too much at random

aran knitting?

2010-08-03T11:41:00.000-07:00

This is a very quick post to add a link to london daily nature photo. I think that this is one of the best photographs I've seen for a long time, and made me think of this article on BBC NI recently discussing "yarn bombing".

It would have to be done on four tiny, tiny knitting needles :)

tick tock, tick tock....

2010-07-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

sundial in Carnfunnock

The days and weeks are starting to fly past in a bit of a blur - I can't believe that it's over a week since my last post. Sometimes everything that is going to take up your time happens at once, so that things that have to be completed for work have the same deadline, or people that you want to see for different reasons are only available on the same day - last week was a little like that!

At least the weekend was very relaxing, and we were able to get away for a couple of days to Co. Down, where we visited Castle Ward near Strangford.

This was our first visit and it was a day that we both really enjoyed. The grounds are large and lovingly looked after and the house is both beautiful and extraordinary. Unfortunately photographs aren't allowed inside the house, otherwise I would have had enough pictures for the next year, but hopefully these contrasting images of the outside will give some idea of the quirkiness involved in its conception and design.

The couple that built the house in the 1700's couldn't agree on the style. The lady of the house (who brought a large fortune to the marriage) was very inspired by Strawberry Hill, the gothick mansion belonging to Horace Walpole and she wanted to build the house in this style.

Her husband was opposed to this idea and wanted to build it in the classical style. So they compromised. Here is the front facade, facing the entrance and the grounds, plain, classical and grand.

Here is the rear facade, facing out over Strangford Lough.

Gothic windows with a bit of moorish influence. Inside the rooms are mostly classical except for milady's sitting room, which has a ceiling that is designed to replicate a moorish tent, and an incredibly busy wallpaper with matching soft furnishings. A striking room, but somehow not restful. Apparently she had wanted to have all the rooms in this style - I can't say that I blame her husband for disagreeing!

The grounds are wonderful and although the Sunken Garden is not large, it's very beautiful and as we were the only people in it at the time, very tranquil.

sunken garden

The fountain has a statue of Neptune


Neptune reflecting

and the garden is surrounded by a beautiful old wall, decorated with fabulous trees and plants.

detail from the sunken garden

There is a fourteen mile walk around the estate which you can complete (we didn't even try!) and the lake has swans,

wildfowl

and resting places where you can sit and contemplate the meaning of life...

My favourite place was Yew Tree Terrace.

Yew Tree Terrace

This is a stand of yew trees, forming a lane that takes you out of the sunlight for a little while, but never lets you lose sight of it. Truly beautiful.

All in all a lovely day, and to finish it off perfectly, the evening sky was spectacular!

quick - make a list!

2010-07-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

One of the constants throughout my childhood and adult years has been a need to make lists of books. As a child, the lists involved the books that were in our house (and there were many, many books) that were used to play "library".

As I got older, the lists evolved into books that were to be read and books that had been read, as well as books that were for buying, that were for ordering from the library or that were back catalogues of authors that I liked and were for exploring. At university the lists of set texts were like manna from heaven and after university I became a bookseller for many years, which was like being paid for something that you were doing anyway! I worked in both a small independent and then a large national, both of which had their advantages and, sadly, neither of which exist any longer. The large national was too much competition for the smaller shop and then, weirdly, proceeded to put itself out of business through over-expansion!

Thankfully I had already moved on by then, onto a different career path, but still I have lists. At the moment the lists are of the books that are to be read and also a list of books (both familiar and new) that I read throughout each year. Looking through the list of books read so far this year, a couple caught my eye. I thought I'd like to mention them; one of them is probably much better known than the other.

The lesser known title first. If you have read Diary of a Nobody, the likelihood is that you will enjoy Augustus Carp Esq by Himself, being the autobiography of a really good man (see the photograph above).

It was first published in 1924, and the copy I have is a reprint from 1985 - well read and rather the worse for wear but not for parting with! Augustus tells his own story from the time of his birth to the birth of his first child. To give an idea of the voice of Augustus, here is a quote from his description of his own beloved father, whom he resembles to an uncanny degree:

"...my father's eyes were of a singularly pale, unwinking blue, while in his massive ears, with their boldly outstanding rims, resided the rare faculty of independent motion."

A man of goodness - "sidesman, churchwarden, and President of the St. Potamus League for purity" - Augustus describes his childhood and adulthood in the voice of self-righteousness - "...when the heads of households, prefer the flicker of the cinematograph to the Athanasian Creed..." in order to provide a moral example to an increasingly sinful world.

I think that the difference between this book and Diary of a Nobody is that while we have affection and some sympathy for Mr. Pooter, Augustus Carp is so priggish and morally certain, that we can laugh without feeling guilty. The author has created the character very skillfully. Augustus is not so obnoxious that we want to stop reading, but is too obnoxious to make us feel anything other than pleased when he gets his comeuppance.

Robert Robinson called it "the funniest unknown book in the world". It makes me laugh out loud each time I read it - it's a book that feels like an old friend.

The second title is "Collected Ghost Stories" by M.R. James. A few years ago I went through a phase of reading lots of ghost stories and came across some that were excellent. Images from ghost stories by E.F. Benson are still in my head, and The Woman in Black by Susan Hill was incredibly spooky.

Despite this, for me M.R. James is still the master of the ghost story. Casting the Runes is probably his best known story - it's terrifying and suspenseful, with a growing horror underlying the seemingly ordinary day to day activities of the main character. It was filmed in 1958 as Night of the Demon, starring Dana Andrews and despite updating the setting and changing some of the story to include a romance, it is hugely suspenseful and manages to have me on the edge of my seat each time I watch it.

The Mezzotint, which is my favourite story, has images in it that can make it difficult to think of having any art work that has a "view of a manor house, early part of the century" in your home. The gradual changes to a mezzotint aquired at auction spell out a horrific story, which is all the more frightening because the full story is never told, and the narrator remains rather distant. It's like something only half glimpsed in a dream that's turning into a nightmare.

M.R. James' stories are very understated; there are no ghouls or bodies falling out of cupboards. He creates a convincing place and time as a background and the characters are believable and ordinary. There is also a surprising amount of humour in some of the stories. But overall the suspense, fear and horror are like mist - they creep around you and envelope you as they grow.

If you haven't read M.R. James, wait for a dark afternoon in winter, preferably with an open fire and a glass of wine or cup of tea, and most importantly, with other people in the house!

a bloomsday haunting in smalltown USA about to be invaded by aliens.....

2010-07-17T05:01:00.000-07:00

The title of this post is one that I may use now that I've been officially confirmed as writing like James Joyce, HP Lovecraft and Stephen King!

This article in yesterday's Guardian gives the link to I Write Like, a very useful website (created by coding robots) that can confirm for you which famous writer your prose style most resembles. So in my last post, in three separate paragraphs, I resembled (apparently) the three writers mentioned above. Not bad for a rambling little post about headaches and flowers!!

Try it and find out if your prose style is that of a master - or a money spinner like Dan Brown. I'm off to practise my long stream of consciousness sentences, with ghostly overtones and a building sense of horror, set in a seemingly idyllic small town.....well you get the idea.

Interestingly, THIS post is written in the style of Harry Harrison, a science fiction writer and author of The Stainless Steel Rat, so I'll have to add some intergalactic Irishness into the whole thing. Enjoy the website - I certainly am!!

A pain in the head

2010-07-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

We are back to fairly normal routine now, after the holiday long weekend and unfortunately part of that routine recently has been a recurrence of migraine headaches. These had eased off for me over the last few years, but recently they have increased in number and strength.

Yesterday afternoon was a classic demonstration of how a migraine can take over your day. I'm lucky in the respect that the migraines I experience don't have any visual disturbances attached. The throbbing pain behind the left eye and the nausea that accompanies it are very unpleasant and there is no other option for me but to lie down and try to sleep. Over the years (these began when I was about 9 years old) I've realised that there is no way of diverting a migraine once it has a hold. Lying down in the dark is the only course and IF I'm lucky I won't get sick.

Yesterday I just about made it home from work at 3.30 pm and lay down. I finally surfaced at 8.45 pm feeling a bit woozy but ready for a cup of tea. So much for all the plans I had for yesterday afternoon!

I think that the reason I've written about this at length is that there is often confusion between a bad headache, which is very unpleasant and a migraine, which is often completely debilitating and in some cases can need hospital treatment. Generally with a migraine it's impossible to do anything while you're suffering from it - light hurts your eyes and movement makes you sick. I find it difficult to hold my head upright when in the grip of a migraine, because it hurts too much and makes me feel, and often be, sick So, that was my Thursday afternoon!!

There may be an upside to migraine for some sufferers, however, as this treatment has just been approved.

Anyway, on to more pleasant things and while we were away at the weekend, we visited various places around the Antrim Coast, including the Walled Garden at Glenarm Castle. It's a very peaceful, tranquil place to spend an afternoon - there's something about a walled garden that really takes you back in time and creates a sense of the rightful order of things. The photograph at the top of the post shows one of the displays - I haven't identified all the plants yet from my trusty RHS Encyclopedia, but I thought the colour contrast in this part of the garden was beautiful.

There are wonderful borders of mint, which is quite rampant and attracting butterflies.

The mint is also trying to invade the old greenhouses that run the length of the front wall.

The layout incorporates variations of themes that probably would have been seen in 18th or 19th Century gardens, including hedged walkways, water features, a herb garden and a sundial.

There's also this statue, which I loved. I haven't been able to find out who the artist is or when it was made, but I'm still looking.

There are plenty of flowers, with many varieties of rose

and fruit trees which were producing fruits very enthusiastically.

We also came to the conclusion during that afternoon that slowly but surely we were turning into our respective parents! How do you get from rolling your eyes at the thought of going out for a run in the car to look at a garden, to actively enjoying it? We've become the people we never believed that we would be! Thank goodness we're enjoying it.

It's a jolly holiday...

2010-07-09T02:44:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's the holiday weekend in Northern Ireland and in honour of a few days off work, here's Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke at their finest!

As children, a cousin and I used to have concerts for our parents and grandparents, and would sing all the songs from Mary Poppins, while standing on a couple of chairs in absence of a stage. I LOVE this film :)

So, we'll be having a few days going hither and thither - I have a couple of new books to read, groceries bought and days off work. I'll be off the radar for a few days, back again next week. I hope that you have a lovely weekend.

forget me nots

And the (joint) winner is...

2010-07-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

A blog that I love to follow is written by Heckety Beck (whispers -although I think that may not be her real name).

A week or so ago, Heckety threw down the poetry gauntlet and challenged us to come up with a meaningful, relevant - oh alright a daft piece of doggerel. I'm proud to say that Gran and I are joint winners of the Funniest Rhymes. Luckily they were meant to be funny!

If you follow the Heckety link above, you'll be able to read all the entries in their glory. If you explore Heckety's blog further you'll also be able to admire the patchwork and crafts that she creates in between blogging.

The image below is one of a series that I've been taking of the rocks, pebbles and shells that I've collected over the years.

The picture at the top is the lady of the manor surveying her serfs.

By the way, check out this treasury on Etsy. Balanced, who put it together, very kindly used one of my photographs as the starting point for it. That made me smile VERY widely!

Just because I can!

2010-07-05T12:48:00.000-07:00

I had hoped to use a page on this blog to share my unfolding 365 project; however, Flighty pointed out that there was no comment facility on the 365 page.

Having tried to work out how to enable comments, I realised that it was probably easier for me to begin a new blog - I was feeling drunk with my power over technology, apart from the comments enabling of course - the title of this post should actually be Just because I CAN'T.

So I have started confidence in nonsense, a title taken from an anonymous quote which appealed to me because nonsense really does occupy a large part of my day. Really.

I hope that you will visit my new blog and let me know what you think.

365 - minus one

2010-07-04T06:52:00.000-07:00

I've thought about it for some time and now I have finally started. You'll see in the list of pages at the top of this post that there is one for the 365 Project and my first picture is now posted! It seems strange to deliberately start something that will last for a year - I tend not to think that far ahead most of the time, at least in terms of what I'll be doing.

I hope that you'll have a look at the pictures there as time goes on and as always, comments are very welcome.

Have a look at the Treasuries page too. Etsy is a wonderful place for imagination and creativity, and the treasuries that I've put together are some of my favourite things that have appeared in various searches. It's almost like challenging people - I searched using the word "silence" for example and was amazed at what appeared.

Ok, you'll know where to find me for the next 364 days :)

a new affair of the heart.....?

2010-07-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a comment on Flighty's Plot, in which I said that I wasn't a great fan of roses.

That seems to have made fate or karma or the Great Rose God smile in a mischievous sort of way. Not long afterwards, we went away for the weekend and stumbled on a small rose garden. I can't remember exactly how many photographs I took there, but it was a clatter (Northern Irish for more than a few and less than loads).

I realise now that I have never really appreciated the variety of shapes, colours and general beauty that roses can assume, but my education has started. The collage shows a few of the roses on display - two of the shots have been processed (bottom left corner and top right corner).

If anyone can help out with the varieties here, I'd be very grateful. I have the RHS Encyclopedia, but there are so many variations it's difficult to identify them when you're starting from scratch.

Now, the image at the start of the post! This is a piece of public art in Coleraine. It stands at a waterbus stop on the River Bann, on which Coleraine is built.

It's quite a striking work and I think it's a dragonfly, which may be a reference to the river. Frustratingly, I haven't been able to track down any reference to it on the Coleraine Council website or public art in Northern Ireland websites and so I have no idea who created it or when it was set up. It looks to me as if it may be made from recycled materials, but that may not be the case. Anyhow, I'll keep trying and may end up contacting the council to try to get some info. It actually looks a little bit confused to me, as if it's not sure how it ended up on the pole or what to do now!

I realised that with one thing and another, Creativity Boot Camp had come to an end all of a sudden. We had exam fever in our house for a while there, with AS levels going on, so I fell a little behind with some of the prompts. I still have one more to do, but here are the last few to complete all the images.

Full bodied - this is my favourite jug, from the Iveagh Pottery in Co. Kerry. I LOVE the shape and the colours.

Smooth - the first image for this was hurried and also betrayed the fact that I was thinking about food

The second image for smooth was much more refined!!

The final prompt was Smile and I'm afraid that things became a little silly

The only one that's left is Hush; I intend to post an image for that, but am not hushed at all at the minute and so will wait a little before deciding what it's going to be.

The Boot Camp was fantastic - I felt that it gave the opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and start to do things differently to the way I had been used to. I'm continuing with Sunday Creative, which will be a little more leisurely.

Men with forward facing haircuts....

2010-06-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

This is a day or two late but I was really sad to hear, on Friday 25/6/10, of the death of Alan Plater.

He has written many, many programmes for television as well as plays, screenplays and books. I remember watching his Trinity Tales in the '70's and the wonderful Beiderbecke Affair in the 1980's, plus the two follow up series, The Beiderbecke Tapes and the Beiderbecke Connection.

It was in this Trilogy that he referred to "young men with forward facing haircuts" - a description that may be difficult to explain but which gives a very clear picture of the type of person being described! I still use that phrase (in my head) when dealing with cold calling sales types.

Barbara Flynn and James Bolam in The Beiderbecke Affair

Alan Plater also adapted Fortunes of War for BBC and wrote the screenplay for A Very British Coup. A recent very fine episode of Lewis was written by him. If Alan Plater's name was in the credits then I would watch whatever it was because the quality of writing was guaranteed.

I hope that some of his programmes will be repeated now to give those who missed some of the early ones a chance to enjoy them. Personally, I'm going to watch the Beiderbecke Affair again, enjoy the partnership of James Bolam and Barbara Flynn for the umpteenth time and remember a very, very fine writer.

Not here today......

2010-06-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

.......but find me here!

The guest post that I have written for Vision and Verb is published today and I'm very proud to have been asked.

I've just got back after spending a couple of days away and will catch up very soon. Just one quick picture from this weekend - the colour of this flower does my heart good :)

by the way

2010-06-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

While I was answering Flighty's comment on my last post, I was reminded of one of the most fearsome places I have ever been. I have a terrible fear of heights and when we visited the North Antrim coast a few years ago I decided to "face my fear" and go across the Carrick A Rede Rope Bridge.

image from wikipedia

We (my husband, son and I) got across, but I was only able to come back with my eyes tight shut holding on to Mr Pugh's coat, with my son behind me encouraging me on!! I actually had flashbacks about being on the bridge for days afterwards, especially when drifting off to sleep at night. Being a rope bridge, it moves you see, and people in front of you make it bounce and then stop to take photographs leaving you in the middle of a moving few pieces of rope and planks!

Optical Illusion

2010-06-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

I've used this title because I can't think of a better way to describe the National Trust house that we visited at the weekend. We spent Friday - Sunday afternoon on the North Coast of the province, near Bushmills. The weather was GLORIOUS and on Saturday we walked for miles. It was the mix of weather and location that can make you feel glad to be alive and to feel that you could do anything.

We went to The Downhill Demense and the walk through the estate itself is lovely. To reach the remains of Downhill House you follow the paths cut into the meadow upwards towards the cliffs overlooking Downhill Strand. Firstly you pass the Mausoleum, the top part of which was blown down in the Night of the Big Wind in 1839.

The views are beautiful.

You can see by the grass in the photograph above that there was a very strong breeze and it got stronger the higher we went. Some of the pictures might be a little fuzzy - at one point the breeze was blowing straight on, making me take a step back as I tried to take a picture!

Approaching the house, this is what you see -

It looks as if there's just a shell of the front left and although it is very imposing, looks as if it will take maybe 15 minutes to see all there is to see.

This is the house from the side -

My jaw dropped as we went through the front gate. Because of the slope at the back you have no idea from the front of how large it actually is - the people in the picture above give some idea of the scale. From the front entrance you walk through the centre down through to where the courtyard and stable yard were towards the back.

The back looks like this

And a path from the rear entrance leads to the Mussenden Temple, possible the best known landmark in N.I after the Giant's Causeway.

This is on the edge of the cliffs looking over the strand at Downhill. The picture below was taken from the side of the temple (you can see the wall on the left).

Again, for scale, the shapes on the beach in the distance are cars.

Most of the way round the estate, the wind blows off the ocean and you can see how it has affected this tree!

A lovely day!

holy crunching wasps, Batman!!??!!!

2010-06-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

Sneaking around the Euonymus shrub in the garden, as I do, looking for hiding snails, I was a little puzzled to hear a scratching noise - quite a loud one at that.

I finally realised that it was a wasp scrunching on the dead fennel stem (I leave it because the snails seem to like it, and the new growth isn't tall enough yet). There are creepy crawlies that I don't like to go near, but I am actually scared of wasps and forget that I am hundreds of times bigger that they are. They make me leap away and poise myself for panic stricken flight with a bit of hand flapping in case one is near my head. I did steel myself to take a picture

at arms length, so that I couldn't even see if it was focused. It wasn't! Apparently wasps chew wood to make pulp to build their nests - the amount of chewing needed must be intense, and after reading about them I've gained a little more insight into the benefits of having wasps around to prey on other pests. Mind you, they really do bring out my flight reflex, and fighting is forgotten about completely.

Having survived that encounter, I carried on with some work for the Creativity Boot Camp. There are not many more days to go, which is kind of sad because I really feel that I've been able to try different things and be inspired by other people's work.

Day 9's prompt was drizzle. I immediately thought of rain - this is Northern Ireland after all - and this was my image

We were also challenged to try something in a medium that we don't normally use, so I had a bit of fun with soft pastels and did some leaf prints.

I won't give up the day job just yet :)

Just to prove that snails love fennel, dead or alive (the fennel that is), here's an example. His/her shell looks a little the worse for wear, but still climbing that fennel stalk like a champion.

D'OH!

2010-06-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

I learned a valuable lesson yesterday - if you would like to take good photographs, in fact ANY photographs, make sure you put the battery in your camera before leaving the house. Imagine my surprise when, having arrived at our destination, the camera wouldn't switch on.....now imagine what was said when I realised why!

Oh well, as Homer says, "I am so smart, S.M.R.T, d'oh, S.M.A.R.T."

To catch up on previous posts, I have finished reading Dracula and am kind of in between books at the minute. There are quite a few on the bedside table which are on the must read list, but I can't really settle to any of them at the moment. Instead I've been dipping into essays by James Thurber which have been known to make me cry with laughter. If you haven't come across Thurber, I highly recommend his stories and cartoons. Here is a list of Thurber's books on Amazon.

Creativity Boot Camp is still going strong and there have been some challenging prompts! My brain is starting to hurt a little, but that's because parts of it are being used that have been inactive for a long time.

Anyway, the prompt on Day 6 was fluid. This is my image

Day 7's prompt was fly. This became a little more difficult because of the no battery situation when we were out! However, I collected some fallen petals, leaves and flower heads and for the first time in YEARS made a collage. This is it (after messing about on picnik)

Day 8 has been much more fun. The image came much more easily this time, because the prompt was ornament - there are such a lot of different bits and pieces that I have collected since childhood that have enormous sentimental value, even though some are a bit the worse for wear. The finished article

was so much fun to do and of course took much longer because of having to look through EVEYTHING, and remember where I had got them. Look here for a list of what the different items in the collage are.

Dandelion Treasure

2010-06-11T09:14:00.000-07:00

A quick post to add a link to a treasury on Etsy called make a wish.

Liz Hutnick very kindly included one of my photographs, but check out some of the paintings that have been included - I want them all!!

Water, water everywhere...

2010-06-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

I saw this insect today in the garden. It may be something quite common, but none the less I have no idea what it is. If anyone recognises it, please let me know. It did look a little freaky to me :(

Yesterday's Creativity Boot Camp phrase was "heavy metal" and today's is "grow".

Both challenging and very good at making you "think outside the box". I found yesterday's the most difficult so far, probably because of the musical connotations (I REALLY don't get the music) and also partly because I kept thinking of "heavy water" (I may have watched the "Heroes of Telemark" too many times).

Anyway, after thinking on and off most of the morning and afternoon, and repeating the phrase to myself under my breath, because that really helps (!), I came up with this

(semi) heavy metal

I found metal buttons decorated with anchors, that have been around the house for years. I thought if I put them in water I would get some interesting reflections. I did NOT expect one to sink and one to float! The result was a little more abstract than I expected.

Today's prompt was "grow" and because I photograph a lot of plants and flowers, which were my immediate thought, I wanted to do something different. So it was "grow, GROW, grow, gro-o-o-w" all morning (under my breath, thankfully).

I got to thinking about what makes anything, in particular plants, grow and finally came up with this shot

It's a shot of my favourite bowl filled with water which is rippling in the breeze outside and reflecting the sunlight - water, oxygen, sunlight - what makes plants grow! Soil is the fourth requirement and that's what the bowl is sitting on! No, not cheating.

This shot turned out to be very abstract, much more than I had intended, but I liked the colours and refractions so this is the one that's been posted to the CBC Flickr group. It's well worth a visit to see the many interpretations of the various prompts and also to see some outstanding photographs.

One of my favourite blogs is Vision and Verb which I read everyday. There are such a variety of interesting, thought provoking posts there, with some great pictures. I was very surprised and really honoured to be invited to write a guest post for them. With a mixture of excitement and trepidation I agreed; it's been sent off and I really hope that it is up to scratch. Time will tell......

Thanks to Marcie for issuing the invitation and if you haven't visited the site, it's really worth a look.

A lot of hens?

2010-06-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

Boot camp Day Three and the creativity muscles are getting a fine workout!

The theme for today is "multilayered" and it took a little time to think about how I could interpret that.

People immediately came to mind because we all have layer upon layer that rarely get completely peeled away. Having a teenage son was very helpful - someone who doesn't reveal himself very easily as well as actually dressing in many layers of clothes. So both a literal and metaphorical interpretation!! I have to thank him for posing so patiently (I used a shot where he isn't rolling his eyes).

I also apologise for the terrible joke in the title although part of me (the part that watches Carry On Films) still would like to submit that shot - hens....multilayers....geddit??

Boot Camp Report

2010-06-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

Day 1 - Ivory

Thanks to a link on Maisey's Attic I found out about the Creativity Boot Camp.

In the introduction, it says that this course "will be an intensive two week course designed to deepen and enrich your creative spirit. You will be asked to perform outward projections of creativity as well as examine your inner creative soul."

Now, I'm born and bred in Belfast and although times are changing, these are not expressions that come naturally! However, I loved the idea of facing some challenges and combining that with taking photographs, which I do every day.

You can get so far by yourself and then you need a little outside input to help you move on to the next stage. The course is free, lasts for 14 days and is a safe, friendly, nurturing place to try to kick start the creativity which, I'm sure, is in all of us. I'm excited about taking part :)

The course (second day today) has involved creating, in whatever medium you have chosen to use, images that show some aspect of a particular word. There are also written exercises that are, of course, much more difficult! I don't think that I'll be sharing much of the written work - whenever I finish it of course - but the photographs will be appearing here.

The image at the top is for Day 1 - Ivory. The reason that I chose this particular subject for the theme is perhaps not very easily explained, other than the colour of the papery skin and stem.

Day 2 had the theme of picnic and my photograph of an indoor picnic is below.

Day 2 - picnic

I'm aware that there is not a lot of food on offer, but wine is good too. The fern like plant is actually fennel so that could be eaten if neccessary.

Check out the Boot Camp - it's fun!

In the right light, at the right time...

2010-06-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary

Aaron Rose

Extraordinary things can be large or small, vital or unimportant. It all depends on how we see them at any given time.

These are some pictures that I have taken over the last eight months, through the autumn, winter and into summer, of things that I thought were extraordinary. Most of the opportunities came as a result of being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Some were as a result of just being lucky! I could wish that the photographs themselves showed more skill, but hopefully with practice that will improve. The subjects of the pictures are what interested me and experimenting with the camera is always fun.

The colours on the leaf shown above, floating in water (in an old bucket in the garden) were beautiful even as it started to decay. The leaf below was frozen in the same water later in the winter.

One or two, like the one below, are down to sheer dumb luck - being in the right place at the right time and knowing how to point and shoot. The cloud formation changed within a minute of this picture being taken; until I saw it on the computer screen, I had really no idea of the shapes that the light made.

Raindrops are tantalising - I've ended up with so many little glowing blurs on a variety of objects!

Fennel is one of my favourite things in the garden. It goes through so many transformations throughout the different seasons and the colours are gorgeous. The plant below is just starting to grow up the old stem.

The hypericum shown below grows in a corner of the garden that is quite neglected and overgrown. Today I noticed that the buds are just starting to form; when they open, the flowers are yellow and when the flowers die the flower heads form berries that turn from green to red to black. The dried leaves are very aromatic. It never receives any care, it just reappears year after year, with its beautiful display, in a place that you have to go to specifically to see it. It is extraordinary, in the right light or not.

And in case you're wondering, the top picture shows the handle of the metal trolley that my husband uses to move boxes. It was sitting in our hall on a Sunday morning, when it was caught in the sunlight along with its shadow on the wall. This has had some processing after I downloaded (saturating the colours a little). All the other photographs here are untouched, other than being resized.

A sunny box of treasures

2010-05-31T13:28:00.000-07:00

I'm back again to give a link to an Etsy Treasury that I have put together - "Sunshine".

It's a mixture of Irish crafters and from further afield, but all with a lovely summery feel. The screendump above doesn't show all of the items so click on Sunshine to have a closer look.

words that speak to me

2010-05-31T09:39:00.000-07:00

"Vision and Verb" (click on the button to the right of this post - or left if you're behind the monitor!) is a blog that I have come to relatively recently, but that has brightened my mornings with the various posts and photographs it contains.

At the weekend a post asked for our favourite quotations - the intention is to use these on Sundays throughout the summer to "hold space and give vision to the voices of others".

I thought that this was a wonderful idea - the quote that I posted was from John Muir (visit the John Muir Trust here)

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn."

Freedom in open spaces, fresh air, energy, peace and strength to face whatever comes next - these are the thoughts that come into my mind when I read this quote.

The more that I thought about quotations after this, the more I realised that throughout my adult life I have had certain quotes that have stayed with me and that pop into my head in a particular set of circumstances.

Not just the kind of inspirational quotes like the one above, but more practical descriptions like Chaucer's "The smiler with the knife under his cloak". This has stayed with me since I studied english at university; it's a description that works either literally or metaphorically - sadly I've worked with people who fit this description perfectly, whose weapons were words to be used when your back is turned.

In a previous post I mentioned Tony Hancock's take on elections - "I'll....cross both their names out and write "get knotted" in!" It would be a wasted vote, but how tempting!

Others that leap out at me are:

"Peter, you've lost the news!!" from The Day Today (The Day Today You Tube) a programme that was almost prophetic in imagining how ridiculous some of the news programmes (and presenters) would become.

"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." Mark Twain. I realise that some politicians are good people, but I find it hard not to replace "congress" in this quote with Northern Ireland Assembly!

"I'm going to memorize your name and throw my head away" . Oscar Levant. Not that I would ever use this, but it's useful to remember just in case.

These, of course, are mostly for laughs and are getting further and further away from the kind of quotation that this post started off with. I like them because they make me laugh and I do believe that laughter and healing are closely linked.

I'll finish with two that have been with me for a long time, and that speak to me loudly, giving comfort during really difficult times and instilling hope that things will get better.

The first is

"Human pain does not let go of its grip at one point in time. Rather, it works its way out of our consciousness over time. There is a season of sadness. A season of anger. A season of tranquility. A season of hope."

Robert Veninga

The last quote is about the strength of the human spirit, about how and why we can find it possible to carry on during the worst times.

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."
Albert Camus

I have thought of this often over the years, and the thought of that spark of summer that exists deep down in the cold and dark has, at those times, kept me moving forward, when it would have been all to easy to go no further.

Common Cold??

2010-05-29T11:47:00.000-07:00

I'm with Ogden Nash on this one....

By pounding brow and swollen lip;
By fever's hot and scaly grip;
By those two red redundant eyes
That weep like woeful April skies;
By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;
By handkerchief after handkerchief;
This cold you wave away as naught
Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!

Subsitute woman for man in the last line and you'll get the picture. The handkerchiefs have (by neccessity) now been replaced by kitchen roll.

Anyway, we've all been there and I guess it's more of an inconvenience than anything else so moving on. I'm not spending too long typing today, but I did take some pictures in the garden (fresh air to try to clear the head a bit) and as the rain has moved in there were plenty of raindrop shots to choose from. The shot above has been cropped as I really liked the yellow rim to the droplet.

The red leaves above belong to a plant related to St. John's Wort (I can never remember which variation) and they measure about two inches from leaf tip to leaf tip. It is a plant that has, by turns, these lovely red leaves, yellow flowers, beautifully shaped seedheads that are dark brown/black and berries that change from green to black. It has an unlimited number of photo-opportunities. I took the picture below in January of this year, showing the opened seedheads balancing snow.

The plant below actually is (I'm almost sure) St. John's Wort. These droplets on the back of the leaf were really defying gravity in the breeze.

You may realise from this small bundle of photographs, that I spend quite a lot of time in the back garden taking pictures. I'm not a gardener by any stretch of imagination; I may do some weeding from time to time and I try to keep it tidy, but otherwise the plants are left pretty much to themselves. There are always things to discover and new plants that have self seeded - we discovered a very young rowan tree growing in one of the containers which has clearly been left to us by a passing bird (the tree, not the container obviously....).

I'm off now to go back to mooching around, snivelling and reading stories by Mark Twain and James Thurber to try to cheer myself up :) If this doesn't work, I'll dip into the Laurel and Hardy dvds that were given to me at Christmas. I'd have to be dead not to laugh at L & H - actually, that might be a good test to make sure that I've really gone! I must tell Mr. Pugh......

Snail's pace

2010-05-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

I've been messing about with....sorry, sorting out my photographs all evening, and not really getting very far, because I keep getting distracted by shots that I have forgotten about, or that I think I'll be able to do something with some day. I've realised that my photograph folders on the computer are very like other parts of our house - cluttered with bits and pieces that I truly believe will come in useful some time, but of course not just at the moment.

I rushed out into the garden after work this afternoon, immediately after a really heavy shower of rain, to try to get some shots of raindrops in the sunshine etc - but after taking a few, my camera battery died. Of course that is the time that you spot all the possibilities for great pictures. However, I managed to get a few shots, including the snail shown above (not the same one that I saw the other day) being very brave in the sunshine after the rain, in full view of any birds that were passing.

His/her friend was being a bit more cautious, tucked away in the leaves. I could only get the shot below by contorting myself into quite an undignified position. Luckily our garden is quite private :)

I've also been really pleased to see that we have Honesty back in the garden again (this is not metaphorical, but a plant). It didn't appear last year, after being quite rampant in previous years, but here it is again.

I love the flowers but I love the seedpods even more, especially at this time of the year when they have that lovely purple stem and edging. This one had saved some of the raindrops, perhaps for any passing snails.

Oh well, back to the messing around (damn - that Honesty gets everywhere!)