Blossom on our apple tree.
Category Archives: photography
05-02-10 Meme
Here are the 12 questions, and my answers, to this week’s Flickr meme:
1. What was the last movie you saw in the theatre? None; in England you don’t watch movies in a theatre; it’s called a cinema!
2. Which parent do you think was the easiest for you to talk to when you were growing up? My mother
3. What shoes did you wear today? Trainers
4. What is your favourite season? Summer
5. Gum or Candy? Chocolate
6. When dismantling a bomb, do you cut the black wire or the yellow wire? The pink wire.
7. Do you whistle? Only when I snore
8. What is your favourite flower? Roses
9. Queen, The Beatles, or Rolling Stones? Late Beatles
10. What languages do you speak? English, maths, science, logic, common sense
11. Which chocolate company do you like the most? Divine
12. Top thing on your “to do” list? Make an appointment with my piercer
1. THE DOME, Cinema Worthing., 2. All About My Mother, 3. Inky trainer, 4. Hot, Air, Balloons … composite, 5. Chocolate heart on a pink gerbera daisy flower for you! (square), 6. Barbed Wire Pink, 7. Snore Graffitti, 8. Shades of ‘Marianne’ (hybrid gallica), 9. 170 – 1969 – Beatles, The – Abbey Road – UK – late 1970s, 10. another day., 11. The Heart Of Every Girl, 12. NEW LABRET PIERCING
As always the photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys
4-18-10 Meme
Here are the 12 questions, and my answers, to this week’s Flickr meme:
1. Night Owl or Morning Person? Neither, but slightly more lark than owl
2. What is the one thing that will make you happy? Beer
3. If you could be someone else for a day, who would it be? God, except he doesn’t exist so I can’t
4. If you somehow became the opposite sex, what is the first thing you would do? Have sex; like probably most men I want to know what sex is like for a woman. Oh I’ll do all the other thigs as well, but let’s start at the beginning!
5. What time is it right now? Later than I’d like
6. Random word. Go Vespiary
7. What is the plural form of “Starbucks”? Poisoning
8. If you won 40 Billion in the lottery, what is the first thing you’d do? Faint
9. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Of course but you will never know
10. X-men or Spiderman? Xanthene; makes as much sense as the choices offered!
11. Sword or gun?Penis. Remember “Make love not war”? Or to put it another way: “The penis mightier than the sword”.
12. What do you do for fun on your day off? Be depressed
1. NO ONE LOVES ME & NEITHER DO I, 2. Adnams, 3. nothing, 4. Stephanie1, 5. Beware the Moon, 6. vespiary – under construction, 7. Poison Midnight, 8. faint pink lips, 9. You’ll never know if he’ll have body hair!, 10. The Secret to Cloning — Revealed!, 11. Penis_girl, 12. Soul
As always the photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys
Cherry Blossom
Yay! Spring is definitely here, at last. All the cherry blossom is out; the birch catkins swing low among the new bright green leaves. And the apple blossom is not far behind — if the weather stays fine and warm (which it is forecast to) the apple tree will be in full bloom before the end of the weekend – I can just see pink buds breaking this afternoon. Wouldn’t it be lovely if it stayed like this all summer – warm sun and clear blue skies?!
4-4-10 Meme
So here are this week’s 12 questions and answers:
1. In your opinion, which country produces the best wine? France
2. What is your current favourite song? Oh, for today, let’s choose the Moody Blues, “Nice to be Here”
3. How would you describe your sense of humour? Eccentric
4. Adidas or Nike? Neither
5. Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe? Neither have ever done anything for me
6. Lemon or lime? Today it’s lemon, but it’s marginal and depends what for
7. How many megapixels on your camera on your phone? No clue; don’t care; don’t use it; I have a camera!
8. What do you think God looks like? As he doesn’t exist he can’t look like anything – probably
9. Do you like Pirates of the Caribbean? Only if barbecued
10. What’s your favourite pasta? Seafood linguini
11. Apples or oranges? Apples
12. What is the best airline company? Whichever has magic carpets
1. Sarlat – Frankreich – Le Moyen-Âge – france, 2. Corfe Castle, 3. Winnebago DaVinci, 4. WILD DIVA, 5. We Can Do It!, 6. Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet, But the fruit of the lemon is impossible to eat., 7. i don’t care., 8. righteous blasphemy, 9. Pirates of the Caribbean – HMS Interceptor makes way under a Full Moon, 10. Linguini Pescatore, 11. Clouds in my apple, 12. magic carpet ride
As always the photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys
60 Years Ago
In turning out some papers at my mother’s bungalow, I came across a couple of pages of badly typed text characteristic of my father. Reading the text it turns out to be the start of (I feel) a slightly romanticised version of my parents’ experiences of the garden etc. on moving into my childhood home in September 1950. My father must have written it in 1967. I’ve tidied the text up and am reproducing it here for posterity, should he be interested.
When we moved to Waltham Cross in September 1950 it was like moving to the country. After living in a flat in Camden Town, it was wonderful to be able to walk out of the house into the garden, although it had been neglected for more than 6 months.
I resolved to keep (some sort of) an account of the wildlife that came to visit us, for although only 12 miles from London we were on the edge of the northern suburbs and open country was not far away.
Over the years this has changed. More and more people have come to live here, and during the last 8 years, since a second station was opened and the line electrified, the population has increased enormously and we are now well in the suburbs.
Our small garden, 16 feet wide by 80-100 feet long, was cut in two by a central path. Immediately outside the kitchen door there were several ramshackle sheds. And a wire fence divided the small patch of grass from the so-called kitchen garden, which contained most of the soft fruits, a very well pruned pear tree, and one enormous sunflower.
It was several years before the pear tree fruited properly, and when we found it was a Conference pear we were overjoyed. It has grown to a beautiful shape and is a joy to behold when it blooms in April. In autumn it normally sheds its leaves without much change of colour, but it sometimes surprises us and in November 196? [the year is unreadable – K] was more beautiful in gold leaf than it was in flower in spring. It held these golden leaves for several days and shed a sunny light over all the garden. Then in two days it was bare and the ground beneath was almost knee deep in gold. It is one thing I would be very sorry to leave. [See above for a painting of the pear tree by my mother – K]
During that first winter we were busy with the house and having a baby [that was me – K], and the garden was left to itself. I hung up cheese for the tits to feed on and they came to feed, lifting the cheese up to the branch on which they were standing and pecking away at it. The one enormous sunflower was a fine bird table, and tits, Wrens and Greenfinches all came to take the seeds. I was sorry when it became empty, it was such a feeding place for birds.
We made small excursions from the house and discovered that our lane led to grassy marshes bordering the River Lea. This lane is an old British track which comes from the hills of Hertfordshire. Once across the marsh there are corresponding tracks leading into the hills of Essex.
By April the weather was wonderful, and on the 26th there were swallows over the house, in the evening. On the 29th I heard a Cuckoo for the first time that year at 6 AM. There he was again the next morning at 6 AM and again at 3.45 in the afternoon. But the good weather was short lived and in May we had a second winter. In spite of this cold weather the hawthorns were in full blossom. And Yellow Deadnettle, Herb Robert and Holly were in flower in Theobalds Lane.
The summer was spent reorganising the garden. First the old sheds had to come down. Then once they were cleared and burnt, we were able to take up the central path and relay it. We decided that it should be straight at the bottom of the garden, for convenience of growing a few vegetables. But where we were going to make a lawn, a sweeping curve of crazy paving should follow the line of the flower border. This irregular border gave added interest to the long narrow garden.
We transplanted the fruit bushes to a bed between the lawn and the vegetables, and planted rambler roses along the fences. Now in the summer time when they are all in leaf, we have a green enclosure where we can relax in the sun.
In September that year [1951] I was doing some chores at the kitchen sink when a sudden disturbance caught my ear. Looking up I saw 12 Long-Tailed Tits in the apple tree. We had only once before seen long-tailed tits and that was in a Sussex copse. I hoped they had come to stay, but in a trice they had gone. In the next January they came again, but only to pass through. In the 17 years we have been here I have seen these birds only on these two occasions.
What my father doesn’t mention in this are the coldness of the house, the regularly frozen pipes in winter (and his temper in having to deal with them before going to work), hot water thanks only to an Ideal boiler, open wood (or coal) fires, keeping chickens and the wonderful acres of rose nursery opposite our house which were sadly grubbed up for housing in the late 1950s. He does, though, hint at the delightfulness of the blackcurrants and raspberries from the garden.
Quoted text (c) Robert Edward Marshall, 1967
3-28-10 Meme
I haven’t done the weekly Flickr meme for a while, for no reason other than it just hasn’t happened. Anyway here are this week’s 12 questions and answers:
1. Do you zip or button first? Button, but only if there’s no Velcro
2. What are you listening to right now? Nothing
3. Which band did you last see live? An Elastic Band
4. What book are you currently reading? A pile about 4 feet high
5. Give one reason why you would hate a person. Stupidity
6. What is your favourite type of music? Medieval Latin Church
7. What food do you dislike? Egg custard
8. Would you rather be a vampire, werewolf, or zombie? Vampire
9. Have you ever smoked? Yes
10. If you were rich, what is the first one of these you would hire: Personal Chef, maid, masseuse, chauffeur, or trainer? Maid
11. What defines you? Y chromosome
12. What do you think of Africa? Boring
1. Belly Button Cow, 2. ‘garden of dreams’ original ink brush pwn sumi-e drawing/painting, 3. A random selection of scattered elastic bands with experimental post-processing, 4. Pile of Books in Prague Library, 5. Stupidity Sign, 6. The 15th Century Ranworth Antiphoner, 7. egg custard tart, 8. София, България. Събота, 25-ти юли, 2009., 9. Yes / Close To The Edge, 10. Sexy Anime Maid, 11. Phalluzoïde ou l’Origine du Sex (Please do not touch, lick, stroke or mount this artwork), 12. www.flickr.com/photos/crustydolphin/2430434405/
As always the photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys
What Cannot Speak Cannot Lie …
When I was with 94-year-old my mother last weekend, helping her pack up to move into residential care, she gave me a fairly awful black and white photograph of the parish church in the town in which I grew up. The church is St Mary the Virgin at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. Recognising the style of the print I know the photo was taken by my mother, probably in the early 1970s, from the park opposite the church. What’s more she printed it herself on her home-made enlarger. Just the fact that she made the enlarger and got semi-decent prints from it is in itself amazing! But that’s my mother: at one point over the weekend I asked her if there was anything she hadn’t ever made; she had to think and finally the only thing she could come up with was canework. If it’s anything much else to do with art and craft she’s tried it – I salvaged from the bungalow a box full of her pottery and several portfolios of paintings, many dating from over 60 years ago!
Anyway here is a straight scan of the totally nondescript 11x16cm print …
Not being one to waste a good image having scanned it, I played around with it in Paint Shop Pro (which for most things I find easier than Photoshop). Here is the scanned image dressed up as an 1840s Daguerreotype and then as an 1870s Albumen print.
What a difference five minutes work makes.
When I’ve got my new photo printer I shall have to send, or take, my mother copies. Knowing her she will then frame them! Having moved her into the care home last Monday afternoon, I went to see her at 10am the following morning. I found her with a small table already set up, a Stanley knife in her hand, in the middle of reframing a photograph of her late dog. Yes, she’s 94!
Today's Haiku
Another in the occasional series.
a watershed
in steel and blood
prince albert
Thing-a-Day : The Full Monty
Having completed this year’s Thing-a-Day challenge — something new each day in February — here is the complete set, in order. Sadly thew quality is a bit variable, but it does provide an interesting look back over the month (well the bits I’m going to tell you about anyway) and it was an interesting challenge to try to do something inspiring each day.
1. Thing-a-Day 1 : Self Portrait, 2. Thing-a-Day #2 : Water_Tablet, 3. Thing-a-Day #3 : Postbox, 4. Thing-a-Day #4 : Tree Yoni, 5. Thing-a-Day #5 : Cheese & Onion Muffins, 6. Thing-a-Day #6 : Yellow Tulip, 7. Thing-a-Day #7 : Haiku, 8. Thing-a-Day #8 : Study in Construction, 9. Thing-a-Day #9 : 3 Giraffes, 10. Thing-a-Day # 10 : Sunrise, 11. Thing-a-Day #11 : Blue Anemone, 12. Thing-a-Day #12 : Collage “Retail Therapy”, 13. Thing-a-Day #13 : Red Wine, 14. Thing-a-Day #14 : 60163 Tornado, 15. Thing-a-Day #15 : Spring Meme, 16. Thing-a-Day #16 : Boys on the Tube, 17. Thing-a-Day #17 : 62nd Larch in Winter, 18. Thing-a-Day #18 : Haiku, 19. Thing-a-Day #19 : Supermarket, 20. Thing-a-Day #20 : Cyclamen, 21. Thing-a-Day #21 : Haiku, 22. Thing-a-Day #22 : Newsletter, 23. Thing-a-Day #23 : Aboriginal Art, 24. Thing-a-Day #24 : Off My Trolley, 25. Thing-a-Day #25 : At the Dentist, 26. Thing-a-Day #26 : Mother, 27. Thing-a-Day #27 : Crazed Window, 28. Thing-a-Day #28 : Done!
You can find all the Thing-a-Day entries at www.thing-a-day.com as well as some entries in the Thing-a-Day Flickr Group.
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys