Don’t Forget…and on a cold, wet and windy day. Nutella is the only way to go.

I’d never seen this behaviour before, which is not a scientific observation, but I have been watching Canadian Geese since I was knee high to a grasshopper.

It was obviously part of the mating ritual with a look at me and how clever and masterful I am stance, it was hilarious to watch.  The main aim of the game I think was to masterly flip over onto one’s back, wave one’s webbed feet in the air and then turn back over to rapturous applause from one’s mate. Then to have a couple of seconds breather and do it all again. They carried on the game for quite a while before being disturbed by another pair.

As always the light was rubbish, we are in the middle of woods so its even more rubbish, so the grain is heavy.

Enjoy. 

The days are fast warming and while the lovely days are here, we are spending much of our time at our local nature reserve. It’s a great way to spend a retirement, especially if it has a well equipped coffee shop that does fuel injected coffee and is warm and cosy.

A quick snap of some Greylag Geese launching themselves into the air in search of supper before bedtime.

My new to me photography group had planned to meet in town to do a little street photography.

It started to rain half an hour before I left the house. Up until a few days ago Wednesday was meant to be the most perfect of blue days, the best of the week, what transpired was quite the reverse. It rained and it rained and then it rained a bit heavier some more.

But none of us cried off and despite the rain it was the best of days.  I met up with a fellow photographer on the bus and we gaily talked photography as the bus trundled through the rain – did I mention it was a bit wet.  After meeting up with everyone else we went our separate ways.  It was fun, every so often one would meet up with a photography pal and exchange weather related pleasantries and soon enough it was time to meet for tea and cake and R and I placed our soaked cameras in our bags, as the rain was so heavy by this point it was just ridiculous and we trudged down the town passing other soaked to the skin pedestrians.

We all looked like drowned rats as we stripped off heavy with rain coats, hats and scarfs and were very appreciative of our steaming hot cups of tea and coffee along with cake.

Just a couple of my snaps of the day.

I matched the distance of the March of the Penguins, the average distance emporer penguins march to get to their breeding grounds.

That’s  pretty cool.

Onwards…

Firstly I must apologise for the tardiness in putting up this post, I’ve been feeling rather out of sorts of late and haven’t been able to concentrate on things, but I suspect as the light lengthens with the days, so my gloom will dissipate.  Well that’s the plan aided by long countryish walks with a daily blast of fresh country air and fresh fruit and vegetables, just not courgettes or lettuce, oh well, it will have to be a lovely locally grown British stew, it will be such a hardship, rolls eyes.

A couple of weekends ago hubby and I went to Birmingham to welcome in the Chinese New Year, what with it being the year of the Rooster, of which hubby is one. We took the train and had our fingers crossed that we would get a dry day, but by the time we arrived in Birmingham it was teeming down, fortunately hubby could remember where the nearest Jessops was and they had a rain cover for my camera so at least I could carry on snapping.

It was wet, very wet at times and it was cold, and I needed food, I never photograph well when I am hungry. I think my brain needs fuel to think creatively, I survived on hobnobs whilst doing the tailoring degree, as did most of the students, well that and oatcakes when the sugar levels rose too high.  So I braved it out aided with a couple of chinese snacks for four hours and it was a lovely experience, but when enough was indeed enough hubby bundled me into a taxi and took me to Brindley place to see what we could see.  We had tried to get into a Chinese restaurant but as you might imagine, the queues were a Chinese dragon long.  We found a lovely Thai Restaurant The Thai Edge and had a delicious meal, styled on a buffet, but one of elegance and fine dining, with just a few well made dishes of each course to choose from, it was some of the best thai i’ve ever eaten,  before being bundled into another black cab back to New Street, a quick peruse around Oliver Bonas, Foyles and Hotel Chocolate, a combination of the three best shops on a Sunday afternoon a girl could wish for, before catching our Virgin train home. It was truly a lovely day.

Here are a few snaps of the day, I hope you get the overall atmosphere of the day, enjoy. 

My new to me photography club is having an Audio Visual and Panels competition in a couple of weeks and to that end we had a guest speaker last night who was very knowledgable and took us through the basic first steps of making an Audio Visual film.

Let’s put it this way, I was hooked from the first moment that the films came on I imagined some lovely ideas as to what to do with the piles of photographs that I take on a day out. None of them worthy of storytelling or a competition on their own, but like this, they would become magical.

I bought the software and this afternoon I have put together my first film.  The photographs need straightening so try not to get too sea sick, this was more an experiment with the equipment rather than making it picture perfect.

A Day out at Deal.