Scotland: the skies

For those of you who regularly visit my blog, or know me in real life, you'll have probably noticed by now that I love the ever-changing skies. The sky is probably one of the things in nature that I photograph the most. Scotland was no exception, so please induldge my love for the clouds & all of their colours for a few moments...

'Clouds always tell a true story, but one that is difficult to read...And clouds are going to go on telling their stories, endelessly and forever.' - Richard Hamblyn

Docton Mill

On our first day in Devon, we paid a visit to Docton Mill. The clever sat nav failed to find the main entrance, so we followed our noses and found the back door to the kitchen. Once we had been ushered around to the garden gate by the friendly staff, we took the map of the garden and started exploring. This place was deceptively large, considering our humble entry throught the back gate. It felt a little like we were discovering the Secret Garden that lies behind the gate. It was quite simply, beautiful.

The first owners of the mill had nine children and they all shared one bedroom. (This was in the 18th Century, I think.) In the cold Winter, the dairy cow would share the living area with the family to keep warm. What an incredible scene to imagine!

I've just realised that I didn't actually take a photo of the mill - I was too enthralled by the flowers.

 

See what I mean? It just got better.

Then there were the streams and mini-waterfalls with little bridges to play pooh sticks on.

The path that led to the orchard was lined with the most velvety tulips I have ever seen.

And a green grassy orchard that was just beckoning me to walk across barefoot with a little skip in my step.

Once we had finished our tour of the gardens we indulged in traditional Devonshire Cream Tea. The scones were fresh from the oven, still warm and a little crumbly. We had the biggest tub of clotted cream and we ate it all. De-licious.

Baby Rachel

Last October, my precious friend Hannah, became a mummy to Rachel. I have been so blessed to spend a lot of time with them over the last 5 months, seeing Rachel learn to smile, hold her head, and giggle. 

For the last two Mondays, we have had glorious sunshine in Bristol, so Hannah, Rachel and I have gone for a couple of walks to two of my favourite places in Bristol - The Downs and Blaise Castle (where John & I went on our first date, and where he proposed). The sunshine has provided the perfect opportunity to take photos, although last week, Rachel decided being in the outdoors provided the perfect opportunity for a nap, which was not so conducive to photo times.

One of Rachel's latest tricks has been to burst into tears when Hannah gives her to me for a cuddle. Right on cue, the tears came on Monday as arrived. Knowing that I'm the only person that she does this with makes me feel brilliant - maybe she's so overjoyed to see me she can't contain her emotion! Anyway, she quickly got over her tears, and once we'd had a great time reading a lovely story, we ventured out to Blaise, and Rach was all about the smiles. 

Ok, so although none of these photos does her smile justice, I've posted these because I like the subtle yet obvious changes in her expression - she goes from intrigue at the camera to slight bewilderment, to smiling as she remembers that the camera is fixed on her pretty little face. And all the while, she keeps her little fist firmly attached to her toy. Babies are brilliant, especially this one.

iris.

On Friday we had the pleasure of seeing John's parents for the evening. They had come to Bath for a few days, and invited us to dine with them. Sara, John's Mum, bought me an enormous bouquet of flowers - a mixture of gerbera, lisianthus, tulips, iris' and another flower that I have yet to identify. Sadly, I haven't succeeded in taking any photos of the flowers that I have been happy with, apart from these two. 

I love Iris'. They're not my favourite flower, but they remind me of two people that I love, and I like being reminded of people who I don't get to see very often. The first is my Granny. She's called Iris. I love that she was named after a flower, as were two of her sisters - Lily and Violet. Come to think of it, my Great Grandma was named after a flower too - she was called Daisy & lived til she was 108. What a brilliant woman she was. I still remember going to her house when I was very little and playing with a wooden Noah's ark & animals. 

I'm also reminded of my friend Katie when I look at Iris'. Katie was one of my housemates during university and she is now working hard as a doctor. Iris' are her absolute favourite flower and I never tired of listening to her talk about how beautiful she thought they were. I love how we connect memories and people with different sights, sounds and smells, that you can be anywhere in the world, but scent of a perfume, or the aroma of a certain food will bring memories flooding back.

ip dip sky blue

I find this shade of blue quite delicious. Is that strange to think of a colour as delicious? I know that I can't eat it, but there is something so wonderful about the pureness and smoothness of this blue that makes it seem fitting to describe it as delicious, no?

Having left school a bit earlier than normal today, I got to enjoy the sky gently giving way to darkness and arrived home while the blue was still holding its own before the dark of night came to settle over us. So, I resolved as I drove to try and capture the blueness of the blue with a little help from my tripod, which has been a much neglected piece of equipment, I am ashamed to say. It served me ever so well, despite my neglect, and I had forgotten how brilliantly lightweight it is. I think I should try and use it more often.

I feel like I should apologise for the lack of diversity in my posts lately. I am well aware that I have done a lot of talking about the sky and not a lot else. This is partly because my days are fully occupied with driving to school, admiring the sky, teaching some lessons which you probably don't want to hear about, then driving home, admiring the sky, and spending the rest of my evening planning more lessons. 

Suffice to say, there is not a whole lot of excitement in my life right now. Please bear with me during this slightly dull phase - I am sure it will get more exciting. In the meantime, if there is anything you would like to see happening when you pop by this space, whoever you may be, please let me know - I'd love to hear from you.

the morning sky

The morning sky that greeted me today was more than enough beauty to satisfy my tired soul this morning, with a reminder of the glory of God. As I drove to school this morning the sky was ever changing hues, ending in gray sky broken by a most glorious rainbow. The perfect reminder of God's promise that he would never again flood the earth and that day will always follow night, the warm days of Summer will always follow the cold and snow of Winter, as long as the Earth shall be.

sunset over the village

As many of you will know, I love to take photos. My Canon EOS 450D serves me as a very faithful companion, and I love the freedom it brings to photography in that I don't have to limit the number of photos I take anymore because of the cost involved in printing. While my love for this camera has not grown cold, I have had a hankering for a little compact camera that I can take everywhere with me. There are so many occasions when I think, 'I wish I had my camera with me.' So, although the quality from a compact is not as good as with my DSLR, it means less photo opportunities would be missed if I owned one.

Well, I can now say that I am the proud owner of a lovely little compact camera! It's the Canon powershot sx210. My lovely husband very generously gave me this as my birthday present. So, when John and I went for a run on Wednesday evening, baby Canon came along with us and allowed me to capture the sunset over Westbury on Trym.

Sadly, baby Canon is having some teething problems and the screen is a little bit busted after less than a week, so she's got to go back to her first home to be sorted out. Thankfully, because the fault was not an 'act of God' all should be easily resolved. (This is the actual phrase used in the terms & conditions of the warranty, believe it or not.)

autumn frost

While the cold chill in the air that is descending upon us is not particularly fun, the blow is definitely lessened by the beauty of Autumn. I think I shall be spending most of my day of studying with a quilt wrapped around me and a mug of hot water or coffee permanently on hand to keep me from turning to ice.

Lizzie's Wedding: Preview Part Two

  She wore blue shoes to match the colour scheme.... He wrote her a song & made us cry.

Lizzie's Wedding: Preview Part 1

Here's a little glimpse of the wedding I had the pleasure of attending on Saturday.

It was a great joy to be with the Beautiful Bride as she prepared herself for her wedding day.

disaster

I can't quite believe I have done this.

Having managed not to break anything for a good long time now, I have changed that in a most dramatic way.

As I picked up my camera yesterday evening to photograph my baking process of making carrot cakes, the camera strap caught on the drawer handle, pulling the camera to the ground and smashing it.

Now, the lens wasn't exactly a fancy schmancy one, but it is the only working one I had (the other one someone kindly gave to me is water damaged & incredibly temperamental), and served me well, so I still feel the loss greatly.

ps

ps :: procrastination and snow

I came home this afternoon and sat at my desk with all of my good intentions from the last few months culminating to this point. I needed to make up a couple of cd's and covers for the kids work at church and have been putting it off for far too long.

Now was the time.

The only problem? My window. It's not often that I sit down at my desk, and today I was taken by how many things there were right before my eyes that I wanted to savour.

First, this: My bracelet hanging on it's stand and the light that shone through it.
Light. I haven't seen nearly enough of this lately. Any glimpse of sunshine brightens my day.

And then it got so much better. The sun came out in all its glory. When the sky is this shade of blue, I cannot ignore it. Good thing my camera lives just beside my desk so I didn't actually have to leave my seat to get it, so technically, I was not leaving my work.

Then this: Light dancing on the wall just behind my computer screen. Another beautiful distraction. (Can you tell I love light?) The patterns were made by a sequined headband that I have owned for years but never worn. I'm glad I haven't got rid of it. If the only use it ever has is to create these patterns on my wall, I will be very pleased I bought it.

So, after nearly an hour of enjoying the sight of blue skies, I couldn't quite believe it when I looked up from my laptop to see flurries of snow. Snow! I do not understand the weather we have here. It is so brilliantly unpredictable.

Once the snow decided it had made enough of an appearance, the sun came back to say goodbye at dusk: How could I give up this photo opportunity for the sake of a few cd's? I couldn't.

Believe it or not, I got all the work done that I needed to. Procrastination justified.

Splendour

Autumn, I do love your colours, and I love you even more when you decide it's ok to let the sun have a look in.

Today has been a grey and dreary day, but that has not stopped my productivity. I have cooked, cleaned, e-mailed and completed my teacher training application. Success! And all before midday. The moment I clicked the 'form complete' tab on my application, the sun started shining. I decided not to waste the glorious moment, grabbed my camera and ran out the door to the park next to my house. I took one photo only to discover that the memory card was not in my camera.

So I ran back to my house, praying that the sun would keep on shining, just for a few more minutes, retrieved my memory card and ran back to the park. It was a wonderful interlude to my day, just me, my camera and the leaves in all their crunchy, colourful splendour.

Poppies

This unexpected sight made me very happy on my run this morning. Very happy indeed. So much so that I ran home, picked up my camera and cycled back to the spot where I discovered the poppies and snapped away. Hello poppies, you're beautiful.

sticky fruity fingers

There are some brilliant things about my job. Like teaching children how to make fruit kebabs then seeing the delight and enjoyment on their faces as they get to consume the delicious fruit and say things like, 'Wow, this is delicious' and 'This is so fun, I've never done this before.' That's what it's all about, giving them new experiences and teaching them that they are so very capable of so many things.