Green woodpecker on our west London lawn; I guess he was enjoying the ants which seem to abound in our garden.
Not wonderful photos as I was having to use my biggest lens at an awkward angle from the open study window in dreadful November light and having to push the ISO rating to get anything I could handhold. This probably the best from at least 150 shots taken over a period of 20 minutes.
A few more from this series on my Flickr Photostream.
1. 1,001 sex toys from amazon, 2. Sound the Bright Flutes!, 3. In England they’re called Fairy Lights., 4. Christmas Tour of Homes, 5. Christmas Shopping, 6. Christmas Gold Organza Felt Tree 1, 7. My Lovely Bookworm, 8. IMG_8708_11242006, 9. Victorian Christmas II (Thomas Kinkade), 10. Christmas card, illustration, 11. weihnachtsmarkt2.jpg, 12. Pope Shenouda III, right, leads the Christmas liturgy held at the Coptic Cathedral of Saint Marcos late Friday, Jan. 6, 2006 in Cairo, Egypt.
As always these are not my photos but please follow the links to enjoy the work of the photographers who did take them!
Yesterday was the Feast of Christ the King (the Sunday before Advent) so this week’s meme focuses on the run up to Christmas.
As usual the questions and answers
1. Place you like to buy presents Amazon.co.uk
2. Christmas music Medieval Carols, traditionally sung
3. Something you use to decorate your house Fairy Lights
4. Where (or with who) are you planning to spend Christmas? It’ll likely be just us two, at home
5. Who do you like to got Christmas shopping with? Nobody
6. Theme/colour scheme of your Christmas tree Probably red and gold, but it depends what Noreen feels like at the time
7. Someone you like to buy presents for My bookworm wife (and no, this picture isn’t my actual wife; she isn’t on Flickr, yet!)
8. What are you planning to eat for your Christmas meal? Free-Range Organic Turkey
9. Somewhere you’ll go to a party Is anyone going to invite me?
10. Something you make for Christmas Christmas Cards; for the last several years we’ve had our own cards printed from one of my photographs
11. What gets you in the Christmas spirit? Traditional Christmas Music
12. Secular or Sacred? Although the Christmas liturgy is wonderful it’ll be secular
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
Just a little interlude after midnight! Must be getting old disgracefully!
The wine is this years Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau; not cheap but pretty good considering the indifferent summer.
And the glass is at least 35 years old; I bought a set of 6 of these (very cheap glasses; anyone round here remember Green Shield Stamps? – that tells you they were cheap!) when I was either a 3rd year undergraduate or a first year postgrad student. I think we still have 5 of them, and they’re used regularly. I wonder how many bottles of wine (not to mention other liquors) these glasses have seen?
Looks good on black too!
This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 39/52 (2008 week 47).
4 AM and I can’t sleep, so I figured I may as well get up for a bit and play.
And as this is week 39 of my 52 weeks “self-portrait a week” I figured I’d do a 13 things as well; so …
13 Things which bore me and which I therefore try to ignore …
1. Richard Dawkins
2. stem cells
3. IVF
4. embryo research
5. climate change
6. Africa
7. elephants
8. whales
9. Lord Winston
10. quantum computing
11. the scientific fetish that life can be only water and carbon based
12. penguins
13. Christianity and Islam
This week’s Flickr Photo Meme …
1. (TB5.) Hope on the Horizon…, 2. Spring Greens 2, 3. lots of things are brown today, 4. blinkie blink blink flowwiee, 5. Okoboji – Grey Cat, 6. the emperor’s new clothes, 7. Canary Yellow ~ Lost one!, 8. Pink Pixies, 9. Clotted Cream, 10. linen grey white cotton, 11. Rosa Knicker, 12. Best tandoori chicken
Questions and Answers:
1. free square – you pick a color to start off your meme with! Old Troll Gold
2. fave colour Spring Greens, but it does depend what it’s for
3. least fave colour Shit Brown
4. colour of your eyes Blinking Blue
5. colour of your hair Steely Grey
6. colour of your car Emperor’s New Clothes; invisible as I don’t have a car!
7. colour of your fave flower Canary Yellow
8. colour you like to wear Pixie Pink
9. colour of your living room walls Clotted Cream
10. colour of your pet Russian Blue and White
11. fave 2 colour combination For flowers, Knicker Pink and White, but it really depends on the context
12. colour of your fave food Tandoori Red
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
1. Cat Help Needed! Ajuda Felina Urgente!, 2. New Banksy Rat Mural in New York, 3. Bat, 4. Air raid Beano, 5. December 1931 Country Life Magazine Christmas edition, 6. Punch 1957, 7. Icy Waterfall in the Harz Mountains – Germany, 8. Dartmouth Christmas, 9. Calm water at Buttermere, 10. Adnams “The Bitter” (Cask), 11. beaujolais nouveau, 12. All true tea lovers like their tea strong……, 13. Gandalf the Grey, 14. “The Satanic Verses”, 15. Evelyn Vaugh, “Decline and Fall”, 16. We ♥ Norway, 17. Not of this Earth – The Bubbling Sulfur Pools of Iceland, 18. japan, 19. 69/365- Words are worthless when you’re laying in my bed, 20. 49 pigeonholes, 21. day 76: pebble-dashed sky, 22. Holy Water at St. John the Russian’s Church, 23. James Turrell, 24. Jabez Rounds House
Questions and Answers, with something about why I chose each sequence:
This week we’re going to do 8 rows of 3!
1. Three animals
Cat, Rat, Bat; because they rhyme
2. Three magazines
Beano, Country Life, Punch; I remember them all from my childhood
3. Three holiday destinations
Harz Mountains, Dartmouth, Buttermere; I’ve been to all three and would like to go there again
4. Three drinks
Adnams beer, Beaujolais Nouveau, Tea; three of my favourites
5, Three novels
Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkein), Satanic Verses (Salman Rushdie), Decline and Fall (Evelyn Waugh); three of many that I can’t read
6. Three countries
Norway, Iceland, Japan; I’d love to visit them all but I won’t because I object to their stance on whaling
7. Three numbers
69, 49, 76; number of houses I’ve lived in
8. Three names
John, James, Jabez; three of my great-grandfathers
[Later] Actually four of my great-grandfathers; two were called James!
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 38/52 (2008 week 46).
This weekend I’ve been feeling a right tit, ‘cos I have a filthy cold.
This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 37/52 (2008 week 45).
1. Cat’s eye, 2. Jaguar im Manu Nationalpark in Peru, 3. Steve-O, Which Channel is CNN ?, 4. Eeyore, 5. Not Afraid, 6. Alice Liddell and the Cheshire Cat, 7. Aquarium, 8. Sporting Lucas Terrier – Wandle Peter, 9. Morgana a fada!, 10. Animal skeleton, 11. Little Black Cat, 12. Small Fish from the Amazon
Questions and Answers:
1. What is your favorite animal? Domestic cats
2. Laws have changed, you now can own an exotic or wild animal as a pet. What animal would you own? Jaguar, they’re just slightly more manageable than tigers
3. Some people are cat fanciers and some are canine cuddlers. Which is is for you cats or dogs? Cats, every time; no question; cats are magic
4. What one word best describes your personality? What animal do you associate with that word? Depressive, so it has to be Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh tho’ I’d much rather be Tigger
5. Confess! What animal/insect/reptile/amphibian are you secretly (or not so secretly) afraid of? I don’t do “afraid”; I’m certainly in awe of the big cats; and I hate maggots; but I’m not afraid of anything
6. What was your favorite animal character from a children’s book when you were younger? Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland; I never did work out how to do that gradual disappearing trick. 🙁
7. You’re spending the day at the Zoo, it’s getting close to closing and you’re tired, but you’re definitely not leaving until you see the . . . Aquarium. Hah! Caught you! You thought I was going to say the big cats, but I’ve already seen them. 🙂
8. What kind of pet did you have when you were a kid or do you remember a particularly unusual pet you had? When I was 7 we got a small dog, a Lucas Terrier; but there were always cats at home too.
9. If you were to be reincarnated as an animal, what would you want to be? Why? Domestic cat with me to look after me
10. Animals in films always seem to tug at our heartstrings. What cinematic animal was your hero or a favorite? No animal hero or favourite ‘cos I don’t do films; I never did; it isn’t in my culture
11. If you had a stuffed animal as a child, what was it (extra points if you remember its name)? Little Black Cat and yes here he is, the original, snapshotted (can I say that?) specially for this occasion!
12. National Geographic has hired you to go on a photo shoot anywhere in the world you choose. What animal would you want to showcase in your full-color magazine spread (and where are you traveling to)? Fishes of the River Amazon and while we’re there we’ll have a few jaguars and parrots for good measure
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 36/52 (2008 week 44).
