Chez Spud

Snow again. Not really that bad, especially compared with the rest of the UK, but enough to be a nuisance and the freezing temperatures are really getting to be a drag. So I decided to lie down on my back in the snow, crack open the Lensbaby, and take photos of trees. Chilly, but preferable to what was going on inside which was a ‘party’ organised by Bertie which involved praying to the Christmas tree, singing ‘calm songs’ and sitting in tents constructed from sheets, towels and drying racks. Very odd.

Taken with the wide adaptor for the Lensbaby which I ‘quite’ like, but you can bend the lens without nasty bold vignetting around the corners. Kind of defeats the point of using a selective focus lens, surely? Harumph.

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I know he’s my child and thus I am genetically programmed to think he’s gorgeous (although some slightly unkind things may have been said about his looks as a baby today. By me)…but, go on, tell me he’s not beautiful? Just want to bottle him up and keep him like this forever. Although possibly a little less grumpier and with a fast forward button for walking.

Mr Digby, twitching in the gloom of a late, misty Autumn afternoon. We’d hoped to see a roost of 5,000 starlings. The starlings didn’t get the memo. We had to make do with reed warblers and, a treat apparently, a marsh harrier. Oh and a possible sighting of a snipe.

No time to blog right now. No time to think or breath much actually. When will this ever change?

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The pigs are back! But not ours this time. Our freezer is still heaving so we really couldn’t justify getting another pig this year. But our neighbour and previous co-op partner is really going for it on a commercial (albeit small) scale with SIX little piglets. Tamworths this time, rather than Norfolk Blacks.

Here they are, en masse….I call this picture ‘Here come the girls’ since they are, er, girls…

Oh, hang on…there’s always one isn’t there…would Little Miss Piggy in the back PLEASE get back in to line?

ohhhhhkaaaaaaaaaay, I’m taking that look to mean no…

I call this one Little Miss Curiosity (subtitled: move away from the D700, I repeat, move AWAY from the D700)..

Look how their gorgeous ginger coats sparkle in the sun! This is a true representation of their colour/sparkle. Really lovely to look at…

But, on reviewing the photos and choosing the best, all I could think was ‘Oh you’re so sweet but [puts on Gruffalo voice]…you’ll taste good in a BACON SANDWICH!’)

And to all those of you going ‘Ewwww, that’s SO mean, how could you, how could eat those darling little pigs?’…here’s a picture of me with our lovely pigs last year…

I’m eating a huge pork chop from one of them right now. And very, very tasty it is. I didn’t shed a tear when we took them to slaughter even though we’d collectively raised them for 6/7 months. They had a fabulous life and were treated well and kindly. Then they were taken to slaughter and were killed in with the minimum of delay, fuss or distress. So, yes, next year I’m sure we’ll be eating some of the meat from one or more of those six little piglets. And it will feel better, not worse, than the stuff we buy in the shops because we’ll know exactly how they lived and died.

With that off my chest I will confess that these little beauties are still in my freezer, awaiting ‘dealing with’. Hmmm.

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Miss C, planting daffodils in the later morning sunshine and looking every bit the beauty that she is.

I didn’t think this shot would turn out like this, but there we go.  Trial and error, it’s a valid approach right?

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‘Iconic London’….that’s what I’ve called that shot above. For what could be more iconic that the McDonald’s Men in their kit…mmmm, I’m lovin’ in. Ha.

Today I went to London Town to visit the Queen. Well, actually to spend a day with lovely Bee but she’s very regal so it was almost like seeing the Queen.  We didn’t do alot really. We ate cake and talked smut (much to the delight/horror of our tablemates I’m sure) in the cafe at the London Review Bookshop (now my best new favourite shop in the world), we bought books, we nipped next door to Blades Rubberstamps and I marveled at how your first and second favourite shops in the world are right next to each other. Such planning on the part of some clever soul!

Then we shambled to Trafalgar Square and ate lunch at the National Dining Rooms. It was a long, long lunch. We were still there at 4pm, so no time to look at anything in the National Gallery. Oooops. So we basically ate all day although, mostly, we talked. We talked and we talked until there were no words left in the world.  So anxious was Bee to get going with the talking that she rang me, as I was walking to meet her, to say she was setting off my direction so we didn’t waste valuable chatting time. That added a whole FIVE extra minutes of chatting I’d just like to point out.  FIVE MINUTES. But it was so worth it.

I manged to snap a few pictures and Bee surprised me by unearthing her D90 from the bottom of her shopping bag and even taking some photos ;-)  I decided to stick with the Lensbaby all day and had a bit of fun with the superwide angled lens attachment.

So, here’s London, Lensbaby style…a bendy bus at Trafalgar Square, outside St Martin-in-the-Fields

Pavement art encouraging feedback on the Fourth Plinth

Railings around the back of St Martin’s

Trafalgar Square, with a very blurry wobbly looking Nelson’s Column

And Boris’s Bikes…the new iconic London…

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Food? Hmm…well I eat it, obviously. But it’s not my ‘thing’ at all. No eating disorders, no strange relationship with it…I’m just not a foodie. I enjoy lovely food, but not beyond appreciating that someone else has prepared it for me. Food is energy to me. End of. I eat because I need to, not especially because I love it.

That said, we all have our favourites, right?

Cake is a food group, right? One of five {sugary} items a day? Splendid. I’m all set…no..wait…I’m missing something. TEA! That’s definitely one of five a day. It grows in the ground. Ergo, it must be good for you. Simples.

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I’m guest blogging today over at Red Ted Art’s lovely blog as part of her weekly ‘How to…’ series.  My post is some very basic photography hints & tips for non DSLR users/beginner photographers. Part 2, coming in a few weeks, will cover set up ideas for product shots and some basic editing tips. You can read my post here but please do take a look around Maggy’s lovely blog ‘bringing colour and art to children’.

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MrSpud casually reminded me last night that, 2 years ago, he told me I was hard to buy presents for because I didn’t have any hobbies (um, what? doesn’t diamond collecting count? OK….). Oh how times change!

Since October 2008, a smidge under 2 years ago, I have taken up photography, started blogging, learnt to crochet, bought a sewing machine and sewed a few bits and, recently, started cycling. Given my slightly obsessive personality type I have thrown myself in to all of them with huge enthusiasm (apart from sewing but that’s a space issue which will be resolved). I barely have time to breathe these days, since my days are consumed with my many hobbies.

As well as the hobbies I have to squeeeeeeze in working part-time, being the sole carer for the Megaboys during the week and being the usual washer woman/ironer/home administrator/wife/friend/daughter type thing. Stuff I don’t do (in the interests of full disclosure): clean, cook or garden. Recently I started going to the cinema every other week with a friend (Mummy Film Club), I’ve joined a choir (rehearsals start the week after next, hoorah), a 6 week cycling course starts in 3 weeks and I’m doing a monthly ‘women only’ bike ride. Oh and I’m a keen reader and like to snaffle my way through a novel or two a week.

Life is pretty full. So why, why, WHY am I consumed with the need…the overwhelming longing…to learn the lute. Yes the lute. Not the flute (I already play that). The lute.

We recently visited the wonderful Mistley Quay Workshops in search of lunch at the cafe. While we waited for our food I wandered around and peered in to the windows of the workshops….and there they were…LUTES..in the making. Beautiful lutes in every stage of development. And right there, right then the longing overwhelmed me. I have to play the lute.

I can’t think why I haven’t considered this before. I’m an avid admirer of early music, especially 17th century English music and John Dowland is right up there as one of my favourites.  In ‘theory’ lute playing shouldn’t be horribly painful for me as I play the classical guitar (although very rusty) and tablature is not a mystery to me as a result. So…the music of the golden age for lute music is my best favourite….thus learning the lute shouldn’t be an appalling trial for me. What am I waiting for?

Well cost is an issue as lutes are seriously pricey. I’m getting around that by claiming one as my fast approaching 40th birthday present. But do I have the time? Seriously, can I find the time? My life is full, really full. And wonderful! I love all my hobbies, I love all the different people it brings me in to contact with. I feel like I have a perfect work/life balance. Learning a new instrument could seriously upset the balance and something will have to give to make time for it, but what? Considers ebaying Megaboys…

I know exactly how time consuming it is to learn an instrument. If I take up the lute it will be instrument number 10 for me, actually possibly 11. That’s a whole lot of lessons and scales and exams I’ve done. I even read music at university so I really do know what I’m letting myself in for. Hmmm.

Head says “no”. Heart says “yes”.

How many hobbies are too many?

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I swear Tara of Sticky Fingers is making the weekly themes harder not easier. This week, ‘A Photo I am Proud Of’. Well there are photos that I love, that mean a lot, that captured a memory…but a photo I am proud of. Now that’s a tough one.  And, of course, I can’t pick just one…

The one above is Bertie, climbing the scallop on Aldeburgh beach. I’m proud of this because I took it with my Lensbaby ‘Composer’ lens on. I really struggled to get to grips with that lens, a selective focus lens, and was about to throw in the towel before The Wife gave me a lesson and all was saved. Now I’m really feeling the love for the Lensbaby. So I’m proud of the shot above because I used the lens correctly, and I love the moody, gritty nature of the shot and the processing.

I’m proud of the poppies because I think it’s quite hard to shoot a field of poppies without it just looking like a big red sea. I think isolating one or two flowers helps to strengthen the composition, but it was tough to find a flower in the right place, that wasn’t windblown, with the right backdrop. And the processing was tough too, for some reason I struggle to process the colour red accurately. See this one, the red of the poppies is ‘too’ red:

So  I cheated with a desaturated look which, actually, I prefer. So this was a tough shot all round, and would have been easier with tripod which (natch) I didn’t have with me. Handholding the beastly big D700 is hard, camera/mirror shake is hard to avoid at the best of times AND it was a windy day. So I’m proud of how this one turned out.

Continuing with poppies, I’m proud of this one because I managed to process it in Photoshop (normally a disaster area for me) and even added a texture to it. Get me!

Finally, I’m proud of this recent shot of my boys as it’s SO hard to get a photo of the two of them together. I love how cosy they look, and the light is beautiful. And the subjects ain’t bad either ;-)

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