Puppies

Well, I have been very remiss with my blog... no updates for 15 months!!

Really cold weather this spring, unlike this time last year when it was just like summer.

My daffs have only just started to open, the tulips are still just leaves, and the lawn has only been mowed twice.

Two of my good friends have acquired puppies recently.    John's Sheltie, Lara, had two little blue merle boy puppies, John has kept one called Dec.  He is 12 weeks old. (All photos are clickable)

As  you can see, he is a little darling, and will be shown just like his mother and if he wins half as many titles as her he will be doing well.  In between times he will just be Lewis's playmate and the three of them will cavort around the garden like mad things all summer!




Also, my friend Elaine and her family have just got a new baby Leonberger puppy, Marvin, 8 weeks.

He accompanies their older Leonberger, Oz, who is bad on his back legs now.  They seem to get on well together.   This photo is the second day home.

Lovely time to have new puppies, all ready for the lovely warm summer days ahead... we hope!

Some shots with fill-in flash

I took these yesterday.. there is something about this type of work that I love.

It is achieved by metering from the sky behind the subject using spot metering in manual mode.
Then ignoring what the meter says and not changing the settings but using a flash dialled down to take the shot of the subject.
The small bit of flash then fills in the subject that would have otherwise been rendered dark if the sky was correctly exposed.

What are all these ducks beaks laughing at?  :)

I would like to have taken these shots of Lewis from straight on, but behind were trees so to get just sky to make it work, I had to take it from below!

Had I metered from the face, the sky would've been white.

Its a great way to get a nice blue sky.

Give it a try, its great fun and the results are inspiring.

(Yes, I know I should've cloned out the telephone wires - it was a spur of the moment thing!!)

The track of my photography

Like most photographers, I have my own preferences of which TYPE of photography I prefer and also the styles of taking the photos.

Some people stick with the same type for most of their lives, never venturing into uncharted waters, so to speak!

But I have tried my hand at a fair few types because I believe it is better to be able to diversify if the need arises.

That probably means I am a jack of all trades and master of none, but as I am not a professional, that is how I prefer it.

I started off with my favourite subject, wildlife photography.  I took shots of birds mainly and had a couple that won the Photo of the month Competition in the local Herts and Essex Observer newspaper.

Blue Tit

Cock Chaffinch

Goldfinch

                                         

______________ooO0Ooo_______________

Gradually my interest faded over a couple of years and I turned my hand to portrait work and made myself a small studio at home, and did portrait shoots with white backgrounds which is the in-thing!!

I have also done some weddings and thoroughly enjoyed those too, its very stressful but once the day is underway it is great fun!

So you see I have a fair few areas of photography to fall back on but at the moment I am just trying to get myself out and about and start hearing that shutter button click again!

Yessssssss!!!

I took Lewis out for a nice long walk today, even though I only envisaged it being a short  "I-suppose-I-ought-to" walk!

Once I was out there in the sun and frost I couldn't stop going.. we both loved it, and even though I didn't have my camera, I had my phone!

Remember, remember.......

November is upon us and it unseasonably warm. The trees are looking wonderful because we have had no frost here yet to knock them to the ground.
I remember many a Firework Night as a child absolutely FREEEZING trying to keep warm by the fire but not this year I doubt.

 Adam is now firmly ensconced in the house in Leeds with his friends. He has been trying hard for months to find a job and has finally got one in HMV in Leeds. It is a huge store with 2 floors and he has been there two days and loves it. Phew, that's one weight off my mind!... a huge one!
 He popped back home with a bad foot after a skateboard accident a few weeks ago but is right as rain now.

Roger was knocked to the ground face first by a reversing van last week! He was on the phone to Adam and suddenly was sent flying forwards and his phone went the opposite way across the concrete!! What with his bad hands and knees anyway, the force went up his arms and down his sides. After a couple of days rest he too is now fine!

Thomas hasn't had any accidents (touch wood) and is getting on very well in his job in the City.

Arsenal seem to be picking up a bit lately...obviously they couldn't get much worse!! :)

Here's a couple of photos I took recently when I finally remembered to take the camera out on a walk with Lewis!

September

In comes September... best month (as it's my birthday month!! )

Very mixed weather as usual.

I drove up to Derbyshire in the Peak District on Wednesday, to see my friends Margie & Mal and their lovely Cavaliers while they were on holiday there.

We had a lovely day, a lovely meal, and Lewis thoroughly enjoyed playing with their "boys"! 

It was a 3hr drive each way  but seeing as I go up to Yorkshire so often, it really didn't seem that far for me.

Lewis

Serge

Branden

Tom is still enjoying working in London, and Adam has been gone up to Leeds and moved in with some friends for about 6 weeks now.. very quiet here!!

Roger walked into the garden the other evening and picked an apple off the tree and came and sat in the lounge to eat it while watching TV.

Lewis was sitting staring up at him as he likes apples, but Roger said in a gruff voice "NO", as we don't like him staring when we are eating.

Lewis ran quickly out of the room and we thought no more about it.

About 3 or 4 minutes later, Lewis came trotting back into the room with a pear in his mouth from the garden and lay on the lounge floor eating it!!! :)

Clever boy!! :)

Sparrows, horse-chestnuts, and Sudocrem!

June was very cool and rather damp after our strange hot April/May, but it seems to be bowing out with a rage of sunshine and heat... 30C here!

I found a baby sparrow on the paving slabs yesterday.  I know it is best to leave them and their mums will find them, but I was worried about my cats and dog, and also, even if the mother found it on the ground, there is not much she could do with it there.

I held it up to let her see it, then placed it into some shrubbery and hope something comes of it.   She can at least feed it with flies etc and hopefully it may fly one day, although I can't see how it can take off if it is on the ground! :(

Hoping our huge horse chestnut tree in the front garden doesn't get the dreaded canker again this year.  It  had it last year, was ok the year before that, but had it the year before.

I have noticed hundreds of others are suffering the same, but they don't die but start from scratch again the following year.
The leaves go brown in July and fall off. It looks very strange along the hedgerows to see all these brown trees in the midst of the summer green.   Mainly in the S.E. of England I think.

Lewis has been scratching and biting at his stomach and underneath his rear haunches for the past few days, making big pink lumps everywhere.   He doesn't have any signs of fleas at all, so I didn't know what it was.

Roger had a brainwave that it could be where Lewis lies on the grass with his back legs stretched out the back like a frog!  We have ants on our lawn and if he was bitten quite a few times, he then scratched and nibbled and made them all worse.
A quick smooth on of some Sudocrem and it had all gone the next day......magic stuff, I keep a tub in the house since the babies were born some 23 years ago!  (Not the same tub!)

May has begun, well it's a third of the way through!   Where is the year going?

Beautiful weather for the last few weeks, although I guess we DO need rain for the crops and gardens.

I have started going to watch Thomas play cricket for Matching Green on Saturdays again now, it is very relaxing and makes me feel great when he does well.  (Which he is doing lately with his new bat!!) :)

He scored 59 last week, so had to buy a jug in the pub afterwards!!

Oh the price of success!!  :)

He is also the wicket keeper.

oOo----------------------------------------------- oOo

It is baby bird time of the year again.  We have Great Tits nesting in the mailbox again!

It is hard when you have cats and you also like wildlife.  We had a young blackbird brought in by one of the cats last night.  They are nesting in the ivy on the garage wall.

It is getting near the time for my gall bladder surgery, 2nd June.  I am starting to have the odd twinge again lately.   Glad it will soon be gone.

Today the weather is perfect, and I think I am going to have a rather special day!

My friend Sue, who I went to school with and lived in the same road as, moved to Australia with her husband and young son a few years ago.  We keep in touch by email and Facebook.   She emailed to say she is over here briefly and could we meet up (her sister Sally is here too, from France)

I haven't seen Sue (apart from a school reunion in 1993) for SOOOO long!   We did have some times together from about 1970 - 1977!! :)

Looking forward to seeing Sue & Sally again and reliving the old days! 

Spring has sprung

April is here, we have been through snowdrops, crocuses, and now daffodils, with tulips heads hanging around ready to open a little later on.

The weather is a bit blustery and blowy but I suppose that is March winds and April showers for you!

Took Lewis for a nice walk in Hatfield Forest last weekend.  Owing to the lovely weather it was pretty busy with parents and children with bikes and scooters, pushchairs, and dogs.
Lewis played with lots of other dogs and had a wonderful time, did the pair of us good!

Mother's Day on Sunday, no doubt I will be popping over to Chelmsford to see my mum. Don't know what to take her but it will probably be a plant or flowers.  Because I have always seen HER on Mother's Day, I tend to forget that I am a mum and it's MY day too!! :)

Doctors and drinks

Half way through February already and spring is on its way.
There are snowdrops out and crocuses just starting to open.

Best news of all is that Thomas has got a job in Fenchurch Street in London at an insurance underwriters.
He has been for many interviews up there and the good news came on Monday.

Well done son, we are all very proud of you xx

Today I had my abdominal scan to see if I have indeed got gallstones.
Apparently I have no stones but I have some "debris".
I asked if this meant a shopping trolley, an old boot and a goldfish !!  :)

When I walked into the scan room I could smell the overwhelming smell of underarm B.O. the type that smells like raw onions!  There was only he and a nurse in the room and as he sat next to me, to my dismay, I realised it was HIM!

He then proceeded to say "Take a very deep breath in"!!  AARGHH!!... which was followed by about another 20 deep breaths!  I nearly passed out!

AND it bloody well hurt!!

However, all done now and we shall see what the outcome is after a doctor's appointment.

Watch this space.

This photo is of a pleasant drink in a pub while doing a recce for a wedding I am photographing in May in Saffron Walden.

A rather strange January.

As the title says, its been a rather strange January all in all.

From the day after New Year's Day when I had two very nasty gall stone attacks... through the middle of the month when an old trauma of the lower spine from 2008 came back to haunt me to now.. when when a house move seems very imminent. :)

My abdominal scan is planned for 16th February so they can see for sure if there are any gall stones... and if so they will operate and remove the whole gall bladder.

I have had 4 X-rays on my lower spine to see if there was a break or whatever when I slipped up on the stairs and landed with the lower 2 stairs across my lower back.  At the time the doctor thought Id probably broken a rib at the back and left it to heal, as they do.

It has been playing up recently so we shall see on 31st January what's to be seen.

I have to cut out all fat and red meat and cheese etc etc whilst waiting for the gallstone confirmation, so decided that would be a good time to go on a general diet.

It has been going very well, I'm quite happy eating carefully and have managed to lose a stone.

I really want to get back down to about 12 stoneish  but I will make each target at half a stone intervals. 

Set myself up for success!  :)

Have to move out of our rented house soon, so we are in the process of collecting stuff together at the moment.  Haven't found anywhere yet but its all a vicious circle, do you find somewhere first, or after you give notice!

When we moved to this house, my mind was was locked and I was so depressed all I could do was cry,  I had almost had a mental breakdown with the culmination of finding we were going to have the house repossessed if we didn't sell it quickly.

I hardly remember the move... we did it ourselves with the van and cars over a week, back and forth a  million times.

My medication has me on a level now and the thought of another move in the same way doesn't seem to bother me in the least. 

Also, having lost weight, and being excited at the prospect at losing more, I seem to be in a much happier frame of mind lately.  "Good,  say my family!!! :)

I lost half a stone during the last move, so maybe I will do so again!!  Now that's optimism for you!! :)

I will leave with a photo of me testing the background studio lights in 2007, weighing a bit more than I  want to get back to!

Christmas

Christmas Eve tomorrow.  How quickly that came round again.

I have done all the shopping.....I think! :)

The snow is still laying around as the temperature is still under freezing and too low for it to melt.  Just as long as we don't have any more.

Off to my parents' tonight for a drink at theirs for their Diamond Wedding Anniversary - 60th!
Will be nice to be together with my brother and his wife and the children.  Although all our children are 16-23 now!

Mum & Dad were married at the church in Leytonstone, East London in 1950.  All the bridesmaids wore cherry red velvet dresses and it was snowing.   What a picture that must've made.   I think I will ask them to get their wedding album out tonight! :)

I remember asking mum why I wasn't a bridesmaid!  Nowadays that wouldn't be such a funny question!

I will take Lewis for a walk in the snow on Christmas day across the fields.   Every year since I can remember I have always looked across fields and thought of the fact that while we are all rushing about like idiots, the foxes, rabbits and deer have absolutely no idea it is any different day than usual!!

However, to those of you who have received a card, here is another set of best wishes, and for those I speak to on Facebook, Talk Photography Forum etc, I wish you and your families all the very best of happiness and health for Christmas and the New Year.

Janice, Roger, Thomas & Adam xxx

Goodness, it has been a month since my last post... how remiss is that!!!

It is f-f-f-freezing here at the moment, -4C but still no snow, although other parts of the country are chin-deep in it.

I was watching Countryfile on the BBC last night and there was an item about medlar trees and their fruits.
I was particularly interested as there are not many around these days and we have 2 of the trees in our garden and the house is named The Medlars, as I believe I mentioned in an earlier blog.

The whole garden used to be full of them and also an orchard that was originally joined to the house and is now an estate called Medlars Mead.

Now I know how to make Medlar Jelly by adding sugar, cooking and straining I will try to make a jarful  with what is left on the tree.

I had lots of work last week which is good, every day.     Not sure what this week will entail though.. it is so fickle just depending on orders which may or may not come.

I have some wedding photography to do in March in Saffron Walden which I am looking forward to as I haven't done one for a while now.
It is quite a bit of pressure but once the day gets underway, I always find it fun. :)

 

Lockets and Lads

Thirteen months ago was my 50th birthday.
 
My two lovely lads gave me a gorgeous silver heart-shaped locket with a purple stone on the outside and spaces on the inside for their photos.

I have to say I have been very remiss at sorting out photos, making them small enough, then getting them to fit.

I haven't done a wonderful job but I am so pleased that I have finally got them there.. close to my heart, as they are in real life and where they belong.

Thank you boys.

Landscapes and leaves

Well it's been a long time since I have posted as I really don't seem to do anything worth mentioning!

Made a wonderful lemon drizzle cake yesterday.  Wonderful flavour and not too difficult so I can see myself making it again... and again... and again!! :)

As it is my favourite time of the year, I went for a nice walk this morning.  It can stay cold and bright like this all year as far as I'm concerned :)

Lewis, my little walking companion and my best friend.

Chimneys and kettles

It has started to turn cold today.   Glad I have got my Slanket (http://www.theslanket.com) sorted out for the cold nights.!

Not had any work all week, or most of last, bad news :(

We have two very large chimneys downstairs.  We are sure the warm air from the radiators goes up them and also the cold wind blows down.
The heating bills are very high in this house, with its high ceilings and old wooden sash windows with no double glazing.  Hence the purchase of the Slanket!  But I have Lewis to keep me warm :)

Our Tefal jug kettle was leaking a lot over the past couple of weeks, all over the counter when you poured it.   So Roger bought a new one, and when he boiled it, it leaked all over the counter....it had a split down the side!  doh!!

Im watching the Chilean miners being pulled to safety at the moment.  Loved the commentary when they said some of them had "minor injuries"  haha  just my cuppa tea that was!! :)

Shadows in the kitchen

~Medlars and Fleas ~

Well, that's the first week of October nearly over. I have been moaning about people mentioning Christmas so early, but now it really IS in sight!!

There is a brilliant product we use on Lewis, called Frontline Combo.  The combo part means it kills fleas, larva, eggs etc. The whole shebang!
However, you have to produce a vets prescription before buying online in the UK.
I found a great place in the States where they buy packs of the pipettes of the stuff which is made for large dogs, then split them and sell those to owners of smaller dogs, along with a pot with a plastic lid for storage, and a syringe (no needle) for dropping the right dose onto your dog.
It works out at £11 for 6 pipettes-worth, instead of £34 for 6 pipettes over here!

 HERE

That's my tip of the day! :)

Now some photos - all clickable as usual for a larger size:

Berry nice!

Leaf off!

 These are the fruits of the medlar tree (obviously called medlars), the name of the house.
They are an old fruit mentioned in Shakespeare.  Meldar jam and jelly are still made but not easy to find.

Rain and puppies

What a rubbishy week of weather, followed by a rubbishy weekend too!
Although on the very day I had decided to do my October Photo Challenge on the theme of RAIN, it was a nice sunny day!!!
Arsenal playing Chelsea this afternoon...  I don't hold out too much hope. :(

Lewis had his friend Lara the Sheltie over the other day so I have put some photos of the rain and some photos of the pups :)        All photos clickable.

Lewis is just growing his tail.  It looks lovely when it is held up, but I will have to catch that another day!

And the gorgeous Lara!

Poor horse chestnut tree

We have a humungous horse chestnut tree in the front garden.

Three years ago it got a disease and started to turn brown in mid summer.
We noticed lots of other trees over the whole of the country were doing the same :(

It is a combination of a leaf miner and a canker.  However, after 2 years of having it, it was fine last year.

Back again this year though.  It produces a vast number of conkers still, so perhaps it will be fine again next year.

  All photos can be clicked to enlarge.

 Still makes a mess of the garden though!  This is about a 5th of the ground beneath it, much to the local children's delight!  I allow everyone to come and collect conkers, seeing as they are no longer allowed to play conkers at school...booo...hissss!!!

Incey Wincey

Virginia Creeper by the front door.

Sheffield and back

Early start yesterday morning, off to deliver in Hillsborough, Sheffield. It is the far end of Sheffield and almost into the Peak District.  I always take Lewis, he is good company!
On the way back I stopped in Sheffield for 5 mins to take a couple of shots of the buildings, and then on to Anston Stone Woods, a lovely area with a really high rail embankment one side and  an even higher embankment (about 100 ft) up to the road the other side.
Down in the valley between it is magical.  Woodland, a brook running along beside you all the way, lots of stone arches and rocky outcrops.   We both love it there.
Now the pics!

First the architectural ones:

   

  Capita Hart Building            

Capita Hart Building 2

The new

Old and new together:

In the woods:   tunnel 

Sitting on top of the bridge over the stream

And the stream that runs along the bottom of this lovely place, its is next to your all along your walk with lovely sounds and birds singing.