When it all comes together by fluke

You may or may not know that I have signed up for the 365 project this year. The plan was to restore a sense of balance after the disastrous tail end of last year skewed my perspective on the whole year. When I come to look back on 2011, if there is pictorial evidence of the wonders of some days and the total ordinariness of others, perhaps the bleak days will seem less significant. That's the theory, anyway.

Initially, I set out just to capture a moment from each day, journal style. But then I saw the quality of some of the work in other people's projects and found myself trying to emulate their standards, when I had neither the equipment nor the skills to do so. After a few failed days of that nonsense, I reminded myself to 'run my own race' and went back to the photo journal idea. I chose to follow other members with the same sort of approach, to keep things in perspective.

But yesterday, I surprised myself.

I took my dog for a walk along the River Nene that runs through our town, and took photos as I went. If you're a Facebook friend, you can see the whole set. When I got home, I popped the camera card into my laptop to look at the photos and was really very impressed with the result. Even with just a little point and shoot (Kodak DX6490) my first picture of the day turned out to be as near perfect as anything I have ever done.

The water looks wonderful. The swan is beautifully positioned and reflected. The pose is perfect - like something out of a fairytale. There is even, if you look really closely, a single drop of water that has fallen off the end of the bird's beak and landed with a sploosh in the river - that sploosh is captured exactly at the moment of landing.

So there are two ways of looking at this.

Either: I have no idea how I achieved that, so I learned nothing. This is entirely true.

Or: I have stumbled upon evidence that I can actually do good work. Really good work. Knowing that I can, inspires me to try to do it again... only on purpose next time.

A little accidental success goes a long way.

Choosing perspectives

It's no secret that 2010 took a sudden left turn in July and became an annus horribilis for me. One thing after another went wrong. When it came to Christmas time, I decided to put it all behind me and focus on making the festive season as pleasant as possible under the rather trying circumstances, and address my life's crises from a fresh perspective in the new year. But the year had one last sting in its tail. My mother phoned me a few days after Christmas to tell me that my super-fit, ultra-marathon running uncle had had a massive heart attack while on the treadmill at the gym. While under sedation, he developed pneumonia. He only regained consciousness today. When I heard the news, I could only groan, "What next?"

My uncle is one of two remaining influential male figures in my life who have been there from the very beginning. The other is also an uncle, but of the 'by marriage' sort. The two of them have known each other since they were teenagers and, during family Christmas holidays when I was growing up, they tended to forget that they were no longer in their teens, and got up to all manner of mischief. They loom large in my childhood mental photographs, and the thought of losing him makes me feel physically ill.

Up until that phone call, I would have said that my most urgent desire for 2011 would be to secure a source of income. But suddenly it has become far more urgent that my uncle should recover. Completely. And run the Two Oceans again.

Although we aren't much into New Year's resolutions as a family, we have adopted the practice of setting ourselves goals for the year ahead, which we share over our New Year's day lunch. At this point, we also reflect on the year that has passed, and I realised that some great things had happened during the year. With everything that had gone wrong, it had been all to easy to forget the things that had gone right. And all the many days that had been wonderfully ordinary and uneventful. All the days which had included little triumphs of the sort so often, so easily forgotten.

So I decided to sign up for the 365 project (I hope that link works - the site is being a bit iffy. Let me know). Having a daily record of the year: the little moments, the big moments - will keep things in perspective should (God forbid) the wheels not reattach themselves, or fall off again.

I don't have a wonderful camera, and I'm not a gifted photographer. But the project isn't just for those who can tick both those boxes.

Perhaps you'd like to join me on this journey. Or perhaps you might like to start one of your own.

Mr Aubergine

I long since abandoned the pic of the day on the grounds that my life is too dull to generate interest photo opps on an ongoing basis. Yesterday turned out to be an exception. Meet Mr Aubergine, who constituted a part of my dinner. Isn't he cute, with his little green hat and retrousse nose? All he needs is pair of goggly eyes!

Sanctuary

Alex Dawson has put out a request: Where do you find sanctuary? He invites replies in whatever medium you like: words, images, video, etc.

So here's mine. There are a few places.

The first is in prayer. When I pray I feel as if I am surrounded by an inviolate bubble. As if I have taken refuge in the biggest, safest lap in the universe.

The second, more corporeal place is right here. In these eyes:
Twenty one years later, after two children, innumerable wrinkles, several grey hairs (in spite of my best attempts with hair colour), and a significant increase in weight, he still looks at me with love, affection, fondness and - blow me down - desire.

The third is here. Our family room at home. People boggle at the colour scheme of neon colours but we absolutely love it. It is our family bolt hole, and we spend a lot of time here together.

pic of the day - have we turned the corner?

I went to the hairdresser today for a long overdue haircut. The woman who owns the salon tells me that business is on the up and people are starting to book colour treatments again. Apparently, just a short while ago, people were doing their own colour treatments at home and only going into the salon for a cut and finish. Is this a sign of an increasing optimism? Has the recession bottomed out?

'scuse the photo - I'm not great at self portraits.

pic of the day - my (brand) new car

We've taken advantage of the UK govt scrappage scheme and scrapped John's old banger. We also traded in my car and consolidated to get one brand new car. My first one. Ever. John has twice had brand new cars, but they have always been company cars, so it's a first for him, too. Apologies for the poor focus. My camera couldn't cope with the LCD.

pic of the day - sky

It's been some time since I posted one of these. I have been surprised to learn how many people have missed my daily photos both here and on Facebook. Primarily the combination of the volume of work going on in my dissertation and the worry about my son's girlfriend's health have been sidetracking me.

I am on day three of an induction workshop on a new contract, and this pic was taken at lunch time int he atrium area of the Regus offices in Southampton.

Saturday's pic of the day - garden

I wish I could say that this is how my garden looks. This is the garden in which we spent Saturday afternoon sharing a cream tea with some of the other leaders from our church.

pic of the day - ecclesiastes 3:2

This butterfly has decided that my bathroom is the place it wants to meet its end. It isn't quite dead yet, but by tomorrow morning it will all be over. Such a short lifespan, but such beauty while it lasts.

pic of the day - beware, cats on guard

Here you see my two girls diligently guarding the house and protecting us from marauding cushion thieves!

They are litter sisters, and have never really been apart. However, unlike my Mom's cats, which came from shelters some years apart, my girls show no affection for one another. They don't curl up together, or groom each other. Daisy (on the left) is a bit of a princess. Molly is more adventurous.

Since the arrival of Jessie, the girls have taken refuge in the conservatory and dining room. Molly does go out of the window to explore the wider world from time to time, but this requires jumping, which Daisy does not do! So Daisy looks after the cushions. She makes sure that they are covered in just the right amount of fur. Unfortunately, one of her staff members (aka moi) keeps removing the fur, so she has to start all over again.

Sigh. It's a tough life!

yesterday's pic of the day - rose hip (aka nypon)

Something else that ripens at this time of the year are the rose hips, which my husband calls nypon (I wish I could provide a phonetic version, but there isjust no equivalent sound in the English language for that 'y' - it's somewhere between 'oo' and 'ee'). The Swedes use them to make a sauce (or, more correctly translated, a soup) called nyponsoppa, which they serve over their desserts. My husband's family eats it with something called ris a l a Malta.

My verdict?

Bo-oring!

To me, it's a vaguely sweet, but otherwise utterly tasteless concoction. If I must eat ris a la Malta, I sprinkle it liberally with ground cardamom or cinnamon.

Oh, and you can probably buy ready made nyponsoppa at your local Ikea.

Sunday's pic of the day - sloe

Now that the summer is really here, and we're enjoying wonderful warm weather, all sorts of berries are ripening.

This is sloe... I think. Sometimes used to make sloe gin. Also used as a metaphor for beautiful eyes (although why this should be the case, eludes me).

As you can see, it is one of many sloe bushes, but it is the only one with leaves in that colour. All the other bushes have green leaves. Perhaps it is simply a different variety. Perhaps it is an anomaly. It may even be diseased. But I find the colour contrast between the leaves and the berries interesting.

pic of the day - cherries

They may be undersized, but they're the right colour and they taste good!

There are two cherry trees on the pavement near our house. A little girl found me photographing them and eating a few and said I should be careful, because they might be poisonous. I assured her that they were perfectly safe and showed her how to choose the best ones. She asked me how I could be sure a dog hadn't peed on them. We discussed the logisitical unlikelihood of this. Her little brother came and joined us. As I left, they were trotting home with their hands full of their spoils. Their mother was waiting for them in the doorway and I heard the little girl announce that "That lady says they aren't poisonous. She says they're cherries."

Uh oh.

Perhaps the mother has known all along that they are cherries, but didn't want her kids eating any old cherries off any old tree. This is a fairly common stance. I might just have lost myself a few points with the neighbours!

pic of the day - poppies

I took this photo at a farm near our house. The farmer and his wife returned home while I was taking it and didn't look impressed. Pity. I would have thought they would take it as a compliment.
This is a close up of some of the blooms.

And this was the display on my car's console at the time. Woohoo! 38 degrees! Glorious!

pic of the day - stuck!

The train I took into London today got a flat tyre or something about 10 minutes outside of Euston. There we sat, for over an hour, with no air conditioner and totally sealed windows and doors. The guy in the white shirt in the background was literally wringing wet by the time the rescue train arrived, with it's mercifully working air conditioner... and LOOS! The lady in the foreground was travelling with several female relatives to Wimbledon. One of the relatives had an aerosol can of some or other cooling spray which they all kept using liberally, spreading who-knows-what into what little air there was. The elderly lady next to me came over all faint and I had to get her out of her seat and into the general area where she could feel a little less claustrophobic.

I made my appointment by the skin of my teeth. I must have looked a fright... and probably didn't smell too good, either!

Blow me down if the tube I took back to Euston after my appointment, didn't also come to a halt between stations. This time because the driver of the train ahead of us took ill in the heat and a replacement had to be found. It wasn't quite an hour that time, but apparently it was necessary to carry out a series of emergency stops in quick succession thereafter 'for safety reasons'. When you're hot and sticky and irritable, the last thing you want is to be thrown towards the front of your carriage at about mach 1 several times.

Sigh. It's good to be home!

pic of the day - the icing on the cake

Tonight our ladies' group was shown how to some clever things with icing. This is my effort. I was rather pleased with it, actually. I had expected to be about as good at it as I was at arranging flowers! It's quite fun doing these really girlie things from time to time.

pic of the day - GO!!!

Until very recently, our younger son showed no interest in athletics. Our older son has always been a keen competitor, and has done pretty well for himself. Recently, during some school trials, our younger son turned in a surprisingly good performance in the sprints (no-one was more surprised than he was, in fact!) and was entered into the 100m for the school sports day. Since he has never donned a pair of spikes in his life, he thought it best to have a practice session beforehand. So he came along to the track tonight and trained with his brother. As you can see, only one of them is wearing spikes. This is because they have to share a pair for now. I'm not in a position to lash out on a pair of spike for what might prove to be a passing phase. Once he has stuck at it for a while, we can talk spikes. He enjoyed himself thoroughly, and his big brother was very gracious with him.

As a bonus, this sign rests above the basin in the ladies' loo. I guess if you use a cup, it's okay!

pic of the day - capsicum

There's nothing quite like locally grown produce, is there? Look at the wonderful colours of these capsicum (bell peppers). Bottom right are some nice sized cucumbers and towards the top left are some almost snow white closed cup mushrooms.

pic of the day - train up a child

This statue stands outside one of the libraries on campus. This is the campus which houses the school of education. The plaque references Proverbs 22:6

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Around this time of the year (just after Fathers' day) my thoughts turn to parenting and the duty of care towards children. Perhaps it's inevitable that I would contrast my own father with the one my children have. (Almost) any male creature on the planet can become a father. That bit's easy. It's hard work to be a Dad... if you do it right.

pic of the day - acer

I have a weakness for acers. The shape of their leaves, the shape of the trees themselves.