A Tomato Sandwich on the Periphery of Life.

Do you ever get that feeling, the one where you're not quite engaged with the rest of your surroundings? No, well I have. It's almost like walking into the cake baking classroom when you should be in woodwork. It can be both interesting and disconcerting. Probably both of those at the same time! Changes in life, lifestyle, health, can all contribute and as those things are transient in the overall scheme of things the feeling will adjust to meet the new circumstances and you, hopefully me too, will reengage. It's good to hang onto a "constant" and as always I'm hanging on to my camera.
I'll stop rambling now, well it's more musing than rambling really and if you've made it this far then well done!
Here are some of the results from my camera rambling - there, I've thought up a new topic, genre, whatever - Camera Rambling commence!

                                                                                                                                                                          

             
Oh, the tomato sandwich... just my favourite meal/snack at the moment :)

Gone missing but back now

So, where have I been these last days with no blog entries to be seen? Busy with the garden and visiting Garden Centres with Olivia, taking photos as usual oh, and been into hospital. Not a planned visit and not a pleasant experience at all.
The good old NHS is just that, old and running hard to keep up with the demands made upon it. Talk about chaos reigns! I was in for two days and was moved to 3 different wards, my ultrasound scan results were lost, my medication was changed and I came out with a list of things it wasn't (which is good) but little idea of what it was which caused the pain - enough pain to get me to go to a Doctor at 7pm.
Hey ho, I'm feeling better now thank goodness, might even manage to drive the car today. Strange but I've missed that most of all, not being able to get out and about when the fancy takes me. The down side of being confined to the house for a while is that I've hit eBay rather hard - might just need a new wardrobe!  There - another excuse to hit eBay ;)

When I did get to take some photos the results were, well see for yourself.

 



You can find my photos, if you haven't already, here: www.anncourtney.zenfolio.com & www.pbase.com/abrazo & http://500px.com/shopaholicann2  Yes, I know there's a lot but then variety IS the spice of life!

I still have problems getting the photos to stay where I put them but hopefully they'll look ok this time.

The hedge has got to go.

The large privet hedge which started life on top of part of a garden wall and has subsequently migrated onto the drive, has become a giant of an eyesore. It is full of brambles, a wild rose or two, nettles and ivy, lots of ivy. A complete mess. Every year it was cut but every year it grew and the ivy roots began to push the stones out of the wall. Something had to be done. Discussions were had with the next door neighbours who would be affected by any changes and the decision was made - it had to go. That was months ago...

Last Saturday morning I looked at this giant of a job and decided that unless a start was made, however small, it would never be done. Right. Armed with 2 wheelbarrows, a pair of secateurs and some sturdy gloves I began. Rather than handle everything twice I carefully cut branches and put them straight into the barrow. It was going to be a lonnnng job!  My neighbour came out and offered to cut some down with his chain saw - brilliant. So I spent Saturday clearing up and trundling the cuttings up to the bonfire which is at the top of the garden - no mean feat in itself as the garden is about an acre and much longer than it is wide... well I want to get fit, lose some weight - who needs a gym?! Jimi came out and helped with the clearing up and moving of the heavy stones for which I was very grateful.

Sunday was my day off, Dowland Country Fair to visit followed by dinner with a friend. A chance for me to recoup some energy.  Monday brought root and stone removal as by this time I'd got down to the ivy roots and the stones were getting very loose. I had one close call, as I pulled roots out from the garden side bits of wall fell into the lane. Fortunately it's not a busy lane! Peter did yet more chain sawing for me and great progress is being made.

There are days and days work ahead of me. When it's all cut down the wall has to be rebuilt - Anyone know of a Drystone Wall person? Perhaps I'd better go on a course ;)

 

 
A few shots of the work in progress.

Pots & Flowers & Stuff.

 So, what have I been doing lately... hmmm. Garden Centres have featured quite a lot. Olivia is on a quest to own every type/colour/size of pot available. Then of course they have to be planted up with herbs. Great idea if only there was someone among us to use these herbs as they are intended - you know - cooking n stuff! Don't look at me. The plus side is that they look very attractive. She has also been planting vegetables of all sorts. Again it is highly unlikely that they will ever get eaten apart from by the chickens but hey, it helps to stop the veggie plots looking bare and forgotten.

Photography hasn't been neglected of course. It's daisy time and I love taking photos of them. Also scattered around the garden are several types of Aquilegia which are lovely to get real close up to with a macro lens. As well as taking photos of flowers I spent a morning in Okehampton's J Street Diner. It's a lovely retro Diner, 50's through and through and therefore the perfect setting for photos of Honeysuckle Moon Guitar Pickups. Martin Dowding my Photographer, Guitar Maker and Perfume Maker friend asked me to take some shots of his handmade pickups. It worked well and I think that he is happy with the results and here are a couple... and some flowers :)

                                                                                                           

Martins guitars and pickups can be found here:  https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/sasibel/about?

 

Honeysuckle Moon Guitars and Pickups.

I read a lot about people who go out to take photos with a specific image in mind - perhaps a certain scene or subject - and are content to go home with nothing if they don't find it, searching again another day. While I have no problem with that at all, it isn't for me. I'm a bit like a child in a sweet shop when I get out with a camera, there is just SO MUCH to photograph. Everywhere you look there is something. So when my friend Martin asked me to take some photos for him I was, to start with, at a bit of a loss. Martin is a Professional Photographer - a hard act to follow. He teaches - photography - eecck! But not being one to resist a challenge I said I'd give it a go. The subject, his handmade guitar pickups. I had the vaguest idea of what they were. As they are part of a guitar I knew that they couldn't be too big. See, I didn't really know at all...

These pickups are for sale, the photos needed to be... well lots of things really. When you buy something you expect the photograph to show how it's made, the detail etc etc. Nothing to be done but get them in front of a camera and what fun I have had. I'm still slightly hazy about what they actually do - sorry Martin -  but I've enjoyed the challenge. The pickups and the guitars, which he also makes, go by the name of Honeysuckle Moon. Here are some of my results. I can hear one or two of you saying "is that some form of lingerie I see in one of them?" Well yes, of course, who took the photos?  ;)

 Here's a link to Martin's Etsy shop where the pickups are for sale and there is information about his guitar making.  https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/sasibel/about?

The never ending battle

Title says it all really, the battle is with my weight, you're ahead of me aren't you? This battle is familiar to some I guess and those of you who haven't a clue what I mean, well, very lucky you!  Yo-yoing is probably the best description of my weight and my wardrobe, groaning with clothes of many sizes stands as testament. I have no such excuse for the number of pairs of shoes I have, not that I need one. No, I must stay focused and not wander into the realms of shoes although the delivery man will be bringing a box today from Sarenza... sigh.

In an effort to reduce my weight and keep the idea in mind I have bought a handy little gadget called a Fitbit One. It logs how far I walk in a day, how many calories I burn, steps I climb... you get the idea. It is all displayed in a handy desktop dashboard in case I forget what I'm aiming for. In truth all I really need to do is to walk past any of the mirrors in the house and take a good look but hey, a bit of technology to play with can't be bad and if it serves to prick my conscience then even better. I don't expect I'll be sylph like in a couple of weeks, or a couple of months but I'll make the required effort to walk straight past the biscuits isle in the supermarket from now on and the wine isle, the chocolate isle, the cakes isle... If only the supermarkets would bunch all the fattening stuff together in one place it'd be easier to ignore wouldn't it?

Anyway it's Friday and I have a self portrait to plan so I'm off to the camera...

The empty plate

I opened the fridge yesterday to find an empty plate balanced somewhat precariously on top of some food or other. It's not the first time I've found this and I continue to be baffled by it. Of course nobody will own up so I can't find out the reason for it. Is it laziness or are "they" hoping that if they leave the plate there it will miraculously fill up with food again. Maybe they can't face the trauma of putting it in the dishwasher, who knows. This anomaly goes alongside the "empty packet syndrome" which we seem to have in this house. Food is removed from a packet or box which then, being empty, would normally be thrown into the bin or recycling box but no, the empty packet stays exactly where it was, the pantry, the fridge...  Again Mr Nobody is responsible. Short of a surveillance camera I doubt that I'll get to the bottom of this and will continue to open the fridge and think "oh good I can have...oh :( no I can't" Grrrrr.

Socks

Which came first

Shoes

I'm back

Well it's been a long and rocky road since I left here in 2011. I started a website in my own name with, I must add, considerable help from people who actually understood the construction of a website. I was mostly successful in learning how to post and alter bits of it on the blog side of things. The photo galleries were no problem at all and looked quite good. Then, something meddled and malware appeared. it was found and deleted and all was well but then it found me again and caused all sorts of problems. By this time I was on my own and without the skill to find the source of the problem. I finished with the site altogether and now am with Zenfolio. anncourtney.zenfolio.com  No blog there and I do miss my periodic jottings and snaps. So do others as I have been asked several times when I would start again. So... here I am. I'll give it a go.

 I went to Bow Music Festival today.

                               

Moved!

Hi everyone - if you haven't already realised I have moved to my new web site at:
http://anncourtney.com

It'd be great to see you there :)

Moving at last

At last I'm on the move. I have a website all of my own, Hopefully it will work well as it combines myPhotography and my Blog all under one roof. It's early days for me with regard to the day to day management of a website and it has taxed my brain quite a bit in the past few days. Have a look and see what you think, suggestions and comments are welcome.

So speed on over to anncourtney.com

No Words

Afterwards

Apart from having more pain than when I went into hospital it's all ok. Damage was found and rectified and in a couple of weeks I'll be back to ……whatever I was before, only without the knee pain. I hesitated to say "normal" it's a bit of a boring word really though I guess it's comforting in it's own way.

For the moment I have a huge bandage on my leg, I suspect as more of a "reminder" than anything else, it wouldn't do to go knocking the wounds, tiny though they are.
What fascinating technology - I have had a camera poking around inside my knee - shame I couldn't ask for a couple of stills they would have made a great alternate photo for
the day…….. I'll have to make do with one of the bandage for now.

Counting...not

Not long to go now though I'm not into counting off hours as life passes quickly enough. I'm not sure how I'll cope with not being able to drive for a week or so and can foresee attempts to tape a crutch to the clutch pedal - joking - - maybe!!
As I never go out without makeup and perfume it's going to be an uncomfortable day. Trivial you may say but the habits of a lifetime
are hard to overcome. Dark glasses and a large brimmed hat have been suggested and it may come to
that………

Wrong place, right time

Once again I have fallen foul of my ability to be in the wrong place at the right time, or discover something that perhaps wasn't meant for my eyes. Was I meant to be a Psychic? Maybe I'm an undiscovered one …..
Anyway it's an unnerving feeling and at times upsetting. So as usual I'll keep quiet and let it pass, the only one being in any way disturbed will be me. I ought to investigate the experience, put it to good use with the right training……the only question being what would be considered "good use" ? Hmmmmmm there's a thought……

People who are right.

I'm sure that you know one, or maybe two or three......if you know more than three then you lead a very quiet life indeed!  People who are right are just that, right. No matter what the circumstance, the question, they can come up with the right answer or course of action. It's a way of life for them and if, heaven forbid, they are ever proved wrong the moment is just plain ignored, swept under the carpet.  A slip of the fingers typing just now led me to type "wept" instead of swept....hmmmm that's what some of us who aren't right all the time feel like doing on occasions..... the sheer frustration of it leads to the desire to weep or scream! It would be wonderful to be able to point out to them that others have an opinion worthy of airing and that they just MIGHT be right, but then they wouldn't listen, because they're always right.  I have decided that the best course of action is to be "right ...in my head" nobody can get in there and meddle or contradict  and I can rest with the satisfaction of knowing that I AM right.......well some of the time!

The Weekend

Well it's gone… the weekend that is. There must be some law of Physics which states that time speeds up on Saturday and Sunday.

Not that it should bother me as I've been "retired" for a good number of years so weekends are little different from the rest of the week.

When I say "retired" I mean that I gave up paid employment in favour of child rearing and allotment digging……... there are so many similarities there, but perhaps

I'll save them for another day.  So back to the disappearing weekend. Saturday seemed to pass in a haze of waiting for other people to do things so that I could get on

with my things. As you know, that is doomed to failure and so my things remain undone. The lure of Bike Racing at a track 250 miles away reduced the number for dinner to 3.

Then 2 decided that they would dine alone so I was footloose and fancy free with a bottle of wine and the remote control. The change in Summertime or whatever it is called these days meant that

an hour of precious sleep was lost so when I woke  at 6am, which was really 5am the wine didn't seem like such a good idea. 

Anyway into the car we 3 piled for our trek upcountry and 200 miles later were cooing at the shiny new car. The deed was done, it joined the family and we set off for home in convoy. Why did we have to travel 200 miles, well 400 really, for a new car? Well it's something to do with the engine, the accessories, the badges on the back and sundry other mega important issues, resulting in the ONLY car on the planet which fitted all criteria was this one 200 miles away….. could have been worse…could have been in Scotland!

Safely home and fitting neatly among the rest of the stable on the drive it gleams and serves to show up the 3" of mud all over mine, the duct tape holding the bumper on another one, the bird poo spotted all over the roof of the "one which never gets used" - there's anther story…… and yes, even the Merc now looks a little less pristine.  Oh joy….I feel another car search coming on….

For the Love of Lingerie.

I can't help it and I know I've said it before, I'm completely addicted to lingerie. I have started a gallery on PBase, The Devil is in the Detail, which, of course it most definitely is. The tiny bows, lace and embroidery make all the difference. For some strange reason this new gallery has been very popular though I have had requests for a more "suitable" setting ….I  wonder what they mean? Taking one shot of each item is sometimes difficult but I'm determined to stick to one and one only.  The scary part is that I got tempted to count up how many bras, panties, sussies etc that I own……..I REALLY must not go there!!!  

Here's the link if you'd like a look at the whole gallery, though i will be adding to it for some time to come…….   http://www.pbase.com/abrazo/the_devil_is_in_the_detail

 

See the full gallery on Posterous

No Progress

I'm still wading through information about web sites - does everyone have this problem, is it such a difficult thing to do? Perhaps I should "throw money at it" and get a site designed and then all I have to do is learn to post the occasional blog, load a few photos……  Somehow, to me, that seems a bit feeble. So I must get on and stretch what brain I have and LEARN !!

I'm using a new Black an White processing system, it has such versatility and the results are very pleasing.