Remnants

Having a big garden is all very well but there are always jobs to be done - some little, some big. When the weather isn't good a lot of those that should have been done in November at the latest tend to be still waiting. One is to deal with the Clematis that grows on a trellis on the road side of the house. Quite spectacular when it flowers well, but now very straggly after it has been lashed by both wind and rain. Nevertheless a multi-exposure of some of the remains forms a tapestry against the white wall of the house.

When the weather improves and the rain stops all these remnants will be cleared away and the Clematis cut back to promote new growth from the bottom - the beginning of Spring!

Another Murky Day

At least it wasn't raining and I could get outside and try to take a photo.
The weather seems to have been terrible for the last six weeks - rain, more rain, rain in the wind, and then more rain. The ground is wetter than I have known it here, and that's nearly twenty years. One good aspect is that it has been remarkably mild.

This is a composite photo. I stood on top of the compost bin at the end of the vegetable garden and using the multi-exposure feature of my camera took a photo of the farm buildings before turning slightly to superimpose the white buildings that are Tynllwyn Hen. 

I find that most multi-exposure photos need some post processing if only to bring out the colour and also in this case because the sky was rather uninteresting I introduced a little shading - artistic licence! 

Time of the Year

After seasonal presents are opened on the 25th of the month there is always paper and ribbon left around. Often enough these discarded wrappings are just binned without a great deal of thought or examination - stuffed into a black plastic sack.
Some are just too good to abandon like that.
Here is a piece of silver ribbon which has caught the light from the kitchen lamps and picked up the warm colour to add that lovely golden glint.

Do you ever wonder if the wrapping isn't more interesting than the contents?

And after all the excitement of present opening, the clearing away, what better than to have a mug of tea? This is mine without milk! 
And the mug?
Spied whilst on holiday, this was one that I particularly liked especially with the small cottage picture taking up the theme of the outside mug decoration. Make a good present - I thought. 
And so bought by T for her Dad and stored until the 25th. 

After a careful wash this is the mug's first filling. It's huge holding nearly a pint if filled to near the brim! 

I really like the condensation on the rim and the bubbles in the liquid. 

Another Rainy Day

I can't really believe that we have had so many rainy days. 
We have hardly seen the sun for five weeks now. 
The ground is very wet not with the actual amount of rain but because apart from the odd time it hasn't actually rained all that hard - just rain in the wind, gentle drizzle, and the odd sharp shower. 
You begin to wonder if it will ever stop and we will ever see the sun again.
Fortunately it is remarkably warm for the time of year.
As for being inspired to take photographs outside, that hasn't been me!

But today this 5cm diameter glass ball arrived quite beautifully packed and all the way from China. Too good just to leave on its stand.
So first attempt at capturing both the weather and a view through the window of my room.

Rubber Band

The local Post Office uses this sort of rubber band for bundling letters for delivery. They often seem to get discarded and many a time I've picked up a couple from the street thinking that they will come in useful - they do. So finding one in my pocket I popped it onto a jar lid that was just 'lying around' and then realised that the band in its curled state made a series of curves that were enhanced by the shadow.
Too good to miss I think this picture is probably the best of the few I took.
It isn't a recent photo but one that comes to mind every so often. This time I looked I still thought it had an 'undefinable something' about it!

Just messing!

Weather has been pretty bad, not cold for the time of the year, just wet! Not torrential rain but more 'rain in the air', light drizzle than great downpours although there have been periods of continuous rain - and we haven't seen the sun for about four weeks!
There is always something on my worktable although I must admit to getting these items from my workshop.
So a picture done in artificial light on a wet Sunday afternoon. Focus might be better!

Sunday Lunch

And the carafe with a white Croatian wine was put on the side on top of a supplement of 'The Independent' newspaper. 

The wine was rather good and the distortions were worth a photograph.

Concertina Book

I know that I take several hundred photographs every year - this last year about 1200. Every so often I wonder what to do with them. I am loath to delete very many because I know that not only can the initial love of a photograph wane with time, in retrospect one or two initial 'unconsidered trifles' have much greater merit than I first think.

Viewing photos on a monitor isn't always satisfactory because it restricts who can view. So I have a website. That's fine but I'm restricted in any description I want to add. I'm a member of Rangefinderforum which provides immediate viewing but there are obvious restrictions in that sort of medium.

What are the alternatives? 
One is the published book format. I use this through 'Blurb Books' when I have a considerable number of pictures, say 50 -60, I would like to have in a printed form. 
Somehow this isn't quite enough.

I have nearly 20 pictures on the theme of 'Boxes' that I would like to see presented together. My current idea is to display these in a concertina type book. These are available commercially mainly for artists using watercolour, crayon, pen and pencil. They tend to be a little pricey, not necessarily just the right size or allow for the inclusion of insertions within their construction - they just get too fat when you stick in pictures.

The answer then is for me to make my own book.

Pictured is the basis for the illustrated cover - flap, front, spine, back, and end flap. I am adding a small white panel on the left hand end to contain the title. 
Subject came from a pile of cardboard boxes stacked in the garage!

Construction continues despite lengthy interruptions!
I wonder if when I finish I will say 'Never Again'?
More to follow in another Blog?

Local Craft Fair

There are Craft Fairs and there are Craft Fairs!

Some are quite enormous with stall after stall offering a variety of goods that you could never have imagined in your wildest dreams!

Our local ones are in the hall of the now closed village school. Held two or three times a year the latest was an obvious precursor for Christmas. Many stall holders are regular attenders as is their stock. But this time a new-comer was offering these book like creations 

'IMAGINE' indeed.

I thought that the detail made an interesting photograph.

It certainly reveals a little more of the complexity of the folding of the paper - all done by hand, no helping jig here, I was assured.

I gather that stall sales were hardly encouraging so perhaps it's a case of once seen and then ' Never Again'.

At the diner table

The first part of dinner is eaten.

The serving pot needs to be cleared away.

Then you spot the 'dribbles' on the side!

The light isn't very good so you move the still warm pot to the worktop.

You grab your camera - focus, take a quick photo.

With a little inevitable cropping this is the result.

Certainly different!

Can this be repeated?

No - never again!