Day 115 and 116 Molly and Mouse

Day 115 and Molly receives her first visitors who were deemed acceptable as they were friendly, brought treats and a mouse.

Day 116 sees mouse get the first of many a hiding.  As I'm typing this all I can see of Molly cat is her back legs protruding from underneath the futon accompanied by some frantic scrabbling noises.  I think I know where mouse is.  

Gymnasium Open Exhibition

Day 114 


We went over to Berwick to have a look round the annual Open Exhibition at the Gymnasium Gallery, where Rich, Mr J and our friend Caroline Underhill had pieces on show.

Somebody forgot to note the artist but I loved this piece.

Once again there was an interesting mix of work from local artists and I heard yesterday that Caroline was awarded 3rd place with her Highland Cow pastel painting!  Many congratulations!

Lavinia takes a little sip of tea and, apologies again, I have forgotten the name of the artist

Detail from Self Portrait with Migraine by Gill Walton

 Just while I'm making fleeting reference to Gill Walton's work you may be interested in her latest venture in conjunction with Oliver Reed - Allanbank Arts.  Dubbed "the space to create" Allanbank Arts is a beautiful venue in the Scottish Borders, near Allanton, where Gill and Oliver will be running a range of creative courses and artist mentoring.  Definitely worth checking out whether you are local to the Borders (Scottish Borders Council employees get 10% off!) or are planning a creative holiday in the area.

Lastly, R made us pasties for tea and they were splendid.  Can you tell Hugh F-W has been on the tv?!  Thyme, goats cheese and spinach, yum.  

Florals and Fluff

Day 110 and we finally put up some curtains in our bedroom!  Another vital getting ready for chilly winter step and so pretty and floral - thanks Mrs J!

Day 112 and the cat just keeps looking fluffy

.

Day 113 suggests Molly cat has fully settled in and, despite having been to the vets for injections, had a thermometer up her bum and stuff squeezed in her eyes she seemed quite happy to just loll about in front of the fire when we got back.

Fluff.

First Frost and Fluffy Trousers

Day 109 brought the first frost that I've seen so far this season.  I'm sure there has been some earlier while I was fast asleep and dreaming but this was the first I've been up and out in it.

With the crisp air and low winter sun it was a lovely morning for Molly's first exploration of the garden.  Under all that fluff she is quite slight and it really looks like she's donned a pair of furry trousers suitable for frosty striding.

Twenty minutes or so of sniffing and leaping out in the cold world brought Molly back inside for a lounge on the sunny windowsill.  Such a contented little cat who is clearly used to living in a home and made our job of helping her settle in very easy indeed.  It is so lovely having a wee beast around the house!

Meet Fluffy

On day 106 R and I went over to B.A.R.K to have a look at some cats.  We met the lady on duty who showed us up and down the kennels and we had the awful feeling of turning down lots of animals.  Two little kittens came and played with us and we were just deciding which to have when we were told they had to be rehomed together so we had another walk up and down and went outside to see a cat called Muffy.  A friendly, purring fluffball who had a good curious poke through the fence to see who we were.


We left the kennels to have a think and do the shopping and called in again on the way home to say we would visit again the following week and that we liked Muffy.  Then, after a chorus of 'Muffy's lovely, have Muffy' we went home.

With Muffy.

Day 106 A cat once called Muffy.

Day 107 and the name debate continues; Daisy was a contender, 'cept I kept calling her Daisy Renton and, if you've read 'An Inspector Calls', you'll understand why we changed our minds.

Day 108 and the little raggy doll of a cat has settled in splendidly, adopted all cushions as her own and is now called . . .

Molly.

Number Four Gallery Christmas Show 2011

Jewellery and a Big Damn Band

Day 104 and the only photo I took was a badly underexposed shot of a wire wrapped pendant; I had a fiddle with some digital textures to make it look vaguley more presentable.  This necklace is now available at Chirnside Gallery along with a new selection which I left in today.

Day 105 took us down to Newcastle to see Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band; This shot is technically the day after as I took the shot of our stamped hands when we got in!  My first time to the Toon and what an introduction.  There was bucket thumping, wide eyed staring, guitar magic, washboard playing, nose scrunching, teeth baring, beard shaking, floor stamping and it looked a bit like this . . . 

Autumnal

Day 103 - photographs taken from the side of the road on the way home from nipping out to get milk.  We ended up taking about three hours as we drove over to take some pictures of a great clump of trees in autumnal hues.  Sadly the sun just dipped too low to recreate the splendour we'd seen a few days previously but R is ruminating on Autumnal paintings.  Hard not to with all this colour abounding.  I'm sure last year we didn't get to see such a show with the wind and rain banishing Autumn into a few days before the snow tucked the land up in winter.

Red Cabbage

Day 102 - Red Cabbage

Berwick, Boat and Baking

Good evening!


I'm leaping ahead a little with project 30 leaving out the days over the long weekend down in the midlands for the second wedding we were photographing; another beautiful couple and I will show you soon.  In the midst of processing two lots of wedding photographs there have been a few adventures.

Day 97 was clear and bright and we went down to the docks for the lifting of R's Dad's boat for winter.  It's always somewhat nerve jangling watching a boat dangling mid air, but everything went well.  That is until the crane lorry got stuck in the mud in the field after unloading the boat.  If you are going to get a heavy vehicle stuck in the mud the Honey Farm isn't the worst place for it to happen; there were soon various heavy duty vintage vehicles heaving (and at one point pushing!) the lorry but to no avail.  A farmer with a huge-mongous tractor saved the day in the end and R's Dad is happy for winter to begin now the boat is in and safe.

The surface of the water in the docks was really glassy and we may have spent a few minutes kicking stones in to make ripple patterns to photograph and they may be played with and posted later.

 Day 98 was the day of fancying some Swiss Roll, however, due to complete lack of rolling finesse on my part we ended up with Swiss Fold.  Giant Swiss Fold.

Day 100 seems to be a landmark number in this series and what do we have but a much better Swiss Roll - note the graceful rolls rather than folds.  So I concede R is the King of Swiss Rolls in this house!  I came home from an evening with friends and R greeted me with this splendid creation and it was the only option for photo of the day!  Jo Simpson who hosted our get together is exhibiting her "Living the Dream and The Pearl of Great Price" multimedia and textiles work at The Borders Textile Towerhouse, Hawick until 27th November.  Hopefully I'll be able to visit and bring you some photographs but for now I'm going to toast my toes in front of the fire with R and the newest addition to our family!

  

Rainbows and Lighthouse

Day 88 offered us a beautiful orange evening glow and a rainbow. I love the breakthrough of light at this time of year, yes there are hours of dull grey but every now and then doesn't the world look stunning.

Day 89 - a little shot of the garden.  We didn't plant a single sun flower this year so thanks to all the birds who deposited seeds for us!

Day 90 took us on a jaunt up to visit The Found Gallery and on the way home we went in search of a ship wreck near Barns Ness lighthouse . . .

. . . lots of rust and worn wood and even a weather faded picture drawn on a bit of plywood declaring some small person to be the owner of the ship.

Yoghurt, Toad and Chills

Day 84 - Twekkelo Apple and Cinnamon Farmhouse Yogurt may just be the best yoghurt in the world and it comes in small buckets complete with handles and lids.  Arty, painterly types may want to take note, gorgeous yoghurt, tubs with handles and lids. Oh yes.

R experimenting with some wintery head gear to keep George on the road over the coming months.  Yes his bike is called George, it's a Dawes you see.

Day 86 - A little toad made me jump when I lifted a flower pot whilst out weeding and planting bulbs.  Turns out he and his chums live in the wall opposite our neighbours' front door.  On his advice I placed the pot by the hole and when I checked it a few minute later toady had gone home

Day 87 - Another fire shot.  There will be a lot of this over the next few months I'd imagine. 

Still editing wedding pictures, more interesting photos to come.  I'll try and think of something other than the fireplace.

Fire and Mud

Two weddings in two weeks makes for two tired photographers!  We've thoroughly enjoyed our first two jobs as wedding photographers and have been working away on editing the images.  It is fun to get up close into pictures you've only had a chance to quickly review on the camera screen; today I spotted a couple having a good old snog on the dance floor in the corner of one photo! Ha! Now to crop or not to crop? Weddings are a big celebration of love after all!

Over the last few weeks I know I've missed a few project 30 photos but having taken thousands of other photos I'm happy to forgive these omissions and hope you are too!

Day 80 - I couldn't tell you what we did as it seems like an age ago but I do remember being tired and enjoying toasting our toes by the fire!

Day 81 - This is the only photograph I have found dated the 10th October and yes, it is atrociously out of focus! Forshame! A yellow rose and the edges of some cornflowers from the garden.  

Day 83 - Rain and the potato harvest makes for very muddy roads but a run and a bike ride had to happen.  I seem to have got into my stride with running again but really am struggling to go beyond 3 miles so am going to try some interval training using podrunner as recommended by my sister.  If any of you have any tips on interval training or getting beyond the 3 mile wall I'd love to hear from you.  Years ago I built up to 10km and enjoyed it but it was on considerably flatter routes, am hoping interval training will help on the hills?

Day 79 Wedding

Day 79 was the first wedding R and I photographed and it was a beautiful, nerve wracking, rain soaked, fun, flower and butterfly filled, moving, kilt swirling frolic of a day!  


Many congratulations to the gorgeous Gillian and Nathan and thank you for welcoming us so warmly.