365:031 Flowers for Anna

Some of the girls from our Bible Study group - the "Good Book Club" - met up for coffee this afternoon with "Anna", who's spent the week celebrating her 80th birthday.

To mark the occasion, she's reverted back to the name she was given at birth. Fearful that her birth name was "too German", she'd renamed herself at the onset of the second world war ;o)

365:030 One down one to go

Last night of the first panto... and beautiful flowers from the cast for managing to play not too many wrong notes. Best of all, pots of money were raised for Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda and a local cancer charity thanks to full houses at all four performances. Job well done guys!

365:029 ... and everyone passed!

Yeay! Four of us sat the OT1 exam in our theology course, and all of us passed with flying colours. Now that's cheered me up.

365:028 Bee-have please...

So anyway, there was this geriatrician... and this gynacologist...

No, not the opening line of a gag, but a description of cast members on stage during today's photo - taken during opening night of the hospital panto ;o)

Captions please?

-

365:027 Hat man

When a boy gets a new hat for his holidays, he just has to try it on... even when it's still January and his holidays won't be for five months. Now that's anticipation.

365:026

One of those kitchen nights when you know it's all going to be difficult. The night I decide to bake, the stove has been turned down for cleaning and was just warming up again - takes hours. The recipe includes chunky stuff that just wouldn't chop in the food processor - lumps of whole orange, dates and walnuts - wrong attachment. Then realised I hadn't pitted the dates... the results taste ok and that is sort of the point isn't it? But it's one of those nights...

365:025

You don't have to be quackers round here, but it helps. It winked at me... no, honestly... it winked. (One of my favourite Christmas gifts... not sure who the potter is, but it's just lovely work.)

postscript: just poked about on the web and discovered the artist is Guy Holder.

365:024

In an Austenesque sort of way, embroidery seems like a Sunday afternoon activity, and chain stitch seems appropriate. Ellie - my aunt - is cared for in a place where no-one seems to know who owns what clothing and more worryingly, no one seems to mind. Happy confusion reigns. Dementia, alzheimers and the elderly mentally infirm live in this care home - physically anyway. Mentally and emotionally, they're more likely to be found either in the past or wandering in the daze of days between then and now.

Despite having a name tag stitched into every garment, folk often wear other people's clothes. I'm hoping that having her name embroidered smack bang on the front of the softest, loveliest new nightdress might draw attention to the "mistake" if the wearer is not "Ellie". Anything to make a girl feel special.

365:023

"... and our knitwear range wear comes in chocolate or winter white...."? I love these guys.

365:022

It's that Friday afternoon thing, you know? DeskclearedanImouttahereseeya.

365:021

So another view from the train window on the way to work... and one of Belfast's many murals. This one's just past the Sydenham halt and is of an earlier incarnation of the UVF. The ship is the Clyde Valley - used for gunrunning for the loyalists in anticipation of the expected "Irish difficulties" in 1914. Home Rule matters slipped a little bit down the agenda when affairs in Europe deteriorated and war was declared. The ship apparently had a gold star painted on the funnel to acknowledge it's role in the sinking of a submarine during WW1.

365:020

Oh the stress, the stress.... here. Will this do? It's the photo board I went to great lengths to make with fabric I love... then I covered it. I'm sure this infringes some rule about children's photos on the web or something, but hopefully they're all too blurry to be of interest to the photo board police. (If you see yourself or your family there and you're offended, please tell me.)

365:019

One thing I'll say for this 365 project, it encourages a girl to lift her eyes out of a book on the way to work. This colourful graphiti is just along the railway lines before the Great Victoria Street Station in Belfast.

365:018

On a cold wintery night, there's no better place to be than sitting in the kitchen with your back against a warm stove...

365:017

Sunny sunny sunny harbour... but very very very cold so lazy me stayed in the car for this one.

365:016

The rules for completing a UFO... in this case, for someone with a left shoulder closer to their left ear than their right shoulder is to their right ear. NASA, we have a problem.

365:015

Today has been about editing a programme... in peace and quiet and (eventually) warmth. It's also been about prayer and concern for a little girl in Haiti.

365:014

When you head north for peace and quiet to work and the boiler blanks your every request (again) and you have to call out the lovely Danny (again) and the very bones of the building are colder than a Siberian winter, an open fire is the answer to most questions.

365:013

A very blurry shot up the hall at panto rehearsal. Suited the mood - as I was a bit blurry on what I was supposed to be playing.

365:012

Only wish I could add the right smell to the photo - cinnamon, star anise, poaching plums and the nutmeg for the rice pudding which is in the oven.

365:011

Playing hide and seek with a three year old..... "any one seen the l'il guy?" Oh for such innocence.

365:010

Sunday lunch - always hazardous with a three-year old pirate on the attack.

365:009

Today was all about a pre-recorded programme for Radio Ulster - to be broadcast on Burns Night. This toast came at the end of the addressing - and stabbing of - the haggis.

365:008

The skating rink outside the office at sunrise... cleverly disguised as a junction. Yick photo, but it was a busy day.

365:007

Now that's cold. Brrrr.

365:006b

A week is sadly, a very long time in politics, but how often do we hear words like repentance, forgiveness and mercy used in public life?

365:006a

Distractions. Today was full of them. I kept, uh, losing the thread of what I was doing......

My father made this for me a while back and it's just one of those quirky things I really love.

365:005

This evening was the annual trip to the panto for my cousin's children. (Oh yes it was....) Dan Gordon has to be the funniest dame in the business.

365:004

Hmmm..... first day back after the Christmas break. Glad to have a job...no, really!

"Rejoice in all things".....?!!!!

365:003

One Sunday a month I help out with the music at a local church. This evening, the heating put up a pretty feeble resistance to the -4 temps outside. My hands were freezing cold and it made for a few interesting chords.

365:002

The harbour at Donaghadee - lovely, relaxing end of the holiday lunch at Pier 36 with friends - chilly day, so snapped this one before getting back into friend's car (landrover....yum.)

365:001

Yikes... nearly missed the boat and not because the cove was moonlit - couldn't get the new camera software to load without jiggering the entire system. Will have to re think the download method or this 365 melarkey will last a week at most. Anyway - pretty wick pic, out an upstairs window (baltic outside) but a corker of a moon reflecting on the cove and it sort of worked for me anyway.

For the curious, Ali's to blame - again. 365 photos for 2010.... 1 a day I gather, so can't buck them all into one post! Tempting!!! Check out the links on the right for others doing the project - and they'll link you to others if you're interested.