Our Christmas Tree

Best Friends

Just going through my files to find a photo for the Two Things, and I came across this one, which I really love. It was Eleanor's birthday last year, and shows Eleanor and Holly.

Two Things Joint/Venture

I took this picture last month in Filey. Someone has parked a car just like ours next to it, even down to the dog grill in the back.

I thought this was appropriate as it is a Landrover, rover, venture.....lol

I saw these lambs venturing onto a graveyard on the North York Moors. It looks like they are looking for a way down.....

Two Things Green/Yellow

Here is our snowman, and, of all the coincidences, we have put a green and yellow hat on him....lol

Snow on Beverley Westwood

We go here a lot and today it was covered in snow.

You can see Beverley Minster in the background.

John at Typos.Daylight.Fate has done two lovely digital art pieces based on these photos.

My Schedule

I notice Irene is going on a schedule, and I think this is a very good idea.

I am trying to do something similar. I have a large diary which I use to plan my year. I was looking at ones in past years and they are full of detail and things which I was doing, but this year's is virtually blank which is not good so my aim for the rest of this year is to get it full of daily activities for myself.

I am in the lucky position of not needing to work for money now, though in the past I had to. My last job finished three years ago, which I had for a year. It was very hard work, but I enjoyed it, biked there and back, and was exhausted at the end of the day. I actually wanted to leave as they wanted me to work weekends, when Mark was trialing, but I said I couldn't, so they actually made an exception for me because I was a good worker. A feather to my cap!

The time when I was happiest, and I think everyone is happy, is when they are being busy and useful and going all-out for a cause. I was happy when I was bringing up my kids, but now they don't need so much attention, and have lives and friends of their own, I just aimlessly walk the dog and read the paper and do a little desultory housework.

I have started a little volunteer work in Scope, and am going for an interview in Hull for more volunteer work. My aim is to get every waking minute of the day filled with activity. In the past I used to get up in the morning and jog round the park, so I have started to do that again. I had to stop jogging because old Tess couldn't keep up anymore, but now I can start doing that again.
I need to find a cause and get busy. It's all about getting out into the real world again.

Our fireplace

Here is the view from the sofa. Usually the flowers (bought for me by Mark) are in the fireplace, but here I've got the best of both worlds.

I love lying on the sofa with this view while I'm watching the TV.

Two Things Bent/Straight

This is who I thought of for bent/straight, and here is quite a good picture, as he has his leg bent but is standing straight.

I really like Russell Brand, and have just been reading my 'Booky Wook' on holiday. This gentleman dresses very campy, but by all accounts is not gay.

Two Things Saturday/Sunday

Here is a pub possibly on a Saturday evening, the busiest time for pubs.

'A good local pub has much in common with a church, except that a pub is warmer, and there's more conversation' William Blake

This is a memorable quotation which I actually saw on the wall of a pub somewhere, so I have rather cheekily put a vicar outside this particular 'church', though he probably will not being preaching a Sunday sermon here but having a good pint.

A Real Fire

Here is our fireplace. It is a place where all are drawn to the warmth. I love sitting in front of this, and so does Scamp, our cat Fluffy and a little house mouse who has come to join them, sitting, as you see, in perfect peace and harmony.

Two Things Shapes/Textures

We were in Filey earlier this week (us on the pavement) and walked down this Victorian crescent, built when resorts like this were at their prime. You could just imagine the ladies promenading, their crinolines rustling.

Here is a picture of a ghostly Victorian lady in her silky dress and lacy bonnet (texture), set against the shapes of the buildings.

Halloween Photos

Applying the fake blood.

Gruesome action as Scamp looks on.

Shoulder barging at Filey. We went to Filey yesterday as Mark had the day off.

Top photos Hull Fair. I went with Eleanor and Holly the other week. I could have taken some excellent photos of the rides with Eleanor and Holly on them, but, as is the way with these things, I only had a chance to take this picture before the battery ran out lol

I've cracked it!

Here is my first digital artwork. It is inspired by Diane Clancy's Animals in Flowers, and is a picture of Tessa among the flowers on the Common, where she often roamed. This is the only picture of Tess to hand, and I will do a proper one of her when I find one.

Happy Halloween

This is Eleanor and Holly last year, going trick or treating.

She is going with Jack, Alex and Stozza tonight as a lady vampire with lots of makeup like Morticia Adams, and Alex is coming round today and I am taking pictures so watch this space. Jack's outfit is a black woolly hat pulled over his head.

Nice photos digitalised

Nice pics all. A few of my husband Mark. I cannot emphasise enough his good qualities. In fact, some members of my family have taken to calling him 'Saint Mark'.

I like doing this. I just need to work out a way of getting the photos larger which I will do eventually but if you click to enlarge you get the full effect. They do look like paintings.

Eleanor's New Glasses

These are Eleanor's new glasses. She wears them all the time, even at bedtime. She only takes them off when she absolutely has to.

She is very vain about them and here is a picture I discovered on my new camera which she had taken herself.

Her previous glasses were all light pink, chosen by me, which did not swamp her face and were but these are glasses which make a bold statement about being a glasses wearer and being proud of it.

Holiday Snaps in 'Paint and Ink'

More playing about with the Serif.

I am really pleased with these, and may do them properly tomorrow after scanning the photos at the library on my dogwalk.

I have loads of great pictures of my kids all over Britain, but am worried about the safety aspect of putting them on a blog. This sort of thing is ideal because you are just left with iconic images.

Top photo - playing air guitar with nets at Durdle Door, Dorset.

Second - Mark and the kids at the Jurassic Coast.

Third - Kids at Portmeirion in Wales where they filmed 'The Prisoner'.

Digitalis

I am quite pleased about this. I have been dipping my toes in the waters of digital art. I have had the Serif programme for about six months, and today I started to use it. I have been cutting out shapes, and tomorrow I may superimpose a shape onto a background lol

It has a function which changes photos into different painting styles, a few of which are here.

I thought the Love/ Bird egret Dancing Swan lake was a quite good idea but let down by the presentation, but it they has the 'professional' touch, and looks like it has been done in paint and ink.

Two Things Big/Little

A big mother sheep and a little baby sheep sheltering from the wind on the North York Moors.

Two Things Black/White

In Praise of Small Animals

Recently our last guinea pig Daniel passed on at the grand old age of seven.

Eleanor had wanted a cat like her friends Karis and Kirsten (their Mum's called Kerry) but because we had a dog that was not an option so we got some guinea pigs and Eleanor called one of them Misty like the covetted cat. Guinea pigs, even two of them, are probably a poor second to a cat, but she looks very happy to be getting them here on her fourth birthday, and these are not even pedigree guinea pigs as you can see. Misty is not pictured as he was the shy one. When Eleanor took one of her pigs into school she decided that Daniel would be the best bet for the same reason.

As it was winter and they were babies we kept them inside all winter in this hutch. They had had a narrow escape at the pet shop as they had come down with something but the animal-loving student who worked there had kept them alive hand feeding and had paid for the veterinary treatment herself, and was glad they were going to a good home.

I cannot abide the way rabbits are treated by some people and imprisoned in a hutch, and our guinea pigs have always had a lot of freedom, which probably accounts for their longeivity, in fact I'm sure it does. This coupled with the fact they have been fed on select weeds collected on my dog walks, the vegetable left-overs of Christmas dinners and so on. I will always remember the first time we took them out of the hutch and let them run about and Daniel the guinea pig manically whizzed round and round in circles, jumped in the air and generally went crazy while we laughed- he had tasted freedom. (I remember my Mum and Dad's dog did this too when she was bought from from the Blue Cross.) We did have to take them outside eventually as they had a tendency to knaw our wood furniture. The kids used to carry them about inside on terry nappies.

Although eventually most of the looking after was left to me, Eleanor still remained interested in her pets, and used to walk them up and down on red guinea pig leads and she and Holly used to carry them about in their handbags.

Two Things East/West

Mosque

An ancient Eastern temple
Carved in the whitest stone
Embodies an ancient religion
Spiritual and ascetic throne
Fashioned from a chocolate box
Capitalism at its indulgent best
Temporal, packed with dark delight
Fleeting pleasures of the West

Two Things Solid/Pattern

Coal

Coal is a solid and a mass
Heavy, lumpen, used for fuel
But made up of intricate layers
And patterns of the molecule.

Two Things Solid/Pattern

Here is our little guard dog sitting on the windowsill.

His solid and scruffy form makes a great contrast with the delicate lacy pattern of the lace net curtains.

Brothers and Sisters

More nice photos.

My two have always been great pals, and it started from the beginning really.

There is a photo of Mark's Mum (or her arms) when Eleanor had just come out of hospital.

I also like this one of the two of them joking together when Eleanor was very young - she thought Jack was the funniest thing since sliced bread (and still does).

Finally, Eleanor got this picture included in an exhibition at Ferens Art Gallery a few years ago, which is a picture of her and Jack which she did, which sums up their relationship.

Family photos

I think I am finding away of getting my new camera photos onto Blogger, but it may take some time. I have been trying to change my name on Facebbook to one which is more accessible, but this too defeats me for the moment, at least.

I thought I would put some more photos on using the library scanner, because I have many albums of really nice photos of my kids.

Quite funny, the second photo of Mark, Jack and Eleanor. Obviously you have a new baby, and things are a little chaotic lol

I like this photo of Eleanor in a high chair, when she was very young, but obviously as bright as a button. I used to sit her in this bouncy chair and talk to her while I was washing up.

Bottom photos include one of me and the kids in Blackpool.

Two Things Green/Blue

I took this picture on an early morning dogwalk round the Green (for those living in the US it is a green space in the middle of a village) of the Yorkshire Village of Hutton le Hole. Nice photos, as they have the early morning hazy light.

When Jack was a toddler he played in this stream.

Of course, you've got the blue sky and the sky reflected in the stream which makes it blue too.