Day Five - From a high angle

Quote of the day:  You miss 100% of the shots that you never take - Wayne Gretzky

Day Five - From a high angle

I figure that if we lived on the moon, the earth would be high, so taking a photo of the moon from the earth would be from a high angle.  Ok maybe it's a little bit cheating ;o)

What a day!

I was awake bright and early and packed the trike with all my market gear and then pedalled down to the Seat of Knowledge, where only two of my boys were sitting, because it was too early for the others yet.

The sky was getting blacker by the minute and the winds were very strong.  As I left to go get my coffee, a few drops of rain landed on my arms.

I ordered my coffee and then went to get some money for my float.

By this time, the sky was even more ominous, so I made the decision to abandon the idea of setting up my stall.

I phoned Aussie H, to let her know that I had canned the idea, and then I returned to the Seat of Knowledge, briefly, where another of the boys had joined the seat.

I made the decision to pedal home before the rain hit, and I got to the end of my street, before it began bucketing down.

I could hear the theme song to the Mighty Mouse cartoon (which is Adoring Husband's ringtone on my phone), ringing in my basket, but I wasn't going to stop in the rain to answer it so I just kept pedalling as fast as my little legs would carry me!

So I plonked myself on the couch, where I remained all day, with the laptop in front of me!

Tomorrow, we are travelling down to Bribie Island for our photography group's end of year celebration.

Vegan Chickie, the Bare-chested Chef and Chicklet will be kind enough to take care of things while we are away.  By 'things', I mean the house, the psychotic dogs and the lovely laying chooks.  We are very grateful for their help.

The weather forecast is not good for tomorrow though, so our barbecue on the beach, may end up being a sausage sizzle at somebody's house.

That would be a shame because I'm really looking forward to a sunset photo shoot across the water.  Fingers crossed for clear weather.

The rain prevented me from taking any shots today, except for the full moon tonight, but I hope to have some shots to share tomorrow .. from ANY angle!

Nite all.

Day Four - Something Green

Quote for the day:  "I am not what happened to me.  I am what I choose to become." - Carl Gustav Jung

Day Four - Something Green

Teeny baby plover chick wearing a green leprechaun's hat.

Well, half of the Christmas decorating is complete.

I arrived home from my morning ride to find that Adoring Husband had put up all of the decorations inside the house and on the doors.  The box of decorations for the tree was placed on the floor beside it, waiting for me to arrive home and we decorated it together.

Pretty huh?

I had quite an uneventful ride this morning and got a couple of passable shots to share.

Happy to Share :o)

Makeshift Boat Trailer

Market day tomorrow.  The last local market before Christmas.  The weather forecast is not good, but they've been known to be wrong in the past ... let's hope they are wrong again!  Although I do like this milder weather since the rain came.

Sixteen sleeps til Christmas!

Nite all.

Day Three - Clouds

Day Three - Clouds

I did a lot of pedalling today!

Adoring Husband had a golf break-up lunch, so I had the whole day to myself.

I pedalled for about three hours and took photos of owls, kookaburras, peewees, butcher birds and a grey heron.

None of them were spectacular, but I posted a couple onto my flickr photostream.

Then I visited Buster's Mum and we discussed the photo shoot and took a couple of practise shots with her sitting in front of the window.

We chose a time for me to return, after dark, so that she could make herself all pretty as my subject.

It didn't take very long to get the shot I wanted.  The lighting wasn't as good as I would have liked, but Kas and Lucy's Man had a fabulous free-standing lamp that provided a nice ambient light and helped provide a reasonable reflection in the window.

Buster's Mum was a very co-operative model and it was all over in about twenty minutes!

The real Buster's Mum

I promised that I would also photoshop a photo to make her look younger as well.

The younger Buster's Mum

I prefer the REAL Buster's Mum to the photoshopped younger version :o)

So I'm very happy with our efforts today and it feels good to have my challenge entry already lodged.  The closing date is 20th December, so I'm nice and early!

Adoring Husband had a good time at his golf lunch and is now sleeping like a baby.

The plan for tomorrow is to decorate the christmas tree and hang the lights around the exterior of the house.  Let's hope the weather co-operates!

Today was another good day :o)

Nite all.

 

Day Two - What you wore today.

Day Two - What I wore today.

Good soaking rain all day today.

I woke up to find that it had been raining during the night and when I left for the Seat of Knowledge, there was a soft spray of rain falling.

I met Lady Lynne and Kaz for coffee at our usual meeting place.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Lady Lynne isn't ALWAYS a lady and that Kaz has a teensy touch of 'evil' within :o)

In my eyes, that just makes them even more special.

During our morning tea, many, many locals stopped to chat.  It was difficult to finish any one conversation, because we were constantly interrupted.

Of course, I'm not going to complain about that, because 'local chat' is one of my favourite pastimes!

The hot topic of 'local chat' is the wonderful rain.

Afterwards, when I was waiting for the rain to ease, I met a holiday maker named Shirley.  She, apparently, comes to our town every year for holidays and this year is here with two of her grand daughters.

She is from Maleny and we stood and chatted for about twenty minutes.  Very nice lady.

I then pedalled home in the rain, because it didn't look like it was going to ease at all.  By the time I arrived home, it was even heavier.  By the time I got inside and sat down on my couch, it was even heavier!

We received two inches of rain in the twenty four hours up to 3 pm.

Great for the locals.  Not so great for the holiday makers.

While I was out, Adoring Husband had pulled the Christmas tree, decorations and lights from the shed, so that when the rain stops, we can  make some Christmas magic around the house.

This afternoon I created four bracelets to fill one of the Christmas orders.

So it's been quite a productive day.

Tomorrow, I am going to visit Buster's Mum and hopefully use her as a model for our next photography challenge.

The theme this month is 'Window' and I hope to capture Buster's Mum's reflection in a window.  Not sure how I'm going to manage that yet, but I'm working on it!

I feel myself turning into a pumpkin because it's after midnight.  I need to get some sleep so that my body can heal the crick in my neck.  Extra healing power would be wonderful.

Nite all

Day One - Self Portrait

Day One - Self Portrait

Today was a good day :)

I awoke bright and early, before the alarm sounded, which gave me plenty of time to get ready for my day out.

Woman of Many Talents was giving me a lift into town and arrived right on time.  It's always a pleasant drive with her.  She's a good egg.

A McCafe coffee was my preferred beverage to start the day and then some browsing through some dvds of which I bought three.

Soon it was time to meet Vegan Chickie, so I made the ten minute walk to the cinema, bought our tickets and some mandetory junk food.

I was just in the nick of time because a whole bus load of school kids suddenly appeared and queued up for junk food themselves!

Luckily, they were going to a different movie :)

The whole Chicklet family suddenly appeared and I got to see my baby before the movie too!

Vegan Chickie and I entered Cinema 3 and enjoyed Breaking Dawn Part 1 for the second time.

Thank goodness the Bare-chested Chef and Chicklet were waiting when we emerged from the cinema, because Vegan Chickie was missing them so much, I don't think she could have waited another 5 minutes to see them!

We drove home, stopping at the takeaway cafe to get fish and chips for lunch.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Adoring Husband had already returned home from his golf function.

After lunch, Vegan Chickie and Chicklet went for a nap, and the rest of us watched one of my new dvds.  'The Muppet Movie'  an oldie but a goodie.

When Chicklet woke up, I got lots of cuddles and we visited the lovely layers at the chook pen, talked to the puppies and did a tour of the veggie garden.

Then it was time for them to go home.

I received a phone call from Lady Lynne inviting me to morning tea tomorrow and then Number One Son phoned and we chatted for about half an hour.

He has just commenced a new job in Townsville, so he's feeling motivated and happy at the prospect of a fresh start after his divorce was finalised recently.

So, I've completed my day one photograph challenge - self portrait, and all in all, it's been a happy day.

Nite all.  

All I can feel is BLAH BLAH BLAH

This is becoming monotonous for you, I know!

I've had a bit of a 'blah' day.

I've been trying to figure out a way to get myself out of the 'blahs' because I'm wading deeper and deeper into the 'blahs', and I don't like it.

So I came up with a couple of ideas.

Firstly, I'm going to the movies with Vegan Chickie tomorrow, to see 'Breaking Dawn' (again).

Secondly, I'm giving myself a thirty day photography challenge, which, effectively forces me to get up and do something different every day, and photography is what I love, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get motivated.

These are the things that I have to photograph.  A different subject for every day.

Day    Subject

1. Self portrait
2. What you wore today
3. Clouds
4. Something green
5. From a high angle
6. From a low angle
7. Fruit
8. A bad habit
9. Someone you love
10. A childhood memory
11. Something blue
12. Sunset
13. Yourself with 13 things
14. Eyes
15. Silhouette
16. Long exposure
17. Technology
18. Your shoes
19. Something orange
20. Bokeh
21. Faceless self portrait
22. Hands
23. Sunflare
24. Animal
25. Something pink
26. Close up
27. From a distance
28. Flowers
29. Black and White
30. Self portrait

A couple of photos from yesterday ...

Buff Banded Rail

White Heron

... and a couple of photos from today ... some kookaburras ...

It seems that my owl families have all moved on now.  Rupert is nowhere to be found, so I'll have to wait til next year to, hopefully, see him again.

Adoring Husband's Mum was admitted to hospital again on Saturday night.  They are doing scans to determine whether she has a bowel blockage/infection.  Hoping she recovers quickly and can return to the nursing home, where she wants to be.

So here's hoping the blah blah blah feelings dissipate soon.

Nite all.

Old Treasures

A few days ago at the Seat of Knowledge, The Kids,  (he's 82 and she's 78) asked me if I wanted to see a photo of them as teenagers.

If my memory serves me correctly, their next wedding anniversary will be their 60th.

I was eager to see a photo of them in their youth, so I urged them to bring the photo with them one morning for me to look at.

This morning was the morning.

He reached into his top pocket and pulled out a small photo, about the size of a mobile phone.

It was black and white, of course.

They were standing in front of a corrugated iron shed, all dressed up ready to go to some social event - they don't remember where they were going at the time.

He was wearing a dark, double breasted suit with a starched, white, collared shirt, a tie, and clean, shiny black shoes.

His hair was slicked back with a quiff ...

For you young people reading this, the above is an example of the 'quiff' hairstyle.

'She' was wearing a cream dress similar to this style but with small sleeves ...

Her hair was long and dark but she wore it in an up-style similar to this ...

She also wore shiny black shoes with a small heel.

They stood close beside each other with their hands by their side, and she had her little finger entwined in his.

He was 22 and she was 18.  So young.

Sixty years ago!  That's an eternity! Here they are, still together and living less than 100 kms from where they were born and bred.  Still happy and taking care of each other.

I sat staring at the photo for a long time trying to imagine how they were feeling, what they were thinking.

Trying to imagine their 60 yrs of life together and how they had grown from a young, happy, innocent couple to the wise, confident, loving couple that they are today.  

Trying to imagine the joys and woes that they had struggled through together.

Trying to imagine the hardships of living in the bush during an era with few of the comforts that we enjoy today.

Trying to imagine the memories that they must have.  Always a story to tell.

Having to keep up with the technological advances that happened so rapidly during their era, must have been daunting.

So much life experience between them.

I could easily have stared at their photo for much longer, but thought it might seem a bit strange to them, so I grudgingly returned the photo to him.

All of the boys from The Seat of Knowledge have shown me photos of themselves and their wives when they were much younger, mostly their early twenties.  They always seemed to stand proud and tall back then.

They often tell stories from their childhood and their youth.  Mostly funny stories.  I love to listen to them.  Sometimes they unknowingly repeat stories, but it doesn't matter to me.

My boys are oldies but goodies and so are their stories.

Perhaps I should start writing down their stories and one day create a book entitled 'Old Treasures'!

I could scan all of their photos so that I could record them in the book.

Imagine what a priceless treasure that book would be to their families.

Perhaps that is something that I can look at more seriously after the Art Exhibit next year.  A new goal for 2013.

Nite all.