Sophie and I went off to visit Druridge Bay, a manmade lake, Watersport place and Nature reserve. However when we got there we saw they were having a vintage rally so we decided to do that instead. Lots of old cars and enginey things to look at and photograph.
Lots of dogs too of course
vintage tractors were popular
an old cow milker
not sure what this was for, didn’t like the look of the fluorescent liquid that was produced!
I guess it is some sort of pump, as is this next one
no idea what this one does
this one is easy
there was a vintage fairground game
and vintage tattoo’s
vintage bikes too, but that seat didn’t look comfortable!
next time we’ll see some of the cars and vans so stay tooned!
I had to go into South Shields today to pay some cheques in to the bank, got the Fuji all ready, and then left it behind on the sofa! I didn’t realise until I got to Shields so wasn’t going all the way back for it, so I made do with the Hipstamatic app on the I-phone. Won’t do the that again in a hurry! Firstly though…
It’s 16th June and rainy, grey and NOT summery. So my trip with Sophie tomorrow to see the puffins again on Farne Island has been cancelled due to high winds. 😦 Sad face. Pouty lips.
SO here are a few window reflections from South Shields, I’m in there somewhere 🙂
I wanted to get the lion outside the library in that one.
That lady was wanting to look at something in the window, doesn’t look happy with me haha. Sorry old lady.
This is the shot of the day, though I think I like the holiday one best, wonder why!
Well it’s slim pickings at the moment with my photography. I’ve been working extra hours, and it gets dark here at 4.30pm so once I get home from work, sorted home work out, and had dinner, it’s being difficult to feel inspired or motivated. On top of that the weather is pants. But hey- ho I did get a couple to be going on with.
Last weekend we went to the Annual Free convention held in Tynemouth, about 20 mins up the road from us. It’s (obviously) a yearly event where die hard fans of the band Free meet up, have some drinks and see Free tribute bands, as well as special guests from back in the day. This year the tribute band was Freeway, who were really good, and prior to them we had a solo singer, Toby, who Free’s now departed bass player Andy Fraser, discovered and recorded with. Not my cup of tea songs wise, but he was a great guitarist.
Toby
after him we were treated to a couple of class musicians, the guitarist Chris Spedding and singer Mr.Snips (real name Steve Parsons) both of whom joined a band called The Sharks, formed by Andy Fraser after Free split up. They were great and told loads of stories from the olden days when they were hot stuff in the music business.
Mr.Snips & Chris Spedding
I had a little outing to Seaham to visit the 1st WW memorial there. Its a statue called 11-0-1 but nicknamed Tommy.
This imposing metal sculpture, entitled 1101, owing to the fact the armistice went into effect at 11am on November 11, 1918, stands 9ft 5ins tall and weighs 1.2 tonnes.
Built out of special corteen steel, it has been installed on Seaham seafront in Country Durham to mark the centenary of the start of the Great War and was supposed to remain in place for three months. But the townspeople of Seaham wanted to keep it, so they raised the £85,000 it cost to buy it to keep.
Created by local artist Ray Lonsdale, the sculpture is also intended to represent Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which many of the returning soldiers endured. Mr Lonsdale got his idea for the piece after hearing a story about a soldier from nearby Murton who won a war medal.
there is a plaque on the rear
I visited a client who lives by Woodhorn Church, St Mary the Virgin. It was built in the early eleventh century but most of the external features are from a restoration of 1842. The church was made redundant in 1973 and is now Woodhorn Church Museum.
The lady who owned our cats before we got them got in touch with me on Facebook, and sent me some pictures of Storm & Skye when they were kittens
I’m back from Holland, and of course have come home with more photo’s to get through, so am finishing off my report on Howick Gardens so I’m not too behind.
After finding the ginormous leaves, we walked along the riverside to have a look at the church in the grounds.
Sluice gates on the river,fruit of the Ginormous LeavesBridge to the church
The church is a victorian building, and houses the tomb of the Prime Minister, 2nd Earl Grey, but other than that the interior was a bit boring to be honest. Outside was more interesting,
windowchurch doorheads up
The small stone gargoyles on the exterior of the north wall were all carved by Maria, 3rd Countess Grey, who was a good amateur artist, but sadly she never got round to doing the south side.
Children didn’t always live too long in this era..
Lilian, aged 2, & Sylvia, born and died on the same day.
Lots of leaves to be found with rain drops decorating them..
and some really fine spidey webs..
After Church we went back to the Hall for lunch in the Earl Grey Tea House, which was beautiful
The Earl Grey Tea House
I had a rather lush duck & orange pate on toast …
And then back outside to walk it off and take a few more shots before going home.
eyeballing the competition
another big leaflost feather
those were all taken with the Fuji XT1 using the 60mm macro lens (much maligned in the Fuji owners world!) and my 18-55mm zoom. But of course I always take the iPhone along and these next few are from the phone.
The HallSophie on a bridgeodd one outcontemplationTopless
It’s just about the end of September, and apart from days out, as always I’ve been taking pictures of daily life. We went up to Edinburgh at the beginning of the month, as a new scale model show has started up there called Scale Scotland, and Phil was asked to do a demonstration of figure detailing and composition. The show was held at The Airport Hilton, which is a nice enough hotel, and it was cool to be staying in the same place as where the show was held, as we didn’t have to get up too early :). I got to try haggis for the first (& last!) time too. Packing to go wasn’t all that straightforward..
can I come too?
But we got there cat free 🙂
Arrival!
One of the organisers works for Lambourgini..so he had one parked outside the hotel
Lambo posing
Our hotel room was nice enough..
mirror image
Phil’s demo went well
demonstration man
and he also won some medals in the competition
silver hoard
I asked the organiser of the show if I could be allowed into the competition room during judging to take photo’s for the Tyneside Model Club web page which I run, and they said yes, so I got loads of pictures of all the models, unencumbered by the hoipoloi 🙂 these are a couple that won gold, great painting skills.
OddballCooler King
Phil’s Volksgrenadier won a silver which he was well chuffed with. We called him the mushroom man due to the ground work Phil did, he made mushrooms from plasticard, they’re really tiny. For scale, the chap is 12cm in height.
Phil’s mushroom man
After the show the organisers and demonstrators all had dinner together and we sat with our good friends Hermann and Kristoff who were over from Belgium,
Fraggle, Phil,Kristoff Brian & Hermann
and the next day we went home.
Ah… home, or now The Menagerie. Phil’s son Carl and his family have had to move out of their house for 6 weeks while the council goes in and does a big renovation job. His temporary house is too small for his pets, so we are looking after Penelope & Rango…
Penelope, (top) & Rango
They are bearded dragons, and have to be fed live crickets. I can’t watch, Phil has to do it, and though he didn’t like it, he’s got quite good at it.
We’ve had Cal & Liddy over last weekend..
GrandadLiddy
Cal loves Storm..
best pals
We had a really odd sunset..
sunset over the housesa pinkbow
I watched Bryan Adams on the TV doing The Hyde Park Festival in London, he was great, I really like him.
TV iphone shots 🙂 Bryan Adams
I had some of family photo’s printed, they hang up on our staircase walls, so we can see them grow up as we go up
Phil had an old magazine shot of one of his favourite ever singers Paul Rogers and it was all scratched and creased and faded, so he asked me to do my faffographic techniques and get it up on a canvas..
this is the original ( wish I could find out the photographer to give him credit, but this was in Phil’s scrapbook from 1970’s so that’s not happening)
and this is it cleaned up and on our wall
hanging..
Found some mushrooms hiding in the front garden when Phil was mowing the lawn..
I collected some acorns in my adventure hat..
and today I strung them together and hung them around our defunct bird feeder in the back garden as a weathervane.. apparently they open their spines in warm weather and close up in cold, though I have no corroborating proof of that and anyway I can just look up at the sky! But it was fun to do.
weather is warm 🙂
Phil is on the go with another tank..
Went into South Shields to go to the bank for work…
smartgull
another sunset..
soft sunset
I discovered that Phil’s socks mysteriously clone themselves, he wears 7 pairs a week, and I do the washing on the same day each week but find between 10 &14 pairs come out of the washing machine..
cloned socks
I did some faffography for the Sunday Challenge group on Ipernity..
Escaping the Apocalypse
and yesterday had a go at an upside down shot, using the inverse glass of water technique!
set up shot….
inverse glasses
The upside down finished article..
Upside down
I hadn’t thought it through properly….removing the glasses afterwards wasn’t pretty.
And then there are the cute cat shots :).
But first have to say Storm’s trip to the vet did not go as planned. We went as she chucks up more than we consider normal, most days, (regular readers know this drives us mad!) and we thought she probably had an ulcer or some malabsorption thing and need medicine. So they sedated her, took blood and did X-rays, and found a renal lymphoma, maybe one on each kidney but definitely one big one. So that’s a death sentence really. Even with chemo and radiotherapy the prognosis is poor, and we won’t put her through that. The vet said not to leave it too long before we take her in for ‘the injection’, but I can’t do it yet. We found this out last weekend, and are quite in shock and devastated, she is only 6yrs old and we’ve only had her 6 months. She isn’t acting ill and is carrying on oblivious to her state, isn’t distressed or in pain, still eating and doing the other end well, so not yet. Not yet Mr.Vet. She is my special friend and this is breaking my little heart.
My special friend.waiting for cuddlesFavourite place to sleep
Skye is fine and just loves Phil to bits, won’t leave him alone when he’s playing his guitar/on the computer/having his brekkie/dinner or tea 🙂
Phil’s special friendin Phil’s modelling bagPeeping sleeping
I love it when they cuddle up, Storm always puts her paw over Skye..
Sisterly love
cuddling
Caught Skye on the speaker in the conservatory with a fetching piece of grass attached to her pink bell 🙂
Fashion Icon Skye
and caught Storm looking regal..
and roaring..
roar!!!
I should think there will be lots of Storm photo’s to come, while I can still have her.
So that’s September just about finished. Next month have got a day out with Sophie coming up but not sure where we are going, and also a trip to Holland for another model show, and we’re going on a ferry to Calais, that should be interesting as Calais is having refugee issues. Back to work tomorrow, it comes round too quick!
Had to walk over to Pelaw today to pick up a prescription for Phil, and though it was a blustery day, the sky was blue in a lot of places and everywhere was all coloured up. It’s officially Fall here as of yesterday, and it’s a great time of year for photography. You’ll notice I use the term Fall, even though I’m English, but…
(edumacation bit coming up 🙂 )
The word autumn comes from the ancient Etruscan root autu- and has within it connotations of the passing of the year.It was borrowed by the neighbouring Romans, and became autumnus. After the Roman era the word continued to be used as the old French word autompne (automne in modern French) or autumpne in Middle English, and was later normalised to the original Latin. In the Medieval period there are rare examples of its use as early as the 12th century, but by the 16th century it was in common use.
The alternative word fall for the season traces its origins to old Germanic Languages. The exact derivation is unclear, with the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. However, these words all have the meaning “to fall from a height” and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like “fall of the leaf” and “fall of the year”.
During the 17th century, English emigration to the British colonies in North America was at its peak, and the new settlers took the English language with them. While the term fall gradually became obsolete in Britain, it became the more common term in North America. (wiki) Well it’s not obsolete to me now!
I only had my iphone6 with me, so all these were taken with a couple of camera apps I have on it.
I have to walk over a bridge across the metro lines to get to Pelaw, there isn’t a drive-straight-to-it road, so it’s quicker to walk than go in the car, which is good, a bit of fresh air and exercise!
down the line (ProCamera)
ProCamera is one of my fave apps as you can alter focus and exposure very easily and it has a lot of functions which is great if you don’t have a DSLR to hand.
ProCamera settings
My most used app is the hipstamatic app, I really like all the different lens/film combo’s. I make up favourites and also use the random choice setting now and then to see what it comes up with. At the moment I have about 60 different sets of films and lenses on the app! OK I’m a geek.
These were taken using the Bruno Lens & Claunch 72 monochrome film.
Pelaw Metro StationPelaw Metro Stationcrumpled cone
I walked home through the wooded back pathways to find some colour..
red green & blue (Emma Lens,Big Easy film)
The John S Lens & Kodot Grizzled film combination is one of my favourites for the deep blues and rich colours.
head in the clouds Lone treeundercover pathabundance of berries
I also have an app I only use for iPhone macro shots, I got it in error as I thought I was getting ProCamera but it isn’t, it’s called Camera+. It’s a really annoying app to use, not intuitive at all, but the macro setting is fab so I just leave it on that! It is a very popular app so maybe it’s just me being dim. 🙂
I haven’t been on any day trips, but have always got cameras of some kind at the ready, so this is just a bits and bobs post. I have been travelling for work though and made use of the iphone. The first is of Skiddaw mountain and Lake Bassenthwaite in Cumbria, if you’ve followed my little blog for a while you’ve seen photo’s of it before, but it looks different every time I stop to see it, one day I’ll collect them all together and post them all in one go.
Lake Bassenthwaite & Skiddaw (hipstamatic)
I love the little church in the clearing by the lake, one day I’ll get to visit it.
That was my Westward journey and then the next day I was Northward bound to Eyemouth in the Scottish Borders, somewhere new for me.
Eyemouth (hipstamatic)
Last weekend we had a visit from Phil’s son Carl and the grandkids, Livvy had decided to wear her brother’s Batman swimming shorts over her jeans, I thought that was cute 🙂
Livvy~ fashion Icon. (fuji XT1)
The cats are still driving us mad, Skye is mad for chasing a lazer pen light around the house, and Storm is still over eating and then chucking up. Last night Phil forgot to put the lid on the cat biscuit box, eventually this morning…well… it wasn’t pretty!
Cooked a sunday lunch last week which was lush, I love using the herbs I grown in pots in the garden,
herbs & garlic (fujiXT1)
We’ve had a couple of sunny days lately, and had a couple of Bar B Q’s
Master Chef (polaroid 600)
We’ve also had some rainy days..
rain on my garden chairs (fuji XT1)
I’ve also been doing some faffography with potato shop, for the Sunday challenge group over at Ipernity (which is like old flickr)
Under the sea (fuji XT1)
The challenge was to take a shot with in camera processing (I shot the shells with a Tungsten WB setting) then do some post processing. So I made an underwater scene.
Last Sunday we had to do man made bokeh, which involves cutting a shape out of cardboard, then putting it on the front of a lens so any lights in the distance become the same shape as the cutout, whilst you focus on an object nearer (thus making the background lights blurry).
Starry night (fuji XT1)
This week the theme was chairs, and I’ve got a rotten cold so didn’t feel like going out, I used my garden chairs and made them fly 🙂
flying chairs (fuji XT1)
my super hubby helped out for that!
super hubby! (fuji XT1)
and a bit of faffography for no reason except I wanted to fractal one of the owl pics from last weeks outing to Segedunum
Glowy Owl (fuji XT1 – processed on iPhone 6)
Hope this cold goes away soon. 😦 Phil is cooking Lamb in red wine sauce for our dinner this evening really looking forward to that. And as always on a Sunday, I’m back to work tomorrow. Am having a trip out with Sophie on Thursday to a new Cat Cafe (as if I needed more cats in my life!) in Newcastle, where you can have lunch with cats! Photo’s of that for sure and then some of Newcastle.
Apart from all my trips out to the Farne Islands etc, I have still been taking pictures of ordinary life. Not many but here they are.
Cool sky on the way to Asda 🙂
Independence day? (iphone 6)
and over our house
There’s a storm coming (iPhone 6)
and by the coast
Blue Dragon (fuji XT1)
and I’ve been working over in Cumbria, but the weather was dramatic
Clouds over Skiddaw (nikon S1)
We went into South Shields and saw a busker with a puppet tin man, he somehow managed to play, sing and make the puppet dance.
Singing and dancing (Iphone6 Hipstamatic)
I had to illustrate an Elvis song, and chose ‘A little less Conversation’, my hubby was a good sport 😀
Elvis day (fuji XT1)
We had the carpet cleaner in so moved all the furniture into the conservatory, and I caught Skye climbing and leaping.
leaping Skye (Iphone6)
I did some faffography on my daisy patch
Daisies. (fuji XT1)
and we had a visit from our granddaughter Livvy
Livvy (iphone6)
and our new kid on the block arrived a week ago..
Lydia (Fuji XT1)
proud Mum Shelley & Big Brother Cal
Cal, Shelley, & Liddy (Fuji XT1)
and the neighbours teenagers are having a loud party in the garden, so hubby and I are going to sit in our conservatory and drown them out with our superior stereo equipment and some good ole Rock n Roll, 😀
Firstly I forgot to take a shot of the hedge in it’s nearly finished stage yesterday so here is that one.
lumpy hedge
I think it was at this stage that Phil decided that next year we’ll ‘get a man in‘.
Anyway, yesterday we got up early and headed off to Leighton Buzzard to spend the afternoon with Ben. Not too bad a journey down the M1 inspite of several miles (and miles) of road works with the maximum speed allowed 50mph. No jams or hold ups so we made it in 4 1/2hrs.
We took Ben and Charlotte out to lunch,
Ben & Charlotte
at the Swan Hotel, part of the Weatherspoons franchise.
The Swan
as you can see, quite a nice day, no rain 🙂 Leighton Buzzard is a very old Market town, the Market Cross was built probably in the 15th century and there’s a brief and interesting history of it HERE.
original statue of Virgin Mary
it really is an amazing structure when you find out all about it, there are 3 other statues, not in the greatest of conditions, but still holding up.
Market cross
I did a vertorama using 5 horizontal shots with my Nikon S1 and merging in Lightroom, am really impressed with this feature, works really smoothly.
Market Cross & Phil
seen on the way back to the car park…
sky~shoes
when the afternoon grew late, we got back in the car and went home up the A1, a few traffic jams as a lot of it is dual carriageway, but no roadworks and as the M1 was jammed right up being a Bank Holiday weekend, we did the right thing and made it home in 5hrs, not bad for a Friday! When it was Phil’s turn to drive I took a few iPhone shots out of the car window, none of which came out really well, so I applied a bit of Faffography with some apps and quite liked the result.
The A19~faffedGold fieldsshadowland
It was quite late when we got home, so didn’t wake up til late this morning, and Phil decided to finish the hedge.
The End
So that is a huge job done. My hubby is awesome!
Today has been a big day for the cats as they have now had their anti-everydiseasepossible jabs they are allowed outside. AT 5 nearly 6 years old, going outside for the 1st time ever has been a big thing for them. We waited til 1/2hr before feeding time (so they wouldn’t go too far!) and left the conservatory door open while we sat outside having a cuppa. Storm was the bravest and came out to have a good explore.
Boldly going…
Skye was not quite so brave…
shall I shan’t I???that’ll be a ‘nope’
but eventually, a few hours later when it was all quiet, she made her way out and had a little sniff about.
herbs!OK I’m cool
not the best shots as I used Phils iphone quickly before she got spooked, but they’ll do.
We were going to have a Bar B Q as I spent a long time cleaning it up today, but the clouds came over at dinner time, I made a fab sauce which I’m calling Fraggles Black Magic sauce, the ingredients of which are..
Black Magic sauce ingredients
and I marinated some chicken pieces in the sauce, then roasted them for 1/2 hour, was totally lush.
Tomorrow I’m off out with Sophie, going to find the Hermits cave up in Walkworth, exciting day to come!
fraggle 
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