Christmas is coming

Are you aware that Christmas will be here soon? I was so determined that it wouldn't creep up on me this year, like it has every other year but am I any more prepared than previously? Am I heck as like!

However, I have dipped into the bank account and bought presents for my parents (still got some stocking filler to get) and thought about my nieces and nephew (so difficult - either they're teenagers or babies) and have some ideas (but very little money. Having to pay off a tax bill has meant money is a little tight and, of course, the MOT on the car is due in December/January. It never ends, does it?

Despite all this, I am looking forward to me first Christmas in my own home for over ten years. What's more, I'm cooking Christmas dinner for my parents and they are very traditional when it comes to Christmas - so no pressure there.

Does this all sound like a moan - it so is not. In fact I'm quite excited (or at least as excited as a woman of my age should be!)

Sun Is Shining

I have become enthused about photography again. While I was travelling, my camera was my constant companion, the first thing I packed for a day out and my entertainment during many a boring evening.

When I went back to Italy, I did pack it and I did take some photos but my last experience in Italy was negative in so many ways that I didn't have the heart to take that many shots, then when I returned to the UK, real life overtook me and the camera collected dust for quite a while.

However, having joined the local photo society and having been on the great fungi hunt, I am back behind the camera. I have been inspired (and scared rigid) by the quality and imagination of the people around me and I have refused to enter any of the (many) competitions the society runs - I just don't think I'm good enough - but it has pushed me back out there, looking through the world through the lens and trying to get better.

So much so, in fact, that today I took my camera to work and instead of hiding in the staffroom this lunchtime, I walked along the promenade and snapped the sea, which was as smooth as silk and reflecting the clouds beautifully.

These are just the rough shots, they need a little work to bring out their best but here's the English Channel off Ramsgate...

A good long ladder

Today I was supposed to be going to London to meet up with a friend, watch the Lord Mayor's Parade, potter around the Museum of London and watch some fireworks. Unfortunately, because of the swollen eye, I have done none of the above. Instead I've spend the day indoors feeling sorry for myself and trying to motive myself into doing some of the ten-ish things on my list of outstanding-stuff-to-do-around-the-house.

Some of these things I've achieved - my badly fitted stair window is now sealed, my black cardigan has been de-fluffed (how could I, of all people, have left a tissue in the pocket?), I've hoovered upstairs and done all my washing. I've even explored the possibility of putting a light up over my porch - I'll need a good long ladder for that job. In fact I've just realised I'll need a good long ladder for most of the jobs still outstanding around the house... now who do I know who's got a good long ladder?

Magic mushrooms?

Yes, I know it's been a while but I've been busy!  I'm teaching an exam course which is taking up a fair amount of my time, and I'm under the weather AGAIN.  This time I have a swollen eye - I actually look like I've been in a fight.  My left eye (not the eyeball itself, obviously) is so swollen that I can see my cheek when I look down - try it and you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, just to keep you happy (because I've forgotten all the fun things I've done since I last wrote), here's a picture of a magpie fungi, taken with my own fair hands (and camera).

and here's a study of autumn leaves (only 'slightly' photoshopped)

and now I'm taking myself and my swollen eye to bed, to rest!

Fun with fungi

Another busy weekend and I feel so much better for it.

Next month is my mum's 70th birthday and she's having a party so I spent Saturday morning and early afternoon preparing the invitations.  Using a photo I took of her, smudging out the background, printing it on card with the proper words in the proper place on the inside and then printing fourteen of them (that's when I ran out of card).  It took me a good six hours - but she's worth it.  Sometime during this coming week I have to print another thirty or so!

Then Saturday evening was bowling evening for my family.  The eldest was about 70, the youngest 16 and all ages in between.  I had to find a bowling ball which was both not too heavy for me and had a big enough thumb hole so that my nail didn't get ripped off.  And then when I found one, everyone wanted to use it!  I lost spectacularly (a speciality of mine) and then we all went back to A's for fish and chips.  Fan-tas-tic.

Now, on Saturday night we put the clocks back by one hour which meant an extra hour in bed for everyone.  Everyone, that is, except me.  For I was up and about, bright and early on Sunday morning as I'd arranged to go to Blean Woods to photograph fungi.  I know! me, in a wood, on the damp floor, in winter, taking photos of fungi - I think I have finally flipped.

However, I wasn't alone.  I went as part of a group from several local photography societies so there was lots of hands-on advice, lots of being able to play around with equipment (get your minds out of the gutter), fiddling with F-stops and long exposures.  Did I get any decent photos?  I don't think so, BUT I learned a lot.

Not least of all, that getting up and down off damp leaf mould makes me ache in places I didn't know existed!