It was sunny in my corner of England so I had to get out and find some pictures. Anything to put off dealing with the baby deer lying dead on the drive (we live on some unmarked deer path) its backside having provided some creature with a large questionable dinner. I didn’t take a picture of it. I headed into town to enjoy the sunshine (before the gale hits tomorrow), get the Goblin some vitamin C and generally frighten the local population with my latest layered look (red, pink and purple). Actually it probably wasn’t my colour scheme it was probably my weird posturing outside All Saints church (in the market square…the church yard facing the square is raised…I took a picture from the church… Anyway, I enjoyed myself taking pictures of my shadow. The insides of the church were a little dark and my camera decided it was going to do its own thing…like not focus on anything properly. I’ll actually have to read the instructions now…if only to save the remains of my sanity. It was a beautiful day and I saw all sorts of lovely things which I’ve never seen before…not that the camera let me photograph them, but that’s life. I left All Saints through the bell tower door which was propped open…and there high up on the wall…I mean fifteen above me…I can only assume there used to be a platform…there was a whole wall of lovely old graffiti carved into the stone. One of the few I could make out was 1768. Lovely! Probably some bell ( or change) ringer. [Read more…] about Oh deer, what a day…
I've been taking photographs
At the zoo…
Last week was one of those weird lovely weeks where time seems to stretch out (in a pleasant way). The Goblin had the whole week off. On Friday he woke up and decided he had to go to the zoo so we drove down to Colchester. The zoo is a nice size for people who don’t want to walk miles (that would be us). He particularly loves seeing the lions, tigers and elephants. I love seeing the little monkeys, though I find it impossible to pick a favorite animal; even hyenas are cute in their own mutant way. I took my little camera, thinking I’d take some shots of me and the Goblin, but managed to get several shots of the animals. The sky was overcast (it started to rain just as we left) but that lovely dull slate gray English sky provided the perfect backdrop to my favorite photos of the day…a rogue flamingo that just happened to be preening itself directly underneath a pedestrian bridge…I wish I’d had our bigger camera…I could have stood there for hours watching the flamingo…the bright pink against the gray water…lovely! I had to share my favorite pictures. [Read more…] about At the zoo…
Sunrise…sunset…
This evening I went for a walk hoping to find something to photograph, but as the light was fading I didn’t really have much hope. I stopped at the bridge where a little stream runs under the road and nearly didn’t see the family of swans; two parents and three or four half grown signets. Lovely! I tried to take some photos, but there were too many branches in the way. Wanting to walk a little farther, I turned off the road to walk up past the fields where its peaceful and safer (I was nearly hit by a car crossing the road because I didn’t look right until I stepped into the road – escape from death number…can’t count that high!). It didn’t actually occur to me to look at the setting sun until I’d taken some pictures of a dead looking field and noticed steaks of light on the clouds. It was then I turned around and saw the sun setting behind me. I walked up farther to where I could get a clear view and took some lovely photos of the sun setting over Stamford. I nearly missed seeing the sun itself…I roll my eyes at myself…but then I saw it peeping out from under the low cloud and I hurried back to take some more photos and admire the view. Here are some of my favorite shots… [Read more…] about Sunrise…sunset…
A lovely rainy day…
Late this afternoon I went down to the kitchen to make some yogurt soda bread and poached eggs when Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A seemed to haunt me with forgotten rainy day as I stopped to stare out the windows at the wet sky. I suddenly had an urgent compulsion to walk in the rain with my camera. It was very irritating that the bread had only just gone in the oven (I bake small lumps in a muffin tin dusted with flour so it only takes twenty minutes and it tastes really good!). It was about an hour before I’d finished eating and managed to get out the door, but it felt exhilarating to put up my umbrella and walk in the rain. I think I over did it after being poorly this last week, but I really enjoyed it until near the end when the wind picked up while I was trying to take a few photos of the medieval priory and the rain blew in under my umbrella. [Read more…] about A lovely rainy day…
A gorgeous end…
I woke up early after a muggy night and rolled out of bed to put the trash out. Once outside it was so much cooler and pleasant than inside the house I stayed outside to weed the garden and pick up all the trash that had blown into the yard over the last month. I even washed the front door. I don’t know if the large spider survived, but the door looked better without so many cobwebs. I can’t figure out why the spiders keep making webs on my front door. I use it nearly every day. (The web weavers spin their energy on webs sure to be torn before their finished while the flies escape into the house to torment me. I spent £2.49 on fly traps…I’ve caught one fly.) I knew today would be stressful because I was expecting a package. I end up caught in a mental loop of “Will they find us? Will they leave my package on the doorstep of the other house in town with the same name? Will it come broken? Will it be the thing we ordered…” Yes I’m paranoid and I couldn’t go back to sleep. After coming back inside I opened all the windows upstairs and spent the rest of the day intending to go back to bed, but I didn’t.
The package finally arrived around 4:30. A half hour later the Goblin decides he needs something for the computer and wants a chocolate milkshake so half asleep I get in the car and we drive off to Peterborough. By this time I’m so tired my legs feel full of sand. We had an unhealthy fast food dinner and as we weren’t far from Fotheringay (where Mary Queen of Scots lost her head) I asked the Goblin if he’d drive me over so we could see the landscape in the setting sun…I assured him it would be romantic. He’s such a lovely goblin! He muttered that I could climb what I wanted, but he’d be staying in the car. We got to Fotheringay and there was a giant fat cloud hanging overhead so the landscape looked flat and dull. I told him the fat ugly cloud had ruined my plans and to drive on, but if he saw any wheat fields with the setting sun on them I’d be very happy if he pulled over and let me take some photos. We weren’t far from Apethorpe when he said…we’ve never gone this way…let’s take this road. [Read more…] about A gorgeous end…
And in your crypt you’d keep a…?
When we woke early yesterday it was already hot and our brick house was the proverbial oven with the unpleasant addition of a few flies who continued to mock the ugly dangling sticky traps we hung the day before. I’d just started working on Dancing the Maypole when the Goblin came in to inform me he had the urge for one of his favorite burghers in Solihul (about twenty or so miles north of Stratford Upon Avon). My characters were left mid sentence for an air-conditioned ride. Having reached our destination, while we waited for our food I casually mentioned that since we’d come all that way for a burgher, would the Goblin feel up to driving me somewhere I could take pictures? (He’s been unwell so I didn’t want to pressure him.) He said he’d manage a detour home so I was quite happy to traipse around in the heat on a full stomach looking for a casual sun-hat for the Goblin. The only one he liked was £40. (Who said you can’t spin straw into gold?) He decided not to get it and I sighed in relief as I didn’t like it and we were soon back in the car. When he took the turning South to Warwick and Stratford Upon Avon my first thought was, ‘Warwick!’ As we approached the turning to Warwick I said, “Ooh Warwick! I’d love to go there…I read about in my Medieval book they have some medieval effigies…” I don’t think he heard me. When the Goblin drives…he drives! [Read more…] about And in your crypt you’d keep a…?