Mum's 77th birthday

My Mum wanted to go to Westward Ho! on her birthday.
Westward Ho! is not very interesting. We went to the Burrows and looked at the sea in a hailstorm. Which of these pictures do you like?

Busy busy busy

I am off to London for a few days tomorrow.
Mainly to see some exhibitions, including the Byzantium one with my sister-in-law and maybe to join in some demos on behalf of the Palestinians. I won't say more as my political views are my own and are based on many of my own emotions and experiences, so I'm not willing to discuss them with anyone who disagrees that Israel is behaving like a bastard. I maybe should say that I am a pacifist and deplore all violence.

My decision about whether to attend vigils and demos will just be based on the weather and my inclination at the time as I have no hope or belief that demonstrations have any effect on hardliners. I don't know what can change the minds of politicians or make them think in human terms rather than in general non-real ways, but I am pretty sure they take no notice of ordinary citizens saying they are not happy.

At the end of next week I will be into one of my seasons of work - making my little bit of money - so may be too busy to blog. I will try and put a pretty picture and a few cheery words on before that. We shall see.
Hope 2009 is okay for all of you so far and that it will get better and better right the way through. If you are that way inclined, say a prayer or cross your fingers for the torture of helpless civilians to stop very quickly.

Happy New Year

It is New Year's Eve here. Some of my friends have already rung in the New Year and some of them are still going about their daytime business.
I haven't taken any pictures for ages - have been busy sorting out other people's computers and trying to clear up after Christmas ready for visitors at the weekend and my daughter's birthday. Sorry
Anyway - I wish you all the best for 2009. We can't have too many good wishes, can we?
I'm about to have a delicious supper, to sit in front of the television for a couple of hours and maybe to go out into town to count down to the New Year. Unlikely, as it is a bit chilly even here in warm Devon.
I wish you whatever you wish yourself.

Evanescence - Cloud Nine

Is it a Temptation?

Urban Art 2 things challenge

Here are some I made earlier. Kaleidoscopes made from photographs from the window. I used pixelmator to make them and I like the funky effect of the kaleidoscope on the buildings. I think you have to click to see the urban details

2 things Apples/Oranges

I decided to take a straight picture of some of the apples and oranges in the kitchen. Who knew we had so many? I should have included some of the apples wrapped in newspaper, but was too lazy to go out in the cold to the shed to get some in. If I have time, I'll try and think of an interesting slant... or not!

two things challenge - yellow green

I panicked and am using an image I have posted already. I lost a lot of my pictures because my computer went into Sleep mode during some delicate moving of files and I was too stupid to understand that it hadn't actually moved them all. Now I just have the first few files and what is still on my camera.... and have spent ages trying to salvage pictures rather than taking any.
Apologies if you have seen this already and recently. LOL

2 things challenge Bent/Straight

click to see
I haven't decided whether to use these two pictures of Echium Blue Steeple for this challenge. I took them earlier in the year at Porlock Weir. They had just about finished blooming. I had seen these in many country cottage gardens. It took me a long time to find out what they were. No-one could tell me. Finally I found a strange plant on sale outside the butcher's shop... the description fit and there we are. Now I have one in my new flower bed and I look forward to it flowering next year.
I'll see if I come up with any other pictures that fit better. In the meantime, I'll upload the Echiums and see what else I find later.

bent straight, second try

my camera was running out of battery but I had to take this shot for bent/straight.

Reflection of John Mora's two knees

reminded me of this
Sittin' In the Evenin' Sun
me and my Dad.

Mine is the plump knee, toes and sandal, his are the brown legs and bare feet....
the other metal leg and feet belong to the table, no relation. also the chair legs... what a feast!

I love my Dad.

carobs carobs and more carobs - but no rats

While I was in Cyprus the carobs were in bloom. I tried hard to get some good photographs of the trees and the flowers. When you stand near the tree you can hear a deafening hum of happy insects. The flowers look weird and the tree smells gorgeous, unmistakeable.
Here are some more pictures of the trees and attempts at the flowers. Just to show how many pictures I took to try and get it right.... I did take more, of course... but I will only post these, I don't want anyone to think I am an obsessive.... because of the way Blogger behaves and because I am lazy - these are not in order of taking, in fat the opposite so if you think I'm not showing any improvement, you may or may not be right... LOL

more Cyprus garden pics

The rats love these mini dates.
Mother of thousands
tecoma
next year's loquats
aaah bougainvillea

up close and personal - click to see

grapefruit relaxing


I love flowers and I would like to be able to photograph them so that they fill the eye in the way that happens in real life. The wow factor.
I am going to be posting more of the pictures I took one day in Cyprus - with my new camera, having foolishly left the manual at home in the UK. Some of them are not so good, as I only worked out about half way round how the closeup worked on this camera. At first I was using the zoom and trying to force it. Some of those are pretty too. the worst ones are those when I suddenly realised I could see the distance and choose what distance I wanted to take the picture at. Ridiculous how foolish I can be... slow to realise! Though I haven't yet found things as breathtaking as with my old traditional camera and tube, I think the pictures got better over the hour or two I was neglecting my hosts and shooting flowers. But I shan't post them in time order.




This was the picture where I realised I could get in close. Not successful, but the first try and I like the colour.



This is the second picture of a mantis and I think it is better. Don't hesitate to advise if you can see obvious ways I could improve my pictures. I am taking some of them to use as resources for painting and digital art, so sometimes they are concerned with textures and patterns rather than composition - if that makes any sense

more and more

I am still lazy. On Saturday I made the Christmas puddings. 2 large and 2 medium for various part of the extended family. Yesterday I made the Christmas cakes - 1 large 3 medium - and jerk chicken and rice and peas for supper. That is it. Today I was so tired I went to bed in the afternoon and SLEPT - proper sleep. Strange. I am so lazy that a bit of cooking is enough activity for a week! LOL
Here are some more pictures. I don't know what they are because I haven't started uploading them yet. I will look and see what I fancy showing you. Right I have chosen
they are strangely esoteric. or are they? The dog is our rescue dog. The rest are pictures from around my Dad's place - including a plant I had to buy them because it was soooooo strange and my first attempt at one of the praying mantises.

photos

I am too lazy to think of anything to write, so I am going to upload some photos. Non-personal ones on here and family holiday pics on the other one.
I can't decide whether to upload to show how I am improving in my camera work, or whether just to upload pictures I like.
Maybe recent pictures I like. So here are a couple or so.