Saturday PhotoHunt - Messy

It's been just over a week since I last posted - I can only blame this hectic time of year! Things are settling down a bit now, so I'm hoping to get back to normal. I hope you all had a good Christmas, full of peace and friendship.


For this week's theme I've raided our archives. I must apologise for the poor quality of these photographs - they were taken on a very small Kodak disc camera in October 1990, and they're very grainy. They show our first day in our island cottage. I'm standing at one end of the main room wondering where to start in all that mess. The doorway behind me leads into the small room that briefly became our kitchen and dining room (6 feet across and 13.5 feet long!). Later it became a storage room, and later still a bedroom.



These lower two pictures are taken from the doorway shown above. The horrible wall above the hearth is stained by years of rain down the chimney reacting with the smoke and ash from the peat to form a creosote coating that soaks through the mortar and into the wall. It took us many years to control that problem.



So those are my offerings for this week. I'll be round to visit as soon as I can - shopping calls at the moment.

Saturday PhotoHunt - Light

This week's theme is LIGHT. There were so many possibilities - Christmas lights, candles, firelight, floating feathers from our budgie . . .
While I was out walking the old dog I saw this fern frond, with the morning light from the low winter sun shining through it.

And then there was a gorse bush decorated with strands of dew-drops on cobwebs (or it may have been melted frost!) catching the light beautifully.


So there you have my entry for this week. I hope you all have an enjoyable Season.

Yet Another Award!

What a nice surprise to start the morning! The friendliest Apprentice Curmudgeon I know has sent me another award, and this one's a treasure!


Thanks Siani, it's lovely! And thanks to the originator as well, the bouncy Hootin'-Anni.

I'll be back later to pass this on - just need to take the ancient old dog for a walk before she decides I don't love her any more!

Saturday PhotoHunt - Small

Since I posted a LONG ship last week, I thought I'd start with a SMALL one. This little craft is 14 cm high and 15 cm from bowsprit to stern. It has a metal frame with a blue glass hull and white glass sails - and I love it!



Then there's this garland of artificial holly. You can see it wound round the banisters, and it's very small.



Finally, this small model of Mont Saint Michel in Brittany was brought home to me by Clever Son and his partner after a holiday there last year. This model (unfortunately missing the crowning spire) is 4.5 cm high and 5.5 cm across. Considering the size of the original, I think that's small!


I'm sure someone will come up with a much better idea or six, but there you have it folks - those are mine.

Mini-Christmas

Life is getting back to normal right now, after our early mini-Christmas. 2nd daughter left last evening, and is now sleeping off the journey (poor visibility, fog, ice) back with her partner.
She was so impressed by Clever Son's skill. She loved the bed, and started making plans for built-in furniture along the opposite wall!
We gave her a lap-top and introduced her to Blogger. She's set up her own blog, but hasn't had a chance to post anything yet.
She gave me two new books, by authors I don't know, so I'm going to have fun finding out.
I'm already waiting for her next visit!

Genius!

This evening, after spending a horrible day in shopping crowds, I decided to check on my blog's reading level. After all, I felt I had a right to some fun now I'm safe at home.

Woohoo!!! Genius!!!

Well, of course I know that I'm clever - and far from modest(LOL) - but now I'm told that my blog's reading level is genius.

Are we supposed to believe that?

Christmas Spirit.

Thanks Siani, that code worked fine!

Here it is then folks, the Christmas Spirit Award. Very pretty, and a lovely thought. Much too pretty to keep to myself. So if any of you want to share some Christmas Spirit, you're welcome to collect it here. The code is in Siani's comment on the Bodacious post.

Happy Christmas (or whatever it is you celebrate at this time) to you all.


14th Dec.
Editing to apologise for the vanished award. It seems that if Christmas arrives too early it can also leave early. Either that, or my Christmas Spirit has vanished - which might be possible as the shops are demented just now!

11th Jan.
Well, what do you know? Christmas Spirit has returned without my noticing it! Do you think it's all ready for next December?

More Awards!

Siani's passed on another award. There were two actually, but I haven't yet managed to retrieve the pretty "Christmas Spirit" one. I'm not very technically educated!

I looked up 'bodacious' in WordWeb Online, and it says it means incorrigible, and unrestrained by convention or propriety.

Thanks Siani - I think!

Now, who deserves this one? Hmmm. . . . . .

Saturday PhotoHunt - Long

The theme for today's PhotoHunt is LONG. I've looked everywhere for something suitable, without success. I've followed my cats around, waiting for them to stretch, particularly Rinli - he likes to sleep fully extended. I measured him once, and he was just half an inch short of 3 feet in length. Has he co-operated? Has he pandered to my photographic pleas? Come off it - this is a CAT I'm talking about!

So instead I'm submitting this picture from our family collection. This sail-training ship, the Asgard ll, visited our local port while we were still living on our island, so we naturally went to see.
She looks fairly long, and the Irish word for ship is - wait for it - long.



Will that do?

By the way, if you follow the link to Asgard ll, it's well worth checking the photos.

Another Award!

I'm so flattered. I have another award from Siani.
What a lovely idea.

I think I'll pass this on to:

Damama T
Sarah of Farming Friends

Thank you, Siani.

More About Our Wedding.

I started today well, having visited Damama t for a good laugh. Her story's here. She reminded me of the start of our wedding ceremony.

Now I should perhaps explain that my husband has far from fond memories of churches, and likes only one hymn - "All Things Bright And Beautiful" - so that was our first hymn.

I was, fairly naturally, quite high-spirited that day. The first line of the hymn "all things bright and beautiful" had me looking at almost-hubby's tie, and starting to smile. The second line "all creatures great and small" made me look at my man, several inches shorter than me, and at his Best Man who had congenital leg trouble and was even shorter, and the giggle started to bubble up. I had to stop singing. I heard the same reaction from my sister (my bridesmaid, standing just behind me) and I started to shake with the effort of not laughing aloud. Fortunately, I succeeded, and I made my vows without a tremour in my voice. That was a real triumph!

Wedding Anniversary.

Today is our 35th wedding anniversary. It's been a cold, wet day, just like 35 years ago. I've spent the day scanning all our wedding photographs into my computer, so I have a back-up for the originals. What a lot of memories!

Here we are, signing the register.

In the car, on the way to the reception.

You can see the weather through the rear window.

Now to cut the cake.
If you look closely you'll see that the top tier is badly positioned.
The manageress rushed in with it at the last minute, and plonked it on.

Shortly after the photo was taken, the top of the cake toppled off - saved from disaster by Aileni's rapid reactions (he caught the cake and replaced it safely!)

This was the third strange occurrence of the day.
The first event occurred after the service ended. The organist let rip with great volume and true Welsh "Hwyl" An elderly lady who suffered from Meniere's disease was sitting close to the organ. The vibrations brought on a fainting attack and an ambulance was called! She was fine, but she missed the reception.
The second event was during the photography. My close friend brought my Godson to me, so naturally we had a picture.

Fortunately there were no more unusual events!

In spite of the weather, it was a lovely day.

And thank you Mardé for the e-card - what a sweet thought.

Saturday PhotoHunt - Red

Today's PhotoHunt theme is Red. Below is a photo of me, taken many years ago on a lovely summer day. At that time we still lived on the island, and I was younger (and larger) than I am now. The reds don't show properly in this print. Middle son is in the blue canoe.



Two more recent photos are below.

I took these yesterday while walking the dog. They don't seem quite in focus to me, but the rose-hips are definitely red.

I seem to have trouble producing reds. This is the cotoneaster in our garden, and it's much more red than it looks here.


I'll try another one -

nope, still looks orange. You'll just have to pretend it's red!

May I ask you to visit Stephen? It's his first PhotoHunt this week. Thanks.