Theme 179 - Commitment

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Theme 286 - Cartoon

A cupful of cheer

Our friends who visited last week gave us these 2 amusing mugs. Funny cartoons and both very appropriate.

Theme 332 - Egg

Egging me on!

Our little egg shaped egg timer - has the loudest ring which rarely fails to make me jump when it goes off.

Theme 203 - Spiral

Pepper Grinder

Hubby's son came to stay a couple of weeks ago and bought us this gift whilst he was here. Not only is it an excellent pepper grinder, it has also made a good blog shot.

Theme 86 - Telephone

I suggested I would be doing a lot of macro work - I didn't say they would all be interesting :-)

This lens is amazing, too good in fact - I can see the phone needs a clean - you can even see a a small fine dog hair (you see, they still get themselves in on the act one way or another)

Theme 272 - Pineapple

Done it!! - My 60th post this month. I kept setting goals, originally to hit the 100 mark (overall). Then I thought I would try and beat Julie's record of 56 ;-) Once I had done that, I thought I may as well hit the 60 and in effect do 2 months in 1 (I know, they are not calendar months, just a nice round number - and I'm not finished yet - lol). I am still way behind by about 100, but feel I stand a chance of completing the challenge now.

Theme 44 - Steam

My weapon of choice for cleaning

Theme 326 - Barcode

Lovely, lovely barcode.

This is a great barcode, because it is the code on the box containing my new 100mm macro lens. This is the first picture I have taken with it and with this extremely limited experience - I'm impressed - lol

That's enough buying now, or this hobby of mine is going to bankrupt us!!

Theme 302 - Church

I don't know if I have pulled this off or not - I was trying to be creative (read clever!) and took this shot of the church in Kendal through a sculpture that's in the grounds of the museum next door.

Theme 282 - Monument

In memory of the men of Kendal who fought in the First World War 1914 - 1918

Theme 185 - Traffic

Kendal, 5:30

Theme 57 - Pop Culture

Beatles catalogue found in a second hand book store

Theme 269 - Feet

Pleased to meet you!

I know there aren't many feet here, but this little dog lives in a world of feet. I actually missed "the" shot by not having my camera at the ready. 30 seconds earlier, he was really snarling at this "sheep" and up on his hind legs.

Theme 61 - View

We walked to the top of a hill called Latrigg and this is the view. This is where I live - not bad is it!

This is 7 photos stitched together in CS3 and best viewed by clicking on the photo and looking at the larger photo. It was a bit of an experiment and I took the photos hand held, would obviously be better if I had used a tripod. Still quite pleased with it and would like to do it properly one day.

To the left is Derwent Water and to the right you can just see Bassenthwaite Lake. It was a very warm day, but the cloud was down. However, I think it adds to the overall drama of the shot.

Theme 169 - Music

Electric Blues

Busker playing an electric mandolin. He was very good. I love to hear music in the street, adds such a festive air.

I like the way he kind of mimics the shop display photo.

Theme 37 - Blue

Well it is blue - so fits the theme. No idea why it was in the centre of town.

Theme 64 - Collection

Peek-a-Boo

I spied this collection of chickens through someone's window. Like the way they appear to be watching.

Theme 115 - Flag

Union Jack (Just in case you didn't recognise it!)

Not very interesting, but I am on a "catch-up" mission.

Theme 111 - Ball

Topiary Ball

Theme 20 - Fingers

Don't try this at home children!

I think he is lucky he has got some still.

Theme 362 - Friendship

New Friends - Great Friends

I recently did a course in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), we were a small group and the course was over a 3 month period for 12 days (4 days per month). I have done a fair bit of training and tutored groups of students in nutrition for 6 years but I have never known such fantastic group dynamics. Although we were all very different we got on brilliantly. Without exception, they were all wonderful to know. So to Anna, Barbara, Faye, Jo, Sabine & Victoria, thanks for being as supportive as you were and look forward to seeing you again in February.

We also had another member of the group, Philippa, but unfortunately work commitments meant she had to defer until the end of the year - so sorry she couldn't be with us.

Chris & Tony were our trainers.

Theme 234 - Shadow

Washday - And not blue

Loved the depth and play of the washing line & tree shadows on the lawn

Theme 251 - Expensive

Energy Eater

Our Aga, lovely to cook with, expensive to buy and now with the prices of energy soaring, extremely expensive to run :-(

Took this with a very slow shutter speed (4 sec) set on a tripod and used "Live View" for the first time on my 40D. Great for focusing, really liked that aspect of this feature. Also used the "long shutter speed noise reduction" feature on the custom settings.

Theme 225 - Fairground

This post should be "Celebration" because it is my 100th post - Yessss! I wondered if I would get this far at times. Got a lot of catching up to do still, but glad to hit this milestone.


Colours are tacky beyond belief - but how so wonderful.

Theme 94 - Postbox

Whilst busy taking shots of a carousel for the "Fairground" theme, hubby spotted this. It is a Victorian replica - this plaque explains all. Hope it is readable.

Theme 43 - Friend

This was going to be my "Post Box" theme, but a friend of ours suddenly popped himself behind and peered over - so funny, I decided it had to be my "Friend" theme.

That's my hubby leaning on the post box, looking bored (probably with me stopping every 5 minutes to take a photo for this blog!)

Theme 330 - Cobbles

Risky Blog Shot

Despite appearances, this was actually a fairly busy road in Carlisle - I decided I wanted to be in the middle of it to get the right angle!

Theme 146 - Quirky

We had friends staying with us this week - one of the wonderful things about having guests stay is the opportunity to be a tourist and take time out to visit events that may otherwise get missed.

On this occasion we went to a Ceramics Festival, "Potfest in the Park", it was at Lord and Lady Inglewood's ancestral home in Hutton-in-the-Forest; a wonderful setting to hold this event. As a big added bonus, it was warm and sunny and ideal to just idle around amongst the tents viewing some fabulous works of art.


This piece was called "Up on the Roof" - Unfortunately I didn't make a note of the artist's name.
Here is a shot of the whole piece.

Theme 193 - Duplicate

There's a few duplicates here

Theme 314 - Queue

Waiting for the bus

Oh I loved these little characters and saw them as we entered the PotFest. Although no actual expressions on their faces, their whole body language showed they were waiting appeared to be looking for the bus. A later discussion with the creator established this was in fact what he had in mind.

Of course we wanted to have a good look around before we bought anything. When we went back, so many had sold, including some of the ones I wanted. Fortunately it was a local artist, so I will be able to buy them later.

My depth of field was too shallow to show "the queue", so here is another shot face on.

Theme 207 - Fish

Inside of bowl
Out side of Bowl

I have not done full justice to this piece - however as we went on to buy it, I have plenty of opportunity to have another go!!

It is by Roger Cockram Ceramics An interesting man who initially trained as a Marine Biologist. All of his pieces are inspired by nature and what he has seen. In this instance he saw this fish caught on land, in a pool. I didn't ask whether he went on to save him - I will contact him to find out.

Theme 176 - Pattern

A pottery sculpture, great shapes and reflections.Then realised I could focus through this piece to the sculpture behind.

Theme 160 - Hug

This piece is called "Bear Hug" - Wonderful and so perfect for the theme.

Bonus Hug

Love this piece. It is Little Red Riding Hood & The Wolf and called "Blind Faith"

Used the preset Lomo with Velvia and darkened the edges. This preset rarely works IMO, but like it on this image.

Both of these are by the sculpture Paul Smith

Theme 248 - Pyramid

Pyramid Topiary

What a stroke of luck - the walled garden at Lord and Lady Inglewood's home had this. I wondered how I was going to do this theme!

Theme 333 - Cactus

I decided the snail was more interesting than the cacti (not my favourite plant) so that is where I put my focus.

Theme 319 - Hand

This carving is to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Lake District National Park (1902 - 2002).

I liked this one to show the perspective of size.

Theme 69 - Tangled

Some upended canoes by the lake. I was actually looking for a "tangled" tree root shot, but preferred this scene and liked the mix of chain & rope.

Theme 222- Perfect

This was one of the most perfect days ever - certainly in the photography sense. I have done 2 seminars with a company called "Experience Seminars", they are for Canon users only and I booked 3 in total. They were all classroom stuff and the final one was learning the flash system. I decided I had had enough of the theory for a while and changed the flash one for a practical day and opted for the "Big Cat Shoot". All I can say is "WOW", am I glad I changed. It was in Welwyn and it was at the Santago Leopard Project. There were just 12 of us in total. The cats were in enclosures (of course) but with just one fence between them and us, so we could get very close. It is a private collection and therefore not open to the public in general, only for these photo experience days and members only.

Amongst the collection is a Cloud Leopard and the very rare Snow Leopard. They are very closely monitored to ensure the cats well-being and to keep the gene pool  pure. The intention is that these cats, or their off-spring, go back into the wild.

I feel incredibly privileged to have had this experience and to have been able to get so close to these magnificent creatures.

Incidentally, the first photo here is a leopard called "Pebbles", she was hand reared in the kitchen of the people who own the collection - She is about 3 years old now and a favourite with most of us. An endearing but spirited nature. The second one of the cat laying on the branch, is a Cloud Leopard, he is called Harry - also quite a character.