Our little Saturday adventure came to us rather by accident this week. On Friday, while picking up a few groceries, I decided that I was going to finally bring one of the Nuts for Cheese wedges home for us to try. We hadn’t really planned any sort of meal or snack to have it with, but feeling that it would work as a Boursin stand-in, there was only one conclusion we could reach: Bread By Us’ herb focaccia.

With our adventure sorted, and after my monthly brow appointment, we took the train to Hintonburg, where we would browse our way up Wellington, looking at various knick-knacks, bric-a-bracs, and tchotchkes (as well as snacks).

While we didn’t walk away with *too* much, I couldn’t help but pick up some dark chocolate peanut butter cups and a couple more buttons for my purse while at Maker House. And, of course, after stopping in at Spaniel’s Tale, two books: All Hookers Go To Heaven (by Angel B.H.) and Corpses, Fools, and Monsters (by Willow Maclay and Caden Gardner).

Between the chocolate and the books, we discovered that after a long search, Bread By Us had found its new spot! It shows just how long it had been since we stopped in, but after browsing (and touching) the skeins at Wabi Sabi (where they are always so lovely), we found that their new location wasn’t too far away.

After we stopped in at the St. Vincent de Paul (where I never really find anything I’m interested in for some reason), we continued the extra block toward the new location on Smirle and found exactly what we were looking for: a lovely focaccia!

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And wouldn’t you know it? I ended up with a film lesson!

I haven’t used Rollei Retro 400S too often, but was generally pleased with the results I got in the spring when I developed a roll in DD-X. I was much less so with a roll from Hamilton I developed in HC-110, however, finding that it was either underexposed when metered at 400 or that the MDC times for HC-110 were too short, or both.

Since I don’t have any DD-X on hand just now, and didn’t want to risk sacrificing another roll to disappointment in HC-110, I did a little bit of search for others’ experiences with the film and Rodinal. While there was no real consensus, exposing the film at 200 and developing in Rodinal 1+50 for 17 minutes at 20C seemed to be a popular option.

I cannot say that I am enamored with the results. Although not *awful*, and – setting aside any feelings about Rodinal and fast(er) films -, there were a few instances where the highlights ran away and the overall feel’s a little ragged.

It’s possible that I will try this combination again with a few tweaks (meter at 250 or 320?), or just make sure to develop it in DD-X the next time I purchase a bottle.

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