Three generations of my women contemplating the afternoon tea menu of Ashdown Country Park Hotel, cost £78, total cost £85 with tip for the four of us, I did pay for mine as I sort of gate crashed the event, but Sue & Beth were treating EMZ as a Mother's Day gift, we won't be making it a regular occurence though!!

Dress Rehearsal

I am in a bit of a hurry, just off to Jim Dean's funeral. I thought I would take a quick self portrait of myself all dressed up, no time for any finesse, just wanted to get my blog done, won't be home for a couple of nights, will be at Sue's, (or rather Marion's), so my next blogs will be late. This occasion has served as a dress rehearsal for my suit in readiness for the first semi formal night on board Oriana in May. Hope I haven't caused you too much distress!!

Garden Glory

Ruth complained when I posted a photograph of a small part of the garden the other day so I slapped a wide angle lens on the camera and took today's photograph, the garden does look nice. The other picture is this year's blossom on our cherry tree. It's not fully out yet as you can see by all the buds waiting to open.

Heading for a new home!

Grandma's rug and mini oven, Jo's coffee table and Gill's television, all going to a good home now, so glad, so much better than simply sending it to a charity shop.

Flower Sample

So many flowers in the garden to choose from at the moment, this is a close up of a patch of one of our heathers, the flowers are quite tiny in reality. I do have a micro lens so I'll have to do a close up job properly, sometime in the future.

Scavenging??

Just went into the garage to get stuff out that has to go to the dump and I saw this, made me laugh. Looks like a couple of naughty kids have dived into the bag looking for goodies. They came from the charity shop in Boscombe that gives us loads of toys for Samaritan's Purse. I think these two are a bit too big for a shoebox, well, a normal shoebox, that is !!

Beautiful Springtime

Our garden really is very pretty at the moment with all the Spring flowers out. Don't show this to Emz, she'll get homesick, just tell her all her flowers are happy and thriving, I've watered all the tubs this evening.

Home Alone

I'm all alone and fending for myself. As you can see I have prepared a spaghetti bolognaise, not from scratch, Ruth made the sauce for me so all I had to do was cook the spaghetti and microwave the sauce. I sort of overdid the cheese, can't see the spaghetti, it is there though and everything tasted very nice. Chilli Con Carne tomorrow.

For Display Only

I was very pushed for time today. We have this plate on display in our bungalow, a nice piece of Australian artwork so I thought it would look nice on my blog. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I like it.

Cargazing!!!

I was very puzzled as to why these two were sitting with their backs to the river, with all the activity and interest, and opted for a bit of, well, er, cargazing! Very strange, any thoughts? 

Never too old for a snog

The caption says it all really, we were out walking by the river with Ryan and I spotted this couple because they were standing stock still staring at that tree in front of them and I wondered what exactly they were looking at, then it happened, glad I had my camera at the ready.

Cruising Desires

I thought you would like to know, in fact, I am certain you would like to know that this is a photograph taken through the forward window of Oriana's Crow's Nest showing the ship's flags and part of the industrial skyline of Southampton. We had a great day on Oriana, visiting Ernalyn and exploring the ship, we also checked out our cabin which we will be occupying from 3rd May for 17 nights, can't wait. We have decided that Oriana is an excellent ship and will be even better next year after her refit as an all adult ship.

Opportunity Knocks

This is Ruth actually talking to Tina about cruises while I was wandering about with my camera wondering where on earth my next blog picture going to come from, then, Bingo, problem solved. Ruth wasn't a happy bunny having just come in from the garden in a scruffy state, but I was desperate, no inspiration whatsoever and needs must! 

Oh! Sweet

We have been getting a bit soppy lately, hope it's not a sign that we are getting old and going back to our childhood. These two bears mean something to us though, the little one Ruth got from Harrod's, she had to sign up for their store card to get him, so she did, got her bear and then cut the card up. The big one is called Ripley and was a special gift from Tina to her mum. They reside on our beds now, Ripley on mine and Harriet on Ruth's. They both agreed to pose together for this portrait session!

And Suddenly

Never noticed loads of these Hyacinths in our garden until today, it was almost as if they had appeared overnight so I decided to give this picture some relevant treatment. I used an action called "Midnight" which is from Nik software Color Efex Pro 3.0, and before you tell me I've spelled color wrong, it's an American company. Also you can use spelled or spelt, spelt being an old English version.

Blooming Garden!!

Actually, the reason and urgent need for changing the conservatory furniture round was so that she could chill out with a milky plus, milky minus or whatever and gaze at her beautiful garden from the luxury of the settee without getting a severe crick in the neck!!!

Furniture Moving

Her indoors got a bit bored today so, in the blink of an eye, she changed the furniture around in the conservatory. Actually, she spent quite a bit of time on it, hoovering etc. Of course I was called in to do the heavy bits and I did it without grumbling, good and patient husband and servant that I am!!

Sympathy Please

The bandages were taken off last night, very very carefully. Ruth is definitely after the sympathy vote and I don't blame her, keeps me on my toes. She only had 3 small pimple things taken off. I reckon the woman who did it was either a sadist or, previously, a butcher or her hand slipped. No, I'm only joking, they have to dig deep with these things to make sure that there is no growth further inside. She is a good patient and very brave, 13 stitches though!! 

Ornithological Ablutions

I meant to top up the birdbath but I forgot, there was some water in it when this chap started but not a lot by the time he had finished!

Under the Weather

Poor Ruthie, it looks as if she tried to cut her throat and she is certainly one degree under, mind you she was playing up to the camera but she really hasn't been feeling very well at all since she had the minor op yesterday. She had 3 small spots removed, 13 stitches in all. They are most likely not melanomas, probably rodent ulcers, nothing to worry about at this stage.

Spring Cleaning??

Ruth just cannot sit still, she's had a good go at the house, now she's in the garage, hoovering. Doesn't look too bad in there though does it,  If anyone needs somewhere to doss, they won't have to look far!

Another Eating Place

Christchurch is quite a photogenic town with lots of nice eating places, I have never been in this one, must give it a try sometime.

Focus on Imaging

I took this picture yesterday at the Focus on Imaging show in Birmingham. There were quite a lot of models dotted around the show, like this one. Masses of people photographing them, each armed with the latest and greatest equipment and I was there with my iPhone!! This bloke was a pain, right up on the set where he shouldn't have been, blocking everyone else's clear view. Bit of a poser, but there were lots of them!!

Early Morning Cuppa

I'm going to the NEC in Birmingham today and as I won't be back until 11.00pm I thought it would be a rush to get my blog done. Then, as I was sitting in the lounge having a cup of tea, I saw the potential picture with the sun shining through and making a shadow on the tea cosy, beautiful day here in Bournemouth. Anyway I quickly snapped it with my iPhone. What I didn't see before is the shadow of our giraffe in the TV screen top left, it looks like a rather sinister hand!!

Ex Whitegarth

Just a bit of nostalgia, it's over 10 years since we left Whitegarth. I pass it quite often on my walks but I don't get upset and wish I was back looking after old folks. We didn't like the builder, he was a bit of a wide boy, typical property developer I suppose but I think he did make a nice job of the conversion, better than an ugly block of flats anyway. We always said we would like to have a look inside but we never did.

Shadows

We went to see some friends this afternoon who had just moved to a new flat in a very posh development overlooking the sea to the East of Boscombe Pier. The kids in the picture were in the foyer and they let us in, they shouldn't have but, of course, they did. Anyway, I was getting a bit desperate for my blog picture, I was on the 3rd floor and saw them out in the garden with long shadows, so I quickly snapped them through the closed window. Consequently, the photograph is not one of my best but it will have to do! 

Roundabout Furnishings

This giant deckchair is on the roundabout near Southbourne Crossroads, it has been there for a few years and I am very surprised that it has survived intact so far!! Actually there is nothing nearby to give a sense of scale but it really is big!

Studio Spring Clean

I have spent two days at Samaritan's Purse, I'm tired now and haven't had much time to think about blog pictures but I decided that I wanted to sort out my Studio with special attention given to my tech library and DVDs etc. I have made a start as you can see! I needed to check exactly what software and other equipment I had because I am going to Focus on Imaging at the NEC in Birmingham next Tuesday and I might be interested in some items there, especially if they are on offer!!

Operation March Child??

I was a bit pushed today, we were at the Samaritan's Purse warehouse filling and packing boxes which came to us following an experiment which enabled people to purchase relevant items online. There was a big range of goods for them to choose from with guidelines as to what was required for a box. Of course all the items from the individual orders were totalled at head office, the result was that loads of huge cartons of goods and stacks of flat packed shoebox size boxes arrived at the warehouse for the volunteers here to deal with, 2800 boxes in total. Anyway, I got a quick shot of Ruth just starting to fill one of the boxes, happy days!

Harbour Perspective

A beautiful day, late afternoon. This is Christchurch Harbour and is an example of the shortened perspective resulting from the use of a long telephoto lens, in this case the 18-200mm on my D2xs, equivalent to 27-300mm on a 35mm camera. The distance from the front of the boats to the buildings is much more than it appears.

Grand Prix

Another photograph heralding Spring, golfers out and about, they look old enough to be retired otherwise they should be at work. I entitled this "Grand Prix" because this guy must have thought he was in a racing car, he was doing skid turns and wheelies but not a lot of grass cutting!!