Theme 335 - Unusual

Alien Food

You may well wonder what this is!! It is in fact a pastry bake of pesto, anchovies and cheese. Despite it looking more like something out of Star Wars, it did in fact taste pretty good.

Theme 219 - Cupcake

Story Telling Photography

Once upon a time, there was a sister, who had a brother who promised to make her a special Birthday Cake for her 40th birthday. There was a grand celebration. Sometime during the many preparations, he blindfolded her and led her to reveal the "surprise" cake.

He carefully laid the cake in her hands and removed the blindfold. She was surprised. The cake was small and covered in jewelled sweets. She smiled.

He then turned her around and there was not one, but hundreds of cakes, individual and bright all made by hand and carefully crafted and laid on a stand of gold and pink, also made with love and care.

So this is the end of my tale, and this is the photo of my Theme "Cupcake"

Theme 47 - Red

Building in Kendal

I know nothing about this building - other than it is red, the top window needs painting and it ticks another one off of my list.

Job done!

Theme 46 - Ironwork

Church Gates

Walking back to my car after a visit to the hairdressers, I spotted this gate. This is the gate to the church and I park in the church car park. The thing is, this is were I always park when I visit the hairdressers and this is the first time I have ever noticed them!! It's great how photographic blogs can open your eyes!

Theme 36 - Clouds

Grey, Gloomy Clouds - But we still have to walk the dogs

You see that big grey background, well that is cloud and that is pretty much all we have seen since Christmas Day :-(

Theme 213 - Running

A Blur of Energy

Not a great shot I know, but there is something I like about this one.

My critique: Not focused enough, she is running away from the camera rather than towards, but the colours work well and I love the energy.

One day I will dedicate a walk (or 2) to getting a good action shot but need to give full attention as these dogs go from zero to Mach I in about 2 seconds!!!

Theme 132 - Frown

Leaving

Rooby watching me leave, I just had to get out of the car and take this quick shot through the kitchen window.

She has a bird's feather in her mouth, she had been busy finding treasure in the garden as I left.

(And yes, I do know the windows need cleaning)

Theme 53 - Pasta

Lunch

This is an out of the camera shot, so pretty pleased with this one. Hubby's lunch by the way, not mine. I had a much healthier option!

Theme 55 - Rubbish

"Trashy" Novel

Firstly, my apologies to the author. I can appreciate this book has a certain charm, and the characters are endearing but the rest of it, IMO, is "rubbish". Predictable, unbelievable and sloppy. I bought this as a Christmas present but for various reasons, it never reached the intended recipient - so I read it.

Theme 174 - Shoes

Craftsmanship

This shoe is for a small child, probably a 2 year old. When our house was being restored, having been derelict for about 3 years, this shoe fell out of one of the old beams. It is thought that when houses were built, it was custom to put a piece of children's used clothing into one of the beams for good luck. If that is the case, the above shoe is nearly 300 years old. the plan was to return the shoe back into the brickwork as some sort of display, unfortunately during the final manic phases of the re-build, this was forgotten. However, we still plan to do so.

I am pleased with the quality of this photo, but I have not been able to capture the scale (it is small) or all the detail. I may come back to this one later.

Theme 354 - Beach

Sea Shell

This beautiful piece of nature was given to me a couple of days ago by a friend and artist (painter). I considered putting it under the theme "Jagged" and whilst it fit, it sounded far too sharp and ugly for this.

I think I had the most fun shooting this than anything I have done before. So many angles, so many shots!!! It was very difficult to choose just one.

Of course, shells are found on the beach!

Theme 7 - Smile

Relaxation Time

There are so many of the theme categories I could have placed this photo, but when I got home one evening to find DH watching TV with these two, I just had to smile.

No great photographic shot here, the light was poor and nobody was going to hang around in this position too long, so it was a fully automatic shot.

Theme 344 - Clutter

A Photo Opportunity

Today was my day to definitely finish making the dining room curtains, so I set to, full of enthusiasm. As I pulled out the sewing box, the lid fell off, spilling its contents back into the box. Of course I swore, then stopped and thought, ah ha! there's a photo opportunity here, forgot about the sewing (of course) and fetched the camera.

For me, I love the variety of colours and the reflections of the threads in base of the tin (bottom right).

Theme 104 - Cake

Clementine Cake - In the Making

This is a great cake, so easy, so delicious and the way I make it, quite healthy and should appeal to those high protein lovers - I use organic ingredients wherever possible

6 eggs

4/5 Clementines (about 375 grams, but no need to be exact)

150 grams sugar (I use half Xylitol, a natural sweetner which doesn't spike blood sugar levels)

250 grams ground almonds

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

Put clementines into water and bring to simmer - simmer for 2 hours, drain and leave to cool (I don't always wait)

Whiz clementines, skin, pips the lot, into a pulp

Whip eggs until light and foamy and add to almonds sugar & baking powder - fold in and add clementine pulp.

Bake in oven 180C for 1 hour

Enjoy!!  

Time for Tea

Theme 27 - Job

Jonny's Job

This is Jonny doing his job with "Bulldozer" Bob.  Great team.  We had a few larches that were growing a bit tall and were close to the house.  Everytime we had a windy day, and we have a few here, I was slightly nervous, to say the least.  We called these guys in, we know their work and knew they were good.  Yesterday (Wednesday 16 January) they arrived and within half an hour this tree was down.  The funny thing is, I looked out of the window as it fell, and it was heading for the house, I screamed, covered my face, sure he had made a big mistake - it came down and stopped short by about 2 foot max!!  .  The most annoying thing? -  I wasn't outside taking pictures!  By the time I got there, he was already chopping it up.

   

Theme 66 - Notes

World of Money

DH used to travel a lot on business and has collect a few different currencies.  Pretty worthless collection and only kept as a souvenir.  Never realised it would come in so handy.

Theme 77 - Coins

Pennies

My Father gave these to me in 1966, the year the "old penny" was last minted. What you can't see or feel here is the size and weight - they are big and heavy. The UK then decimalized and new currency was bought in   My father said to hang on to them as one day they might be worth a lot more than 4p.  He was probably right, but certainly not in my lifetime!  However, I did keep them, put them in the box shown in the photograph, along with 2 pieces of cotton wool. They have moved everywhere with me, strange really, as I am not a collector at all but I will be keeping these pennies.

Theme 1 - Sparkle

Heirloom

These were my mother-in-law's, a truly wonderful women.  She was a lady in every sense of the word.  This set was given to her by her husband in the 60's.  I will probably never wear them, but I just love the "sparkle".

Added sparkle in Photoshop

Theme 28 - Mirror

A Reflection of the day

OK, I admit, this did start out as my "Rain" shot, but I liked 2 photos I took this day - rare for me, I am normally pleased if I like 1 photo.  The reason I am pleased is because I seem to have got the focus right (for a change) and exposure.  

 

Theme 32 - Rain

Rainy Day in Cumbria

This is the easy one - no shortage of this stuff at the moment.  I had a great day out on business but on the road a lot.  So here is a view of my day - rain through the windscreen.  My original idea was to take a picture of the windscreen wipers working, using a slow shutter speed - Do you have any idea how hard that is!!!  Definitely need a car friendly tripod in order to carry out that idea.  So this picture was taken in a private driveway of a house  I was visiting.  Fortunately the house was empty, unlike my windscreen wiper shots - there was a farmer in a tractor extremely puzzled as to why there was a strange women sitting in the car taking pictures of......(??!).

However, today I got 2 for 1 - see Mirror.

Theme 192 - Sunset

Sunset over Catbells

January 11 2008

After days of rain and grey skies, the clouds parted and gave way to this amazing sunset.  I grabbed my camera and ran out to capture the beauty of the reflected light.  This is one of many I took that evening.