Grin

This makes me smile every time I drive past

Maybe it is the work of Bansky’s country cousin.

Unwrapping the present

It was my birthday last week, I was given some beautiful scented lilies and a lens for the camera, I haven’t yet got to grips with the lens, the sensation is not unlike like swapping the family hatch back for a high performance sports car, I am not in quite in control, but I can ‘feel’ it’s potential. More test drives required.

Cut Backs

I am hairdresser in residence to the Uphilldowndale household, a lot of this has to do, not with my skills with a pair of clippers but the fact that my men folk are unwilling to spend time traveling to, or waiting for, a barber or a hairdresser.

(Model, Mr Grasshead, styling and photography by Joe Uhdd aged 11, earring, models own)

Much to the delight of Mr Uhdd this also saves us a wad of money (but no one is coming near my tresses, thank you very much, other than a  professional, somehow a number 3 cut isn’t very flattering on a girl of my age, Sigourney Weaver might be able to get away with it, I cant.)

It’s not a task I enjoy, and its just as well the guys are happy with a short back and sides, because I can’t do anything else, my tools are not the most sophisticated, (although I have got new scissors) in fact, between you and me the clippers are in fact dog clippers.

Not that they have ever been used in anger, on a dog; we bought them for our our old dog (RIP), however with his sore arthritic hips he was not going to let me anywhere near him, whilst wielding a pair of clippers, he would rather have matted fur than that, thank you very much. So he hid under the table and refused to come out and the clippers went back in the box. But his fur was such a mess that we did have to call on the help of the professionals, it was a bit of a blow for a ruffty tuffty working dog, to have go to the poodle parlour, but there you go, not sure the cut he got looked like ‘what he wanted’ though, bless him, it’s not very easy maintaining your dignity, when you are old.

Perfect day

The wedding, was wonderful, the ceremony was all the more meaningful for it’s simplicity, so many of the fripperies  of a traditional church wedding are cleaved away in a Quaker ceremony, leaving the bride and groom, and what we have all come to witness, their commitment to one another, at center of the occasion, it was very moving. Having spent over two decades dealing with the hype and drama of other peoples weddings, when I worked in the flower business, where I am sure many couples had given more thought to whether or not the colour of the bridesmaids dress clashed with the best-man’s cravat, than to the reason why they are getting married in the first place, it was like a breath of fresh air. Most of the ceremony is conducted in silence, this was a bit of a challenge to some of us, in spite of the fact I had checked three time that I had turned my mobile phone off, I still wished I had left it in the mini bus, just to be on the safe side.

We could not have been made more welcome at the ceremony by the other friends at the meeting house, they made us a splendid tea that included my all time favourite cake, ginger cake

After tea, cake and photographs in the garden, we went on to the reception, did I mention I thought some care might have gone into the selection of the reception venue and that real ale might be involved?

 

The meal  at the Thatchers Arms, Mount Bures, in Essex, was divine, I had rack of lamb with rosemary mash, served with a rich gravy, as dark as Tudor oak; the wedding cake was chocolate, with just a hint of something, alcoholic and citrus in the cream, the boys ate two servings, well most of us did actually, truth be told.

We sat out in the sun for a while, and took part in one or two ‘activities’ that had been arranged for us, (I may post more about that) to allow time our ample meal to digest and the band to set up. A cracking band, brought about much dancing, (even Tom felt moved by the music, to get up on the dance floor and he was particularly impressed by the drumming) there was just a little disappointment that the band didn’t have ‘Tiger Feet’ by Mud, in the repertoire but they did have this Elvis

One of the things that made it such a special day, was not only seeing the bride and groom so very happy, meeting old friends, but in addition to that coming home having made some new friends too.

I don’t normally post personal photos on my blog, and I’ve not asked them if they mind, but I’ll chance it: here you go,  ladies and gentlemen, please raise your glasses, a toast.

  ‘The bride and groom wishing them health and happiness, always.’

Marked

I came out of the supermarket to find, some one had put a large scratch, in the rear bumper of the car.

I was rather hoping it would be the sort of thing that would ‘T-cut out,’

looking more closely at the mark and trying to see if any of it would rub off with my fingers, it became apparent that it was quite deep scratch and wasn’t going to be easy to deal with, oh bum.

It was then that I noticed the set off golf clubs in the back of the car, and realised, the car wasn’t ours, same make same model, same colour, but not ours. Our car is parked 50 yards further up the car park, blush.

Proud as a Peacock

This peacock was getting a tad territorial,  seeing it’s own reflection in the paint work of the cars, he took them to be challengers to his male dominance.

He was willing to take on all comers.

The owner of the car with the shiny alloy wheels, was not impressed about having his precious paint work chipped at by a pointy bird beak. He tried remonstrating with the bird, shooing it away and getting rather stroppy with it, much to the amusement of everyone else in the car park, it would have made a wonderful candid shot; but having made a dynamic risk assessment used my feminine intuition, to deduce that the guy was not going to take kindly to someone taking snapshots of him arguing with a peacock, after all it wasn’t just the peacock that was ’strutting it’s stuff’ and showing off his fine plumage, I decided I’d best be discrete, in the end the peacock won and the guy drove off in a huff, wheels spinning, I think his feathers were a little ruffled. 

Jump for Joy

This was fun

Tom was on the trampoline this afternoon, I was lying on the grass underneath it!

 

 

 

 

I think I now understand how war photographers sometimes get themselves killed because they are so busy ’seeing through the lens’ rather than being aware of the dangers around them. I think he got quite close on the big jumps

Fast Forward

Spring has sprung

The weather over the last week has alternated between warm and wet, the result is that you can almost hear things growing, spring is gathering pace, it struck me yesterday evening that the stark, silhouetted landscapes I have been photographing and blogging about for the past few months,  are disappearing fast under a rising tide of ‘greenness’  I am not sure I know how to do ‘verdant’ or if I do, I’ve forgotten.

This morning it’s rained, heavily, but soft rain if you get my drift, ‘growing rain’ my dad would have called it. Earlier on the dandelions were tight shut, but within half an hour of the sun braking through, the field had come out in a rash of yellow spots.

The field next to ours is more intensively managed, it’s had sheep grazing on it, so there is less length of grass and not a dandelion in sight.  But in our field, there is work to be done, but where do you start, one bee so many dandelions..

I must away to to give a little thought, to the Noddy challenge

Sullied Reputation.

My reputation at work is taking a bit of a slide

Last week the boss of bosses, caught sight of me in the corridor

‘Ohhhhh, goodness, Heather, I thought for a moment your were….’

Then the security guard (large) was also taken aback,

‘Bloody hell, it’s a bit early for that!’

The cause of this problem is my thermal tea mug. Now regular readers will know I am fond of a nice steaming mug of tea, but what I don’t like is vending machine tea, it is the devils brew; even a bottle tepid aspartame riddled ‘pop’ seems like nectar in comparison to ‘machine tea’.

My work is a bit nomadic, I wander around the site with no desk to call my own, nowhere to hide a kettle, so on the days when I know I am going to be out of range of the cafeteria I take my insulated mug, it’s one of those bits of kit, that does all you could ever ask of it, the right size, not so small as to be like drinking from a thimble, nor so big It’s like hauling a firkin around all day, it keeps my tea nice and hot. I even like the colour, I chose it especially, its green I like green, it’s a little like the green triangles in Quality Street, I like them too.

And this is where it is all going wrong, here is the offending mug

Yesterday was a long day, 12 hours two different roles, so in an effort to stop my tea levels falling so dangerously low as to induce a coma, I legged it from one end of the site to the the other to replenish my tea mug and took my self off outside to a quiet corner of the car park, to sit in the evening sun, to drink my tea, eat my banana and restore a sense of homeostasis, a little oasis in a busy day; that was until I was clocked by security guard (small) he came striding (small) across the car park.

‘Is every thing OK?’ he asked looking a little concerned.

The problem is you see, when grasped firmly in the hand and from a distance, my tea mug looks for all the world, just like a can of Heineken beer, people think I have a bit of a drink problem.

The boss of bosses and security guards, large and small, now know that my real vice is tea and not beer (although I like beer as you know, but not in the same volume as tea) and are somewhat amused by my tea mug; but as for what the rest of my colleagues think, but don’t say, I’m sure I will be the last to know.

Right time for a nice cup of tea and a sit down

Blue Sky Thinking

A good way to start the day, I took this shot on my way to work this morning; delicious blue sky, spring grass and sexy curvy dry stone walls, the last time I mentioned sexy curvy walls, I had an email from a reader who said I needed to get out more.