Category: food

365 ~ 28th March ~ 3rd April

Posted in 365, Adventures, food, Fuji, FujiX-T2, landscape, photography, self portrait, uncategorised, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , 85 Comments

Hi guys, this week is the sodding selfie week, and I find I’m taking a perverse pleasure in keeping as little of myself in the picture as is possible, whilst still following the prompts. I’ve checked out other peoples contributions on the Instagram page and am quite appalled at the amount of people who completely neglect to put any bits of themselves in the shot at all. I mean, come on, cheaters! Anyway onwards!

Day 87~ New. Where I Stand is a monthly prompt that we repeat throughout the year.  The idea is to include your feet, either taking the photo looking down or putting your camera on a tripod and taking a photo of just your lower half. What do you have that is new in your life, that you should include in your photo?  Put it next to where you stand and show us.

I didn’t have anything new unless we count some pitta breads and a bottle of milk, which I don’t, so made do with my latest purchases from Amazon and Ebay, though they are a few weeks old now. Some woolly socks, and a watch.

New (ish).

Day 88. Apparel. Don’t be into trends.  Don’t make fashion own you.  You decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way you live – Gianni Versace. I like an eclectic, bohemian style when I am not dressed for fitness. When my husband bought his Harley I was very excited by the potential for shopping for the clothes I needed in order to be his passenger.   I am in love with my Harley Davidson protective gear.  I feel really fierce in it!  It is almost as fun to wear the leathers as it is to ride on the bike. Fashion is instant language.  Show us your style and let us get to know you better.  

WTF? Fashion?? Style?? Leathers?? Seriously woman, left all that behind many years ago. Mini skirts and thigh high boots were the thing back in ‘my day’ but then I segued into sartorial elegance (jeans, T shirt) and now repose in the Andy Pandy school of fashion. This sums me up perfectly.

(For my non UK readers, Andy Pandy was a kids TV programme in the jurassic era and this is what he looked like).

Andy Pandy @BBC

Apparel

Day 89~ Remember. As we continue on with our Picture You Week show us something that is currently part of your day. When you look back on this day next year what will your photo remind you of? 

This! Today was the first warm, sunny day of the year, and my Happy Eater Tree which had loads of buds on it sprang into action. By the time I got back from work it was blooming gorgeous! (I’ll do a not-the-365 post soon on the other blog with the tree in full gloriousness)

Remember

Day 90 ~ dinner. Picture You week is my favorite week and I am always so willing to be in the photos. Today, however, I was more excited to eat our yummy, colorful dinner and didn’t take the time to get myself in the photo. That’s ok! We definitely want to remind YOU of that as well. What does dinner (or supper) look like for you tonight? 

If someone who likes being in their pictures forgets, what hope is there for the rest of us? Dinner though, that took a bit of faffing about but here it is. Chili con carne with rice and pitta breads and salad.

Dinner

Day 91 ~Relaxation. That feeling of bliss that washes over you when you “get away from it all” isn’t just in your head. Whether you spend time in the great outdoors, reading, or even cooking, total relaxation will help you find, clarity and rejuvenate your mind and body.  The exercise that generally goes hand-in-hand with spending time outdoors (hiking, biking, water activities, etc.) spurs the production of endorphins, your brain’s “feel-good” neurotransmitters which helps you feel loose, clear-headed and calm.  While some find relaxation in exploring the outside, others find relaxation in the quiet alone time reading, doing needlework or just sitting and thinking. What will you do today to reach a state of relaxation; you can do it! Take a photo of YOU…relaxing!

This was guest prompt, the ladies let someone from the group have a go once a month, this time a chap who frankly I think of as ‘lazy geezer’ for suggesting this. Also a bit long~winded there, but if it’s your only chance to be famousish you’re gonna take it I guess. Anyway I couldn’t do my normal relaxation shot as we did that on Day 33, so I decided I’d do meself in the bath as I do know people think that’s relaxing. I don’t think so really as the water keeps going cold so you have to keep topping it up with hot, and the pages of your book get wet too. Just have a quick shower and get on with life FHS!

(fake) Relaxation

Day 92 ~ Centered. What brings you to that place of balance where you feel the most content.  For me, it’s always being in nature with a camera in my hand. It really transforms my entire attitude.We have had several requests for a day where we can show off our 365 Picture Today Swag. Today is the day! If you have your 365 Picture Today swag, wear it! If you don’t own any of our group attire, that’s okay too! You can still show us where you are the most centered and balanced. You can also go in the direction of centering yourself in the photo. It’s totally up to you how to approach it.

This one annoyed me a fair bit. Firstly, be centered, be balanced be content etc. This is a thing that newish people do, oldish people like me grew up just getting on with stuff, not self-analysing every damned thing we do. So I had to google what being ‘centered’ meant. Pfft! Clap trap. Secondly ‘show off your 365 swag’. According to the Miriam Webster dictionary Swag in the USA can mean ‘promotional stuff’ like their sweatshirts with the 365 picture today logo on them. Swag over the pond here means stolen goods. I don’t have either, and I chose to use ‘happy’ instead of ‘centered’ so sat in my car which is my exceedingly happy place for my sodding selfie.

Centered. Pfft.

Day 93. Pocket. Do you remember where you were on January 9th of this year?  Do you remember the photo that you took on that day?  If not, go back and look because you will need to revisit that spot again today. Today’s Picture Your World prompt invites you to photograph the same location four times throughout this year documenting the changing seasons along the way.  You may choose a different perspective or choose to include different subjects in these repeating photos, but try to make it obvious to the viewer that they are seeing the same location. Once you have taken today’s photo, create a diptych using it and your January photo.  

In the January shot I hadn’t realised you were supposed to be in the shot, so this is how it has to be now. Phil and I had a nice walk over to the nature reserve, still a bit of a chill in the air, but nice blue sky afternoon. I tried to match up exactly where I stood in January but didn’t quite get there, but you can tell it’s the same place. Also, pocket???? WTH?? I don’t get that at all.

Pocket

So another sodding selfie week comes to the end, but stay tooned for next week’s adventures in Golden Hour.

😉

365 ~ 14th ~ 20th March

Posted in 365, flower, food, Fuji, FujiX-T2, macro, photography, still life, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , 55 Comments

This week was colour week, and the colour is yellow. I have even less yellow things than pink, not sure why as I like yellow better, but it was fine, I didn’t struggle to find anything. I’m not overly enthralled with any of these, somehow, except maybe the car.

Day 73 ~ Triangle. Yellow can represent freshness, happiness, positivity, clarity, energy, optimism, enlightenment, remembrance, intellect, honor, loyalty, and joy. It is also associated with Spring and fresh yellow flowers.Today be on the lookout for yellow triangles. I am standing in a parking lot next to a yellow arrow. Where else might you find yellow triangles. You could also choose to create a yellow triangle using items you have around the house.

It was raining and cold of course, so I decided to do the ‘use items from around the house’ bit. As I was making my toast for breakfast, the idea of the butter triangle popped into my head. Always good to have an idea that ends in yum. And yes the toast is burnt at one edge and raw at the other, my toaster is pants, but this bit was an end crust and just done for the photo.

triangle

Day 74 ~ Safe. Whether it be ducks in Boston or here in Texas, deer on a mountain highway, or children on a neighborhood street, these diamond-shaped yellow signs are used to help keep everyone safe.  Road crews and runners also wear yellow vests helping to keep them safe by making them more visible to motorists on the streets.Where do you see yellow being used as a safety measure?  Photograph it today.

As always, being at work all day doesn’t make things easy. Annoyingly I saw many yellow jacketed workmen on the journey home, but stopping on a major roadwork site at rush hour wasn’t an option. I resorted to my local shop instead, as they have yellow social distancing signs on the windows and floors. Londis and Morrisons are gifts that keep on giving. (Also that’s my little Minty car reflected in the window, it’s so cute 😍)

Safe

Day 75 ~ Wheel. See if you can find a wheel on a bicycle, a yellow car, a yellow bus, a yellow truck or anything else…you get the idea!  Just include a wheel in the photo.

Well I couldn’t find one. I kept checking the carpark outside where I work and no yellow vehicles visited. None around where I live either. So I got out the little people and dinky cars when I got home from work and took them out on the front driveway. The sun was going down so I had some nice light for it, am sure the neighbours think I’m mad.

Wheel

Day 76~ Brilliant. Yellow is my favourite colour!  To me it symbolizes sunshine and light, happiness and joy.  It is indeed the most brilliant of colours.Yellow is a ‘stand out’ colour.  It simply glows.  What brilliant yellow can you find in your world today!  Let us see the sunshine in your life.

Pfft! Sunshine my arse. No matter, Morrisons do flowers, so I called in after work to see if they had any daffodils, they did but they were still closed up, but these chrysanthemums were just gagging to be photographed. Me,me,me! they shouted, I’m brilliant! I agreed.

Brilliant

Day 77 ~ Sign. There is no shortage of signs that are yellow after all it is a cautionary color! All along the road there are signals and alerts, with warnings of hazards and dangers. There are markers to guide us as well as to deter us; this battered sign is giving us a warning that you are about to go over the cliff! So your challenge is to share the yellow sign that helped you out today!  

This one didn’t seem that different to day 74’s ‘safe’ really. I didn’t get a yellow sign helping me out as I already knew where to go for some warning signs. The coast line at Trow Landing is eroding at a fair rate, so there is a risk of cliffs crashing down if you are walking along the coastal pathway, not that I’ve ever seen that happen. I quite like the right hand triangle sign here, the little guy looks like he’s having a rave.

Sign

Day 78 ~ Inspiration. We can find so much that’s inspirational in our life.  What inspires you today?

It’s raining (again) today, so inspiration comes from looking at Saul Leiter’s photographs and reading books on art and creativity.

Inspiration

Day 79 ~ Cloth. Cloth and material can be found virtually everywhere and I’m sure it won’t be hard for you to find some yellow cloth to include in your photo today.

It nearly was hard. Phil has got a faded pale yellow T shirt but he’s gone to work in it, and I don’t have a damn thing in yellow! How’s that happened? Will have to rectify that for spring. Luckily I remembered Giorgio in the spare room, and that sufficed for yellow cloth.

So that’s another week done and dusted. Stay tooned for next week ~ adventures with angles.

365 ~21st ~ 27th February

Posted in 365, food, Fuji, FujiX-T2, lego, macro, photography, UncategorizedTagged , , , , 58 Comments

This week is Symmetry week which I thought wouldn’t be too bad, and it was mostly OK.

Day 52 ~ Square. Symmetry in our images can be achieved when two halves of an image hold the same weight. However, symmetry doesn’t have to be literal in the sense that each half mirrors the other.  But rather, it’s a balancing of objects and space. Symmetry in composition can also be achieved when different elements are used to help achieve the appearance of being symmetrical. This one caused me problems, not sure why, I did a whole month of squares back in the 366 days of 2016, maybe that was it, hard to think of something I hadn’t done before! Kitchen tiles to the rescue!

Square

Day 53 ~ 2 O’clock. How will you find symmetry today at 2 o’clock?  Maybe it’s just the story behind your symmetry.  I am very excited to see how you will find it today!  This one was also hard, I had a full day of clients so had to cheat and alter the clock when I had 10 minutes spare. At the real 2 O’clock I had a sucker in someone’s ear! Still this is what I do after each client, write up my notes on the laptop. There’s symmetry in there somewhere!

2 O’Clock

Day 54 ~ Incredible. When it snows, I like to go out and photograph snowflakes.  It makes winter more bearable. To me, snowflakes are incredible!  Each one is unique and the symmetry presented in each individual flake is perfection.  If it’s snowing in your neck of the woods today, why not try and capture the symmetry in a snowflake.  No two are the same!  If not, I’m sure you can find all kinds of other symmetrical things in your world.  What stands out as incredible to you? Nope, no snow here anymore. What we do have is Winnie, who is incredibly crazy, wild, nosy, fast-as-lightening, funny and definitely symmetrical.

Incredible Winnie

Day 55 ~ Window. Windows are great photography subjects…. whether looking at them or looking out of them. They provide interest and can even pick up cool reflections. We are practicing symmetry in our photography this week and windows are perfect for this. Look for houses or buildings and notice where the windows are placed.  How can you photograph them with symmetry?  I decided the Love Window in my shed would be good for this one. Thinking about it could have used the Wallace & Grommet Window for square. Duh.

Window

Day 56 ~ Meaningful. As we’ve seen this week, symmetry is a multi-faceted word.  In its broadest sense, symmetry means balanced.  In photography, this means that your photo is well-composed and that it has interest and movement throughout.  How lines and light move through an image create balance.  How a subject is placed in the frame with regard to negative space or background creates balance.Find something that is both familiar and meaningful to you.  Study it for a few minutes.  Notice its shape.  How does its look, change in different light or from another perspective?  Photograph the object such that you create symmetry by way of balance.  You may choose to include the entire object or only a part.  Whatever you do, create a meaningful image of something that is meaningful to you. This was easy.

Meaningful

Day 57 ~ Segment. Some images are symmetrical around a central point, like a spiders web. This type of symmetry is harder to find, but when you see it, it will immediately make sense. Radial symmetry pops up in architecture from time to time. Getting into the forest early in the morning to get the best light and with the dew still hanging around makes for great photos.  I am lucky to have such a great place to go so close to home.  Segments can be found in most circles.Where are you going to find your segments today? My first day off and nope to getting up early and finding a forest. I walked up to our local shop and bought a lemon!

Segment

Day 58~ Cones.

Are you ready for some photo fun!  It is scavenger hunt day!  Here is a list of items to go out and find and photograph! Once your hunt is complete, you will compile those images into a collage.  Symmetry is everywhere.  Today you are going on a scavenger hunt to look for cones and you will be photographing them in symmetry.  The cone shape naturally lends itself to leading lines. Let’s find some cones and leading lines!Today you are on the hunt for cones!  You can either position them in your photograph to draw your viewer’s eye, or maybe you might just want to find cones!  Pine cone, ice cream cone, traffic pylon, pencil tip, nacho chip, tree, funnel, party hat, strawberry. I had to send off for party hats and funnels from Amazon as our local shop doesn’t have either, but I managed to cobble everything else together, and Phil got a cornetto for helping me out. I forgot about symmetry and leading lines and just made up little stories for most of them.

Cones

Well that’s another week over, and next week is the first week of the month so more ‘selfies’. 🥴😟

Stay tooned dear reader!

365~ January 4th ~ 10th

Posted in 365, birds, food, Fuji, FujiX-T2, landscape, nature, photography, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , 61 Comments

The prompt for Day 4 was ‘Breakfast’. Well you can’t beat a boiled chucky~egg with toasty soldiers can you?

Breakfast

Day 5’s prompt was ‘Relinquish’. I’ll let you make your own interpretation of what I was relinquishing!

Relinquish

Day 6 was ‘Letters’. I chose an old calligraphy artwork I did back in the 90’s, a poem written in 1941 called High Flight by John Gillespie McGee Jr, an American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force. It’s my favourite piece of work that I did.

Letters

Day 7 ~ Open. (This one’s for Kim 😘) A good book can open the heart and the mind.

Open

Day 8 ~ Home ~where I stand. This one had to include your feet, good excuse to get out the posh boots 😊

Home

Day 9 ~ Fascinating. This will be a quarterly challenge, taking a picture from the same place in different seasons, and adding each one to the previous shot, so a diptych, then triptych finishing the series as a quadtych. This is the wildlife sanctuary down the road from me, usually full of water birds, but frozen over today.

Season 1

Day 10 ~ Feathers. “Take us on a trip and show us what feathered friends are native in your neck of the woods. ” Ya got to be joking- no unecessary journies also the weather is pants here today so I trained my camera on the happy eater tree and waited a couple of hours until some birdies showed up. Luckily the bunch of long tailed tits arrived. Thay are doughty little birds and probably my favourites.

Long Tailed Tits

First full week over, onwards ever onwards…!

A Christmas Fetish

Posted in food, Fuji, FujiX-T2, uncategorisedTagged , , , 52 Comments

Hello dear reader, it’s not often I get asked to take photographs on a particular theme, but yesterday I was approached through the blog to do a little series. Now, usually I would not pander to men of a certain age with peculiar fetishes, but I do like Ol’10 and it is Christmas after all.

So here you are my friend,

Kitchen Utensils,~ in action!! by Moi.

Vegetable Peeler
My special chef knife.
the humble Teaspoon
garlic clove peeler
garlic peeler in action
Phil’s special knife.
whisk
cheese grater
Mum’s electric carving knife.

No utensils were harmed during the making of this series, and all gave consent and proof of age. Christmas Dinner gave a good account of itself, all in all a successful shoot. 😃

South Shields Food Fair ~ May 2018 ~ part 2

Posted in Adventures, food, Fuji, FujiX-T2, people, people, photography, uncategorisedTagged , , , , , 47 Comments

More photo’s from the fair,

Never mind Bizarre, bacon flavoured chocolate is all kinds of wrong! 🤮

 

Dragon’s Breath (which is what you’d have if you ate bacon chocolate.)

 

No damn reaping here! Scary sauce!

 

a mini Bar-B-Q

 

I had a go at ‘doing a Joblin’ which is to say, trying to do people, (which I’m mostly rubbish at as I don’t like pointing my camera at people I don’t know in case they lump me one), a bit like street photography (like my mate John Joblin does on his excellent blog HERE) only in a park. 😀  Also I made up what I thought their faces are showing, you can do your own 🙂

Are you sure??

 

That’s it. I’m getting a divorce.

 

Ow! Hot! Hot! Hot!

 

I’m too cool to be here really, but there might be fit birds.

 

What the heck is that girl doing?

 

I can do it! C’mon legs!!

 

Good grief, she has the grace of a drunken camel, I can’t bear to watch.

 

YES!!! Perfect 10! Go me! Olympics here I come!

 

Crap! Me leg’s escaping!

 

That’s the end of our trip to the fair.

Full album can be found HERE

and as always the photo’s here are clickable to embiggen

 

Stay tooned

South Shields Food Fair ~ May 2018

Posted in Adventures, cakes, cheese, chocolate, food, Fuji, FujiX-T2, people, photography, uncategorisedTagged , , , , , , , , 29 Comments

Sophie and I love a good food fair, most of the stalls have free tasters which we take advantage of whenever possible, we buy stuff you can’t really get in Tesco’s and have a cool lunch from one of the stalls.  I love to unleash the camera on some unsuspecting people for a change too. Back in May, we went to the one at Bent’s Park on the seafront and were not disappointed with the wares available.

Say Cheese!!! (The orange & whisky cheese was yummy!)

 

Interesting chocolate. Forgot to buy some :/

 

These otter go well with tonic!

 

The garlic lady. (Bought a peeler/mincer/storage jar from here. 🙂

 

and the rest!! 🙂

 

The Tempted

 

The Temptress

 

Making friends

 

Buy Two…

 

The War on Mundane begins

That’ll do for part 1 I think, don’t want you falling asleep.

Stay tooned for Part 2 coming soon to a screen near you. 🖥

 

Fraggle Report~ Simonside Country Fair~August 2017 ~ part 1

Posted in Adventures, Event, food, Fuji, fujiXT1, landscape, people, photography, uncategorisedTagged , , , , , , , , , 35 Comments

Sophie’s boyfriend, (can you be girlfriend/boyfriend over the age of 30/40 I wonder, maybe Manfriend would be more suitable) Mentat, came over from sunny Spain, to have a holiday with Sophie in rainy England, and we went out one weekend to visit Simonside Country Fair. We hadn’t done a country fair before so were excited at the prospect of dog racing, birds of prey, a pipe band and horses and hounds. All sounded like great photo ops to us.  So off we went, and here are some pictures I took of the day.

There was a sheep show!

and sheepherders

This chap was giving a talk on British snakes.

We visited the make, bake and grow tent and inside found a chap making wooden walking sticks with decorated handles

there was a competition for home made goodies, I wouldn’t have minded a tipple of the gin!

Outside one of the sheep was being roasted for dinner, (sorry veggie pals) and Mentat and I decided that was us sorted!

but when we went back at what we thought was lunchtime, it had all gone! They have early lunch in the country it seems.

More parts to come, of course, so stay tooned!

 

 

 

 

 

Bridges Over the River Tyne~ Part 4

Posted in Adventures, food, Fuji, fujiXT1, people, people, photography, uncategorised, urbanTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 25 Comments

Part 1 HERE. Part 2 HERE. Part 3 HERE

After crossing back to the Newcastle side of the swing bridge, we walked down to the millennium bridge.  A Sunday Market is held on the quayside every week we were of course distracted by all the wares and people, so took our time and took some photo’s.

I think Gypsy Rose Lee had a very large family 😉

I have no idea where the horse was!

Theres always a busker~this chap had a really nice voice

Some interesting food stalls

Some traditional Geordie bangers

Pease pudding is a thing up here

Lunch queue

No queue, but he looked happy enough

HUGE cheese sandwich

Roast Pork burgers

Wiga Wagaa chilli stall

Next time we’ll look at the arts and crafts and get to the Millennium bridge.

 

 

Fraggle Report ~ Newcastle International Fair ~ May ’16

Posted in Adventures, Event, food, Fuji, fujiXT1, people, photography, uncategorised, urbanTagged , , , , , , , , 43 Comments

Sophie and I got out a fair bit in May last year, the weather was good I guess 🙂 Anyway, the International fair consists of lots of food and crafts from mainly Europe and is an excellent day out for those of us with a camera. I have checked and the fair is scheduled again this year, but not sure if it will be disbanded when we are out of Europe, I hope not as it’s most yummy!

From La Belle France, bread and pastries and lovely Frenchmen

Also from France Sausage a la Toulouse

and of course French cheeses

From Holland Pancakes & Waffles and works from the Dutch masters!

From Poland ~ chorizo,sausage,potato,ham & cheese lunches, and smiley ladies

From Germany~ had to be sausages and they were delish!

From the Caribbean ~ chilli sauces,

From Italy~ macaroons and a smiley baker

From Morocco Tagine, Couscous

From Spain~ Paella

Also from Spain chorizo potatoes and Catalan meatballs

From China~ Noodles

From Sweetland~sweeties!

would have loved to try everything, so this year I’m going prepared with saved up take away dishes!

Next time we’ll have a look at the arts and crafts.

Day 304~366

Posted in 366, Adventures, cakes, chocolate, food, Fuji, fujiXT1, halloween, lego, macro, photography, still life, uncategorisedTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , 9 Comments

“Whatcha doing Fraggle?”
‘I’m making soul cakes for my photo for the Sunday Challenge group, it’s Halloween tomorrow and that’s the theme.’
“What happens to them after the photo?”
‘I’ll give them to the trick or treaters tomorrow night’
“Can I have one?”
‘If you’re nice to me’
“Forget it!”
*sigh*

day304-2w

and my shot for the challenge

day304w

Day 287~366

Posted in 366, Adventures, food, Fuji, fujiXT1, lego, photography, uncategorisedTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 16 Comments

Another busy day, did housework and a trip to vet with Skye, and again the weather was cold and cloudy with heavy showers.  I decided to roast some stuffed chicken breasts to have for sandwiches and Frego was bored so took some before and after shots.

before
before

after
after

For a little while the sun peeped through the clouds and light came through the neighbours fence, so she ran out to get a Fence shot for Friday.

day287-2w

Phil came home and in spite of the rain had to transfer stuff from the old shed into the new one before demolishing the old one begins, so Frego tried to get a shot of him, but he moves fast!

day287-4w