theme thursday: intentions

Yesterday's murders in Paris have left me feeling sad, angry, horrified, fearful.....

If it was their intention to provoke a violent reaction, I hope they have failed.

My thoughts and prayers are with the injured and the friends and families of those who died.

endings and beginnings

Can't believe it's almost 2 years since my last post!

I'm not one for resolutions (a little wary of setting myself up to fail!) but I may try blogging again in 2015......

Anyway, here endeth a year of sadness, joy, exhaustion, exhilaration, labour and leisure.
The usual stuff.

There was some travelling too.

A few weeks ago I was standing on the top of the Rockefeller Center in New York watching the setting sun gild the buildings of Manhattan. Beautiful!

One of my favourite cities.

Our younger daughter and her partner thought it was pretty cool too.

A very happy new year to anyone who remembers me.

While I begin to plan the next trip here's another shot of NYC ......

See you soon.



Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

snow day

Hurrah!  Snow at last.  Apologies to those who have to put up with severe winter weather, but this Londoner really loves the snow.

Himself and I donned boots, hats and gloves and ventured forth into a monochrome world:

with the odd flash of colour:

Summer memories

It's getting pretty chilly here in London and snow is forecast for the coming week.  I love snow, though I know ours is less than impressive if you live in most parts of North America.  (Maybe impressive in Arizona??)
Anyway, whenever it's cold my thoughts turn to summer.  So here are some summery pictures from Latitude Festival in July last year.  (By the way, as this was an English summer, it rained!)

                                          Children's area

                                          Put your butts here!

                                          Theatre in the rain

                                          Waiting for the band (still raining!)

                                          Lang Lang passing by

                                          Bright, bedraggled, bunting

                                                    Cake!

charlie

Eater of plastic, wrecker of carpets, killer of pigeons and owner of enormous whiskers; I miss you!
My cat Charlie died last summer.  I had to have him put to sleep when he became very sick.  Strange how our furry companions weave their own very special place in our hearts.

I'm no poet, so I'll borrow the words of another cat lover, T S Eliot:

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

Theme Thursday - Again

I think I already covered 'again' in my post 2 days ago.  In fact I used the word twice in the title!  I think blogging twice in one week calls for another 'again.'

Today I've been to The Sales again and had better success than last week.  Surprising, as all the best stuff probably went as the hoards burst through the doors on Boxing Day.  I like to take things a little more slowly and am now the proud owner of 2 pillowcases, 2 pairs of trousers (1 smart and 1 for work) and some shower gel from the Body Shop.  As you can see I really splashed out!!

I said I'd been out with the camera last month.  We went to Paris for the weekend just before Christmas.  This was definitely an 'again.'  We're so fortunate being able to get on the train in London and get off a couple of hours later in Paris, where it's a short Metro ride to the centre of the city.

I'll do another couple of posts with the rest of the photos.
I love Paris!

Back again (again!)

Ok.  New Year's resolution no 1 -
Remember blog.

Actually I don't tend to make NY resolutions - after all, why set yourself up to fail??  But I do wish everyone a very happy, healthy and peaceful 2013.  Hope you all had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Holidays ...

2012 was, on the whole, a really great year for us; the highlights being the Olympics (wooo!!) and our daughter's wedding in June.  The Queen very inconveniently had her Jubilee celebrations the same weekend, but we were out of London and celebrating in rural Oxfordshire.  On the Saturday, the day of the wedding, the weather was overcast, but stayed dry for the ceremony and the heavens didn't open till we were all partying in the barn.  We had an amazing day.  Photos follow (not mine!)

                                          The Bride and Groom

                                                       Our two girls

                                          Proud parents!

                                          Confetti


I managed to get out with the camera a couple of times last month, so once I've downloaded the photos I might do another post or two.  Here's hoping!!

Back

Oh goodness!  What has happened to blogger while I've been away?  I think they have made it more 'user friendly' (which means it's taken me ages just to do this little post.

So what have I been up to in the past 9 months or so?  Some trips away, a festival of course, gigs, work (way too much of that) and celebrating the marriage of our older daughter, to name but a few things.

And what brings me back?  Realising I had a few hundred photos on my camera which needed downloading was one of the prompts.  So, here's the first of the batch.

Top: Leaf shadows
Bottom: The Greek Amphitheatre at Palazzolo Acreide, Sicily circa 300 BC

wordless wednesday - game

trees

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

when the lightning strikes

sentinel

greenwich

Steve has already written about our day over on Shadows and Light and put up some lovely photos.
Here are a few more from me ...




The Greenwich Observatory


Steve standing on the Meridian



Public standards of length. These British Imperial Standards were first mounted outside Greenwich Observatory main gates some time before 1866, to enable the public to check measures of length. The stated length is the distance between the inner faces of the 2 D-shaped studs.


Ceiling of The Painted Hall as seen in a mirror!

autumn leaves

I've spent a lovely couple of days enjoying some unseasonably mild autumn weather here in South London.
The winds have divested many of the trees of their leaves, but some still cling on bravely.



Yesterday A and I took a walk around Dulwich Picture Gallery. The Sweet Gums were changing colour





Earlier today we met up with Steve & Dave and Lettuce & her family for brunch, then Steve, Lettuce and I walked through Greenwich Park, cameras in hand, to see the ancient chestnut trees



and the oaks.



More photos to follow tomorrow.

theme thursday (on saturday) - gourds

I've taken liberties and posted a couple of photos of pumpkins here, too

These beautiful gourds were on display in Chelsea Market, NYC in October last year



This colourful decoration was seen on the steps of an old brownstone in Brooklyn



and this big pumpkin was sitting all alone atop a wall in the Cotswolds, England.

if at first ...

you don't succeed, try, try again!

So, back to blogging. Can't believe it's been two whole months.

The Theme Thursday picture was taken by my daughter R in Vienna.

As a photographer, there's something very interesting in watching other people taking photos. The girl with the Nikon is R's best friend Jenny (R is on the right.) Jenny is a very talented jewellery designer and photographer - though something seems to be puzzling her here ...