365 ~ April 25th ~May 1st

Posted in 365, Fuji, FujiX-T2, photography, self portrait, UncategorizedTagged , , , ,

Here we are again in what was quite an onerous sodding selfie week. Sigh. This week had a theme, ‘harmony’ so all the weeks shots come under that umbrella. This wasn’t a good start for me, harmony is something you do in choirs, usually the contralto harmonises with the soprano’s, bass’s with tenors, and that sort of thing. I was in the church choir when I was a kid as my Mum played the church organ and couldn’t leave me home alone, so I learned to harmonise quite well. Nevertheless, I figured I’ve heard people banging on about being in harmony with stuff, nature in particular so I’d get the hang of it.

Day 115 ~ Harmonious. This week we want to learn more about the harmonious sides of your life.  Harmony can be elusive to us at times.We feel much better when all aspects of life relate to each other and complement one another. That’s harmony! I’m lucky to live in a part of the world where we experience all four seasons.  I embrace each season and find harmony when I can be outside experiencing all that the season has to offer.  Here I’m embracing winter and the snow as it falls.  I feel harmony and peace when there’s a light dusting of snow over my world. What does harmony mean to you? Show us the harmonious (and not so harmonious) parts of your life this week.

So already we’re in to shilly shallying, show us your harmoniousness or not so harmonious. Sigh. The lady who posted this had an accompanying picture of herself arms wide, head back with little snowflakes falling all around. How very exuberant I thought. I myself am not so harmonious in snow, just bliddy cold. I whinged to Phil, ‘I don’t go around feeling all harmonious’ I whined, what can I do!? ‘Get in your car’, he said, ‘woman and machine in perfect harmony, it doesn’t matter what car you have you always drive like Ben Hur’. Best complement ever I thought!

Harmonious

Day 116 ~ From where I stand ~ shadow.~ Today is one of my favorite prompt days, the “Where I Stand” prompt in Picture You Week. I enjoy looking back at “where I stood” and also enjoy seeing where the community is “standing”. Our theme this week is Harmony and our prompt today is shadow. You can take a photo of your shadow, or you can approach the prompt by placing yourself in a shadow.

On the whole to take a sodding selfie of your shadow requires the sun to be visible in the sky. I know that must happen a lot where the lady who thought this one up lives in North Carolina, but here in Gateshead, not so much. And it didn’t appear at all, all day. I was contemplating getting the bedroom reading spotlight out and trying to do something with that, but just as the day was ending the clouds parted just a little and for two minutes golden hour happened down our drive. “SUN!!’ yelled Phil, and I ran outside and managed to get off one shot of my shadow against our bushy things before the clouds closed up again! Here I am, in harmony with a bush.

Shadow

Day 117 ~ Encouragement. ~ We have all had to work hard to find harmony in our lives over the past year.  To do that we’ve had to change, adapt, and find “a happy song” in places that are unfamiliar. Do you have a meaningful word or phrase that you turn to for encouragement, to find harmony when the world feels out of tune?  Photograph where you find encouragement.

Well no I don’t have a meaningful word or phrase, unless it’s ‘just bliddy get on with it’ (I don’t actually say bliddy BTW, that’s just for writing politely, but in real speech it has a double ‘o’ where the ‘i’and the ‘d’ are). Yet again, Phil to the rescue, as in ‘just get a photo done so we can have our dinner!’. Encouragement indeed, and inspiration! In harmony with my chap.

Encouragement

Day 118 ~ Book. ~ Between the pages of a book is a lovely place to be! I love to read books!  I read most days.  In fact, I have to stop myself from reading for too long otherwise I don’t get enough sleep!  I added a few layers to this photo using Photoshop – a text layer and also some white transparent hearts to show my love of books.  Adding a couple of dried flowers helped to harmonise the background colour and the soft look I was after. Show us what you are reading and are you in harmony with your current book.

At last! Something reasonably literal. I set up a nice still life, did a bit of colour grading in photoshop to ‘harmonise’ the look of it, and hey presto. And am I in harmony with my current book? I don’t even know what that means. I’m not drinking sake, eating sushi and bowing to Phil but I like it a lot if that’s any measure.

Book

Day 119 ~ Resilient ~ Resilience is a word I’ve heard a lot in the last year.  Humans have the capacity to recover from all kinds of difficult situations.  The pandemic has highlighted this and pushed us all to our limits in one way or another.  Hopefully, you have all found a way to adapt and continue to live each day to the fullest within the constraints in place to protect everyone so that we can enjoy many more days. Nature shows us resilience in more obvious ways, the forests grow back after fires or plants return after winter. So here I am with the focus on the tangle of branches of one of my hydrangeas simultaneously representing one’s daily challenges and resilience as they are budding with new growth.

Now and again the ladies have a ‘guest prompter’ and today was the day. She looked very stern posing behind some dead twigs. I figured I’ve got some dead twigs in the garden so could do a similar shot, but then I saw my little Jumping Johnnies that pop up every year in the cement joint between my patio slabs, and thought that was about as resilient as it gets.

Resilient

Day 120 ~ Handwriting ~ Here’s a question for you as we continue on with Picture You Week…What do you still write by hand?To do lists, Journals, Love Notes, or the Bills? In this digital age, you might have to stop and think about the answer! Today consider having a little fun practicing your cursive! Don’t worry if you feel your handwriting isn’t camera ready… as you might suspect “there’s an app for that!” Pick a font and get creative! 

Yet again with the shilly shallying, if you can’t do handwriting use an app!!! Is this what the world has come to? I despair. Anyway, I used to do calligraphy so I don’t need a bliddy app to write nicely. Also I went to school as a kid and was taught to write neatly with a fountain pen. That was of course in the Jurassic era when the world wide web was many years away. I suppose kids do everything on a computer now, and handwriting is just a thing of necessity instead of an art form. The poem here is called ‘Leisure’ and is by W.H.Davies, it’s one of my favourites. Annoyingly I’d run out of ink so couldn’t use my proper pen and had to make do with this rollerball, so not as neat as I normally am, but it will do I think.

handwriting

Day 121 ~ Joyful ~ Ending our harmonious week with the word joyful is a nice way to wrap it up, I think.  The definition of harmony says, “forming a pleasing or consistent whole.” What comes to mind for you when you think of a pleasing or consistent whole?  How can you share with us what “joyful” looks like to you?    

Urk, more ‘concept’ photography. Sad. What comes to mind when thinking of a pleasing whole is usually a bottle of rosé and a glass, actually that covers a fair amount of concepts but it would get a tad boring for my viewer. Anyways, the flowers Phil bought me for our wedding anniversary are still going strong 11 days on and they are a joy to look at and photograph.

Joyful

So that’s the end of sodding selfie week for another month. Except..next weeks theme is ‘portraits’ with the addendum to the instructions “If you don’t have any willing subjects this week, take portraits of yourself. ” Wait! What!!!??? This is not fair at all. I am insensed. You may be seeing a lot of Phil and the cats next week. Stay tooned for that!

59 thoughts on “365 ~ April 25th ~May 1st”

  1. The resilient photo is my favourite this week – think you captured it perfectly – and that handwriting is ridiculous. Where’d you go, handwriting school (I’m on top form today)? Very jealous. I got a calligraphy set from my grandma and never used it. What’s this funny feeling? Regret? Oh no…

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    1. Thanks Otsy, handwriting was a proper subject in my first school, no curly q’s, no self-expression, there was an alphabet on the blackboard and we practiced it until it was perfect, then learned to join it up in words. Very strict!

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  2. Very funny read, Fraggle, and I love your photos. My favourites are ‘Book’, ‘Resilient’ and ‘Handwriting’. You did well with the prompts. 🙂

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  4. Btw, I can’t write by hand anynore. Can hardly do my own signature. Obviously, when typing on computer keyboards since 1993, the muscle memory “unlearns” this skill. 😦

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  8. I’m envious of your lovely handwriting. Even before I hurt my wrist and stopped using my fountain pen, my writing was quite poor, and usually looked ‘rushed’
    I read ‘Shogun’ ages ago, but never forgot it.
    My favourite is the shadow of you on the bush. Suitably spooky, it feels as if you are a dark force emerging from the foliage! 🙂
    Best wishes, Pete.

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  10. I hope you don’t mind me saying so, but you have a very creepy shadow.

    Your handwriting is amazing. You obviously went to a much better school than I did, as we weren’t taught to write like that. I write my novels by hand and I count myself lucky if I can read every word on every page when I come to type it up.

    All the photos are great this week, so I don’t have a favourite.

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  11. Another good week of beautiful images to see and delightful prose to read. Favorite image is of the writing. Not only is it a lost art, but I know the quality of my handwriting has diminished. But there are times I still write for myself – mainly blog drafts when I feel like writing but away from the computer – but it tends to too sloppy because I’m not taking my time. Have a harmonious week ahead.

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  14. You did well, here. The car and Ben Hur were perfect – though I don’t know you personally, I can see you hurtling around in your car quite easily! The theme of “harmonious” does seem a good one to me – as we emerge from the isolation of pandemic, it is hard to find a harmonious approach to more outward when we have become more accustomed to inward and isolated – IMHO.

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  16. I am in complete agreement with the ‘sodding selfie week’, and the rather ambiguous prompts. That being said, you did a bang up job with them all!!!!

    I love you in the car….I am one with my car as well, living in a rural area.
    The shadow is suitably creepy. I had a hard time just finding sun this week myself, so again, feel your pain.
    But my favourite is your beautiful handwriting. It is a lost art, well done you!

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  17. I love all the stuffed little critters in your car in Harmonious.
    I’m also extremely jealous you can write like that. I played around with calligraphy when I was younger, but nothing I did ever looked that polished.
    Really great collection this week. I loved them all!

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  19. Your calligraphy is spectacular, is it from a particular style? I ask because I have seen manuals before but not familiar with it, looks like something you would find in the Lord of the Rings. In the Peruvian capital, Lima, the drivers instead would be nicknamed “Messala” xP but if you are Ben Hur you have to be quite skilled. Thank you, fragglerocking.

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  24. Great shots. I think some of these challenges would just infuriate me. I do so little handwriting now that when I do it for more than 10 minutes, it starts hurting my wrist 🤣

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