Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts

29.5.16

There's a giraffe in my garden...


Many hours and many loo rolls later, Terribly Tall Terry is ready for the Hay Literary Festival!
Definitely a labour of love, but worth it I think.
He'll be watching over me during the Make Your Own Zoo workshops in the Make and Take tent this Thursday.
We'd love to see you!



Linking up with Photalife's My Sunday Photo 


20.3.16

Shelf life - Sunday photo


Believe it or not the rest of our house is relatively clutter free - but I made up for it here...

It's sort of like the old me escaped and went on a trinket/toy/tat gathering binge.

To be fair, many of the toys are ones I've made and can't face selling, and there's a lot of stuff rescued from my 8 year old daughter's room. She doesn't like ANYTHING on surfaces (what's wrong with her??) - I'll often find a small pile of unwanted nicknacks outside her bedroom door. Can't bear to get rid of them, so I shuffle things along.... and make a space.

Linking up with Photalife's My Sunday Photo

13.3.16

Photo shoot - Sunday photo


Just back from a busy two day photo shoot for the animal board books and next craft book. Not as glamorous as it might sound, but unquestionably more interesting than my usual Thursday/Friday routine! We were in a basement studio somewhere in east London; facing a small but significant cardboard mountain of stuff to do.

I spent all day on my feet, or leaning over a table, holding my breath while I moved animals and tiny flowers/butterflies/snakes into place. Knocked the trees over a few times and the whole lot went like dominos which wasn't at all funny... Heaps of patience required. And my back's in bits.

I've spent a daft number of hours over the last month, making all the teeny finishing touches, like squirrels, rabbits, daisies, patchwork hills.
Many, many things.
Hope they'll make a difference.

Walking and tubing it back to Paddington on a Friday evening with a collection of shoe boxes, and a large art folder was a nightmare. So, so relieved to get to the station; felt like punching the air. But that good feeling didn't last long. The train was heaving. Ended up standing all the way to Bristol Parkway because I hadn't reserved a ticket.
Won't be doing that again.

Linking up with My Sunday Photo at Photalife.

3.6.15

A Favourite Place


I've done a lot of wandering up and down this beach. It's near Tyrella by the Mountains of Mourne in Northern Ireland, and we spent all the childhood summers I can remember, in a small cottage a stone's throw from here.

I don't know how we all managed to squeeze in; often there'd be the six of us, plus cousins and Granny, but you don't think about things like that when you're small do you; it's just the way it was.

What I remember is the mismatched china; lucky bags; ulster fries; an army of earwigs in my felt tip case and swing-ball battles. And just lying on the big bed in the main room, colouring in with my sisters, while mum cooked over the fire beside us in large blackened pans. Life at the cottage was pretty close to camping. There was no electricity and we drew water from a deep well in the garden. Best of all the chemical loo was in a marvellous old sentry box with a sea view my Grandad had picked up in a salvage yard. There were two other tiny rooms off the main one and mum had quite ingeniously managed to shoe-horn in three, three tiered bunks she bought when Armagh prison closed down and all the contents were sold off.

So we slept on our prison beds in sleeping bags full of sand, with a night light flickering beside us. The stuff childhood memories are made of.

Back to the beach and the reason for all the walking, because on the whole kids don't tend to be the keenest walkers, and I was no exception, but the thing is I loved hunting for shells. I'd spend hours wandering slowly along the tidelines, collecting any that caught my eye. The prize finds were always cowries and pelican's feet because there weren't so many, and I did become annoyingly good at finding them.

No surprise then that my daughter has caught the shell-seeking bug...with a gentle push from me obviously, and on a trip to Tyrella a while ago the two of us wandered up the beach together and collected a bucketful of shells. We used them to make mice and pram ladies - I remember doing this with Mum, right down to brushing on a shiny coat of clear nail varnish.


I'm fond of this picture with the sea mist softening lines and colours - she almost looks like she's floating. It was strange old weather, with blustery showers, heavy skies, sun and mist, though not so unusual for a beach day in Northern Ireland...


Funny, I don't really remember it raining during those summers by the sea.


Many more favourite places to peruse over at Tara's Photo Gallery.

11.6.14

Invisible detail



It's the detail you can't see that often makes a picture stand out.

I love this one, not just for the setting, or the lucky break I got with the kids (wouldn't have been able to get them to stand like that if I tried..), but for the stories it tells; the happy thoughts captured in the sky, the sea and the sweep of sand at Rhossili Bay.

When I look I see a favourite place, family time, harmony, space to think, shell seeking, paddling, rock pool exploring, no school, no work, sand gardens, smooth stones, paragliders, fish and chips, wild garlic...

I want to go again - why don't we do it more often? All too few and far between, these family days out.

Seeing the kids together, but also standing apart: close yet independent; so different - the boy with the ball; the fearless girl and the strong-willed one wearing that green jacket he refused to take off for the best part of a year.

The more you look…..memories set off others, like ripples fanning out from a pebble dropped in a rock pool.

The Gallery theme this week is Detail

30.4.14

Merrymakers


Woof! possesses magical powers; he seems to be able to calm the nine year old down in a way none of the rest of us can.
My rascal is all over the place at the moment, bouncing from sweet to sour at breathtaking speed. And not so much of the sweet since school started. But a moment or two with Woof! somehow helps him snap out of it. You can almost see the anger ebb away.

Heaven help us when he eventually loses interest; makes me feel sad thinking about it. But no sign of that happening yet - in fact Woof! has a growing band of merry followers who go everywhere with him.


My husband has started making up stories about this motley crew, and they're obviously good because I often hear howls of laughter coming from the 9 year old's room.  So, next to Woof! we have Snuggly Duck, Duck - grey, worn and well chewed - her french name is Snoogalay Canard, Canard and she is trouble basically; then there's Aussie Bruce, the narcoleptic rabbit who never finishes his sentences, and his painfully shy second cousin Oscar.

All it takes is a story and a sniff of Snuggly or Woof and life is good again.

Wouldn't that be great?


The Gallery theme this week is Happy!

22.1.14

The Gallery - Something beautiful


...yes, I know, another sunrise - a few years of blogging and I'm getting pretty predictable! Give me a photo prompt like 'something beautiful' and I can't help thinking Sky. Again.

Thing is, if I see one like this I just want to try to catch it. To catch that beautiful, magical, fleeting moment. Always lifts my spirits, unless I've forgotten to bring the blinking camera.

It is another school run photo; another, 'Hurry up mum, we're going to be LATE!' photo. Definitely one of the benefits of being up and on the road so early, though not sure the kids would agree…


Many more beautiful things over at The Gallery

10.1.14

Room with a View 2013


12 months and hundreds of photos later, and here it is: my patchwork landscapes or landscapes patchwork? And it's good seeing all the months side by side - a reflection of the ever changing view from our window over the year.

If I do anything like this again, I'd be more disciplined about how and when I take the photos: I'd stick to the same time of day and the same frame - having said that, the most out of sync one of the horses by the hedge in March is my favourite. Think I got better with the framing as the months went on.

I'm glad I did it - we're blessed with the view, still, you know how it is with things right in front of you every day: you kind of end up looking but not seeing. And I did see last year: how the light catches and lifts the landscape; how the shadows shift; how the rain can make it all fade to grey. Good to stop for a minute and properly take it all in.

Need to do more of that really.


27.11.13

Early Bird


another school run photo, and when it comes to early morning skies, there have been some right stunners this month...obviously some pretty dismal, depressing ones too, but thought I'd focus on the good days, in a cup half full kind of way.

I know it doesn't get the best press, November - the first real icy blast of winter and fading autumn colour, yet for me it's more than just the dull inbetweener because it's my birthday month. Not that I get remotely excited about that anymore, but it's never a month I wish away either.

We pick up a friend's son a few times a week, and this is the sky view just past their house. Well, sometimes it is, when the clouds lift high enough to let the light shine through.When the weather's good there's that moment of anticipation as we turn onto the road heading due east, and get our first proper look at the sun rising behind the hills. Even more spectacular when the clouds catch the colours. For a minute on a chilly November morning it drowns out the racket in the back of the car and never fails to lift my spirits.
Hope ahead.


The Gallery theme this week is November

14.11.13

The Gallery: The turquoise trouser suit


I think it's fair to say my fashion sense has never been that great...

I remember loving this smart little nylon number - not sure who got it for me though - definitely wasn't my mum because she couldn't bear it.

I don't know why she didn't just make the suit mysteriously disappear. I've tried this a few times, but annoyingly my daughter has a knack of finding whatever it is before I've squirrelled it out of the house.

On the day the picture was taken, my cousins were coming to stay, and I was determined to show off my trouser suit. Of course as soon as mum caught a glimpse of turquoise, she told me in no uncertain terms to change - I point blank refused and was sent to my room…she really must have hated it!
When I heard the cousins arriving, I sneaked out and climbed through a small window at the side of the house, casually joining everyone outside by the car as if nothing had happened - and I was pretty certain mum would be too busy to make a fuss.

But she did make a point of taking this photo. Even though she knew it would be years before I actually got the point….

Now I have reasonably regular clothes battles with my 6 year old, which she usually wins - but I do take photos of her more memorable outfits.  For later.


Plenty more classic photos over at The Gallery - the theme this week is A Younger Me.

24.9.13

Confession of a Daddy Longlegs

Daddy Longlegs

My legs are too long, my wings are too short,
I fly like a learner that's been badly taught.
My gangly limbs make life really tricky,
and best to steer clear of anything sticky...

For I once had a friend called Lollop McFloutit,
who got his leg in some jam and flew off without it...
But friendships are fleeting, we aren't around long,
Born, Mate and Die; two weeks and we're gone.

So I cling to a wall until there's a Light,
then I hover and bother and give folks a fright.
Round and round until it gets dark,
the same every day, how's that for a lark?

And I know you all wonder what we actually do,
but honest to goodness I haven't a clue.


Linking up with Victoria's 'Prose for Thought' 

3.9.13

Jumping back in

We got back from our travels a few days ago now, and went head first into a whirl of getting ready for school. New schools too for all of them, so even more stuff to sort out. I should really be sewing on name tapes instead of blogging, but hey...

I had a picture in my head of how the summer was going to pan out, which was obviously daft - things rarely go the way you think, do they. And there were indeed a few unexpected twists and turns:  some good, some decidedly not so good.

The first was a grim little detour to the land of pain, when I did something agony to my shoulder. There is no great story attached to this injury; no tale of daring do, no sporting heroics, not even an over-energetic frisbee throw....
I was sewing. Yep, sewing. And when I finished sewing I couldn't move my right arm without screaming.
It all happened so quickly, SO out of the blue - and it completely stopped me in my tracks.
Not great when you're in France on your own with the kids.
There were some painkillers, which took the edge off the agony, but they soon ran out and I spent one long, uncomfortable night on the sofa, watching the West Wing and talking to the cat.

Straight to the doctor the next day, who prescribed a cocktail of pills and, thankfully, they seemed to do the trick. So apart from a bit of one-handed driving, I did nothing for a week: the kids lived on bread and we watched a lot of DVDs....including all 7 series of 'Sorry' - the 80's sitcom with Ronnie Corbett (lives at home with his overbearing mother) Anyone remember it? The eldest loved it for some reason, but not quite as much as his 'Legends of Tennis' DVD which he watched at least 23 times.

Weirdly there were a few good things that came from the shoulder injury: I got back into reading, about the only thing I could do. I'd sort of got out of the habit, and had forgotten how much I missed a good book.
It's also the only time I've ever gone to France and lost weight.

The next casualty of the holidays was my camera - dropped on a hard, cold tiled floor by the second born. I very nearly almost cried; not because it was expensive or particularly brilliant, but because we've been through a lot, that little camera and me. I'm rather attached to it in a sentimental kind of way. It isn't completely and utterly bust, but landed on the zoom lens; so sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Time I think to look for a new one. I still managed to take a few photos, and this is probably my favourite - taken at the Dune du Pilat near Bordeaux, which is definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the area.


The shoulder injury put paid to my ambitious Jumble Betty toy production plans too. I had hoped to build up a decent stock. But, if I'm honest, it wasn't just the shoulder - I simply ran out of steam.
Still, having no internet for ages probably helped boost bunnies etc, and I managed this lot. Quite a few of them aren't finished though.


I did however finish knitting the Tintin jumper for my 8 year old. The one I started when he was 6. I'm not going to do the big reveal yet as it needs to be sewn up. And I'm not feeling too optimistic, because all the kids have grown like weeds this summer. I know I'll have a job on my hands to get the youngest to wear it. She's not into Tintin... or jumpers.

I've more summer shenanigans to write about if you can bear it, but will leave that for a quiet moment when the kids are back at school, and the name tape mountain has shrunk to a gentle mound.

10.7.13

Butterfly - The Gallery


Never think of myself being particularly patient, but the other day I spent a good hour happily chasing butterflies around a field, trying to catch one on camera. Definitely a challenge as they flit about so fast, and by the time I'd sneaked up close enough, holding my breath, they'd be off again, dancing above the wild flowers.
Most of my pictures are blurred or just of nothingness; but I really didn't mind that, or getting long grass stuck in my flip flops, or the pins and needles in my hand from holding the camera so tight. All worth it. I'd have clicked away for longer if I could.

Seeing them fluttering about is one of those joyful signs of summer (now we have one!) - and don't forget the Big Butterfly Count from the 20th July to the 11th August. Get involved if you can. Just 15 mins in a sunny spot, recording what you see. Such a great thing to be part of, and we learnt a lot doing it last year. I always look out for them now, which is probably why I ended up chasing butterflies around a field in the sunshine.

Linking up with The Gallery - this week's theme is SUN

5.6.13

I See You Two


The eyes have it,
wouldn't you say?
Whatever she's feeling
they give it away.
Excited, sad,
hard to disguise,
glinting there
in her big blue eyes.


The Gallery theme this week is Two

10.4.13

The Gallery - Happy!


I have more meaningful happy photos: places, occasions, memories; but couldn't resist this one of my daughter taking a big old bite out of Hello Kitty.

You just know she's happy - blissed out on cat shaped chocolate.

Food and happiness - so tightly wrapped together, especially when the food's sweet!

I'd have gone for the ears first too.
Isn't it always the ears?


Linking up with The Gallery 
 the theme this week is Happy

3.4.13

Bumbling along together - The Gallery



I love this picture of my daughter with her little ballet pals all colouring away, like busy bees around a honey pot.
The girls were waiting to dance in their annual performance - and what a performance it was: over a hundred children happily bouncing about in their colourful costumes: I've already posted a photo of the bumble bees about to buzz on stage.

As it was such a big show, there was a fair amount of hanging around, and just a handful of parents to keep the kids entertained. All I can say is thank goodness for a colouring-in book and a pencil case full of felt-tips. It may be classic stereotyping, but it did the trick. For a fleeting moment I remember thinking about my boys, and wondering what we'd have done to keep a gang of 4/5 year old lads quiet for a whole hour.

Seeing her with her friends also reminds me of a chat I had with the 8 year old in the car the other day. He told me he was going to ask his best mate for some money so he could buy a much-longed for computer game - I told him he really couldn't do that.
'Why not?'
'Well, you can't just ask for money, it's not very nice, and that's how you lose friends.'
All of a sudden my daughter piped up from the back,
'I'm never EVER going to lose any friends mummy,
and if I do I've got some spare ones.'

May she always have a case full of colours and plenty of spare friends..


Linking up with The Gallery - the theme is 'Together'
Apologies for the lack of commenting this week - we're away, and no
internet!  

27.3.13

Life changing walks - The Gallery

I used to be a reluctant walker. Never keen to go out anywhere. I remember when I was about 11 refusing point blank to join a family walk in Tollymore Forest Park, and sitting by the car for what felt like hours until they got back. On my own. Wouldn't happen now would it. Anyway, my lack of enthusiasm for moving any further than I had to, stayed with me well into my 20's. Then in my early 30's things started to unravel: love, work, friendships; and just as I was descending into the depths of despair, an opportunity arose to travel in South America. My family pushed me to go, and I'm so glad they did.
There was a lot of trekking: I walked my little legs off, and I can clearly remember one moment, along the Inca Trail in Peru, when I properly took in the beauty around me and felt truly happy for the first time in ages.
Hey thinny! Highest point on the Inca trail

bleak beauty of the Mournes
The clouds of self-pity started to lift, and by the time I got home I was stronger, more positive and a born again walker.

Things began slotting back into place in my life, and I went walking most weekends; usually in the Mournes and usually on my own.
Then I met a wonderful man who also liked to walk - and one glorious day, after a steady climb up Rocky Mountain, I was getting our picnic ready - goats cheese quiche; never forget food  - and turned round to find him on bended knee, holding a beautiful ring.
A perfect, magical moment; it really felt like we were on the top of the world, in this amazing, wild, empty space - the only people for miles...when out of nowhere we heard a voice,

'Did she say yes?' 

Three young lads appeared on the other side of the peak. Couldn't believe it. We hadn't seen a soul all day. What were the chances?

'Yes, she said YES!'

Makes me smile thinking about it - and there've been a few jokes over the years about his choice of mountain for the proposal..

I walked on air that day.


Linking up with The Gallery - the theme this week is Walks