366 Challenge - Grey and Extraordinary

Well I didn't even manage to get my camera out yesterday to do anything as it was a busy day in school and a busy evening with the children delivering to various places.  So I am going to cheat and you one of my photos taken today for yesterday.

Shades of Grey

Today I went with our Year 6 classes to Southwark Cathedral to do a drama workshop based upon the Olympics and the Ancient Greeks.  We had extraordinary day out of school, impeccable behaviour from all of the children both travelling to and from London and in the cathedral.  I can honestly say I enjoyed the day with them all and was very proud of them.  I even managed to get outside the cathedral and take some fantastic shots as well as inside at the extraordinary architecture.  A lot of the stone inside the cathedral is grey so I am putting both words together.  

Looking upwards

The extraordinary shot for me was the one of the cross at the back to the cathedral with the art work of David Mach.  I decided looking at it all day that I didn't really like it for me it was too modern and I think I must be more of a traditionalist.

Extraordinary

Playing with photos

Have had a lovely weekend, very relaxing and spent lots of time playing with my photos and trying to learn more about my camera. My favourite this weekend has to be be what I did to our poor guinea pigs after using them earlier in the week for the 366 Challenge.  Thanks to Suzie for pointing me in the direction of some great photography sites to manipulate my photos.

366 Challenge - Light

What a beautiful day out there today, soon be time to take my daughter to her football match.  However I went for a bit of browse in the garden this morning, it certainly needs lots of tidying out there.  I was thinking of today's prompt and thought of the sunlight.  I started just taking photos in the garden and these two are the ones I think show how bright it is today with the light and the shadow.  I love the shadows cast on the tree and I love how some of the garden is in shadow and some in light in the football shot.  Enjoy the sunshine everyone.

Just a proud mothering moment.

Daniel has gone out tonight to his squadron  ATC ( Air Cadets) Dining In Night.  Just dropped him up there and hopefully Martin will collect him later.


He is all dressed up and very proud of his new tunic that he has to wear.  There he was this afternoon doing his ironing, ensuring that all was spick and span, creases where creases were supposed to be.  He is growing up so quickly and looked so smart.  Feeling very proud of him tonight and thought he looked fab.  Apparently they will start off with the meal, watch some entertainment, listen to some speeches and generally have a good time.  He is always enthusiastic about these evenings and loves the formality of the situation.

Challenge 366 - Saturday

Well my Saturdays are normally spent doing washing, ironing, football delivery and support, athletics delivery and collection and planning for school.  So not a really exciting day in the main although saying that Daniel's football team won today 6 - 2, we were really pleased as that means they are still top of their league.  So my photo today is my pile of ironing which is still sitting in the dining room awaiting rescue.  Alas it may not be done on Saturday but may be still waiting there on Sunday morning a bit like my maths planning.

Early to bed, early to rise

Yes, here I am wide awake this morning.  Now I do have some school work to do or I could continue messing around with some of my photos.  I wonder what?  I have been working through taking photos in the 366 Challenge but also doing the Snap 2012 challenge as well.  Suzie, don't know where you find the time to look for all these lovely apps but thank you because I had so much fun playing with them last night and this morning.  I can see that I could be wasting some more of my Saturday time playing with lots of different effects for my photos.  I have learned so much  these last few weeks and have really enjoyed my photography.  Might just alter a few more photos before waking Daniel.  


We are off to Henfield this morning for football.  Let us hope we actually get to play this time as the last time we went, we arrived to a white rock hard pitch, beautiful but frost ridden.  I know they love to play football but had they played on that there would have been some serious injuries.  I am leaving Martin to do the taxi duties with Sarah as she is off to long jump training as she is competing next weekend in the County Indoor Champs in Sutton.  So my final photo contribution for this morning will have to be a photo of a little cottage near to us that we had to stop and photograph one evening for Sarah to paint as her art teacher was having a slight go at her for her lack of work.  Considering that she spends most evenings on her art it was a bit much but never mind we needed to co-operate, not long to go now until we get to June and then there will be no more art......hurray.

366 Challenge - Clouds

Well another day in from school and it has been a lovely day.  We had an afternoon playing maths games the children had made with our Year 3 class.  This morning we had our Friday morning trip to the swimming pool.  We had a brilliant time and the children did so well as some were improving their stamina and some were swimming lengths for the first time.  I returned home to find out what the mystery word was......clouds.  Well its getting a bit dull now and I am going to cheat slightly and use a photo I took a few weeks ago.  I love skies and often take pictures of the morning skies.  So this is my picture for today, I hope it sums the word up. I suppose I had better get on now and get some dinner on for my brood.

366 Challenge - In the details

Waiting for the curly kale.  Couldn't she hurry a bit more?

Not sure about this one, seeing as I have only just got back from a lively day in school - looked at the prompt and thought, oh my goodness.  I thought a little and decided to go with some more details of our family.  So I went out and took some more photos of our furry friends who live in the garden a bit more of our household in detail.

No it's my turn on the box now!

I have tried to show as much detail as I could .  they were all sitting there waiting for their curly kale.  All you have to do is to rattle the plastic bag and our guineas start jumping up at the run wire and squeak very loudly.

366 Challenge - Ordinary

Oh this one had me flummoxed when I came home from work tonight.  I didn't know if I could be that creative.  At school this week we have been doing lots of maths during our maths week.  However we had a treat and went off to a local secondary school to see their performance of Godspell, it was excellent and I certainly enjoyed myself.  I think the children worked exceptionally hard and produced a fantastic show as they normally do.  My own class enjoyed going out of school today.  Then this afternoon we had a puzzle afternoon with the Happy Puzzle Company who brought in a lot of educational puzzles for the children to play with.  They thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  After school we had a maths information evening for parents, the first session I stayed to but came home to my own family for this evening.  So my day today has been anything but ordinary.  In fact my week this week hasn't been ordinary.  

I was however playing with my camera in my classroom as I have been taking lots of pictures.  My ordinary day normally means I am surrounded by a pile of books at lunch time. I like to spend time with my own family in the evening without having to take loads of marking home and in year 6 there is "loads" of marking!  I rarely go to the staffroom at lunchtime but sit and eat my lunch in my classroom whilst marking.  I don't even drink tea or coffee in school.  My photo today then shows my classroom in the background with my lonely bottle of water.

366 Challenge - Sky High

I went off to have a look at one or two of the interpretations of the words for today, liking what I saw I did not want to copy them.  So I thought of my class yesterday and the words seemed quite apt.  We have maths week in school and we were trying to do some fun activities.  We decided that we would do some work on ratio and proportion and therefore I took in a load of fruit juice and we made fruit cocktails.  The children had to work on using different ratios with the different juices, taste them and mark them out of 10 to see which they preferred.  However you can imagine when trying about 12 cartons of juice between the class, 100 mls each time by the end of the lesson the children were all on a sugar high or "sky high".  So that is my interpretation of the words.  I couldn't put a photo of the children on my blog for professional reasons however I can a photo of some of the fruit juice that we tasted.

366 Challenge - Fragile

A bit of a tricky one until I was sat there having a slice of toast at tea time and it fell out of my hand butter side down on to my lap top.  So I was hoping that my laptop was not "fragile" and go up in a puff of smoke.  Thankfully it is still working perfectly else I would not be typing here.  So that's my take on the word today.

366 Challenge - Fashion

So the word today was fashion.  Now anyone who knows me well knows I don't do fashion.  I do comfort. As does my daughter and my son.  Sarah may have one or two labelled items but she is usually to be seen in hoodies and track suit bottoms. 

 So this was a little difficult......hmm.  I thought about this and today I have come up with a photo of my sons new sprint spikes, not exactly a fashion item but certainly high colour!  

Snap 2012 Week 7

My picture for this week had to be something blue.  I was wondering what to choose and then remembered my  vase that I love to see filled with bright yellow daffodils.  So this is my blue photo for this week.

366 Challenge - Domestic

 Yet another quirky take on the word for the day - Domestic

Went off to bed early so didn't get to put my photo up for the next word - domestic.  Was thinking about it as I went off to sleep and didn't want to get particularly domestic with my photo.  Woken up and now can't get back to sleep but I did have a light bulb moment.  Due to the excessively cold weather last week we had to bring our two older bunnies in side.  You can't leave two 10+ year old bunnies outside in temperatures of -11.  


So out came the portable bunny run and in came Sooty and Buster.  They are quite elderly buns as my daughter had them when she was in Year 2 in school and she is now in year 11.  Neither were babies when we rescued them so they are getting on in bunny years.  So for a week or so our bunnies became "domestic".  Sooty as such an old lady sits in the indoor pen and looks out on the world.  Buster on the other hand likes to be nosey and wander around.  He is very well trained and returns to his litter try, so is very "domesticated".  We left him wandering around upstairs, investigating.  All you can hear downstairs is the thump, thump, thump as he wanders around and you see the little head poke over the top of the stairs when he hears anyone downstairs.  So my photos are of our old friends.

Just a little bit of creativity

It was lovely to see Kerrin the other day and we were laughing about moving pieces of paper from one spot to another.  I did manage to do one double layout for my monthly scrapbook, well February is done, January not quite completed......something strange there.  Kerrin had spent the morning doing lots of stamping, so I coloured some images in that had been lying around and eventually used one of them to make a card.

Once I had scrapped a bit I am always left with odd bits and pieces of card and paper so was determined this year to put those scraps together and make a few cards.  So here are a few of my creations from yesterday and the day before.

So maybe I will have to get a little more creative over the weekend before getting back to school on Monday and of course, I still have to get some photographs taken as well for my photo course I am currently doing.

Snap 2012 Week 6

The theme for this week is LOVE




I had to think about this one for a little while.

And think I did.  I came up not with pictures of my family.  I love them all more than words can express.  I actually thought though that the fact is I love them so I do everything I can for them and the picture of my phone and my car is my way of keeping in contact with them and doing things that they love to do.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I spend lots of time with my children. I have heard the comment from some people, saying that you do so much running around for your children and you don't have time for yourself;  but to me that is why I have my children, to spend time with them, to ensure they have every opportunity in life and if that means running around WITH them, then yes I do it because I love them dearly.  I will have time enough for myself when they go and do their own thing, but that time will be when I know in my heart that I have spent time with them, enjoying their achievements, helping them with their battles, supported them where I can.  So until then I will continue to be in contact with them when they need me and will be a taxi service when I am needed.  Long may it continue.  We are just finishing the football season, the athletics season is just beginning.

Day 1 for me of the 365 challenge. Abstract.

And what a challenge.  Have sat here and pondered lots today.  I really couldn't think.  Yesterday with the contents of my handbag would have been easier however, I will not be defeated.  So I got my thinking cap on and came up with the picture of my notice board in my study, well a small section of it!  I looked up the word abstract and found that it was not necessarily any form or order.  So there you go.  My board has little form or order but I know whats there and it suits me I suppose.  Can tomorrow please be easier?

A Week At Home

It has been a lovely week off for half term.  I have enjoyed having some time to myself at home despite having Martin at home, so called "working from home" one or two days.  He even went into work this morning so left me in peace.  It was lovely to see Kerrin this morning and we "moved" paper around the table together.  A little scrapping was done as well as one or two cards made but mostly we had tea and cake and a bit of a catch up chat.


The children have been doing some work experience this week both working at different local vets and having very different experiences.  Daniel has been in Nutfield and is thoroughly enjoying his time there, they seem to have trusted him to do many different things, apparently today he was scaling and polishing!!  He has also learned how to mop floors, maybe this new skill could be used at home?  He has blossomed this week and is raring to go each morning.  Sarah on the other hand is not enjoying the experience, she says, because she is bored as she does not have enough to do.  She loves the animals but hates the hanging around.  She has said though she would love to go where Daniel has been this week and we will see what we can arrange during the summer holidays for a week.  


So tomorrow I am going to do a bit more scrapping and card making, maybe a little bit of school work if I fancy it but I am going to enjoy the last few days of my holiday.  

Week 4 Close up shots Snap 2012

I had been wondering what to do with this challenge and have not really been out and about to get any photos. However yesterday morning as the temperature dropped to -10, Sarah came in with the animals water bottles. Talk about frozen!  However before she could thaw them out I just had to get my camera out and take a photo or two as there was such an amazing pattern in them.  In every crisis there is a photo to be had.    

Frozen water bottle

A Driving Day in the cold.

Brrr it was cold this morning when I got up -10 I think.  Even sitting in the living room I was feeling the chill.  However I had to drive over the Bluewater today as the children had their driving experience booked for 12.30.  It had been part of their Christmas pressie, where they could learn to drive for an hour, learning some of the basic skills needed when they start to learn later this year.


The roads were fine actually, even the M25 was moving beautifully when we set off.  Daniel was chatty in the car, Sarah was very quiet, I think a little bit of nervousness had set in.  Well we arrived in plenty of time and went off for a quick coffee and hot choccie.

Turned up at 12.30 for the start of their driving experience.  Very impressed by the whole experience as they children had a full hour. The cars were all registered in 2011, in a clean and good condition.  They learned how to steer the cars, reverse, indicate, lots of moving around.  Sarah even managed to get through to 3rd gear.  Daniel did some reverse parking.  They looked as if they had a really good time.

 It was funny to watch the two of them going around the course.  They were actually quite aware of each other.  Daniel claims that Sarah nearly drove into him coming out of one junction......... I don't think the instructors knew that they were brother and sister following each other around.  They looked fairly confident in their approach and felt as if they had learned something by the end of it. 









 It must have been a success as they both wanted to know when they could go back and do it again.

Winter has finally arrived.

Well winter is here now, the snow has fallen and the ice is settling in.  Temperatures have fallen and brrrrr it's cold.  We were supposed to be going off this weekend to an athletics meeting but the snow was due to come in on Saturday afternoon. We decided that it was better to stay home, safe and warm instead of getting stuck on the M25 late in the afternoon.

Football on Sunday was called off again. Instead of a trip to Rustington we stayed at home in the warm.  The call of the snow was too much for the children and they had to get out in the snow.  They had great fun and reverted to being little children yet again.  Lots of snowballs were thrown, some snow down the back and screams of glee from the back garden.  Sarah got back to more art homework again and Daniel even managed to clear some of his.  I haven't yet managed to get out there and do my week 4 photo of the weekly challenge......something close up......I am still thinking about that one, but I will get around to it.