Cat life

 Just parking this here. I had it on Facebook but I’m not sure I saved it anywhere else. It happened when E was at my house, drawing. She decided (completely her own idea) to draw my toy cat. She was four at the time. I thought it a very observant study. 

Blackbird singing

'Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Blackbird, fly
Blackbird, fly
Into the light of the dark black night'

(John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

(Actually, it wasn't a blackbird, it was a crow - but never mind!) 

Aurora Borealis - 10 October 2024

I'm just putting this here because it was really rather unusual and exciting. Around 10pm on Thursday 10 October 2024, the Aurora Borealis could be seen all over the UK - including Yorkshire. I saw someone's FB post about it so I went out on my balcony to look. There is a LOT of light pollution here, from the car park lights right opposite at eye level, to the abundant streetlights everywhere. I couldn't see a thing with my naked eye. Tried my phone camera but my phone is now old and doesn't have a night mode, so that wasn't very satisfactory, though I could see some reddish tones in the images. This shot was taken with my camera but I wasn't exactly sure what settings to use, and couldn't lay my hands on my tripod to steady it. (I do have one somewhere!) The upward light streaks (right) are not aurora but streaks from streetlights or floodlights. 

Having seen 'dancing' auroras for the first time in Iceland, which was so exciting and emotional, I haven't been bothered to hunt auroras in the UK, though due to the sun's cycle, they have been much more common this year; there have been two or three very strong magnetic storms. It was a freezing cold night and I wasn't inclined to drive anywhere to see if I could see this 'showing' more clearly in an area of less light pollution. Some people have posted amazing photos, many taken when the activity flared up again more strongly, with pillars, sometime after midnight. 

Still, not something I ever expected to be able to see from my new flat's balcony!

Room with a view

I'm not sure it's right to put these on my main blog but I was playing with the view from the window at my daughter's. Just a phone shot on a wet day - something about the balance of the three vertical elements that appelaed to me - and that mill chimney in the background. 

On the cusp

I like these words. They seem very appropriate as I wait on the edge of moving house: an end and a beginning, which I’m really looking forward to. 

I’m very impatient for the legal processes to complete but I can’t do anything to speed it up. Still praying it will all work out. 

Where my pig is headed

they tried to persuade me not to cross

the curious hills; finally, shrugging

called me foolish, stubborn.

that’s how it is, I said, I’m going    

where my pig is headed. 

(Found this among my mementoes... not sure how long I've had it but it is many years.  It still has a resonance for to me. Probably sums me up quite well!)

Trust my timing

This has a special meaning for me right now. After Christmas, perhaps because I was just recovering from Covid, I started to feel that I should prepare to move house, to downsize to a flat that would be future-proof, or as much so as any place can be. This came unexpectedly. I'd often thought that 'one day' I'd do this, but then lately I'd been thinking that flats were not a good investment and I'd be better staying put in this house (where I've been for nearly 25 very happy years) and making sure I was fit enough to manage it. The sense strongly came that I should start to declutter, to get rid of all the things I've accumulated that I really didn't need - and once I started it was surprisingly easy.  The hardest bit isn't deciding what should go but, once decided, getting it out of the house to the charity shop or the tip or wherever. I've more or less completed that stage now. I've been praying to be guided to the right place at the right time, and sensing and trying to be obedient to the promptings - viewing a couple of flats when they came up, putting my name on the waiting list for a complex I like, getting the details of my house logged with an estate agent ready to 'go' when I wanted to sell. Various avenues for various reasons proved to be not the right direction.  Then a couple of weeks ago I was contacted by the site manager via the waiting list to say a flat had come up there. I viewed it, it feels right, I've made an offer. I've put my house up for sale, I've had viewings and offers this week.... but until my offer on the flat is confirmed I can't do anything - and I've not yet heard the results of the most recent viewings either. I'm champing at the bit but I can't do a thing to progress it; it's all in the hands of others right now... and firmly in God's hands, I believe. I've really sought to be patient, obedient and discerning. I'm sure God is saying: 'I've heard your prayers, now trust me.' I'm really trying to. 

Artistic talent

I spent a happy afternoon recently at The Hepworth, Wakefield with my daughter and two grandgirls. The gallery is very welcoming to children, providing packs of paper and pastel crayons so they can sketch and draw. The girls spent a long time happily ensconced in one of the huge window bays, sketching scenes inspired by the foaming waters of the River Calder below, as it tumbles over a weir. It was a very hot day so eventually we adjourned to the café for drinks and cake. Elodie (11) continued her sketching at the café table, producing this picture of the little flower arrangement on the table. 

I was really impressed at how observant she'd been, capturing not only the graceful arrangement but adding her own touches. The vase was white, not red for a start, but in the picture red tones in with the rusty foliage. There's a confidence, freedom and lyricism to the drawing that I really like. It's taken pride of place on my kitchen noticeboard for now but I wanted to 'immortalise' it here too. 

 

Weir-d

Playing around with layers to create an impressionistic effect. I'm never sure whether these 'work' or not. Is it just blurry? I think some subjects perhaps work better than others for this technique and perhaps this is a near miss. 

The Peace of Wild Things

Just loved these peaceful images from Staveley Nature Reserve. Is there anywhere prettier than England in May? Even without obvious wildflowers or blossom, the colours were so soft and beautiful and I've tried to edit the photos accordingly. 

'When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.'    (Wendell Berry) 

Inspired

I visited an exhibition today in Leeds that contained an exquisite little book called 'A Venetian Brocade' by Helen Douglas, who is a Scottish artist and photographer. The images in her book are collages and layered images of Venice. I was really inspired by them and wondered if I could create something similar related to Saltaire. I took the basic idea (though I could not, of course, not slavishly follow it as I could only guess how she'd created the pictures). Anyway, playing around with some of my recent pictures of Salts Mill and the canal, I have come up with this collage. I do quite like it, though I'm sure with more practice I could improve on it. 

Patterns - and creativity

I seem to be adopting a blue theme in the last few posts. (Cool! 😄)  Here's a collage I made of reflections of Salts Mill in the canal. I'm often drawn to these patterns in the canal and river, which constantly change with the light and the movement of the water. Saltaire is so familiar to me and, even though it's a stunning World Heritage Site, I sometimes get bored by the same old views of the same old places. It's good to challenge myself to make something 'new' of it - and these sorts of patterns and abstracts are as 'original' as you can get, in that each frame cannot be repeated exactly. 

Having said that, I also feel a little frustrated that I get so far and then can't get any further, creatively speaking. This is not displeasing - nice colours and shapes - but I can't help feeling I should be able to make more of it. It's not really very artistic. It reminds me of when I was doing 'O' level Art. I'd drawn some flowers, quite nicely and neatly, and my art teacher took up a brush with red paint and drew a big messy outline around each flower head, with the idea of encouraging me to be freer and looser in my work. It clearly wasn't the right way to go about getting me to relax into it. I was horrified and didn't really see what she was getting at.  Now, I do, of course, but I still can't free my brain of that 'neat' gene. 

OK, pushing myself to riff on the theme now... a paler version:

Pale and layered ( probably like this the best!):

A layered and blended version: 

Change the colours: 

Spring

 'Spring is when life’s alive in everything.' 

Christina Rossetti

'It was such a spring day as breathes into a man an ineffable yearning, a painful sweetness, 

a longing that makes him stand motionless, looking at the leaves or grass, 

and fling out his arms to embrace he knows not what.'    

John Galsworthy

Liminal

Such a familiar sight and yet it continues to uplift me every time I see it. I've lived in the shadow of Salts Mill's chimney for over twenty-four years now and it has become an old friend that says 'home' to me. There is something about this shot that speaks to me. We have reached a liminal time of year. Nature doesn't know if it is winter or spring: bright sunshine promises warmth and doesn't quite deliver, a biting wind harks back to winter frosts, bare trees have leaf buds only just appearing and yet there's the occasional flurry of early blossom. The cherry trees on the main road have yet to flower but there is apple blossom in our gardens and blackthorn blossom in the hedgerows. And that blue, blue sky... a clear blue that does suggest a certain crisp cold. 

I am becoming aware that I'm reaching a liminal point in life too. Without really consciously deciding, I know it is time to prepare to move to a smaller and more easily managed home. I've loved living here in this old, solid, stone terrace, full of echoes of previous families who've lived here (I sense very contentedly), to which I've added my own story. It's been a real haven and is wonderfully located, in a good community. But these old houses take some managing and the steep stairs (though they allow the high ceilings that make the rooms feel spacious) will one day take me some managing too. They're not a problem yet but having Covid over Christmas underlined to me that the gap between 'coping' and 'not coping' is actually surprisingly narrow. I don't want to be forced out by ill health of one kind or another (though there is no sign of that yet) so I realise I need to prepare for and make a willing choice to downsize and future-proof  (as much as one is able) before I am forced to do so by circumstance and before the undoubted stress of moving starts to look too daunting. 

I've an idea of where I'd like to move to - and it's not far away. Beyond making sensible preparations to get this house to a saleable point (tidying and decluttering mainly) there is little I can do except to be ready to jump should a suitable property become available. I am, of course, already wishing it to happen, even before I am really 'ready'. Just as no-one can speed up the seasonal changes and there are false starts and it is frustrating 'waiting' for Spring, I shall have to wait and trust the process. I have to place it in God's hands. He hasn't let me down so far! 

iColorama

I’m a bit of a sucker for photo apps on my iPad, and over the years have experimented with quite a few. Most of them appeal initially for the rapid and interesting effects that can easily be produced, and most of them quickly lose their appeal for the simple reason that they are  - as far as I’m concerned anyway - a bit over the top and ‘fake’. In addition, most photos put through these processes are not admissible in camera club competitions and so have limited value for me. It is more sensible to use normal photo processing software and one’s own photos, including textures and colour layers. Playing with apps can, however, be an absorbing, even soothing, activity and a fun way to fill some spare time, when reading or TV or other leisure activities don’t quite scratch the itch. 

I’m not talking about the very useful processing apps, like Snapseed, which is my (and many other photographers’) choice for mobile editing as it is very good and versatile. No, these are apps like Distressed FX, which offers texture overlays; Waterlogue, which allows you to convert photos into watercolour effects; BeCasso which offers a variety of creative ‘paint’ filters and my current favourite discovery: iColorama, which offers a plethora of styles and effects. I rarely pay a subscription for these apps, just using whatever free content there is. I rarely delve deep into them either, so I suppose I’m not going to produce instant masterpieces without practice. Nevertheless, they can give quite pleasing results, like the sunset fantasy above. (Not that I can remember now how I created that! That’s the downside when I’m ‘just playing’ as I fail to note the various stages of experimentation so that I can never replicate the effect twice!) 

The same app produced the image below, produced ‘in the style of Van Gogh’. Rather fun. 

Icons in the snow

I took rather too many photos in the snow that briefly appeared. It's such a rare occurrence these days, I get far too excited. I've processed these a little differently from my usual style. They seem to lend themselves to a black and white (selenium toned) treatment, which brings out the architectural details of these iconic locations in Saltaire: the United Reformed Church, the Victoria Hall and the bandstand in Roberts Park (not the Victorian original but a more recent replacement). One of them might have to be next year's Christmas card! 😉

 

Before the snow!

Just had to take a photo of my pot of mini daffs before they get flattened by all the snow that is forecast tomorrow. These tend to flower before the standard sized ones so they are more vulnerable to bad weather.  For a non-gardener like myself, it seems little short of a miracle that they pop up every year, despite the neglect with which they’re treated. I love the blue/yellow combination, which I find so cheering after the long dark winter months. The blooms don’t last long so I make sure to enjoy them while I can, and each year brings more of them as the bulbs proliferate. Hurray for daffodils! (Just trying to think of a way I could protect them against the snow but I can’t really… Put a bucket over them? Do you think that would work?)

Pond life

Just an unassuming little pond... yet it's hard to overstate how excited I can get in a location like this, which is all about light, shadow and shape. I didn't really spend long there and yet it was one of the highlights of my day! Another day, another season, a harsher light and it would look completely different. In addition, the way you edit images like this can change the 'feel 'of them a lot.  These are just my initial edits; I may look at them again another day and decide to try them another way... 

Actually, I think I love this in black and white: 

Bullfinch bliss

Attribution: © Francis C. Franklin / CC-BY-30 (Creative Commons Licence) 

One of the moments of life that I remember with clarity as being among the most blissful of experiences happened years ago when I visited the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss. I was on my own - and in those days, post divorce and getting used to a new state of being, that was an occasion of some bravery: a major trip out, alone, simply to enjoy myself. I walked the long circuit of the reserve, out along the Causeway. In those days the path continued beyond the reed beds, through woodland, to return to the Visitor Centre along the roadside. It was sunny and still and I’d already enjoyed seeing a feast of birds, harriers hunting across the marshes and all sorts. I entered a little clearing among the trees and there beheld a male bullfinch, one of only a handful I’d ever knowingly spotted, resplendent in his breeding plumage, such a stunning coral pink set off with black and blue grey wings. He took my breath away. I was suffused with joy, a perfect sense of bliss. We had a moment together before he went on his way. I’ve never forgotten the encounter, a real gift that somehow made things right and filled me with peace, not a relaxed peace but an energised sense that ‘all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well’. 

Honesty - or dishonesty

Nothing really profound about this... I had some photos of the seed heads of honesty, which are round, silvery, papery things. They have fascinated me since I was a child, when they grew in my grandmother's garden. I liked to rub them between my fingers and feel the seeds inside. I just decided to do a bit of layering and blending here, with a blurred layer and a normal layer. (So, honesty rendered dishonestly?) Quite like the resulting messy abstract and I really like the colour it became with the blend mode... kind of chocolatey... which reminds me... (heads off to find sea salt chocolate that I know I have in the kitchen cupboard! Yummy.)