January has come to an end

January, a month of new beginnings, hope, development and growth - love it. 

Interestingly, it has also seen one of our money plants sprout so many buds, some of which have started to open and flower!  We have had money plants for years and in all of that time Anders and I have never seen one, let alone had one that has started to flower.  We are both hoping that this means good luck!

February will see the end and start of the Chinese New Year.  The 3rd is the end of the Year of the Tiger and the 4th will see the start of year of the Rabbit.  We will be celebrating it.

Extend Elvis....

A little less conversation, a little more action please

All this aggravation aint satisfactioning me

A little more bite and a little less bark

A little less fight and a little more spark

Close your mouth and open up your heart and baby satisfy me

Satisfy me baby

Extend yourself in the words of Elvis!

This weeks prompt was Extend over at Sunday Creative

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

This weeks Scavenger Hunt prompts were:  texture, fog, button, beverage/drink, seventies.  

I wasn't really excited about the prompts if I am to be honest and wasn't going to submit an entry, but then I thought that was the wrong attitude to have so I am sorry and yes deserve a kick up the bum. Please don't all do it at once though!   Here are my photographs.

museum quality dried mud

museum quality piled slate

circle of light

fog gate

bubbles in my coffee

colourful bubbles in my coffee

Let this be a warning to never push that button

Let this be a warning to never push that button II

YMCA, Village People

Formula 1 in the 1970's

Jackie Stewart, famous Scot to the German Grand Prix in 1973

For Jackie, it was a very Good Year!

Scottish Country Dancing

Scottish Country dancing in celebration of Robert Burns (Robert Burns day celebrations are on the 25th January every year) and Dexter is wearing his Dad's old kilt from when he was a boy - isn't that sweet.

Connell made me feel happy to see how things have changed for the better.

As some of you may know if you have been following my blog, I have recently been photographing and writing about Bangour Hospital and the connection it had with me.  So having just come back from having taken photographs there, I bumped into Connell, someone who I had never met before who was being taken out for a stroll by his Mum with his dog.  We literally crossed paths as I was going to the beach with Anders and Dexter to give Marvin and Carly a good run and couldn't help but smile when I passed them so much so that I ran back and asked if I could take their photograph!

I had never noticed them before on our visits to this beach which has a long promenade and I was really grateful to his Mother for letting me photograph them as it was such a wonderful contrast to my memories of my brother and my experiences of how life used to be not so very long ago for people who had mental and physical challenges.  

up or down, happy or sad.....

Meet what will soon be my beautiful camera....

I am so happy and excited about so many things and all thanks to my two lovely boys and our love of photography and life.  You see taking images and having fun is what me and my boys try to do when we are in each others company.   So because it is something we all get a kick out of, Anders encouraged me to put a deposit on this Rolleiflex medium format camera and I just can't wait until I finally get my hands on it - am I lucky to have such a wonderful husband or what (the answer is of course yes).   I tried it in the shop, and just fell in love, it is just so pretty and I am loving working with film again.

Yes shit happens e.g. Carly has hurt her eye really rather badly which we think may have been as a result of Marvin whipping her in the eye with the tip of his tail by accident, but the good news is it turns out our vet is the eye specialist in Scotland for animals!  

Carly bucket has a sore eye

Medicine to help Carly's eye get back to normal

The accident must have happened yesterday morning when we were all waking up and saying good morning to each other in the excited way we do every day, so we took her round and he checked her out and gave us medicines saying if she is not wanting to open her eye tomorrow and it doesn't show signs of dilating then bring her back in but otherwise bring her back on Wednesday.  This morning, her eye is dilating and she is opening it, although of course it is sore for her, it would be for a human too.  The key thing is the medication seems to be working, and how lucky were we to have our own vet to be the foremost eye specialist for animals in Scotland - something to be really happy about we think.  So glass half full or empty?  We think it is half full don't you, but keep your fingers crossed that it stays that way for Carly and her beautiful eye?

So with that, here are some other images that made me happy which I took using my i-phone!

African Grey

Smile

up or down

Love

Clear

Meet Helen who was a keen photographer as a young girl.

Helen's diva display

Helen is a lovely lady who made me smile.  She runs a little antique shop which I stopped at because the  display outside made me laugh.

Helen

Turns out Helen deliberately set up this display and she said "I have a wicked sense of humour", which started us talking about photography!  She had a few old box brownies and said that those were the cameras she used.  She told me about how when she was a young girl during the war she pleaded with her Mother and Father to give her a camera, her Father was apparently a keen photographer himself.  He said that if she could prove to him that she could take a photograph then he would allow her to have her own.  

How to make a camera from a tin

With that she went away, got a tin, made a hole in it, put a piece of x-ray film inside it, made sure the hole was covered with her finger, and then made her dog sit nicely and she took his photograph!  On showing this to her Father, he was both impressed and surprised, and true to his word, he gave her a camera.  "Turns out the photograph was a good one" she said.  

I thought it was a lovely story and she kindly let me take her photograph and that way I can remember this tale as I hope you will too.

Pop Art found in architecture...

Saw this really interesting roof inside a building and I was captivated by it.

It had a domed, circular roof which had porthole light windows.

In looking at the photograph, I was interested to see how changing the effects on the processing made it feel a little pop-art-ish.

Looking at the pictures, I am reminded however of a really amazing ceiling/roof, built in the 50's and I just think it is a fantastic feature in itself.

This week it is about photographing circles.

If walls could speak....

If walls could speak what would they say...

If walls could speak, what would they say?

Come sit on me?

Come join me on the wall

Happiness

Oooo, love to love you!

If dogs could speak what would they say?

My man and I looking out to sea, bliss...

What's there

Walk this way...