

The place we live in faces the rising sun. So morning coffee-time is one of the sunniest of the day.

Bun likes this part of the house where she can hang out on my loudspeakers or on the windowsill and watch other cats safe from bullying.

July 07, 2022

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 08:37:01 +0000

Early morning Trinket, aka Bun.

With the rolling blackouts due to our corrupt and negligent state power provider we’ve been using candles a fair bit. Bun can’t seem to learn that these lights are too spicy 🌶 for her and keeps singeing her whiskers.

October 30, 2021

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 22:20:10 +0000

Perched where she can see who goes up and down the stairs.

August 18, 2021

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 08:45:47 +0000

Morning Trinket.

Do people only still make black and white photographs to seem cool and sophisticated? The answer’s a little complicated. Knowing why you’d prefer a picture in black and white means you’ve spent a little time thinking about photography - which makes you a more ‘sophisticated’ appreciator of photographs. So then, in a sense, yes. But I can give you that ‘sophistication’ in not many words: Eliminating colour makes you more conscious of form, light and shadow, and detail. So, like any abstraction, it shows you things that that the full set of information may conceal. It helps you see the trees for the wood.

August 11, 2021

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 16:42:36 +0000

Having the house thoroughly cleaned is a deep joy for us but a nightmare for Trinket for whom the vacuum is a combination of the devil, Godzilla, and Voldemort. She’s fled the house for most of the day.

July 15, 2021

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 17:21:41 +0000

My lenses arrived. Literally the best customer service I’ve ever experienced. They suggested I cancel my initial purchase to take advantage of their sale that was coming up in a few days. When Aliexpress wasn’t cooperating on giving the promised free shipping they gave me a discount for another portal to the value of the sale - and then stayed in touch via whatsapp through Fedex’s idiocy until I had the lenses. @ttartisanofficial is a company that can be proud of its customer service and it speaks well of Chinese customer service in general.

July 01, 2021

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 16:56:23 +0000

The world has been too long deprived of Trinket! … or Bun as she’s known around here. I recently saw that a Youtuber I enjoy calls their cat, “Pigbunny,” which is a perfect cat name.

My camera seems to be working fine with a different memory card. I’d already decided if it packed up, I’d just get another ‘obsolete’ model like it. This sensor apparently has quite the reputation for getting analogue-looking results. I’ve ordered a pair of native TTartisans lenses for it - a 50mm f1.2 and a 17mm f1.4 (cheap as chips at <US$200 for the pair despite very good reviews - which I think will be a super-versatile pair. It makes photography difficult - manual focus lenses shooting at fast apertures with very little depth-of-field to nail the focus. But it’s exactly like the film camera I’ve used for so many years. And when I do get a sharp picture at f1.4 and 1/60th it makes me very pleased. It’s a big chunk of the experience of shooting film without the cost… or the tedious scanning.

February 28, 2021

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 16:24:26 +0000

Trinket likes secret places for her daytime summer naps.

January 31, 2021

Sun, 31 Jan 2021 18:04:24 +0000

Trinket enjoying a rainy sunday.

January 23, 2021

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 22:00:57 +0000

Trinket overcome by a truly savage yawn. She at least gets to go out visiting the neighbours by her wall-top pathways.

October 09, 2020

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 15:04:42 +0000

Trinket woke up early and was ready for tea.

October 06, 2020

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 17:01:19 +0000

Here’s another one of Trinket. Taken about this time yesterday when the late sun comes washing through the window of the little room where I work currently. Sometimes she visits and greatly enjoys standing on the table completely obscuring the screen and keyboard. But then sometimes she sits in the window and photosynthesises - as cats do. Got the Nikon adapter so I’m trying a very old Nikkor 50mm f1.4 instead of the Olympus Zuiko 50mm f1.8 I’ve been using for cat portraits ’til now.

October 06, 2020

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 12:56:42 +0000

It’s the sleepiest time of the day for the crepuscular ones.

August 13, 2020

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 16:48:51 +0000

Yes. It’s possible I may never photograph anything besides cats again. @withoutaleaf made a little tent on the couch for them in this cold weather.

August 06, 2020

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 12:26:39 +0000

And now it’s a series. Trinket is enjoying the plushness of the winter duvet for her daytime snooze. I’m using all manual everything here. I don’t say that as a brag, but to reflect on how easy it is with a ‘modern’ mirrorless camera. There are a couple of new developments that excite me in this regard. The one is the massive viewfinder resolution and magnification of Sony’s latest camera. Over 2000 pixels across and 90% magnification. That’s like the best of both worlds. The what-you-see-is-what-you-get of mirrorless with all the fine visible detail of an optical viewfinder, plus the large size via the magnification of the best old film SLRs. That will make manual focusing even easier on mirrorless cameras. And then I’ve found out a Chinese company that’s made a knockoff of Leica’s 50mm f0.95 Nocton lens. The Leica costs $13,000 (no that’s not a typo). The TTartisans 50mm f0.95 costs $750 (that’s not a typo either) and seems to have better centre sharpness in tests than the Leica. Since Leica mount to mirrorless camera adaptors are tiny, it’d make the perfect portrait lens for a Fuji camera. But that gold-leaf thin depth of field at f0.95 would really be helped by a large, high-res viewfinder to aid focusing. Great times for users of dedicated cameras even as people are writing hot-takes about their death.

August 05, 2020

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 13:37:57 +0000

Poll: Who thinks we need to clean the windows after a third of a year of deadly epidemic. Comment below to cast your important vote. Nothing for six weeks and then two Trinkets in a row. Being less sneaky. She likes to hold a little vigil in the morning when the sun is diffusing so beautifully through the build-up of gunge on the windows. Probably making sure the street isn’t full of sneks. She’s very concerned about sneks, this one.

August 04, 2020

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 21:13:18 +0000

Not a single pic posted in July. Well, I’ve not gone more than a handful of kilometres from home. I’ll probably be one of those people with no pictures of this time that anyone in the future could recognise as being from the pandemic. But then I suppose there’ll be no shortage of pics of empty streets and masked faces. I’ll be pleased to look back at a picture of Trinket spotted through the kitchen window getting up to sneaky shenanigans.

May 04, 2020

Mon, 04 May 2020 09:42:54 +0000

Trinket is the agile one. So using the balcony railing as her runway doesn’t bother us. Skitten on the other hand - who’s twice been witnessed trying to jump onto a coffee table and failing - makes us fret every time.

I took a run Friday when the maximum lockdown restrictions ended. But I need to rethink. The government’s curious decision to only allow exercise between 6 and 9 AM meant that my run by the river was like Oxford Street on a Saturday morning. Most people were wearing masks, but the social distancing is near impossible. . In general our government has given a very mixed performance during the pandemic so far. They locked down early and hard - which is good. But they’ve failed to provide adequately for the massive food insecurity, tolerated extraordinary levels of police brutality (including multiple murders of civlians), and made decisions on lockdown policies that lack any evidence base. It feels, as usual, like the conflict between the essentially competent (if unimaginative) faction of the president and his allies vs. the remaining kleptocrats from Jacob Zuma’s economic strip-mining regime - including the police minister, Bekhi Cele.

April 14, 2020

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 19:54:32 +0000

Morning e para aprender Portugués and drinking coffee in the sun on the balcony. Once I’ve reclaimed my chair from Trinket, that is. We sometimes call this coffee press the, “Darth Vader plunger,” - because it looks like the French Press that would be supplied on Imperial Star Destroyers (imagine the drain gurgle as Vader pours coffee into his helmet). We’ve had it many years and it’s travelled many miles. And it still keeps coffee hot for upwards of an hour.

November 22, 2019

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 14:18:18 +0000

Trinket is being pretty conventional this summer - taking her 19 hrs a day mostly in bed.

October 25, 2019

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 16:38:28 +0000

A rare moment of sibling harmony from the gremmies.

October 03, 2019

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 12:32:45 +0000

Trinket is also a big fan of the balcony in spring.

September 03, 2019

Tue, 03 Sep 2019 09:25:26 +0000

Bun in repose

August 09, 2019

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 10:24:31 +0000

A different kitter. Trinket has a new game of trying to catch her tail under the banister.

June 27, 2019

Thu, 27 Jun 2019 12:22:01 +0000

Morning Trinket.

May 29, 2019

Wed, 29 May 2019 10:19:46 +0000

A throwback to when little Trinket was even littler. I’m hoping they’ll like their new house.

May 16, 2019

Thu, 16 May 2019 15:28:00 +0000

@withoutaleaf wins today’s Trinket pic competition. The weather’s changing and the cats are becoming sun-seekers. (btw, if you want to see pics I don’t post here, check out our @krakatoa_band account).

April 23, 2019

Tue, 23 Apr 2019 13:16:10 +0000

Meanwhile in the chest-of-drawers…

April 11, 2019

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 18:31:41 +0000

Still playing with the XE1, natch. It’s old. But not as old as the last one I was using. So I don’t have to restrict it to bright daylight. This arm of the couch is Trinket’s current top fave evening spot.

February 19, 2019

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 23:06:03 +0000

Every so often they sleep snuggled up like when they were babies.

Slow photography months for me. Today I spent a mind frazzling time learning about 5 months worth of Javascript in 24hrs. #fakingittilyouremakingit might be the single strongest way to learn. They should teach airline pilots that way. “Just get in the cockpit. Sound confident on the intercom. Google the startup procedure. One of our experienced pilots will email you back within two hours if you get really stuck. #bigkittens #gremmies #catsofinsta #salaciouscrumb #effietrinket #crumb #trinket #sleepycats #capesummer

October 11, 2018

Thu, 11 Oct 2018 10:42:37 +0000

A Trinket under the table.

October 05, 2018

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 17:06:21 +0000

It has been a while.

September 20, 2018

Thu, 20 Sep 2018 09:53:17 +0000

Going round the blocks rattling food didn’t turn up our wicked Trinket who is, once again, trying to worry us into an early grave. But this handsome fella did come running and then wanted scritches.

August 17, 2018

Fri, 17 Aug 2018 16:05:50 +0000

Trinket got bigger in the last couple of months and is almost a full-size cat now. She’s still obsessed with playing and doing her little ‘social roll’ on the regular. .

July 13, 2018

Fri, 13 Jul 2018 12:49:09 +0000

I’m biased. But I reckon it’s pretty cute when Trinket goes to sleep in my sock drawer.

July 10, 2018

Tue, 10 Jul 2018 12:10:55 +0000

Little Trinket is soaking up some sun time during our Indian summer.

July 09, 2018

Mon, 09 Jul 2018 13:55:12 +0000

The business of the morning done, these two settle in for a truly productive Monday.

June 25, 2018

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 12:06:27 +0000

A latergram of Trinket just to keep up appearances.

June 11, 2018

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 14:51:08 +0000

Since I had the 50 f1.4 on the camera I grabbed a pic of princess fuss-pot - aka Trinket. Unfortunately, because it’s an unconverted early 70s lens, I had to do some minor surgery to get it off the camera again 😬 #catportraits #effietrinket #trinket #princessfusspot #greeneyes #whiskers #f1.

June 04, 2018

Mon, 04 Jun 2018 18:04:46 +0000

Trinket’s up after a brutal day of relentless napping. She’s exploring the mess that house repairs have left the back yard in. Being a crepuscular creature, she enjoys the winter twilight.

May 22, 2018

Tue, 22 May 2018 13:54:11 +0000

The gremmies having a lovely autumn afternoon.

May 15, 2018

Tue, 15 May 2018 13:02:02 +0000

Trinket - prolly plotting how to make us fret ourselves into an early grave by taking off over the rooftops again.

May 02, 2018

Wed, 02 May 2018 15:04:03 +0000

I don’t think they enjoyed being apart.

May 01, 2018

Tue, 01 May 2018 21:39:48 +0000

Crumb is pretty pleased to have his little sister home again.

May 01, 2018

Tue, 01 May 2018 20:56:37 +0000

Wicked little Miss Trinket is back home after turning us into shattered wrecks over the last three days.

March 23, 2018

Fri, 23 Mar 2018 15:45:33 +0000

Having survived the horrors of the vacuum, Crumb and Trinket are being sweet to each other for a change.

January 17, 2018

Wed, 17 Jan 2018 00:49:11 +0000

It’s a strange scene, but it’s home. I should prolly get that loudspeaker re-covered. And maybe get a stand made for them so that we can use those chairs again…

December 14, 2017

Thu, 14 Dec 2017 15:14:38 +0000

Trinket gleefully steals my postprandial spot on the couch. It’s become her signature move.

December 06, 2017

Wed, 06 Dec 2017 00:16:06 +0000

She’s really rather silly, our Trinket.

October 18, 2017

Wed, 18 Oct 2017 18:20:14 +0000

It’s been a long day involving a frightening vacuum cleaner.

October 02, 2017

Mon, 02 Oct 2017 12:48:00 +0000

34C (93F) here in Cape Town. Trinket’s loving it.

September 27, 2017

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 18:30:57 +0000

Trinket has been playing in the yard at the quiet end of a spring day.

August 29, 2017

Tue, 29 Aug 2017 21:14:48 +0000

The #impossible has happened. They’re a #family now.

August 23, 2017

Wed, 23 Aug 2017 15:47:51 +0000

August 10, 2017

Thu, 10 Aug 2017 13:58:03 +0000

She’s not #precious. She’s only a #trinket.

May 03, 2017

Wed, 03 May 2017 22:08:12 +0000

Late night #snack for #gremmie #Trinket.

April 24, 2017

Mon, 24 Apr 2017 17:42:53 +0000

#nesting #gremmies #Crumb and #Trinket.

April 22, 2017

Sat, 22 Apr 2017 16:47:17 +0000

#crumb and #trinket.

April 20, 2017

Thu, 20 Apr 2017 08:55:36 +0000

#wut?

April 12, 2017

Wed, 12 Apr 2017 21:49:16 +0000

The #gremmies in their #nest. Like two little #birds. Thank goodness I have #Crumb and #Trinket.

April 10, 2017

Mon, 10 Apr 2017 18:32:20 +0000

#Trinket is so damn #cute I can hardly stand it.

March 31, 2017

Fri, 31 Mar 2017 10:37:19 +0000

& sharing some in the

March 18, 2017

Sat, 18 Mar 2017 14:15:20 +0000

Too much #adventure. #exhausted.

March 18, 2017

Sat, 18 Mar 2017 14:02:39 +0000

Little #Trinket considers going outside for the first time ever.