TUM - Week 3 - Night

"Night" was Claire's theme....
I am putting Mariette's picture first, as the winning photo for this week....It is absolutely amazing...Mariette says that she is really chuffed with it (you have every right to be chuffed with it Mariette) - she has not touched it up in any way - she just managed to catch the reflections like that - Well done Mariette

Claire's photo is also great - taken from the car one night on the way home from Cardiff - the only light is from the headlights...

Pam went for night time comfort...Her favourite pair of night time shoes - and a very important and valued part of her nighttime unwinding ritual - well done Pam - Lovely idea and a photo which makes me smile...

I found this week's theme, interesting and challenging...I love my little Cannon Powershot, I really do, but I still have so much to learn about the technical side of photography that taking "true" photos of night, was unobtainable for me...but with the use of the flash and standing far back from my subject, I did achieve some interesting effects (amongst several, photos of black nothingness...) I like the way the flash has lit up the foreground here and then it fades into blackness...

Here is another interesting photo - I still used the flash but stood quite far back from our hanging bird feeder...

Kayla-Fern has night time issues...Bradley is like me, when he is tired he says good night and goes to bed and straight to sleep....As Brad has gotten older, he requires less sleep so generally (during school time) - he is sent to bed at around nine, but he still settles quickly and sleeps deeply until the next morning - not much disturbs him once he is asleep...
Kayla-Fern is a totally different story - I generally start asking her to go and brush teeth and get ready for bed around quarter past eight (during school time) and if she is in bed by half past eight, she falls asleep relatively quickly - although she is a very light sleeper and will often wake once or twice during the night...If she does not get to sleep before quarter to nine... she can not fall asleep - she does all the right things, lies quitely with her eyes closed, but sleep will elude her until gone ten, then she starts panicing and crying because she is afraid that she won't be able to get up in time for school the next morning and then of course sleep becomes even more impossible...I find it so difficult not to get angry with her, because I know that it is really not her fault....BUT it is hard, because I know that we are going to have a tough time the next morning and the day is going to be a long one for her....
 Anyway, I am going to start doing my Blog your Heart, but it is getting quite late - so if I don't finish tonight - I will finish soon, so check back .....
OH - Our theme next week was chosen by me - "ART" - I can't even remember why I chose that topic, but I guess I can take a photo of anything, after all "ART is in the eye of the beholder" - OH no, that is "BEAUTY" - OH Heck - Think I might struggle with this one....

TUM - Week 2 - French

Our theme last week was French...AND I am so very late with it...Mariette updated first, and then sent out a very gentle little nag (which we all deserved) -

"Consider yourselves all told off"

Pam suggested the theme - she took a lovely vibrant photo of French Breakfast Radishes....I did not know that they existed, but I think there is lots in the fruit and vegetable world that Pam is more knowledgeable about then I am .... Fruit and Vegetables is after all her business...

Claire was so excited about her new hero -  Sylvain Guenot - a french photographer, that she took a photo of the work of his hero Jean Loup Sieff (another French photographer) - and sent it to us early...(Like nearly a whole week early).....Lovely picture Claire:-

Mariette's picture has a story - her picture is of her favourite French brand of soap....

She says "yes, I have a thing for soaps (from when I was little!) It's funny, I never buy any fancy soaps for myself, but I love having them bought for me - particularly lavender"

Mariette was not sure if she was completely happy with her picture - but I think it is a cute picture Mariette and I love the personal symbolism of it...

We have friends who have French poodles....they (the poodles) were champion models, exaclty as I would expect anyone French to be...
I chose this picture of Toby over all the others, because he is what is called a champagne which is quite rare...Kayla-Fern pointed out that if he was a horse - he would be a "chestnut"

 

 

This is Toby's father - "Buster"
Don't you just love the crossed paws....

 

To finish with - here is another one of Toby....I think by now he had had enough of being my model....

Ha - I bet you all thought....

I had forgotten (or I would not make the TUM post on time AGAIN)....well just to prove you wrong...Following is French and then Night and then maybe just maybe.....Blog your Heart - January...so make yourself a cup of coffee and get comfy - Here goes.....

TUM - Week 1

SHEWWWWWW.....Hard to believe that last time I particpated in the TUTT challenge was nearly two months ago...Much has happened, which I will try to catch you all up with some time, but for now, let us just make it known that TUTT (+1) has become TUM - Team UP Mondays, instead of Team Up Thursdays...I am hoping that having a full weekend to do our blogs by Monday instead of by end of Thursday, will help us all keep on track and on time...
(I also know that I am two challenges behind Mariette and Claire - I did take "Desk" photos, which was Claire's last suggested theme and I did not take "Word" photos although it was my suggeted theme - Catch up soon or not - the wonderful thing about blogging is that, it does not really matter...)
Anyway, our first theme for TUM is the last (unused) theme for TUTT - suggested by Mariette....
First up Mariette's gorgeous picture of some gemstones "INSIDE" a glass container...

Mariette, it is now over a year, since you and I started TUT and blogging and you have come so very far, both with your photography, but also with you life journey and I love that you are blogging about it all...Mariette's blog is worth a visit.
Without Claire, we probably would not have been on track this week - we had actually all agreed to re-start next week only, but Claire, sent her photo through about ten days early, which made us all get off our BUTTs and get organised....You really need to visit - Claire's blog to see some stunning photographs (Project 365) and some heartfelt blogging about life and being organised and stuff....It really is a treat.....
Anyway, Claire's picture of the "INSIDE" of a coffee cup in her Welsh Dresser: -

Busy Pam took a photo of the "INSIDE" of her delivery van....

Pam - has not yet updated her blog for this week, but, when she does,  Pam's blog is always well worth a visit - and in her e-mail to us with her photo she promised us wit and humuor to make up for the un-beautiful picture - there is nothing wrong with your picture Pam, but I still look forward to your special brand of blog update.
Lastly, my picture - this was not my original idea, but I am very happy nonthelsse....

I do believe that if I had have had more time, and I was not worried about the camera battery fading - I could have done much more justice to my subject - Misty is a beautiful majestic African lion in the body of an average size black house cat, and he has all the attitude of being King of our Jungle....but at the same time he is laid back and affectionate and he was quite happy to be "INSIDE" my tumble dryer as long as I needed him to be....
Thank you to my TUM buddies.....I am so glad that we are back...and I really love that we all have such different interpretations on the same theme.
Next week's theme should be really interesting - Four ladies living in Wales/England/America and Africa - "FRENCH" should really have us all thinking.....

TUTT (+1) - Guy Fawkes

Well, late again - just for a change.....I have also totally forgotten which week we are in....I just know it is more then 52, which I think is pretty good going - we (should that be I) may not always get my posting done on a Thursday and in fact sometimes, do not get my photo to my partners on time....;but to have kept on with the challenge (and still lovin' it) is a pretty good achievement, so here is a pat on the back for myself and my special "full time" partner, who has grown photographically and personally on this journey and also a big thank you and pat on the back to our two "extra" partners who have added a sparkle to the challenge in the past few months....
Our theme this week was suggested by Mariette....Guy Fawkes...every year Trev and Mariette and Maxine, buy some fireworks and have a little private fireworks display - Maxine gets very excited every year...This is Mariette's favourite photo: -

In Claire's corner of the world, they have an annual community fireworks display on the rugby field close to them...so she had lots of scope and she read up on fireworks photography prior to the event, so she set up her tripod and this is her favourite of the resulting pictures: -

For as long as I can remember, we have always been able to see some fireworks display from our own back garden, despite the fact that it has been illegal in SA for some years to set off fireworks in a residential area....every year we have had pets (mainly dogs) running away or jumping through glass windows in a terrified effort to get away from the noise...Anyway, I thought it would be easy to see some fireworks, and guess what on the night nothing, absolutely zilch/zero/neder.....so I had to improvise...My grandmother (my moms mom) was born on the 5th November - brilliant, here is a scanned picture of my mom's family, my granny, grandpa and my mom, my mom's youngest sister (my Aunt) and my mom's younger brother, (my Uncle)...My mom is the young girl with her hair in a upswept style...

Whilst I was going through, old family photos, I came across a letter, which I read without embaressment or guilt - it was not a love letter, it was thank you letter, (dated 1st August 1972) from one of my cousins to my mom and dad, thanking them for the birthday gift of $1 (Rhodesian dollar)....

what really made me chuckle and think was his comment "it came in very handy, believe me you"....First of all, I ask myself, what is considered "handy"...did it go towards paying rent in an otherwise tough month, how much petrol could he have put in his car or motorbike with it, how many groceries could he have bought with it....Considering that the Rhodesian currency no longer exists, if the dollar had kept in mint condition, what would it be worth today AND how much would a person need to recieve today, in order for it to be "very handy".....I guess like with so many things it is relative to the person and their needs at that moment in time...
That's my post for this week, next week should be challenging - Claire has suggested "DESK"....hmmmmm, thinking hard about this one....
Lots of love

A little bit of English fun...

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and there would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

 If Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop.???

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing,
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,
What do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship...
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And in closing..........

TUTT(+1) - October - Week 54

I chose the theme this week...October...
October is really a beautiful time of the year in South Africa...One of my favourite things in October is that it is when the Jacaranda trees, flower....The flowers are a beautiful mauve/blue colour and this beautiful canopy of blue is created when there are lots of trees together...When the flowers fall, the make a huge mess on the ground, but they are so beautiful, they are well worth the mess....Well to be honest, I have not ever had to clean up after a jacaranda tree, so I really should not comment...

I think Mariette struggled this week - she eventually turned to trusty old Mother Nature for her lovely picture: -

And Claire - Claire went Halloween on us: -

October is the last full month that my mom was still with us - Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of her passing - the last of our "firsts"...I keep thinking of what we were doing this time last year....or rather 52 weeks ago...Fifty two weeks ago, today she died...We had spent so much of this weekend last year at the hospital with her...Hoping and praying for a miraculous recovery, which was not hers to have, and at the same time trying to prepare for the worst....For me it was not a shock when she died, in some way I was relieved that her suffering was over, I am grateful that she did not linger on for months and weeks, hooked up to a ventilator and feeding tube, she would not have wanted to be like that, and she would not have wanted my dad (and the rest of us) to go through the agony of seeing her like that day in and day out for months on end.

When she died, my biggest concern was for my dad, what would he do without my mom...I think in focussing on trying to make sure that he was ok, made me stronger...I did however feel totally lost and alone in those first few months after she had passed away...Mike and the kids were amazing (and still are), but coming to terms with her going, was something I had to do on my own....I think of all the sad times in the last year, when I have thought of her at odd moments, when something reminded me of her, when we were doing something that the last time we had done, she had been with us, of all those moments, my birthday was the worst - I knew that she would not be phoning me, and that made me sob, my mom (and dad) had always been around for that day (more then any other day) - I mean, let's face it, without my mom, I would not be....all of that had a huge effect on me.

So here I am, a year later, carrying her in my heart (where she can never die), my dad is doing amazingly well - he has his sad moments, but he gets through them....I am proud of him and know that my mom is too....I love and miss you, mom, and always will....

Lots of love