Domesticali

Fall colour week - plum

Autumn is birthday season in our house. And we're off to celebrate a certain milestone birthday.

My Mum's. She looks great in plum incidentally.

Fall colour week - chestnut

Fall colour week - goldenrod

Long time visitors here might remember seeing this photograph before. But I couldn't not use it, because for me, it sums up this time of year so well. Summer has gone, though there are  a few  lingering reminders that it was well spent. Time to clear the decks and hunker down.

Fall colour week - burnt sienna and brick red

Meg at Elsie Marley has nominated this week as fall colour week. I thought it might kick me out of my non-picture-taking rut. This time of year, photography begins to be more tricky - by the time I am home, the light is fading and nothing looks wonderful without light. So I decided to get ahead and take some photos yesterday.

Hubby put up some little shelves outside our back door, and the  shard of broken plant pot with our house number on seemed to fit the bill for burnt sienna. Do you like my gourds? They have been making  me so very happy each time I return home. As if getting home itself wasn't a happy enough event. 

And then when I got back today, my neighbour had picked the apples from the tree down the street and left a share for us on the top shelf.

Which solves both the brick red dilemma and the after school snack question.

I wonder what the universe will provide for the rest of the week?

Wednesday: Goldenrod (warm, deep yellow)
Thursday: Chesnut (dark, warm brown)
Friday: Plum (like a plum...)

Happy autumn days.

Dusk

One of my favourite parts of the day. Especially at this time of year, with the bats  swooping across the garden catching their insects.

My feet are dirty. Another busy Monday.

Bench Monday

It's nothing short of miraculous - I remembered Bench Monday.

Stand on a bench. Take photo. Post to Flickr Group.

If you go down to the woods today...

Browsing through my photos recently, I found a curious absence of boys. A combination of winter, long days at school and a general laziness about camera toting seem to have conspired against me.
And I could kick myself, because these childhoods? Blink and you miss them.

Hibernating day

A batch of Lina's Apple Muffins.

A pot of chicken soup all ready for dinnertime.

And motivated by this post over at Shutter Sisters, a first attempt at a Christmas Card photo. I may have to re-visit it on a day with better light, but cloves are better behaved subjects than small boys.

Mona

Want to see a 4 year old trying to look enigmatic?

I'm not so sure - he looks vaguely in pain to me. But who am I to say.

Went on a post pay-day yarn buying spree today for my ready-for-winter project. A Sarah Dallas Blanket Cardigan. Not that I'm wishing the summer away or anything. Through frankly, with hayfever this bad, Autumn will be most welcome. At leat when my yarn arrives I can hide from the pollen indoors and knit.

Happy weekend. 

The game...

Just one of those ones that begs to be played. Go on, it's Friday.

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

I stole it from Suse. If you want the proper answers, you'll need to check out the mosaic in Flickr.

By the skin of my teeth

The "Simplicity" photo swap deadline really crept up on me and I hate being late, so while the boys took off swimming this afternoon, I got my act together and packaged up my parcel. The photo I chose in the end was this one:

Partly for the way it looks, but partly because I took it when we went 'glamping' and it reminds me of all the advantages of leading a simple life. I hope my partner likes it (can't tell you who she is, because it's a secret!).

I made a book with a sewn binding for her too. Because I am totally smitten with the idea of DIY bookbinding and she was the obvious choice for a guinea-pig.

The title is 'A day of simple pleasures' and the pages are made from envelopes, holding the following series of photos:

A sunrise, sharing breakfast, hand knitted dishcloth, warm socks, a beautiful walk.

If you missed out on this round, Megan is thinking of making the photo swap a regular thing. And you can see some of the great pictures being swapped over at the Flickr group. I love looking at all the different interpretations of simplicity (and wondering which one is destined to be heading my way).

The end of January in a year of photographs

So it's only taken 5 days of February to realize that my least favourite month of the year is now behind us. Poor old January - it has few redeeming features in my book.

I am still loving taking part in Project 365. Those tiny memories of the everyday.

I wonder what an Archaeologist or Historian of the future would draw as conclusions from them. My own conclusions?

• I am obsessed with goings on in my own kitchen
• I am excessively fond of cupcakes
• The first stirrings of Spring has got me noticing all things yellow

Guess whose

At the risk of turning into 'that odd girl who likes to take pictures of fish tins', indulge me. I found a cracker in Waitrose this week.

And the funny thing is, the moment I saw it, I knew exactly which blogger's pantry I would expect to find these Pilchards in. So let's have some fun! Leave me a comment on this post, guessing who came to mind and I'll put all the correct answers in a hat and send a little prize to the winner.

Edited: And everyone has to promise not to take offence. Because there is no shame in buying pretty food.

Simplicity

My love affair with Sashiko is an ongoing thing. I think it is something about the simplicity of the most basic of running stitches which appeals to me.

So a little tea towel cafe apron. Nothing fancy. Simple twill ties. Red sashiko style embroidery.

And while we're on the theme of 'Simplicity' - I am taking part in Megan's photo swap. Sign ups are open until Friday. If your resolution for 2008 was something photography related, maybe you'd like to join in?

Officially autumn

Okay, I give in.

It's officially Autumn. Tomorrow, we're putting socks on.

Q is for… Qwerty

1. DSC_05302007-07-14_18-15-28_crop, 2. green typewriter, 3. typewriter of capricorn, 4. typewriter fun, 5. Typewriter, 6. typewriter, 7. Typewriter Detail, 8. Typewriter, 9. Typewriter

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Given the amount of time I spend on the computer, it's an absolute disgrace that I don't touch type. I did do a course when I was about 15 - but I only made it up to about 30 wpm touch typing and I can go faster than that looking at my fingers. I do use plenty of them, just in a haphazard kind of way. So I reverted to my own idiosyncratic ways.

But those crazy letter recognition things get me all the time. I hate the patronising way they tell you to enter the letters exactly as you see them, right after you've cocked it up once.

And hooray for me - I came up with a Q!!!! Only 9 letters left...

O is for… Old photos

Pictures from other people's childhoods are a source of great fascination to me. Pouring over them to see if there are any signs of the adult they are to become. So I thought I'd share a few of mine.

My little friend Kirsten and I, in Fiji on my second birthday. She's got the balloon (and some fabby rick rack trim going on) and I've got reading matter - bookworm then, bookworm now.

My brother and I at some petting zoo in Holland. He is the same age in that picture as his eldest son is now and they are so similar - it's their expressions, right Tess?

And with my folks aged 6. We were living in the Cayman Islands at the time and my Dad was playing in the band for a production of South Pacific. This was opening night, all dressed up in our best south sea islander finery. I still remember the words to most of the songs from the production. Check out my Mum rocking that halter top look too!

I'm in the middle of reading Tokyo Cancelled by Rana Dasgupta - thirteen passengers stranded overnight in an airport amuse one another by telling stories. One tale deals with a 'memory editor' whose job it is to sift through the memories of strangers, cleansing them of painful experiences to create a DVD. It is marketed under the name 'MyPast' to individuals of a generation forgetting their own history. Something about it reminded me of the experience of blogging. Perhaps I need to take my role as 'memory editor' more seriously.

H is for… Hair

Here's where I admit my huge envy of people with perfect hair that suits their character and always manages to look stylish. I'm not sure that I have ever achieved it though, despite mine being long enough to sit on, shaved off, and many things in between over the years.


But now, thanks to a find via Photojojo I have a chance to find the ultimate 'do'. And yes, this really is a photo of me, but the 'before' is not my real hair. Not too far off mind!



Whaddaya think? Too much? I've always fancied being a redhead...

Go on, do yours, you know you want to.

Year of Colour - Black

The end of Amy's first Year of Color is rolling round. We began with white, so it seems fitting to end with black.


I wish I had managed to join in every week, because I enjoyed the weeks I did make it hugely. And YOC 2 is coming.

And Megan from Megan's blog - Charlie and Lola are coming your way this month.