Small Summer Moments

Sunday evening lantern
Thursday afternoon splashing
Monday evening experiments thanks to here and here!

Tuesday morning rain-and a Gorilla by the bins.

Monday evening Jasmine tea (the blur is not photoshop-it is steam!)

Friday afternoon Jasmine-to make tea.

Saturday morning poppies

Pretty French Songs and Something quite different

Two pretty songs in French and one ranting song in English.

Yesterday and Years Ago

Yesterday I got up very early, for a Saturday, so I could go and photograph some beautiful poppies that I see every day on the way to work. They look so good in the morning with the sun shining through them. I have been playing with photoshop again and the above is the result. I think I will put the rest of the photos on flickr as I liked lots of them. I also went to the river and the ecology park. I hadn't planned to go there so was wearing clunky sandals. As I walked onto the boardwalk I frightened off a heron. I took my sandals off but it was too late!
The other photos are more playing, with the exciting fact I found out yesterday in this tutorial. That is, that you can add solid colour layers-which I knew, and I do this and lower the opacity. However, I didn't know that if you add a solid colour, you can then play around with the layers effects on it and build up colours to get different effects. The poppy photo is the 'urban acid effect' from the tutorial, and the other photos are me playing around. They are soft light, white, red and green solid colours with soft light effect. It made the photos look warmer.

The subject matter is obvious. I made this papier-mache Frida and Diego years ago, and found the photos tonight when looking for some to use. She may have poppies in her hair. She is a bit like Alice I suppose-in that there are countless images and representations of her out there.

Poppy photo with one of Kim Klassen's lovely textures on it. It makes me think of a wine label for some reason. The poppies really are beautiful. I am thinking of entering the Country File photo competition with one of my photos. More on that later. I have never entered a photo competition so it would be fun to try!

Shadow Shot Sunday with fingers crossed!

Good luck England!

For more shadowy shots from around the world, visit Hey Harriet here!

4-1-oh dear! Another chance gone-though I still have a picture of the best player of the day here!

A Mad Tea Party!

Ding Dong!!!!!! The doorbell went, and who should it be but the White Rabbit?! He was smiling, and quite unlike his normal stressed self. I couldn't help smiling back, as he whispered in my ear. He had a tale to tell of a girl called Alice, and another called Vanessa. I sat down to listen.

" Vanessa loves tea" he said, "and Alice loves strawberries so we need those, oh yes we do!" He was becoming louder and more excited as he continued. "There is a party over at Vanessa's. It is for Alice and that Hatter man too, and anyone else who can come!"

"Where is the Hatter?" I asked. "Oh, he was far too busy to come today-arrranging and so on-you can imagine?"

I could. I got some strawberries ready and then sat down again. The rabbit had more to tell me.

He said that Alice was many people and one person, as there were so many of her around the world, with more being made or imagined or drawn or painted every day. One such Alice is Anachronistic Alice, who you may have met before. She is an older, and slightly wiser Alice, with a long life of adventure behind her, and plenty of memories to enjoy. She never imagined she would be so repeated, but it doesn't surprise her, considering the kind of impossible life she has led. Here are a few snaps from her personal album...

Alice just loves tiny labels with instructions. She cannot resist them! We know the rest.

Cakes have been a recurring theme throughout her life, and they are often the kind that do the strangest things.

This bottle contains a magical substance which looks just like glitter. When it is sprinkled it is never certain what will happen. Stars may appear, flowers may grow out of hats or the moon may come up in the day- 'Sprinkle and See' is Alice's motto for this!

If she possibly can, Alice still likes to spend time being big in a small space. She finds it helps her to think.

Anachronistic Alice is going now. She feels it may take her some time to get to her hostess's house, especially when slowed down by a large white rabbit-oh, but hang on a minute, what is this ho-----------le!!!!!!!! Oh look, we have landed in Arizona! Better than Wonderland!

Haiku My Heart Friday

Rebecca of recuerda mi corazon is hosting Haiku Friday meme and I thought it sounded fun!

Journal pages and thankfulness...

In my journal pages, as well as on the blog, I tend to focus on positive things, though both sometimes help me get rid of the negative ones. The above page is from a while ago-when I had Deirdra visiting. She was lovely and I knew we would get on, but I couldn't help feeling nervous-especially as she was coming to the flat! I used a picture from a selection of fascinating medical pages from a vintage book, which I received from Susan Sanford of ArtSpark Theatre a while ago. I have a little butterfly stamp and the butterflies in the stomach made me laugh. Yesterday I had my Forest School observation by an external assessor. I have been teaching it for a year, but observations are always nerve wracking, so the butterflies were back. It went well though-Jane, the assessor, was lovely, and very complimentary about the session. Phew! Also the butterflies were there as I watched the second half of the England game-most exciting!

I have had the 'lucky you' words for ages and yesterday put it together with some lovely stamps and a card from Yiota-thanks Yiota! and also a stamp and airmail stickers from Tracy-from a couple of her photos I bought-both lovely! I love exciting post-well I suppose we all do!

This is my plan for the summer-the de-clutter part is so hard, but I am determined to do at least some. The garden-oh how much work have I got to do out there?! I am planning to give a week to each and whatever gets done, gets done. Making things is ongoing. Walking and cycling-I must do more exercise! I find it really helps me to have the basic plan laid out simply like this-it is like making a promise to myself.

Oil pastel zebra.
That is the journal pages, photos taken early yesterday evening when everything was good-coffee outside, football won, observation done, plans to do no work for the evening and get the washing done. Then, about 9.30, it all went out of the window. I don't know if the full moon is to blame, I know it can affect behaviour. I hadn't seen Cassie for a while-last seen sitting by the pond watching frogs. Then, as I was relaxing in here, vaguely thinking I should get her in soon, I heard Lily yowl-she has this distinctive kind of screech when challenged, and is very brave in trying to see things off. Cassie was nowhere to be seen, and Lily was sitting on next door's fence looking over it. I was a bit worried, but thought if I call Cassie she will come. She didn't. By 10 I was so worried. Andy was very late home as he got stuck on a train, and I greeted him in a complete state, saying the cat was lost. I had already looked down the alley behind the neighbouring gardens twice. We went to search again, another two or three times, including actually going into people's gardens-no sign of the people and no sign of Cassie. Eventually, and so sadly, we came home. We left the door open, and went to bed. Couldn't sleep, got up for tea and more sad talk, then went to sleep about two. I woke up at about three thirty, really hot, so got up to get a drink. As I walked out of the bedroom, she walked in past me! I couldn't believe it, I was so convinced she had gone, lost, or got by a fox. It is amazing how much you can grow to love a little creature in three months, and I just couldn't bear the thought, so you can imagine how ecstatic we are tonight! It could have been so horribly different. She is now not allowed out for a while-I think I will get her chipped and neutered before I let her out again. She won't like it but at least she will be safe.

Cassie being adventurous a couple of evenings ago, watched over by Lily. The weird thing is last night, that Lily and Tiger knew we were upset, and probably knew where Cassie was-if only they could talk!

Cassie tonight, safe on the bed.

Out and About With Glenda

At Linda Sue's suggestion I decided to take the Roldan doll out on Saturday, to photograph her in a new location. The beach at Grain was cold, windy and deserted-perfect! My trusty assistant Andy held the bag while I took a quick few pictures. As we were leaving, the name Glenda came into my head-so Glenda it is!

Beach shorthand is quite chilly around the legs.

This piece of wood came in handy to stand her on.

By the number 4 step.

In the layers palette on photoshop, there is one called 'threshold' and this is what it did to the photo. It was a lucky chance but I liked it!

Fishbone Music and a Michael

This is the fishbone I found being played. Can you see my washing fluttering in the background?!As I played it, one of the bones pinged off, so it now has a gap on both sides. I love the sound it makes, and hope it has come across in the video ok.

The table has all my finds on it. No matter what I tell myself, as I look around our overcrowded house, I just can't resist fascinating little pieces of nature from the beach. I have a big de-cluttering plan for the summer-we shall see!

The other picture is a Michael. I call it a Michael because this child has such a distinct style that it was unmistakably his-even though I couldn't read the name. Isn't it a great picture? I love the way he has used the simple shapes, filled up the space so cleverly and given them such lively expressions. It was in the going home box for my class in the nursery so I asked him after school. He had done it for Ronnie in my class.

A Day Trip Around Kent Part Two With Some Shadows

Before and after photoshop.

This cottage is next to the beach at Grain.

The roses were lovely-with at least three colours on their petals.

A stormy Rochester High Street with pretty bunting.
Dover Ferry Port viewed from the car!
Some of the extensive grafitti on the white cliffs-chalk is so soft and easy to carve I suppose.
It provided some shadows for me.
Flints peeping out of the chalk.

There'll be seagulls over, the white cliffs of Dover, tomorrow, just you wait and see. It was dizzyingly high and slightly scary.

There were lots of wild flowers.

Dungeness was our last stop. We went for a beachcombing walk. I found little bones in fascinating shapes and bleached beautifully. One of them is a musical fishbone which I will show you tomorrow. Above is Derek Jarman's cottage, the garden still lovely. Dungeness is such a strange place and I would love to have a little cottage there and beach comb every day. As we walked on the beach we kept hearing the whistle of the steam trains that potter backwards and forwards between Dungeness and Hythe. We had fish and chips at the Pilot Inn before heading home. It was such a lovely day!

I could use these pictures to demonstrate triangles and rectangles.

While we were on the beach I remembered this film. I would really like to see it again as I can't remember it very well, but do remember enjoying it. Some of these photos contain shadows. For more shadows from around the world, visit HeyHarriet here.