Not sure if anyone will be popping in here as it’s Christmas Day, but if you do, my very heartfelt Best Wishes for a lovely day for you, wherever and however you are. Sundays are my post days here, and not even Christmas prevents that, so here’s a short one, that is at least apt for the day.
On our last outing together before Sophie’s return to Spain, we decided to visit the Christmas Market in North Shields. There were many, many stalls selling all sorts of produce, arts, crafts, clothes. All the usual stuff, and the place was heaving with people, it you stood still you got knocked into. Not really conducive to taking photographs. So we didn’t, we sauntered around trying to peek through people to see the stalls. I know Sophie was looking at a hat stall for a Christmas present but not sure if she bought one in the end as I’d wandered off to look at something else, and I bought three scotch eggs of different flavours as Phil likes them, but mostly we didn’t buy anything.
They had some fairground rides for the kids, so we went and photographed those instead. They’d kind of given it a Christmas feel, candy canes, penguins, Mickey Mouse dressed as Santa.
Helter Skelter
Runaway Train
Woolly Hats
It was nice for the Mums and their little kids I guess, and I realise I still prefer fairgrounds empty.
On the way back to the car I spotted a man parked on the corner of a road, or his car was anyway, and he was underneath it, I think he’d broken down and was trying to fix it.
Anyway the afternoon would be drawing in soon enough so we went over the river to South Shields Christmas Market, which we took one look at and decided it was not in the same league as the one we’d been to, so we went to lunch instead. On the way to where we thought we were going we spotted a sign outside the library building advertising the café within, so a snap decision was made and we went in. Not the best photo but I was trying to be unobtrusive (sneaky really) and fluffed it.
The Victorian Pantry.
It was so lush to be in from the cold for a while. We both had a home made vegetable soup and I had a ham sandwich with mine. The sandwich was nothing special, but the soup was glorious. I don’t do ‘food at the dinner table’ pics really, not a fan, but I had to remember this one! Made it myself last week, so yum!
Sooooop!
The evenings arrive so quickly up North here at this time of year, you just finish lunch to find the sun beginning to set. And so it was as we walked back to the car, and we could see it was going to be a lovely sunset and if we were sharp I could drive us up the coast to get some nice shots. So I did, and we did.
On the Tyne
I had my Contax on the go too, still waiting for those to come back, so the iPhone was enlisted for this post, don’t usually bother but they look much better clicked through to, especially the last two. Anyhow enough of me,
This week has been a colour week, and they chose indigo for some godforsaken reason. Indigo is a vague colour, not really blue, not really purple, or it’s both, if you look it up on google it’s quite mind-boggling. Also it’s the run up to Christmas, so we’ve got a whole heap of clichés to contend with too! Nevermind, onwards to the end dear reader.
Abbreviations you may come across during this post. AFAC~ airy fairy abstract concept. AAFP ~ annoying as F-bomb prompt. CBBP ~ completely bloody barking prompt.HDBS ~ hippy dippy bull****. AWP! ~ Absolutely wonderful prompt!
Also- there may be swearing.
Day 353 ~ Decorations. ~ We had a bit of a debate in my house about what color Indigo actually is. I just wanted to use that little gnome for today’s idea but I was told that his hat just isn’t the right color. I always thought of Indigo as more of a purple hue, but I was outnumbered a bit when I asked my family. Indigo is one of the colors of the rainbow – it’s right between blue and violet. To my mind, that gives us permission to sway between those two colors a bit this week – maybe you’ll find something with more of a blue hue, or maybe it will be a bit more of a violet hue. Either way, counting down to Christmas this week sharing special decorations is sure to put us all in happy holiday moods!
See what I mean about vague? Anyways, finding a decoration wasn’t too onerous as I have some bluey purply tree baubles and tinsel.
decorations
Day 354 ~ Prompt Free. ~ Prompt Free days often bring to mind the saying, “The grass is always greener on the other side.” Some days, we feel restricted by the prompt, but on other days, no specific prompt makes us feel lost by having no point of departure. Think about these prompt free days as a check-in as to how this project is changing you. What do you notice that you would have overlooked previously? What small moments in you day now feel bigger and call to be documented? Today is a blank canvas for which all of the other prompts have prepared you. Keep your eyes open and have fun!
Long day at work today, lots of people realising they’re not going to hear the Christmas Movie or conversations with the family so making last minute appointments to get their ears cleared. As I’m coming home every night in the dark I’m noticing my next-door-to-the-right neighbours have got their tree lights on, so I set up my tripod in the bushes on our side of the fence and took a picture of it. I think it’s indigoish.
Prompt~free. Indigo.
Day 355 ~ curly.Today’s prompt of “curly” immediately brought curling ribbon to my mind. You may think that indigo is a strange color to focus on during the Christmas Season, but more and more non traditional colors are being used at Christmas. Adding non-traditional colors to your gift wrapping can give your packages a modern flair! If you don’t have indigo ribbon, look for the color in other curly items. The curling of tree branches or other decorations.
Urk. AAFP as I don’t have any curly indigo bits of anything. I do have blue Christmas ribbon though, and with a tweak in Potatoshop indigoed it quite well I think.
curly
Day 356 ~ Believe. ~ As we approach the end of this year, think about what has gotten you through these crazy times. The mind is a powerful tool. Believing that there is good out there and looking for that positive energy may be what has saved our sanity in 2021. What have you believed in this year that has helped you navigate the past twelve months? Share it with us in your photo today.
Well dear reader can you guess how many abbreviations I’m giving this? AFAC, AAFP, HDBS just about covers it I think. Firstly, though, ‘gotten’. It’s horrible. I’m sorry American and Canadian peeps, it just sounds horrid. It’s the past participle of ‘get’, which for us in the Motherland is got, although I think in this case ‘helped’ would have been the more pleasant choice. Nevermind, it is what it is. Believe. In indigo. Pfft. There is NOTHING, nada, niente, rien, in indigo, that I have believed in this year. Actually there’s nothing in any colour, I don’t go around believing in colours, I just get on with life, whatever it brings. And so, I believe I shot the cat.
believe. 🙄
Day 357 ~ ornament. ~ The colour indigo is definitely in my favourite colour spectrum. I make Christmas cakes and sometimes I even get time to ice them. I put ornaments on top to dress the cake. Adding the string of lights to the background helped me tie in the blue ribbon that is around the cake. Do you have an ornament that is indigo? If not don’t worry just show us your favourite ornament.
Actually I do have an indigo ornament, how serendipitous! I have a little candle holder with a lid that has cut out dolphins and waves in it so it makes patterns on the wall when you stick a tea light in it.
ornament
Day 358 ~ valuable. ~ Together time is valuable and in nature it is even more so. We like to hike and do so in every season no matter what the weather. Winter hiking brings on a whole new light! The light was low in this photo bringing on a bit of a blue hour purplish/blue, or indigo hue. Get outside today and find some of that blue hour light. You may have to jazz it up a bit in editing to get that purplish blues the colour prompt calls for. No indigo light? Is there a piece of jewelry, clothing, decoration or valuable procession you can photograph instead?
Haha Mrs Cocktail~Dress, you crack me up every time! CBBP! If you think I’m going out there in the pouring rain you are sadly mistaken. And also we didn’t have a blue hour, we had a grey hour, preceded by several grey hours, and culminating in a black hour, to be followed by several more black hours. But at least there’s a let-out with the ‘valuable procession’ bit. I am of course assuming she meant posession, but who knows? My Mum was an Avon lady for many years, and in 1996 she purchased a musical advent Christmas tree which came with 24 baubles in numbered drawers and a set of twinkle lights. It turns and plays ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’ when you wind up it’s key. Avon used to do a different tree every year I think. When she died and I cleared the house, I took the tree home with me, and it gets put up every Christmas on the window sill, and some years stays there all year round. It gets slowly tattier as time goes on, and some of the bauble’s golden hangy-up strings have broken, as well as the lights gone missing, but I mend or replace the strings and have got some more twinkle lights for it. So I don’t think of it as being valuable so much as being priceless. I googled it to see if any were out there for sale thinking it would make you laugh when I found some on ebay for a fiver in mint condition, but was surprised to find only one, in America, labelled, ‘Rare vintage Avon Christmas Tree, $134.’ Valuable and priceless then. 😊 And it has a few indigo decorations! Winning at indigo!
valuable
Day 359 ~ Christmas Day. ~ From the team at 365 Picture Today Wishing you peace, joy and happiness – now and always! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,
Aw, that’s lovely. Christmas Day has been a busy one, I’ve been shopping, cooking, cleaning and cat herding. Not much time for photography so I cranked my polaroid up and took a few shots along the way. I’ll be surprised if you can make much out but from top left to right- 1) my tree, 2) my present from Phil, New Bride and Groom Skulls! Love it! 3) My present to Phil, a double volume book, The Lyrics by Paul McCartney. Bottom left to right, new vinyl I got for Phil by Thunder, Christmas dinner (it was total lushness in spite of what it looks like!) and James Bond movies, as tonight we start a series of Daniel Craig Bond movies before we watch the final one next weekend. No indigo I’m afraid and it’s a sh1t shot, but who cares? It’s Christmas!
Christmas Day
And that’s the last of the colour weeks. Next week is the very last week of all, yippee Ki-yay! We’re supposed to be doing ‘leading lines’ but I can forsee a few off-prompt days!
Merry Christmas dear reader, hope Santa was good to you. 🎄🤶
2017 saw the 4th year that the Camel Parade has been an event in South Shields, Sophie and I went for the first time last year a few photo’s of which I posted HERE, so this year we made a return trip knowing what to expect. It involves 3 camels with their handlers and riders dressed up as wise men, parading the length of Ocean Road, which is quite a long old road, followed by stilt walkers and a drum group called Sparks! It’s been controversial as the animal rights group PETA, who I have a lot of time for usually, have decreed it bad, and say that camels shouldn’t be used for public entertainment. I kind of agree with the sentiment, but really, all they do is walk the camels down the road, and then put them back in their vehicle and bugger off. They don’t get prodded or poked or stand around being gawped at. PETA Campaigns Strategist Luke Steele said: “Using live animals in these sorts of events sends a damaging message to young people that animals are little more than living props”, according to our local newspaper, with one of the comments underneath being “it’s disgraceful that anyone should find this acceptable. It’s not about the climate, it’s about the crowds, noise and the basic lack of respect enough to use animals for our entertainment. Animals are sentient beings, they are here for their own purpose, not for human monsters to use and abuse as they wish. It’s archaic and needs to be stopped!” I have to say the human monsters, particularly the baby monsters loved the whole shebang, and this monster doesn’t get to photograph many camels in our neck of the woods so was happy to see them. I expect eventually the council will give in and the camels will come no more.
A lot of monsters turned up for the parade, and luckily it didn’t rain.
The trees along Ocean Road were all lit up
and the kiddies all waiting for the show to begin
the camels came first
so fluffy!
they were followed by stilt walkers I think representing the 3 shepherds
and this guy who was I think, the star of Bethlehem
then “The Creative Seed” wagon came, but I’m not sure what that was all about!
and these were followed by my favourite part, the Sparks! drum group
at the bottom of the road a stage was set up which Sparks! ascended and then played a cracking set of drum tunes. Well not tunes really but whatever it is that drums do without other instruments being about.
they somehow illuminate themselves and the drums and the whole thing is quite exciting to watch
stay tooned for the 2nd part when we see the firework display!
This evening Sophie and I went to South Shields to attend the Camel parade, a christmassy thing with stilt people, drummers, fireworks and stuff. Now before anyone gets excited about camels, when the parade came down they were travelling so fast I hit the wrong button on my camera and didn’t get a decent shot of one. There was a herd of people following behind and we got swamped into it and couldn’t run to get in front of them and try again. So no camels in this post 😦 But I did get a few shots of stilt walkers
and some of the drummers, they were amazing!
and learned that I have no idea how to shoot fireworks, I can see a youtube tutorial coming up!
of course, all these belong to my ‘light’ theme this month, so am going to choose the top one as my fave for the day. When I go through the rest of the photo’s if there are anymore decent ones, there’ll be a fraggle report for next year.
Well that’s Christmas over and done with, just New Year to go. It’s been a good week. On Monday I woke up to an amazing sunrise when looked out the window, had to get the camera out quick!
On Tuesday I had a lovely drive up to the Scottish borders, amazing scenery, but a fair bit rainy. On my way home the moon rose and I got a couple of shots with the iPhone.
The road to the moon
Phil has been working hard on his model Tiger tank, and Skye has been his constant companion 🙂
It’s been nice to have some time off with family over Christmas. We had a quiet Christmas day, Phil went to visit the kids while I got to grips with making the Christmas dinner. And took photo’s 🙂
new whiskey glass for Phil from the grandkids..
and we had festive smelly candles
Yesterday was Boxing Day, and we had the kids, grandkids and Phil’s sister Annette with her hubby Brian over for a buffet tea which I made. I like vol-au-vents.
and it was great to see the madding crowd 🙂
Liddy the pink
with grandad
Loony Liv
Mad Matty
Cool Cal
and all the family
And I’ve been playing with some roses Phil got for me
and I’ve been chasing sunshine around the house
And that’s it for this week. Still got another day off tomorrow yay. Have been thinking about doing a photography project for next year, but haven’t decided which way to go yet, watch this space I guess!
I didn’t pick up my camera until Wednesday night this week, when I was treated to a magnificent sunset over the houses.
That was from my front bedroom, and from the back of the house we also got the moon mixed up in it all.
I took some more shots of my christmas tree,
possibly went over the top there :). Managed to get a better picture of the birds on The Happy Eater tree..these are long tailed tits.
Today all Phil’s kids and grandkids came for a visit, and I got a happy shot of the newest one, Liddy
this was the best of the bunch, she was flapping her arms and wiggling around a lot so most were blurry.
I took Phil to hospital on Tuesday to have his laser eye surgery, the procedure was over and done with really quickly and a heck of a lot quicker than the time it took to get a prescription from the pharmacy there! Anyway he’s OK with no bad after effects so that all went well.
It’s been a strange week without Storm chucking up everywhere and wanting cuddles. There’s a big hole in my life where she used to be. Skye is our next concern as over the past couple of days she’s not been eating. Of course she’s a chunky girl so might be on a diet, but she’s having a strange week too. She’s managed something today though so fingers crossed there isn’t anything to worry about.
I’ve been trying some creative still life photography and might get into it a bit more, I quite like the faffing about.
So back to work tomorrow for 3 days, then 5 off over Christmas, yay!
fraggle 
You must be logged in to post a comment.