Shadowy Tea

Last weekend there was sun. My tea looked beautiful steaming away in the light.

For more shadows from around the world, visit Hey Harriet here.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Woolwich has some beautiful buildings. This is the Royal Military Academy, photographed last Sunday.

We went to photograph the Olympics gun site-which looks more or less finished now. This is the other side of the road to the site.

I have worked out how they make the white covering taut-the coloured circles push it out and voila-not a giant shrink wrapping process as I formally thought!

For other shadows from around the world, visit Hey Harriet here.

Moonshadow

'I'm being followed by a moonshadow, Moonshadow moonshadow', was what I thought of when I saw this shadow on my draining board the other night. It wasn't following me thank goodness, more calling to me. I have just googled the song as I could not remember who it is by. Cat Stevens. The rest of the song is quite strange.

Moon folklore. For more shadows from around the world, visit Hey Harriet here.

Shadow Shot Sunday

This week's shadows are from my trip to Southwold a couple of weeks ago. Not much sun this week and no time for shadow hunting! The first one is in the cafe on the pier where I spent a very long time waiting, and so took quite a few photos to pass the time! I was sitting on the side the sun was shining in, and it was very dazzling and hot, but lovely at the same time. A glimpse of the lighthouse through a side passage, with the bobble roofed house making its shadow.

I like the colour of these two houses next to each other. The salmon pink is very popular in the area. I like the window shadow on the blue house.

For more shadows from around the world, visit Hey Harriet here.

Shadow Shot Sunday

I made crab apple jelly with the crab apples the children and I picked at school. I have been looking through 'The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady', which is a book I have loved for a long time, and recently found a copy of in a charity shop. It is a nature journal with lovely watercolours, notes on weather, finds and also poetry. I wanted to take a picture of my jelly in the sunlight, as it is an amazing amber colour. It tastes good too-nice with cheese and biscuits. I bought four jars, in a massive overestimation of how much the apples would make-but half a jar is better than none! The first page pictured is a painting of those red and white toadstools, and the second is of crab apples and sloes-which I have also been using this week. I love the feeling af autumn the photos gives me.

For more shadow shots from around the world, visit Tracy at HeyHarriet here.

Shadow Shot Sunday

My shadows this week are from the construction site I see each day on my way to work. I took some photos last week too as it looks so interesting as the sun is rising. This week they are starting to put the sides on the building which made for more interesting shots.

Weird and wonderful though it is, I do hope they remove it after the Olympics as it does not really fit in with the formally lovely open common on which it stands.

For more shadows from around the world, please visit HeyHarriet here.

Dungeness Shadows

The weather forecast for yesterday was really good so we decided on a trip to Dungeness. It was like a July day! Unbelievable, and yet some weather people are predicting possible snow in October! We had a lovely day wandering up and down the beach. There is always something interesting to spot there. Yesterday we found two of these creatures on the sand. (I have never been there when the tide is out and didn't realise there was sand! It went out a really long way and was lovely to walk on. If I hadn't been trying to use my camera and carry another find I will show you in a minute, I would have whipped off my walking boots for a paddle as it would have been perfect) I have not looked up what this is yet but it looks like some kind of shark. It has a lovely spotty pattern so I am guessing it is a leopard shark. (That is what I would call it anyway-or maybe a polka dot shark) I felt the skin, as it was quite freshly dead and didn't smell (there seemed to be a wound on the underside which must have been the cause of death). The skin was rough, like a cats tongue, when stroked towards the head, and smooth on the way away from it.

I have now looked it up-it is a Small-spotted Catshark, or lesser spotted dogfish. It is the originator of the mermaid's purses I have found before. See one here found on Sheppey. The shadow below is me with a great beach combing find(Andy found it-he is an expert beach comber!) Who doesn't need an iron arrow? I think it is from a weather vane, but whatever it is from I love it!

The arrow is pointing the way to the sea. I wonder how far it has come? It is very heavy, and shows the power of the sea well by being tossed around as if it was nothing. It was just about buried in the sand, only the tip of the arrow showing.

My last shadows are the delicate ones in amongst the branches of this dried sea kale. (See some here) There were loads and loads of these seed trees, many of them blown up against fences like sea tumbleweed.

For more shadows from around the world, visit HeyHarriet here.

Salute to the 40s and Shadow Shot Sunday

Shadows at the 'Salute to the '40s' event at Chatham Dockyard. The best day out I have had in ages! More details and pictures next time!

For more shadows from around the world, visit HeyHarriet here.

A Giveaway and Shadow Shot Sunday Return

I have been away from Shadow Shot Sunday for so long now and I do miss it. I never seem to be organised anymore on a Sunday but today I am! Cassie is the model for shadows today, sitting on her post and looking sweet.

Just look at that face!

Squinting!

Visit Hey Harriet for more shadows!

The giveaway part is coming later tomorrow. I was approached a while ago by a lovely lady from MyMemories.com, about hosting a giveaway on here. I have had a couple of approaches like this in the past but chose not to accept them, as the products were not really to my taste. This time was different! My Memories is a digital scrapbooking software suite, which I have been trying out over the last few days. I really like what it can do. I will share more tomorrow and explain the giveaway properly. Please pop back then for a chance to win the My Memories software.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Beautiful castle-like scaffolding, spotted the week before last when I was out of school doing home visits.

For more shadows from around the world, visit Hey Harriet here.

The Red House

A colourful day-watching the trooping of the colour this morning, then visiting the Red House this afternoon. William Morris lived in this house for five years in his twenties. He had it built when he got married, and it was designed by his friend Philip Webb, in collaboration with Morris. There is so much interesting information about him and this house. I have been reading all about him tonight in a book I have had for years and never really looked at properly. He was a man who was interested in so many different types of decorative arts and crafts, and set out to learn to do as many as he could, as well as this he was a poet, and translator of Icelandic sagas. So much more too. He was truly impressive. His motto was 'si je puis', meaning 'if I can' and he certainly lived up to this.
The house is lovely, as is the garden. The guided tour was good and the cake in the tea shop exemplary! I have meant to go there for ages as it is only about 15 minutes away in Bexleyheath.
As well as being a good outing, the visit also provided some great shadows. Visit Hey Harriet here for more.

Shadow Shot Sunday

One of my colleagues at work is having twins. Yesterday she was given these by another lady-twin grapes! I offered to preserve them in resin and she liked the idea, so they are in resin now. In case it went wrong, I took their portrait first. This photo was taken by Chinameze at Forest School last week. I let him borrow my camera. He takes great photos.

For more shadow shots from around the world, visit Hey Harriet here.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Flowery shadows-can you guess what they are cast by? This is the first time I have bought something just for shadow shot Sunday!

It is from Greenwich market and was so cheap,

but contains so much work. It is a mystery to me how it was made-so clever!

And a good use of string I think.

A circular string mat of intricate woven flowers.

If anyone has seen one of these before, or knows the technique I would be interested to hear.
For more shadows from around the world, visit Tracy at Hey Harriet here.

Royal Wedding and Shadows

Andy and I went up to Edinburgh this weekend, to see his Mum. We joined in the Royal Wedding festivities in the communal bit of the sheltered housing complex where she lives. It was great! A couple of the residents had organised the whole thing, and for a modest fee there was breakfast, lunch, cake, coffee and cava, plus a comfy sofa and a large tv! The lady who did the organising also cleverly made this knitted royal family wedding scene. Great isn't it?! We met lots of her friends who were all really sweet. When the hymns were being sung lots of people (myself included) were quietly joining in. I quite often take photos of the tv-second hand photos through someone else's eyes-weird! These are three of my (someone else's) favourite shots.
There was so much speculation about the dress which was beautiful. The strangely innappropriate BBC commentator's remark, as Catherine Middleton left the hotel for the Abbey was something about the dress being 'unsoiled'. Thank goodness!

Here are the shadows for shadow shot Sunday-in the folds of the train and skirt. I love this picture for the fact it is monochrome apart from the red carpet.

I like this one, as I wonder what Camilla is thinking. She looks very wistful.

After the wedding we went to the Botanic Gardens for tea. We walked through the gardens and saw lots of activity on the pond-swans, moorhens and lots of tiny ducklings.

The plant below is a Trillium. It is such a strange looking plant with the three leaves and the flower poking up in the middle. I would like some, but reading up on it I think it may be the wrong kind of garden here-it likes rich well soil and semi-shade, so maybe not!

When we go away my friend feeds the cats. They get along fine, but Lily finds it very stressful and does not usually forgive us for at least a day. They all had a mad half hour on the dirt patch when we got home, chasing after stones and sticks. Tiger even retrieved a stick! They are all settled down in front of the fire now so seem quite happy.

Shadow Shot Sunday is here.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Cassie peeping through the shadowy machine.
Angular shadows on Sheppey this week.
It felt lovely and fresh there compared to London, despite the distant smog.
For more shadows from around the world, visit Hey Harriet.