Body of a god

I was aiming at the trees across the road and looking at the lovely autumn colour when this chap ran into my frame. I was resigned to a really dull image for today but I quite liked this one.

This image is of my favourite tree near me. It looks spectacular in spring and in autumn. I wasn't out for long today so the picture opportunities were limited. This picture is best looked at big.

Am working away on preparing for my interview tomorrow. Still feeling pretty washed out after whatever bug I got. I'm a bit nervous about tomorrow too. I'm going to rest for a bit and take a break and then get back to my presentation.

Not too long now to the weekend... Hope you're all having a good week.

It's back but...

This cherub resides outside Alexandra Park in Glasgow. I pass it regularly. It was removed earlier in the summer for cleaning. I passed it today and thought "Oh good! It's back..." Then I noticed that the nasty big white sign that they'd put up when it was removed was still there. They got rid of all the nasty, badly painted gloss paint on it but it would look much nicer without the big sign.

I'm going to post another image which I took during a brief insomniac episode last night. Please forgive the narcissism but I haven't been out much and haven't had much to photograph in the last days due to still feeling a bit unwell and combining that with nasty, damp weather. I took this picture with the light from my iPod Touch when I use an app that makes it into a reading light. I quite liked the quality of the light and was quite impressed by how bright it was at night.

No lensbaby shots today - cold turkey for me...

I got good news today. I got the second interview I wanted so the downside of that for all of you is that you have to keep everything crossed for a bit longer. The interview is on Thursday so I'll be spending tomorrow preparing.

Tonight I'm going to have a quiet night as I'm pretty exhausted. I will catch up with all your blogs later. Hope you're having a good week so far.

Late night addition

I've already posted my image and entry for the day but the joy of a blog is that I can post another one if I like. Here's another lensbaby self-portrait from my fiddling about today. I quite liked how it came out - blurry grainy shots hide a multitude eh? Night night folks :-)

Fuzzy Kind of Day

I'm still not 100% today. My cold has left me with a bit of a cough and breathing is a little difficult at night. I think there may be a bit of an improvement though so I hope to get a decent sleep tonight. I didn't set foot outside which kind of limits the photo opportunities so here you have me in all my fuzzy glory. I did think about photographing my dinner but, as usual, I tucked in with great enthusiasm and only remembered when there were a few unphotogenic scraps remaining.

I had a telephone interview today. I hope to find out tomorrow if I've passed onto the next stage which will be a face to face interview. Those of you who've had your fingers crossed for me, please don't uncross them yet ;-)

Going to drink even more tea and read some more of my Dexter book. Have a great evening folk.

More of the lovely man...

Here he is again. I have taken a very similar black and white portrait of him before  but I like this one better as I like the blurring from the lensbaby. He was a sitting duck today (if you'll pardon the expression!) As I'm still not feeling great I haven't set foot outside the house all weekend and don't intend to go out today so Mr Duck was the best option for a photo. In spite of being frequently photographed by me, he is not terrible keen on photos of himself and it can be difficult to get a good expression. Here, he was engrossed in his iPhone. I wanted some more photos and so tried a few other tactics.

Me: "Sing me a song"

Duck: "No"

Me: "Give us a kiss then"

Duck:

This was then followed by what I was after (though I do like kisses too) - the smile:

He does have a lovely smile doesn't he?

Well sadly, it's that day where he's off back home. I'm missing him already. The plan is for a very quiet day today. I'm coughing a lot at the moment - the usual impact of a cold on me since I'm asthmatic. I'm going to drink lots of hot drinks - tea - watch lots of junk on the telly - maybe catch up with episodes of Bones I haven't watched or something else which is suitably undemanding. It doesn't sound like too bad a day ahead.

Have a good Sunday folks!

Like you've never seen him before...

Here he is looking dark and dangerous... This was taken with the lensbaby using a smaller aperture than I've used before (8) and using a +4 macro filter. It kind of goes with the book I'm reading at the moment - Darkly Dreaming Dexter. I love the series and am quite enjoying the book. I've been given the first three as gifts but hadn't dipped into them till today.

I'm pretty tired today as I had little sleep last night. My throat and breathing kept me awake. I'm starting to feel a little better though - even though the throat and chest aren't good. I don't know about you but for me the first day or so of a bug, I often feel at my worst with the vague and horrible symptoms. As a result, it's been a quiet and faffy day which I've been quite enjoying. The lovely man and I are having a lazy time without putting any pressure on ourselves and that's nice.

I've been fiddling with my Mac and have discovered a few things. I use a Mindmapping programme in Windows called Mindgenius and I like it a lot. I learned that there is a free one called Freemind which you can get for Mac or for Windows. I'm going to teach myself how to use that. I also thought I'd try out Open Office though I do have the Microsoft one. When the lovely man asked me why my answer was "Because I can". I experiment and fiddle with things all the time. I ended up an IT Trainer from my ceaseless faffing so it kind of came in handy.

Now I'm waffling on when there is some serious faffing to be done (and a blogger queuing for the Mac....) so I'll wish you a happy Saturday!

Handy calendar for photos or...?

Sorry folks but it's a really uninteresting picture today as I feel pretty lousy - not unhappy just sore throat and some sort of bug working on me. This picture is of a calendar I bought cheaply in Lidl. I got a few as I thought they would be great for adding photos and giving to friends and family at Christmas time. The paper is fine for sticking photos to. So far so good. When you open it up and look closely it tells you the name of the month in several different languages. Well, that might be useful. What it doesn't tell you is what day of the week falls on which date and the days are not organised into any easy way to reckon weeks. Ah well, the absolute uselessness of it as a calendar just means I'll have to make up for it with quality pictures.

I have a telephone interview on Monday, the outcome of which will determine whether I get the real interview so please keep your fingers crossed for me at 11am Monday.

The lovely man is here and we are commiserating each other on how unwell we both feel . A quiet weekend is coming up methinks! Have a great weekend folks x

This is P who I met for an amazing lunch today - 3 courses of Turkish food. It was really yummy and we had a really nice few hours getting to know each other a bit better. Thanks! I had a wonderful afternoon.

I then went on to meet K for coffee before going home.

I am now home having had a very pleasant and sociable day. I'm feeling a bit odd with the beginnings of a sore throat. I'm hoping that this doesn't mean I'm getting a cold as it's nearly the weekend and there's far too much fun to be had. Have a great Thursday evening people!

Lovely evening

By the time this is posted it will be after midnight and dated after the photographs were taken. It's been a lovely day. I spent the start of it at home catching up with all the things I needed to get done. Somewhere in the middle of the afternoon I started to feel a little lonely and want to see a friend. I met with my friend you see here. He has a wonderfully silly new phone but I love it. It is also surprisingly ergonomic. I could blackmail him with these photos if he expects anyone to take him seriously on the phone!


I am so lucky to have so many readily available pals. I lived away from Glasgow for 13 years from the age of 25 and came back some years ago. It's been wonderful to be back and among friends who have been a part of my life for somewhere between 20 and 30 years. After that time has elapsed and you've gone through the changes that occur then you kind of know that these people will hang about. They've seen the best and the worst of me, and me of them.

Here's the phone on it's own - a lensbaby version:

Here's another image from tonight that I really liked.

I've been enjoying playing with bokeh and out of focus stuff. If you're not asleep then you should be. I'm heading off to bed shortly too. Sleep well and thanks for looking x

Glasgow Cross

This shot is taken from High Street in Glasgow approaching Glasgow Cross. You can see that I'm still addicted to my lensbaby! I didn't take all that many photos today. I was home and trying to get the house into some sort of order and catch up on the domestic stuff. It was nice not to have the breathing space to do that.


Later on I went out to meet a friend for a drink and a blether. That was lovely - thanks J - we must do it again. I hope you're having a good Tuesday. (Where did Monday go?) Off to have tea and fruit loaf (yum!)

I told you I might add a picture later...

I'm loving the freedom of the blog where I can add more if want to. I've had a great evening. I made tasty food - though it wasn't as I expected - and I've had lovely company. Here is my very dear friend who is familiar to many of you. I'm so lucky to have such good pals living so close.

Supermarket...

Today's shot is another lensbaby one of Somerfields near me. Somehow I stopped on the way in when I saw all the colours.

I didn't take many shots today. I had my visit to the rheumatology clinic so that took up a bit of the afternoon. I saw my regular consultant and had a good discussion with him. That was so much better than my last visit where I found another doctor a little alarmist. There is no doubt that my condition is very active and they want to give me medication that I'm reluctant to take due to the side effects. I felt better today though as I felt the doctor listened and that I can go back and discuss the options again.

I may post more pictures later but I thought I'd blog fairly early since I am cooking for a friend. Those of you who have followed me from elsewhere will recognise him as a regular visitor if I post pictures of him later. I was excited that I got a fresh rabbit at the market at the weekend and am making a stew. Apologies to vegetarians out there but I do like rabbit and I've only cooked it once before in my life. I tend to completely invent most of my recipes so I'll let you know if it comes out tasty or not.

Hope the start of your week has gone well.

Inverleith Park

This image is a lenbaby shot of activity in Inverleith park. It's worth looking at bigger which you can do by clicking on it. It's been a nice lazy day with what is becoming a regular wander to Inverleith Park via the Stockbridge market. The market is getting more interesting with more craft stalls and more food stalls. It's great for fresh fish, meat, olives, cheese and bread. There are also sometimes fresh organic spices and nice soaps.

I took another couple of shots that I liked and will post another two here - there are a couple more on my Flickr page too.

I kind of liked what the lensbaby did here. My last image is an autumny colours one.

I hope you're all having a good Sunday. I have to get ready soon for the trip back to Glasgow. Enjoy the what's left of the weekend folks.

Fridge magnets

It's been such a lovely afternoon out visiting friends with the lovely man. My focus was on the lovely grub - chili and cake - and the wonderful company so I didn't take many photos. We even came home with a doggy bag of cake. Thanks guys for such a lovely day, so relaxed and fun.

What you see here is a small sample of a massive and impressive fridge magnet collection. The skull coughs and speaks and the lobster has wiggly legs and claws. If you have me over in your house one day then you'll realise it's not that difficult to impress me if you have some fun and colourful objects.

I'm having a lovely weekend so far and hope you're all enjoying your weekend as much as I am.

Experimenting with Lensbaby

Today's image is not the most exciting but was a result of playing around with the lensbaby. I want to play around more with light and forms.

I had a lovely time with my friend who visited last night and we went out and met another friend. Sadly I overdid things a bit and am now very tired after going to bed at 4am. Still, it was fun. I took a lot of photos as one of my friends really doesn't mind having his photo taken. Yesterday's image was just one of the many I took of him. Here is another one I liked:

I've also been checking out some of your blogs. PhotographsandStories is one that's well worth a look. It has photographs from Orkney combined with creative writing. I've read two of the stories and really enjoyed them. I will be going back for more.

I need to stop delaying and get myself ready for the trip to see the lovely man. I am so looking forward to that! Have a great weekend x

My pal...

I've had a lovely day/evening. This is a pal who loves having his picture taken. Another friend is visiting and I'm having a lot of fun. This post will have the wrong date on it as it's 3 min late.

Will tell you more about what I'm up to soon but I have a visitor who needs attending to. Hope you're having as nice a time as me.

Alexandra Park Fountain

This is Alexandra Park Fountain in Glasgow. It's my local park and I went for a walk there this evening. The light was really beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed wandering around taking lensbaby pictures. Some shots may have been better without the lensbaby but I'm addicted to it and am really enjoying learning how to use it. I quite liked the effect on this image. 

I took a lot more pictures today and will upload them to Flickr later. Some of them were taken using the macro filter and were mainly of flowers. They're not my usual subject matter but I enjoyed it and liked the lensbaby effect so do pop in to my Flickr pictures later. There is a link to them here. 

I uploaded some of yesterday's images to Flickr today. A favourite of my street lensbaby shots was this one:

I'm really quite enjoying this blog thing. I'm enjoying the freedom of being able to post more than one image and I'm looking at other people's blogs more. My friend has a blog called "I hate everything" which I have a link to here. It is about music. He uploaded a video link today which I thought was very funny. It lasts about 20 minutes so you might want to check that out. 

I'm off to play with more of my photos and add a link to the blogs list I have here. Hope you're all having a good Wednesday. The weekend is getting closer and closer!

The most beautiful baby in the world

I'm sorry but I think she is. I've never been someone to drool over babies, probably because I really haven't had that much contact with them. This baby though, is truly the most beautiful baby in the world. Well ok, I'm slightly biased.... This image shows her with her mum. I remember when I thought her mum was the most beautiful baby in world... This child is all of 3 days old. The last time I saw her she was a lump, kicking hell out of her mum from the inside. It's such a weird thing to hold a brand new person in your arms and I'm really inexperieced and crap at it. 

This blog is to continue my one image a day project. The image above is that image - the one I've chosen for today. I'm enjoying the freedom though, knowing that this is a blog and not limited. I've chosen my pic for the day but now I'm going to share another pic with you. This one is of the proud great-aunt. Sorry Mo and others who have advised me on this role - I haven't got all the gear yet... I think I also need to develop a pointy finger and a pallor. I haven't done it yet but for better or worse, here is the proud great aunty:

There were many other things I thought about saying today but this little girl put all else out of my mind. It's late now and time for bed. Do check out some of my links. I think I wanted to tell you about them but when you meet the most beautiful baby.... well all else goes out of your mind. 

Tired

This is exciting as I sent the image from my mobile as an experiment. Blogging on the move - eh!

I took this with my phone and it seemed to convey how I feel today which is very tired. Events over the weekend have left me pretty exhausted. Having said that I'm feeling positive and fairly upbeat.

Some of you are already aware that I learned of something momentous in personal life yesterday. I have become a great aunt! My lovely niece had a lovely daughter. I'm hoping to see her tomorrow and I'm pretty darned excited.

My dear friend Timefragments posted a link on Facebook today which I have added to the side of this blog here. It is to http://gapingvoid.com I liked browser the site and had a look Hugh McLeod's pointers for creative success in a forthcoming book. Number 8 caught my eye. This one is for sleepyduck:

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with com­panies that champion creativity.

Thanks to those who have visited, commented and started to follow me. You're a wonderful group of people.


I have had an invitation to join Jane's private blog and I have. Just to let you know if you're looking though that the feeds don't seem to work properly so I cannot see any content after 2005 or images. Do let me know if I've done something wrong as I'm very new to all of this .


Something that some of you may be able to help me with. I have added a slideshow at the side of some selected images I posted on Flickr. I got the feed to recognise them by adding a tag imp1. Sadly this picked up a picture of a Hillman Imp in the middle of my photos. Anyone have any specific instructions on how to add selected images?

Thanks!

Hello people. This is new experience for me. I have not had a blog like this before but am a refugee from a photojournal site which I had good reason to leave. However, I really enjoyed so much about the experience I want to continue the practice.

You will have to forgive me for not really knowing how to use the blogspot as yet but I'm sure I will learn quickly. My first image is not being posted for it's qualities as a photograph but more as a message to all those who have made many kind comments in relation to events this weekend. I don't intend my blog to be so cryptic always but I do not want to go into details about any of this.

Anyway, you wonderful people, this is a message for you:

These are the words that came to mind today about the events of the weekend and on leaving a photojournal site I enjoyed greatly:

The great affair is over

Who ever would have guessed

It would leave us all so vacant

And so deeply unimpressed

Leonard Cohen