Christmas and New Year are well gone now, decorations are down and back to full on at work. The weather has been pretty meh so Monday- Wednesday were not inspiring for photo’s, but Thursday perked up with a clear blue sky and the sun out. It was cold though so I wrapped up warm and went for a walk on Littlehaven Beach at South Shields. This was my first chance to use the new polaroid outdoors, but like a twit I forgot to take a new film with me and only had 2 left in the camera. I did have my Iphone and the Nikon too so I got a fair few shots all in all.
So let me take you on my walk…
First through the dunes to the beach, taken with the VSCO camera app on Iphone.
pathway ~ iphone5
then looking left towards the groyne pier and lighthouse.
Littlehaven beach ~ iphone5
walking towards the groyne, Tynemouth Priory in the distance
The lighthouse was built in 1882, and made of iron, the history of it is quite interesting ( and short!) so if anyone is interested CLICK HERE 🙂
Then I turned back to walk up the other way on the beach and to look for sea glass, which I’m collecting each time I go there, eventually when I retire I’ll hopefully have enough to make a mosiac garden table top or similar. Of course you can’t shoot directly into full sun and get a decent picture, but I took one anyway and processed the heck out of it!
and came across too old boys with a metal detector..
metal detectives~Nikon D700
I had a chat and asked them if they’d found anything, and they showed me some metal things and told me they were Roman tile holders. Wow I thought, how cool to find roman relics in the sand. When I got home and googled roman tile holders, they are not ancient roman relics at all, Roman is just a style name of some tile holders and you can buy them in any hardware store. Haha numpty me. 🙂
The Weebles live near Littlehaven beach so I went forf a quick visit, can never resist a few shots of them,
Weebles~Nikon D700they came for the sun…Nikon D700
and then I found a new sculpture that has been put up nearby..
The eye~Nikon D700the Eye~Nikon D700
I like the view to the sea side best. The words are from an old traditional Northumbrian folk song.
As I walked back to the car the sun was sinking low enough to backlight the long grass..
Nikon D700Nikon D700
and that was the end of my walk.
And the weather has been atrocious ever since. But I did some more polaroids which I’ve put in my SX70 project, and today did a collage of ‘tools of my trade’ for the Sunday Challenge theme.
Audiology! ~Nikon D700
Phil’s been on nights all week, so have had a quiet week, and he’s got a week off now whilst I’m battling the howling winds going to work, I used to be very jealous he gets 6 weeks holiday a year and I get 2 if I’m lucky, but now I work part time it’s not so bad. I still call him Father Christmas though. 🙂
Well it’s been a while but December has been busy. Work has been hectic with trying to sort everyone out so they can hear The Queens speech on the TV 🙂 We had our grandson Callum to stay a couple of weekends ago, and last weekend I travelled down south to see Ben, Charlotte & Lewis. Managed a few pictures along the way so here we go..
Firstly another trip to see my clients who live near Finchale (pronounced Finkle) Abbey, and it was a nice day with the sun out but low in the sky.
Finchale Abbey
That’s been a rare blue sky and grey days and rain have been a constant on my travels. This week I had to park and wait for a client and saw a rooftop gathering of pie fodder..
Pie Fodder
but 10 mins later..
rainbow
the pigeons had left and a rainbow appeared bringing a bit of blue sky with it, that didn’t last long.
It was great fun having Callum to stop over and most fun was had with the ducks in the bath.
Face!!
And also lovely for me to see Ben & Lewis on my visit down south. Though not so brilliant for Ben who had a bad toothache, so painkillers and a visit to the dentist took up a fair amount of my first day,but eventually got him sorted.
on top of things
Apart from a trip into town when it was dry but freezing, the weather was mostly raining so much staying indoors, keeping warm.
Daddy Cuddles
So this week I only worked Monday & Tuesday and had Wednesday off to prepare for Christmas day lunch and do some tidying up. All accomplished quite easily 🙂
Christmas day was lovely, just me and my hubby so we opened our presents, I cooked dinner, and we played with our toys.
Analogue Christmas
This was my present from Phil, a refurbished land camera, it’s a tricky beast to use and so far I’ve botched my 1st 3 attempts to get a photo out of it! Luckily I got a shed load of film too so hopefully I can get the hang of it soon and post some cool polaroids. In the meantime my last year present Polaroid 600 is still on the go and I took a couple with it. Not sure why they have a green cast, maybe because I didn’t store the film in the fridge.
Christmas TreePhil phoning.
I had Phil take a shot of me injecting the turkey with melted butter, it looks like our turkey is a junkie 😀
Turkey Addict
Got some fab new slippers from Shelley, they are SO warm and toasty, my feet are in love with them.
sparkle feet
And my friend Kathy who I went to stay with in USA sent me a picture of Phil & I she had taken whilst we were there, and did her artistic stuff with it, awesome work.
Kathy’s Picture
Phil got loads of blu-rays and whisky and I got some vodka liqueur with gold flecks in it and some champagne. Dinner was lush, Phil made the Yorkshire puddings, (we usually do ready-mades for normal Sunday lunch, but Christmas Lunch is too special for frozen stuff) and used the 3 glass measurement method!
Christmas Lunch
We were stuffed!
Always room for champers though 🙂
and I have kept the corks from every bottle of champagne I’ve ever had with all the names of who shared them and what the date was written on them, it’s been a long time since I added to the collection!
Phil has had an analogue Christmas too, as his friend Mick needed to get his record deck working, so gave it to Phil to do, so we have been listening to vinyl records!
Old Skool
and this is Phil taking pictures of his DAC that he got himself for Christmas about 2 months ago!!
oy that’s MY job 🙂
So that’s Christmas done, boxing day today so now to sort out Turkey & Veg Crumble!
Winter is Coming…as the saying goes, or rather it’s here, and my photography has dropped, grey days and wet days so last week didn’t bring much in the way of pleasant views.
working life
My work mornings and evenings have mostly consisted of the above, roadworks everywhere, traffic jams and queues, it gets wearing! Never mind, on my travels I meet other miserable creatures and I stopped and had a chat with this fellow..
Horsewet horse
gave him a handful of fresh grass and had a pat on his nose. He seemed lonely.
My lovely hubby had a few days off and did the grocery run, bought me some chocolates too, 🙂
Ferari chocs
This week hasn’t been any better with the weather or the traffic, but I managed a sunset when I was in MacDonalds carpark having a cappucino.
Sunset at MacD”s
Also we had two really cold sharp nights and the moon is on our side of the world so I’ve been practising my astro photography.
Waxing GibbousFull Moon
I think they came out different colours because I left the WB on ‘shadey’ for the first one, but I like it as it is.
My Christmas present from Phil arrived this week 🙂 and I’ve been SO good not to open it, only 18 days to go!
wonder what it is? 🙂
Phil also got our new Christmas Tree from ASDA when he went to the supermarket, and couldn’t find a plain one so had to get one with integral lights, the instructions were not too bad and we managed to get it working this weekend.
Building the new tree
and so it was time to get all the decorations out..
Mum’s musical advent treelooks like Christmas
and this is what the tree looks like now!
Christmas Tree
We also have a tree outside I got lights for a couple of years ago, poor Phil, I cajoled him into getting them on this year and he did them even though it was horrid outside.
Health & Safety people look away now.
and it looks fab!
all lit up
Today has been a nice quiet day, Shelly & Cal came over for a visit, and I cooked Sunday lunch for Phil and me, chicken breasts stuffed and wrapped in garlic and herb stuffing with glazed carrots, green beans and lush roasties.
Sunday dinner
and now I”M stuffed. Time to get ready for work and start all over again.
Firstly, for the second week I have a photo left behind from the previous week. I hope this is not the beginning of mental decline, but much previous similar experiences tell me it probably is. I forget loads of stuff. I console myself with the fact that my lovely hubby is as bad if not slightly worse than me :). And what is this wonderful photo you forgot to post I hear you cry…
Ducking About
well there you have it. A masterpiece no less. Taken with my Iphone 5 and the hipstamatic app. Don’t ask why.
So on to this past week. I have to say the grey and rainy days are not helping me on my travels around my patch of Engerlandland. Dull and dishwatery skies, and everything just blah. But at least on the day I had to visit a client in the windy wilds of North Yorkshire there was an interesting sky that I stopped to take pictures of. My little Nikon S1 compact is no match for my D700, but the wonders of Lightroom, NikFXpro and SmartPhotoEditor more than make up for it, and actually the S1 picks up a lot of detail when you dig for it.
original shot
This is one of my original shots, not totally inspiring but it really didn’t look like that through my eyes (or why would I have stopped to take the photo’s??).
And this is what it really looked like..
holes in the sky 1Holes in the sky 2Holes in the sky 3Holes in the sky 4
and because the theme for the challenge group today was over processing…
bonkers & OTT
I don’t like it, but it was kinda fun.
Also before I came across the moody weather I drove past Bolton Castle which you can just about see in this next shot, and also you can just see the edge of the dark sky chasing me.
Bolton Castle (it is there really)
AND on my way home I turned a corner to be thwarted by sheep, dogs and a motorised shepherd.
it’s a modern old world.
Just after I took this, the dogs jumped away and started herding the sheep to go left up a path, but a few of the idiot~sheep ran through a field on the right, and it was great to watch the dogs round them up and send them back the right way. I don’t think the guy on the trike did anything much, didn’t hear any whistles going on, the dogs just knew what to do.
Mind you, I don’t suppose I would hear a proper dog whistle as I have not got dogs ears.
Not much else to shoot on my travels, but I did find some cool shoots and leaves
she shoots and leaves
On Thursday morning it was very drab, and I spotted this fellow hunkered down on my front garden fence
Mr.Sad
People don’t like pigeons overmuch but I like all birds, they have so much character, even the dim ones are funny, but he just looked so sad. Yet I loved how his feathers looked, like a soft suit of armour against the rain. As I got in the car I took a quick snap of him side on, but didn’t really see what I was looking at only to note it was in focus, but when I got it on my big screen I was quite shocked to see he has a big eye infection. I debated wether to post it or not because it did upset me, but sometimes photography isn’t nicey picey.
😦
He was still about today, and taking advantage of all the seeds that drop to the ground from my bird feeders, and I could see the other side is not affected. He’s nice and plump and is eating, so maybe he will get better, if the neighbours cat doesn’t blindside him. He looks miserable though (not surprisingly) and I had some tears over him today.
On Friday night we had Lorraine and Paul over for a musical soiree, Lorraine cooked some fine curry’s and Phil & Paul played guitars whilst Lorraine & I played percussion (I banged a tambourine more or less in time with the music and Loz had a washboard thingy). Far too much grape and hops were imbibed but hey ho it doesn’t happen THAT often. I took some cool Polaroids of the guys and gals, there’s more in the Polaroid Page, but this was the best,
Paul and Phil
note the tripod music stand 🙂
and from the Hipstamatic…
Lorraine & paul
and I got chocolates & flowers
so a good night and Saturday was a recovery day 🙂
I did manage to cook a lush dinner on Saturday, Salmon in soy,ginger & garlic sauce, with saffron rice. very yummy.
Salmon in soy ginger garlic sauce
Today we have had Shelley and Callum, Carl with Matthew and Livvy for a visit this afternoon, wow our grandkids are noisy. You kind of forget in between visits 😀 It was good to see them all charging about playing and hollering and laughing. I would have taken photo’s but they move too fast 🙂
Phil’s on nights this week, so a quiet time for me anyway 🙂 Keep your fingers crossed for dry weather for me this week as I’m off to some more far flung gorgeous places.
Haven’t been taking many photo’s of late, have been thwarted by the flu, the weather, life in general. I did manage to sit and have lunch by the sea one afternoon, and took a series of people walking past the gap in the dunes, which amused me as I was sitting in the car at the time, had a Warhol moment 🙂
Beside the seaside
On one of my client visits I went by Ludworth Tower, I have shot this before but had another go as it may just fall down one day though it was built in 1422, so nearly 600 years this wall has been standing. Also I liked the crow sitting on it 🙂 I do like crows.
Ludworth Tower
I joined a colour wheel project over on Ipernity and the first colour we had to do was Pink, so I dragged Phil out one evening and we went up to St.Mary’s Lighthouse as I knew it was being lit up pink every night in October for breast cancer awareness. As it happened the sky was doing it’s own pink thing too, but we were bliddy cold with the wind coming off the sea.
Pink cloudsSt.Mary’sSt.Mary’s in the pink
Last weekend we had Phils son and his family over and I got a couple of roids of his kids.
LivvyMatty & Phil
Last night Phil and I went out on a date, dinner and the cinema, dinner at MacDonalds lol, it filled a hole, as Phil says, and we were pushed for time so cheap and cheerful.
Phil at Macs
then onto Cineworld where we watched Fury, a war movie starring Brad Pitt in a tank.
Cineworld
The movie was 2 hrs 15mins and it was OK, not a patch on Saving Private Ryan, which is still our benchmark war movie, but it was fun, and I don’t mind looking at old Brad for a couple of hours. However the seats in our cinema leave a lot to be desired, I was SO uncomfortable, my bum hurt and I couldn’t wait to get out.
Also yesterday I had to make a ‘spooky’ photo for the Sunday challenge group, and so faffed on in photoshop with a picture I took in May back in the States, at Rochester cemetary,
this is the original
Rochester cemetary
and this is what I did with it
Spooky
Steep learning curve to turn day into night! 🙂
Today have been back to work, the weather is meh, and the A1 Western bypass is just godawful with roadworks, as they’ve decided to widen it which is going to take forever. I had to go both up and down it today, and each journey of 6 miles took an hour!!! Fedupski me or what. I heard on the local radio that the whole North East is full of bliddy roadworks all over, and I can attest to that, it’s making my work life even more grim than it is normally 😦
A1 Western bypass.
Well more of that to come for a while so I’ll just have to suck it up and leave earlier when going Northwest.
Books I’m reading..still going with the Jack Reacher series, really enjoying these books by Lee Child, on number 15 now, think there is 4 more to go.
TV..started watching The Knick, really good as its about surgery -“A look at the professional and personal lives of the staff at New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital during the early part of the twentieth century”. And Clive Owen stars, someone else I can happily look at for a couple of hours 🙂 The surgery bits were really well done, as an ex – operating theatre sister I was very impressed with the realism.
Am supposed to be going down south again next weekend to see Helen then on to see Ben & Lewis, but I have a huge tax bill to pay which is going to wipe me out, so not sure yet if I’ll make it 😦 life huh, does have it’s challenges now and then. Well quite often really. So fingers xt for a good sales week this week, and a lottery win would be good too.
Am a day late for the weekly, blog, no doubt I saw sorely missed :). A lot to get through this week as it’s been particularly full. Am going to blast through Monday,Tuesday & Wednesday as they were just work days and therefore no fun. But I kept to my daily photo regimen so they must appear.
Monday I worked north of the River and had to come home in the crappy traffic in rush hour, so took a shot of the Tyne Bridge while I was stationary. Well almost stationary :).
The Tyne Bridge
Tuesday was a day mostly working in Sunderland, and this is my fave road to visit.
Park Place East Sunderland
I love how the sunlight plays through the trees in this road.
Hmm where did I go Wednesday. Can’t remember but it’s of little consequence, I took this shot of my visiting blue tit with my little compact S1 when I got home from work, sneakily taken through the car window.
Bluey
And then it was Thursday and 5 days off time 😀 happy days. It was my birthday on the Friday but was going away for the weekend to visit family and friends down South. Phil was working some of the weekend so couldn’t come along 😦 but took me out for a birthday dinner at a Chinese restaurant in South Shields that had good reviews, but we hadn’t been before.
My Luvvly HubbyLei Ho Leng Restaurant
Very nice decor and good service, the food was OK but I wouldn’t say outstanding in it’s field , however the Birthday Cake they gave me was worth going for, it was delicious!
Phil’s dinnerThe Awesome Birthday Cake
I set off Friday morning for a 5 hour drive to visit my boy Ben and his girlfriend Charlotte. When I got there I had a lovely bunch of roses waiting for me and a cool birthday card. Ben and his pal spent the afternoon waterproofing the shed roof, and I sat with the dog and had a giggle at the lads. In the evening yet another Birthday dinner out, this time with Charlotte & Ben, and we went to Milton Keynes to a World food Buffet restaurant called Red Hot (I think). This place serves food from all over the place, there’s Chinese,Indian, a Sushi Bar, Italian etc etc, and I was very adventurous, haha not! Had Chinese again 🙂
Birthday flowers & Card
doing the roofLola in the sunRed Hotme and BenBen & Charlotte
After yummy dinner we went back to Bens and watched a movie, HAnsel & Gretal for grown ups, it wasn’t much cop but the hero was rather handsome. 🙂
Saturday Ben and I went to pick up my gandson Lewis and we took him out to Milton Keynes Burger King for lunch, then to Willen Lake play centre and Lewis had a grand time. Poor little sod has just had chicken pox so he was a bit blotchy.
LewisIce cream dayMilton Keynes
Pilotmotorbikingwhat next?
We went back to Ben’s for a couple of hours and they played racing games on the Playstation. I am no good at them and was quickly put in the spectators gallery.
Racing CArs
that’s my favourite shot of them, and it’s a phone camera!
After we took Lewis back to his Mum’s I set off to go and visit with my good friend Helen who lives in Biggleswade. She is the one who inspired me to take up photography and after a cup of tea we got in her car and went chasing the sunset, which was pretty lush.
Helen in the landscapewindfarmSunset
Helen keeps chickens, this one ate all her runner beans.
green bean
and it’s really funny that in the mornings they come and shout at the window to be fed.
feed me now Seymour!Koudar
Saturday night we went to see a band, BuBounce who are a ska and skiffle band, they were really good, but the pub was heaving with people who quite frankly had no manners and kept pushing me out of the way (I’m so not good in crowds!) and also very jumpy-up and-down-and-sideways-dancers, so we went outside round the back to the smoking area where there were seats and you could see the band through the window. Helen knows the saxophone player of the band, Johnny and his girlfriend Jess (who gave us a lift to the pub), so we sat with Jess. It was a good night out, and after Helen, Stu (her hubby) and I walked home and stayed up chatting til 2.30am. Can’t remember what we chatted about as I had some wine. 😀
Jess & JohnnyIn the smoking areaA dedicated follower of fashion. (and Johnny’s ex)
On Sunday morning we had intended to go to a boot sale, but we stayed up far too late for that so Helen & I went out to shoot some sunflowers in a field we’d spotted the previous evening. A bit of trespassing involved, but only a little bit. 🙂
Sunflowermore sunflowers
they are quite glorious really.
After, we went for a walk by the River Ouze which was pretty.
River Ouze
Bit of a boring blown out sky there, never mind.
Some of the Ouze is diverted to the nearby Millfinished floweringdragonfly, blue.path by the river
In the afternoon we went to one of the roads near Little Gransden Airfield, as they were having an airshow and the Canadian Lancaster Bomber is touring Britain this summer with the British Lancaster and we knew we’d get to see them. It was grand viewing, we got there early to make sure we didn’t miss them, parked up on the verge next to the little road, along with a lot of other people who had the same idea, and were treated to some stunning aerial displays whilst we waited for the Lancasters.
waiting for the Lancastersand more waiters
and then they came 🙂
The Lancasters
So that was a lot to get through, and after the airshow I drove home and had a reunion with my hubby. Today I’ve been sorting out the photo’s, there are quite a few more than I’ve posted here (yes really!) and I’ve put them all in my smugmug galleries, facebooked some for the family, and now finished up on the blog. And my photo for today….
As always work was busy, lots of problem solving and gnashing of teeth. Didn’t get chance to take any photo’s on Monday or Tuesday, but Wednesday I was able to have a quick lunch break at Woodhorn, and got to see the swans
swans at Woodhorn
I was going to get out and take some shots, but this one decided to have a lie down by my car door, and I didn’t want to upset him!
Guard Swan
Thursday was one of those days off I have that I end up working, but when I got home Phil and I went to our fave restaurant in South Shields, Pierro’s and had potato skins and Pizza for dinner, not the healthy option really but it was yummy!
Pierro’s
and on the way home stopped by the sea. This is my favourite place to be for peace and tranquility, but it was a bit chilly and Phil didn’t have a coat so we didn’t stay long.
Peace & Tranquility
Friday was a good day off as I didn’t have to see any clients, so I cleaned out my worky office, took ages and engendered a lot of recycling of old paperwork.
really that IS loads tidier!! 🙂
On Saturday my lovely hubby cooked us breakfast
lovely hubby cooking
and after more sorting out of recycling, we got our glad rags on and went to see a band called Blue Diamond at a pub in Sunderland called The Saltgrass. No ordinary band though as 2 of the chaps in the band are also from Phil’s past life as a rock god. Before he became an Op.theatre technician back in the 70’s he was in a local band called The Showbiz Kids, and they were destined for great things, they even cut a record and were on the TV! But it didn’t work out, and after a few years it all fell apart. Still he had a blast and still plays bass guitar in our living room. He hadn’t seen Bob or Pat (the 2 guys I’m on about) in over 20 years, so a reunion was had and they were really happy to see him and reminisced about the olden days. We enjoyed listening to them mainly doing covers of harmonic bands like The Eagles, Steely Dan & Fleetwood Mac etc, with a strange Jethro Tull moment as well. They’re pretty good musicians, though some of the vocals were a bit dodgy now and then, and also a feedback issue was really annoying. The Saltgrass is not a great venue for live music, it’s very small, low ceiling and I couldn’t see a thing of the band. But a good night out nevertheless.
The Saltgrassgee they got a band
That’s Pat setting up before they started, after that loads of tall people stood in front of me.
There was some great graffiti on the wall next to the pub.
Graffiti Elephants
Today Phil has been working 8am-9pm so I’ve been doing washing, getting ready for work tomorrow 😦 and of course doing a photo for the Sunday Challenge, which this week was ‘1,3 or 5’. I went with 5, and had a steep learning curve in photoshop to make the image below. The rest of my shots were done with VSCO cam on the Iphone and I do like how the sea shot came out. Now for some dinner and then… ta dah, the ironing!!
Well the week started off Ok with nice weather, and I have made a decision to take some form of photograph every day, which isn’t always easy when work is so busy. Somehow I forgot to do one on Monday 😀 so that was a great start!
Tuesday
This was my first day at a new clinic starting at Age UK Gateshead. The shop is in quite a rundown part of Gateshead, but the lady running it is lovely, I had a nice quiet room to do my tests in and both my clients had too much wax in their ears for me to proceed!
Tuesday
I was quite taken with the name of the closed up pub opposite Age UK The Moon & Sixpence, I googled the name and it’s actually the title of a book by W.Somerset Maugham, about an english stockbroker who abandons his wife and children and runs off to Tahiti via Paris to be an artist, and it’s loosely based on the life of Paul Gauguin. Why a pub in Gateshead should be named after this book is beyond me, as far as I can find out Mr.Maugham never came near the North East so has no connection, but still, it’s a nice name and thats what drew me to take the shot. The other building I took a shot of is in Sunderland, The Harbour View (because the view is of the harbour of course) which apparently is a great place for live music, and good food, though I’ve never been. What caught my eye is the graffiti of what looks like Dean Martin on the wall of the pub, I don’t think he ever came to the North East either, but hey ho, it looks fab.
Wednesday
another busy day so all I took a picture of was my lovely chicken salad I had for tea haha and I’ve stuck it in the Tuesday collage! In truth I had the same tea on Tuesday so it still fits.
Thursday
Oh Thursday- day of doom! I should have been a day off but went to work for most of it and managed to take this shot of the church next to where one of my clients lives
but that was the only good thing about the day really as it all went to ratshit when I got home. I had an email frenzy for 2 hrs as there are a lot of problems with works new processes, I’ll spare you the boring details but it drives me mad and makes work harder than it has to be. Sigh. After that I decided to sit and have my tea and read my latest book, when I thought I could hear the rain start pattering on the conservatory roof, but on looking out the kitchen window the sky was clear and blue with fluffy clouds. So I went to the conservatory and holy guacamole the place was full of bazillions of flying ants, copulating all over my windows and blinds! It was the most horrible of sights and I hate buggy things at the best of times, let alone a gazillion of them. Of course this was the one night The Hubster had gone out on a schoolboys reunion so I was on my own with it. I shut the conservatory door and googled flying ants to discover they are really ordinary ants who once a year grow wings and mate like crazy fofr a day, then go back to being normal ants. How bloody bonkers is that!??? Why can’t they just mate like normal bugs inside their own homes?? So, I also learned that to kill them I would need some mega poisonous bug killer (which I didn”t have) or could use a solution of 1 part vinegar and 1 part water as the acid in the vinegar also causes them to expire. On the whole I do not like killing insects and stuff, but this was too much and I filled up my orchid sprayer and became The Exterminator! I did not take pictures of this as it was just awful. I sprayed and sprayed, for over an hour and bit by bit they ceased to live, but still some survived, When I ran out of vinegar I used bleach, but still there were loads left. In the end I got quite distressed with the whole thing so shut the door on them and got my camera and went drove to the coast where I consoled myself with breathing in the sea air, and lovely skies and sea.
Phil got home before I got back and thought I must have had fish and chips for tea as the place stank of vinegar! When I got home we decided to leave everything till Friday.
Friday
Apart from having the killing fields to contend with, my poor back tyre has been going down quite quickly and I’ve been having to pump it up periodically to keep it going. So in the morning I took her up to my local garage and a very nice smiley young chap put a new valve in the tyre, and all is well with the Rav again. Then I came home and got to grips with cleaning the conservatory, I stripped everything out and went to work sweeping up the corpses, there were still plenty of surviving stragglers that I had to bash over the head with the dustpan brush, but eventually they were all gone, the place was spotless, and nippon has been put into any cracks around the floor til Phil gets chance to go round with filler. What a bliddy nightmare!! For dinner we had another disaster, Peri Peri chicken. It said MEDIUM heat on the sauce bottle (you can also get hot and extra hot!) and it nearly blew our heads off! No way would I try extra hot. Hmm in retrospect maybe I should have used that on the ants. Finished the night off with a movie Thor 2 which had amazing special effects and visuals, and Chris Hemsworth had is shirt off at one point which is never a bad thing to see :). Then we sat in our newly lovely conservatory and chatted and had a few glasses of cheer before going to bed.
Friday
Saturday
a much lovelier day, Phil and I did gardening! We went to our local garden centre to get some lawn feed, and I bought some new herbs for my pots, forgot to take a pic of them, but here’s one of Phil weeding the front bit, I took this sneaky out of the bedroom window.
and then we had a mini ODE (which is oudoor eating experience, a euphemism for BBQ because whenever BBQ is mentioned, it rains).
My Trendy Hubby
yummy cheeseburgers cooked by my trendy guy! Then we watched a really good British movie Closed Circuit, with Eric Bana, the watched a couple of music dvd’s. Phil has been transferring our old music video’s to dvd and they’ve come out really well, so we did Bon Jovi New Jersey followed by Bryan Adams, great stuff but we didn’t get to bed til 3am!
Sunday
Today has been another cool day, wet weather but nice anyway. We got up late of course, and had a leisurely breakfast, then I did a photo for the Sunday challenge group- which was to make a maade up advert for something.
Shelley and Cal came to visit which was fun
and then I cooked a lush Sunday lunch.
Beefcake meets beef!Sunday lunch
and that was the week that was! Start all over again tomorrow, bring it on!
It’s been a busy week at work, but on one of my visits to a client in Consett I drove past this sign, and I just had to park up and run back with the Iphone to get a shot of it.
I mean, how do they KNOW what surprises are in store??
I’ve also been chasing butterflies around the garden but without much success. They do like our Buddleia but its quite big and they nearly always land on the very top flowers where I can’t reach to get a shot! Missed a peacock because it would NOT open its wings, and it’s very black on the underside, but I did manage a tortoise shell which are common visitors every year
Tortoise shell
but also for the first time ever I saw a comma butterfly, so that was cool!
Comma Butterfly
On Friday Phil had a dinner party for his niece Lorraine and her husband Paul. As Phil was on holiday all week and I was working he did the shopping and most of the cooking, delicious lamb in red wine sauce, and I helped with roast spuds and asparagus tips for veg. I have to admit far too much alcohol was involved, and Paul & Phil played guitars while Lorraine sang, and I had a home made maraca of raw rice in a tin pot. A good night that took a day to recover from!!
PaulLorraine
Love the animal skins on my new polaroid film!
And today I had to do a photo for my Sunday Challenge group on Ipernity, the theme being ‘at ground level’ so took a last minute shot of the carpet in our TV room hah!
Books I’ve been reading this week and can recommend ~ The Myron Bolitar novels by Harlan Corben great reads full of derring-do and cool characters, films I’ve watched, just the one, Hunger Games 2, I’ve read the 4 novels and seen the first 2 films now which are both excellent and stick to the plot really well. So that’s this week done & dusted! Back to work tomorrow!
More charging up and down the M62, this time twice in one weekend! Firstly back to Warrington, but in a nicer hotel, for a work meeting on Saturday, then back home at night and then to Manchester itself on Sunday to go to the Academy for a gig, where Daughtry were playing, and back up home again Monday! For this we went with Phil’s son and his wife, Carl & Karly, and thankfully Carl was the chauffeur as I’d had enough! We stayed in a Holiday Inn express which wasn’t bad and only 15 mins walk from the Academy, and so had a few vino delecto’s and had a laugh.
On the road again
Our hotel is the building on the left.
alternative uses for toothmugs, part 1
at the bar
I only have wine, but like the ticketybrew sign, signature yeast sounds yucky!
The Palace Hotel, would like to stay in this one sometime!
Some really nice old architecture along the walk to the academy
creepy window dressing.
Daughtry! Maybe.
It’s always a problem for me at standing gigs, every one is taller and I don’t get to see much. Never mind, I’m probably too old for this stuff anyway 😀
This seems an appropriate song for me by Mr.Daughtry,
I am currently in a hotel room in a place called Warrington, which is near Manchester, and am here on a training course for work. I travelled down yesterday on a beautifully sunny, if cold, day, and called in on one of my clients who lives in the wilds of Yorkshire on my way. I haven’t brought my big girl camera as it’s not a photography trip, but I had to capture some of my journey so the little iphone hipstamatic was employed and I am quite pleased with the outcomes.
Waterfall at BainbridgeMiddle EarthTrees on humpsRiver UreOld Iron bridgeDaffsSnowdrops
So a very scenic journey to and from my client’s home in Bainbridge, but then A1, then traffic jams on the M62,M60,M56 and eventually arrived at the hotel. 3 nights cost the equivalent of an all inclusive week in Spain, and this is my view!! ……
fraggle ~ rocking a camera across the Universe 
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