Halloween

This is my favourite Halloween window display. It's been a lovely afternoon going out with the lovely man, meeting friends and eating my first mince pie of the season.

You can see the mince pie on Flickr but here is another picture which I called "Night Fever":

I've unpacked half my stuff so I need to pack it again for our hols. I can't believe that we'll be in Berlin in about 24 hours! Hopefully we'll be able to continue our blogs but if not, we'll be back posting at the weekend. Have a good one!

Woohoo!

Our holiday is getting closer! I've arrived at the lovely man's house and we fly to Berlin on Sunday. I never had a chance to take photos today as I was getting stuff ready or travelling with a lot of baggage. I'm beginning to get excited...

Hope you're all having a great Friday. Not sure how much I'll be able to catch up with you all this week but I'll be thinking of you.

Using up the veg

Here's tonight's dinner. It's been a quiet day at home for me. This is a curry made of all the vegetables I suddenly remembered that I had in the fridge. I've still got quite a lot to use up before I head to Edinburgh tomorrow. Our hols are coming up - Berlin on Sunday! Hooray!

I'm hoping I can find room in the freezer tomorrow for soup. I already have masses of it in there - very yummy it is too!

Now back to being quietly excited about hols...

I'm home much later than usual so I'm headed for bed. This is a lensbaby image. It's my favourite of the photos I've taken today. I hope you're all having a great sleep. Night night xxx

It's the cherub again

Well here it is, through one more hoop of renovation. It disappeared for some time and reappeared looking like this:

This is on its return - about a month late - where the paint had been removed.

The original looked like this:

When looked at close, it was a bad gloss job. They took it away and removed the gloss and now they've done another bad gloss job in a colour that doesn't match what's around it. I don't know if they plan on a gradual renovation of the rest of it but it's taken from July till almost November so far.... Efficiency eh?

It was another grey and wet day. Not one where I experimented photographically much. Here's another picture taken today which shows what it looked like earlier when I was out in the relentless rain.

I've had a nice evening cooking for my friend K who is now off to a local pub quiz. I'm rubbish except at some of the obscure stuff in quizzes.

Hope your week is going well. Almost half-way now!

Same cafe with weekday man...

I got out to meet K today for coffee. I also had really delicious black pudding on toast! I took a few pictures, all of K and using the lensbaby. This one is my favourite. They were all high ISO as, even at 3.30 this afternoon in a cafe with large glass windows, it was too dark. It's been a horribly grey and dark day apart from a little sun in the morning. I've been feeling a bit low and I don't think the dark helps. Roll on our hols - Sunday's trip to Berlin is long overdue. I definitely need a change of scene.

I posted a few more pictures of K on my Flickr page which I quite liked.

Hope your week has started off well.

Nice soup - boring photo

After the lovely man left me today I got busy with the Wii-fit - hulaing like crazy - and then I made some tasty soup. It was a lot thicker than it looks here as the lentils, split peas and rice had sunk to the bottom. It was really tasty and so were the rolls which are my own homemade ones - white with a bit of oatmeal.

Now to find something to watch on telly....

Usual cafe but with weekend man...

Here he is. We had a bit of a stroll today and a nice coffee and snack in Tibo where you usually see my shots of K.

I haven't been terribly creative with my photos lately. Sometimes that happens though - you fall into a lull in either opportunity, motivation or both.

I hope you're having a good weekend. I do wish they didn't pass so quickly though!

Playtime...

I didn't get any pictures today when I was out and about but sleepyduck has arrived and we're playing. I'm not so good at shooting... or tabletennis.... or, well anything. Here is the duck in his moment of triumph.

Here he is after I've shoved him...

It's been a good day overall. I had some chores to complete. The first one involved contact with someone good at her job and a real pleasure, the second a fruitless attempt to claim a parcel that was sent for collection to a local shop - an Ebay seller using a courier instead of post due to strikes - frustrating!

I don't know about you but I stayed up to watch Question Time last night. It could have been better but it was good to see Nick Griffin challenged so wholeheartedly and shown up for what he is. As well as complaining about the BBC today, he seems to have said that London is no longer a part of England! I didn't notice anyone mention Scotland but I live in the constituency of Michael Martin the former Speaker of the House of Commons. As I went down my street today I saw a large BNP campaign truck. I'm hoping Nick Griffin's England shrinks to the size of his toilet...

Now back to competition with the duck.

The outside world at last!

I finally made it out of the house today to a local cafe. It's about a 20 minute walk away for a normal person and a 30 minute walk for me. It was great to see the outdoors! I got to read my book - The Golem - for a bit before my friend K arrived. It's taken me a while to start this book. I think I got it the birthday before last. I wasn't sure about it in the first chapter but I'm really enjoying it now. It's a good translation. If you're interested you can read a review of it here.

Here's K. He was very tired too - similarly afflicted with the lurgy that's going around just now. He's the first human being I've laid eyes on since Sunday who wasn't delivering me a parcel or shopping. (Thank heavens for online shopping!) It was a treat to meet in one of our local nice cafes. That bowl to the right of the picture was full of vegetable stroganoff and lovely fresh organic bread. There was so much I couldn't eat all the bread. Thanks for coming out K!

Now I'm pretty tired again but still not quite as exhausted as I've been and I'm a lot less sore. Looking forward to another quiet evening. It's nearly the weekend folks!

Julien takes in some light to beat the winter blues

Julien and I have both been staying in today. Here he is pictured using the SAD lamp. Those of you who have followed me from elsewhere will have met Julien before.

I'm still not very well. I'm totally exhausted and a bit sore. I had another go on the Wii-fit and it added 6 years to my Wii age since Monday! I was so totally hopeless that I gave up. I saw the outside world for the first time since Sunday but only to take out the rubbish. Nothing for it but to hibernate.

I hope to resume normal photographic service soon!

Painting by Misha Shengelia

This painting was gifted to me by the artist Misha Shengelia as a birthday gift two years ago. He was once artist in residence at CCA Glasgow. He is Georgian and usually lives in Tibilisi. If you'd like to look at some more of his work you can find some of it here.

Today was another day indoors. I seem to be having a major flare-up of arthritis and am very tired. That sometimes happens when other people get colds and flus. I think it may be how my body fights bugs. I managed to get a bit of exercise using the wii - you'll be glad to know I've raised my hula score!

I'll try to seek out some more exciting photos tomorrow. Happy Tuesday!

Wii-fit and quiche

This is my second hula hoop score on the wii-fit. It arrived on Wednesday last week with the Wii and I only set it up today. That's really not like me. I'm just very tired and a bit under the weather at the moment. I feel marginally unwell but nothing that I can put my finger on. As a result, I've stayed in and haven't been taking a lot of photos. I managed 7 minutes of exercise with the Wii-fit which is fairly pathetic but a move in the right direction.

I also made some small quiches for my tea tonight. Isn't ready rolled pastry great?!

They were tasty. Now I'm sitting quietly waiting for the new series on STV - Murderland. I've no idea what it'll be like but I'm keen to watch something that I've never seen before. Hope you're all having a good night.

Hairy biker portraits...

This was the sign outside "The Store" in Stockbridge. I liked the portrait of "The Hairy Bikers" and their bike. 

The lovely man and I had our usual walk to the Stockbridge Sunday market.

It's been another nice weekend. The time just goes too quickly. I'm kind of tired and won't write much today. We're about to watch Dexter and then I have to pack for the trip home. That's always a sad bit.

Hope you're all having a good weekend.

The maestro

Here he is, one of my favourite people having fun with the piano. I had a great evening with the lovely man and some friends. We were fed wonderful food and no doubt, I'll find more great photos to upload to Flickr tomorrow but for now, it's bedtime for me. I'll catch up with Flickr photos and your blogs over the next few days but I haven't been online quite so much. Hope you're having a good weekend. Night night.

The lovely man again...

It's the weekend so here he is again. He didn't quite look like that the last time you saw him but I didn't get a good photo today and this one is more representative of a fun part of the day. There is no relevance to the word "Quit" appearing.

For those of you who have not been initiated into Wii culture, this is a Mii - which is a virtual version of the lovely man for playing games. I am a complete novice but we have had a bit of fun with it today.

Sorry for the lack of my usual photos in the last few days. I have been very tired and a little out of sorts. All is right now though as it's the weekend. Have a good one.

New toy

Apologies for the really rubbish photo but I haven't had much chance to take pictures today. This is my new toy. I'm trying to get it set up but I really need a small child....

I bought a Nintendo Wii and Wii fit - my excuse was that it would help me get fit and lose weight.

It's been a strange day for me but it's awfully close to the weekend now so I'm looking forward to that. I'm hoping that the video below will make up for the poor photo. It's quite amazing - an artist at work.

Black and white day...

The title today doesn't refer to anything other than I seemed to want all my photos in black and white. This one here, my favourite of the afternoon's shots, was taken with my beloved lensbaby.

I loved the little child looking down at the grating in the next one and, of course, old Police boxes are always tempting to photograph.

I was out this afternoon to meet a friend and had a lovely time. We had a really tasty lunch and a blether. Was great to catch up E, we should do it again soon.

I'm off out soon again so I thought I'd blog early. Hope you've all survived to midweek intact. It's not long till the weekend now.

Gift from a friend

I admired this painting done  by a friend Gordon Delaney. Another friend popped round today who had been visiting Gordon and brought this with him. Thanks so much! It was a lovely surprise and now has pride of place on my wall.

It was a quiet day with few photos but I really liked this one of my visiting friend F. It was taken in low light and I loved the motion blur.

Hope you're all having a good week. Mine has been nice so far.

Stroll with the LX3

It's a gloriously sunny day today so I thought I should get out and about. I decided to amputate the lensbaby and take my little camera instead (the LX3). I loved the shadows with the low sun.

Here's another street shot from today.

I also liked this one of my friend K as he drank his coffee and had a look at the book I'm reading - the second of the Dexter books.

We are very lucky to have such a nice cafe near us. We are regular visitors to it. It's lovely and bright and sunny in this kind of weather and the food is nice too. They also serve alcohol for those wicked evenings....

The light is already beginning to go. Oh how quickly the darker evenings creep up on us. I love autumn but I hate the loss of light.

Hope your week has started ok. I'm off to have a cup of tea and read a bit more of Dexter...

Sunday...

It's Sunday and the lovely man has gone off home. I'm having a quiet, domestic sort of day and am not terribly motivated to take photos today. Here we have a good friend of mine - Malcolm.

Here's a second image - a macro. You can guess what it is if you like thought it's probably not hard.

Hope you have a relaxing Sunday.

Lazy day in...

Here he is again. We didn't leave the house today but enjoyed pottering about in each other's company. I'm afraid that means that you will see my lovely man again today. I don't tire of him but you might. I like this picture of his hands. I like the grain, the colours and the moderate lensbaby effect.

I also liked this one of him smiling as he looked as his picture of me which you can see on his blog. I'm off to cook more tasty food and we're going to watch Dexter.

Hope you're all having a good weekend.

Hooray! It's Friday!

Well here he is. That means it must be Friday. It's not been a bad day and I'm feeling really quite contented. I am cooking tasty food, sitting with the lovely man and watching rubbish on the telly. This picture was taken using a SAD lamp for light. It's a lensbaby one, as usual, and the manual focus was difficult as he kept moving in and out and making me giggle. I posted another couple of pictures of him on Flickr.

Now for tasty food. Have a great weekend.

Trip to the Necropolis

Here is my lovely friend P. We met today and went up to Glasgow's Necropolis - a large old cemetery behind Glasgow Cathedral. It is a wonderful place to walk and to take photos. Both of us were really tired today but making the effort to get out and about was worth it. It was one of those beautifully crisp, perfect autumn days. There was a chill in the air and beautiful sunshine. I (of course) had my lensbaby which may, one day need to be surgically removed... I love this image of P and the colour that her hair is when the sun hits it.

I took a few images I liked. Here is another of P. I couldn't resist taking a picture when the light was making patterns on her face and I'm quite pleased with the result.

Here is another one I liked - this time of the stones.

It's time to think about making some food now. I hope your day has been as good as mine. It's nearly the weekend folks!

I kind of liked this image of these two people greeting each other. I'm home late and this picture belongs to the day before I'm posting. That means it was taken on 7th October in the afternoon. I've been out and about and so had no time to post it.

Today has been a good day. I got some domestic stuff done in the middle of the day and then met a pal briefly for coffee, and then spent the evening with another pal. I was fed lovely food and had a great evening.

Now, it's way past my bedtime. Sleep well people. I'm off to bed.

Wander in the East end of Glasgow

Today was a day that I spent trying to get organised at home a bit better. I went out though, in the afternoon, as it looked pretty sunny. I didn't take all that many pictures in spite of meeting K for coffee. Those I did take were all taken with the lensbaby. Somehow I liked this one best but I don't quite know why. The silver things in the background are part of the local Mother's Pride bakery. You can see them better below.

I was also playing with a polarising filter which contributed to the colours and the shiny towers. These are a local landmark that I pass every day.

This last image is of someone at work in a carwash. It looks best big - which you can get by clicking on the image.

I'm feeling quite sore today but a lot better about my joints and everything, than I did yesterday. I've decided that I'll spend a while talking to people and gathering information but I won't decide on a treatment option until after I've been on holiday - in four weeks time. I'm going to focus on that instead as it's much more fun. The lovely man and I will be off to Berlin together for 5 days. I'm really looking forward to that.

Hope you're having a good Tuesday folk. Nearly half-way through the week now!

Difficult decisions

It's not a very exciting photo today. My hospital appointment dominated my day. I went to Rheumatology to have my hands and feet examined. I was shown the joints in my hand through ultrasound. I was shown a lot of damage in some of the joints and a lot of inflammation. I didn't really need an ultrasound to show me that my hands are inflamed and joints damaged but it was depressing. I am being offered some options I find worrying. One is injection of steroids into the joints. The other is a drug called sulphasalazine. I have reactions to everything and am concerned about the long term side effects. Already, with medication I'm on, I feel like the capacity to make properly informed choices diminishes with the amount of pharmaceuticals that you swallow every day. I don't really remember what it was like to feel like I have energy, be pain free and feel fully well. That's just a fact of life that I mostly manage to live with but some days it gets to me. I'd love to hear from anyone who has had steroid injections into joints or who takes sulphasalazine. You can email me at impoftheyard@gmail.com. My decisions won't be based on other people's experiences but it would help to hear about them.

Now for a cup of tea and watching some nonsense on telly. I hope your week started better than mine.

Inverleith Park on Sunday

Another stroll with the lensbaby. I quite liked this shot of two people passing. I liked the little girl's colours and how she was turning towards the swans. Nothing much was in focus today...

Here's another I liked. The old pram got me.

It's been a lovely, relaxing weekend with the lovely man. He has pampered me and we are both feeling much better. It's always sad when weekends come to an end and for me, that happens when I make the journey home, which will be quite soon.

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Saturday stroll with a lensbaby

I'm having a lovely weekend with the lovely man. It's really windy in Edinburgh today but it was also lovely and sunny and made for nice weather for a stroll with the lensbaby. I took quite a few pictures I liked but this one was my favourite.

Here's a face that's hard to forget...

I quite liked the results of this one of a fellow cafe customer.

And I liked this one of the mannequin in the window.

Have a wonderful Saturday - what's left of it. I'm now sitting here waiting for the lovely man to feed me tasty food. Am enjoying the anticipation.