My new, albeit temporary, office.
27/01/09
Temporary office. I moved upstairs shortly after to my new temporary office, to cover maternity leave. Now I have a permanent job (well as permanent as these things ever are) and the office is a state!
I spied Colin in the carpark at work messing about with a bit of string.
[We had more cattle in our garden today, they trampled it good and proper so Colin was looking for string to tie across the gate opening.]
27/01/09
It's funny the things you see at work when you look out of the window.
Fern held in suspension as she waits for me to throw the ball.
27/01/09
Fern can look quite vicious when she's ball chasing.
I finally did some repotting of most of my seedlings (well, not so much seedlings as proper plants).
27/01/09
Not a great year for tomatoes, sadly.
Driving home to Cornwall along the A30 in the rain. It hadn't rained at all at home.
27/01/09
Pleased with the framing and focus of this, even though it's a bit of a dull subject.
Sepia Yan (spent a while messing about with the settings on my P&S).
27/01/09
I have struggled for a long time with justifying post processing (or even using the idiot settings on my camera). The most I usually do is crop and I feel that even this is cheating - a good photographer should always be able to frame a shot perfectly.
But now and again I think about cheating a little more...
I remembered having taken my photo a day for May 30th on Colin's mobile whilst we were seeing The Pigeon Detectives at Plymouth Pavilions. So here's a picture of the picture of Cage the Elephant who were one of the support acts.
27/01/09
I try my hardest!
I finished my job today and felt I deserved a celebratory cake from the bakery in Chacewater. This is an almond slice, which was very, very lovely.
27/01/09
That was a truly momentous day - to be honest a 2 metre diameter raspberry pavlova wouldn't really have been enough to celebrate quitting that job. I've been gainfully employed elsewhere for the last eight months and I have never looked back. A HUGE, HUGE relief.
Plenty of kodak moments today but no camera to hand so here's one from Saturday. This is a local woodpecker's nest.
27/01/09
You see - I DO need a zoom lens!
A lychee. I ate it later.
27/01/09
This is taken with the L4 in macro mode - I often use the L4 for closeups - it's often better than the D70 in terms of distance and focusing.
Tiara.
27/01/09
I took this photo for a friend to see if she'd like it for her wedding. She wasn't interested but it provoked some banter with a Flickr random who was sort of interested but declined to name her price in the end.
Barney using Fern as a pillow. Awwww.
27/01/09
Fern looks very skinny here - I've fed her up a bit since then.
My entry for the Turner Prize.
27/01/09
Have realised how tatty the container is looking now...
I got home from work today to find that our garden had been trampled by cows from the icecream farm. Hmph.
26/01/09
This is nothing compared with what a three tonne midi digger did later in the year! I don't know why I was so bothered about it.
I took photos of hoardings only today so this is one from yesterday.
We had dinner last night at the Blue Bar at Porthtowan, followed by a quick walk on the beach as it was getting dark.
26/01/09
Another of my 'footsteps' range of photos ; ) (although I'm liking to composition on this one).
A slightly more artistic shot of the container, taken with my L4 point and shoot as someone's run out the battery on my D70.
26/01/09
I like the composition of this photo (taken with P&S too - not bad at all). Part structural, man made, primary colour and part green, natural but also structural.
Pebbles.
On a table mat (you should have seen the photos I rejected today!).
26/01/09
Mmmm cheating of a different kind. I must have been quite desperate there.
I spent 3.75 hours this afternoon painting most of one side of our container Trafalgar Blue. Only three more sides, the top and the bits I've missed left to go.
26/01/09
Oops, still haven't finished the last side : )
Mmm cake. I've made lemon drizzle cake too many times lately but it's such an easy recipe I thought I'd adapt it to Orange Double Drizzle Cake. Did the drizzle thing and then made up icing using the rest of the squeezed orange juice and spooned it over. Very tasty.
26/01/09
Oh lordy, this photo is making me salivate!
Dusty frog. Colin had a good clear up of the garage and found this poor chap in the sweepings.
22/01/09
Poor toad (as I know think he was).
Atmospheric pressure is falling, according to my new weather station (£8, Aldi). It rained most of Friday and all of Saturday.
22/01/09
Beware the falling glass indeed.
It's pouring with rain so thought I'd take this opportunity to photograph a rather obscure book which Colin's father gave us. A Celebration of Cornish Sun Dials by Carolyn Martin. A very niche subject for a book!
22/01/09
I like the stylised sun on the front of this book.
Oops. Won't be using the forklift without some maintenance first!
Colin kicking back in the hammock after a hard day's work.
22/01/09
Ahh hammocks.
Spent the afternoon painting the container. A great improvement, don't you think? ; )
(I'm ordering some paint tomorrow in either blue or green so that I can finish the job this week.)
22/01/09
The neighbours didn't seem to mind what this looked like, I later found out, but I did paint three out of four sides.
One of the clematis (clematii?!) that grows round our front door has just flowered. It looks beautiful and it's a huge shame that in a month or so there won't be a door for it to grow round. We're hoping to move it but we'll have to chop down all the flowers and I've heard they don't travel well.
22/01/09
Gosh - it's hard to remember that we had things like this - it was such a beautiful plant. It has been replanted in the back garden and was showing signs of new growth late last year. Not sure if the cold winter has got to it though.
I'm jumping on the bluebell wagon - here's a photo of our local bluebell patch. Sadly the photo doesn't do the bluebells justice.
22/01/09
Everyone was doing bluebells photos so I had to join in. These were slightly past their best but the photo still didn't do them justice.
A celebratory glass of red.
22/01/09
Lots of engagement announcements that weekend.
Hot caravan.
22/01/09
A reminder that we had hot days last year and also of what the garden looked like pre-heat pump. I can't wait for spring again!
Bunting strung up around the Smugger's Den at Trebellan. We popped in here for a couple of pints and a pie for lunch after a morning stroll around the surrounding fields. The bunting was out for their May Bank Holiday Ale and Pie festival.
22/01/09
I like the simplicity of this photo - the sky could have been a touch more blue but it's one of my favourite photos.
New leaves, blue sky.
22/01/09
I can't wait for spring : )
Armstrong the Demolisher cut our empty oil tank up into bite sized pieces so that we can take it to the tip. It looked like a satisfying job!
22/01/09
Our dustmen took this away in two loads in the end. I gave them a big tin of chocolates at Christmas.
After Colin 'won' a container on ebay yesterday, we had it delivered today. In about 7 minutes!
22/01/09
Our best ebay purchase yet - it's still outside out house, full of our stuff.
You're probably a bit bored with my photos of loaf cakes but I've been lacking motivation to take photos this week.
Luckily I was more motivated to make a cake this evening for tomorrow as we have guests visiting. Lemon Drizzle cake anyone?
22/01/09
I can smell this...
I didn't take a photo today so here's one from the day before yesterday. Fraggle got caught in a huge hail shower so Colin brought her in to warm up infront of the fire. Fern, having lost her favourite sleeping spot, was less than impressed.
22/01/09
Fraggle is asleep. Bless her.
I have new wellies - I bought them on ebay and they arrived today. As you can see, Colin doesn't approve (although they do match his jumper!).
22/01/09
I loved these wellies but sadly neither this pair or the replacement pair lasted more than a few weeks. I ended up with a boring green pair again. The moral of this story is don't buy wellies that are made in china.
Another self portrait taken yesterday of my reflection in the van door. I was going to take a photograph today but it's just rained and hailed very hard and I'm not venturing out again (except to rescue the tortoise).
22/01/09
Must work harder on my self portraiture - I find it hard to take photos of myself. This is the sort of 'reveal' level that I prefer.
Sunday lunch baking today. I made these cinnamon rock cakes (retro cooking anyone?) for lunch. They were lovely, still a bit warm, after a nice sarnie.
Have also made pizzas tonight - even got the bread machine to make the bases.
22/01/09
I just don't have the time (or the inclination in a cold caravan) to bake at the moment. And I miss it.
