365:044 Brushing up against history...
One of those old fashioned things I don't do so often is polishing my footwear with wax and brushes, even though I love the smell of the tinned shoe polish. I've got lazy and generally use the bottles with an applicator sponge attached. The brushes we use were my granda's from his time in the RAF (1938 - 1945). His id number is cut into them, but doesn't show up on the pic. The brushes live in a wooden shoe caddy made by dad as a sample piece to inspire his woodwork class long ago... so doubly special. (New camera due on Monday so an end I hope, to blurred, wick pics.)
365:043 Downpatrick today...
I've been in primary schools in different parts of NI yesterday and today. Today, it was the turn of St Brigid's. We've been "user-testing" a new website about St Patrick with 8 - 10 year olds. Some days it's a lovely job, despite the ridiculously early starts. The children had a display of crosses made for St Brigid's day which I think.. is at the start of February.
365:041 Currently listening to...
"Gospel Road" - Brian Houston. Track of the day - "The Lord is Still the Lord" - mmmm. Have a listen to the words and tell me this isn't a song for the season.
365:040 Mousemat
My favourite mousemat linking some of my favourite things... France, crafts, history and the computer - ok, the latter not a "favourite" thing, but it gets a lot of use. Roll on the holidays! Oh la la.
365:039 A day at the beach...
It's always a good time for family - today was time to catch up with another cousin. My parents are Nanny Leta and Papa for his wee toddler since my cousin's father was murdered 29 years ago in what we knew as "The Troubles".365:038 Doodle's birthday
Happy birthday to my lovely brother. Blurry shot, bleary headed photographer. Candles being relit - one blow's never enough.
365:037 Windmill Lane Studios
No posting yesterday - had an exhausting day recording an album in Dublin. A very early start, and about 12 hours off and on just standing singing fabulous worship songs to the tracks laid down by the orchestra over the previous two Saturdays - possibly one of the top ten most satisfying days? Didn't get home until after 3am but wouldn't have missed it for the world. Too bad we have to wait for months to get the results!
365:036 TGIF
Thank goodness it's Friday... and chillin' out time for ten minutes. I taught myself to play backgammon on a flight to the States last year.
365:035 Catchin' up with the cousins
The highlight of today was catching up with lexibex and the family in their lovely new home. Great to see she's passing on the quilting bug to the girls too!
365:034 Sing out!
Big fat high notes for the sopranos make me glad I'm an alto. Windmill Lane Studios here we come!
365:033
First night of Moore study group after the Christmas break. Two exams down and we're full steam ahead on NT1.
365:032 Chillin'
So when you've made yummy choc chip muffins to eat in the car (one in each hand) on your way home, it's a bummer when they're too hot to handle. Just as well your wheelbarrow of toys contains a handy mini-fan to chill things a bit. A 3 year old with a bit of wit!
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.
365:021
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...
365:015
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.
365:009
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.
365:006a
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.
29 Christmas Diners
...and before someone wise cracks that I've turned into the Vicar of Dibley (comparisons have been made) I didn't eat all the turkey meals.... it's the number gobbled in this house in the space of a few days.
I love my family and my friends, but next year, it will be different.
We'd the seasonal gathering of my favourite people over the space of five days and it was great - though exhausting. Pictured below, "the second day of Christmas" crowd - that's boxing day up north and St Stephen's to my republican listeners.. not sure what the three Welsh folk call it.
I love my family and my friends, but next year, it will be different.
We'd the seasonal gathering of my favourite people over the space of five days and it was great - though exhausting. Pictured below, "the second day of Christmas" crowd - that's boxing day up north and St Stephen's to my republican listeners.. not sure what the three Welsh folk call it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)