Beads and buttons

Taken in Amsterdam, 2008

Sunset at Little Water Park

Poppies

Four roofs in Arsenal

Amazing how four houses can look so similar and so different at the same time...

Apocalyptic sky over Reading

This was just after a huge thunderstorm. The sky was burnt orange and there was a hazy rainbow over the dark sky to the other side.

Taken through the train window on my way home from London, hence the droplets causing blur.

The Horse Hospital

On Colonade, behind Russell Square tube station.

Didn't see any horses, though...

Pedestrian tunnel under the Thames

I’ve been in London. I didn’t have internets. In spite of that, it was rather nice!

At certain points on the banks of the Thames, there are tunnels that enable pedestrians to pass beneath the river. This one in particular leads from Greenwich to the Isle of Dogs.

They are strangely cool and very echoey, completely lined with tile. Your footsteps ring around and bounce off the curved walls of the tunnel. It’s quite eerie, even though it’s brightly lit.

Broken factory windows

I don’t know how these windows came to be broken, or what lies inside the building. There is no entrance from the road and I couldn’t see how you would get in. The pale bricks show the high tide mark of the canal. A delapidated reminder of Leicester’s strong manufacturing heritage alongside the waterway that carried goods out and prosperity in, now long since departed.

Abandoned croquet

How very Victorian. How very British.

Touchstone

My touchstone. A gift from my husband on our anniversary this year. Well, when I say that, I said to him, “can I have this?” and he took it from me and paid for it. It still makes me think of him.

Carved from marble, it’s cool to the touch and warms up in my hand. The cupid’s bow at the top of the heart fits my finger while my thumb strokes its smooth surface.

Sorted

I appear to have left an important part of my brain... somewhere... somewhere in a field in Somerset... Alright.

Fir

It amazes me how much this looks like it's frosty even on a warm autumn afternoon.

On the symbolic nature of doors

Sometimes a door signifies an ending, a significant closure. Sometimes it’s suggests a new beginning, an opening and an opportunity.

Sometimes a door is just the door at the back of a leisure centre where bored kids with nowhere better to go hang out with bottles of cheap cider and marker pens.

I suspect this particular one is of the latter variety.

Tall trees

Tall tree, stand in the distance
Remember when you were green
Don't wipe the salt from your skin
You must keep running the distance

Crowded House

Laneside

One of the offices where I sometimes work is on a strange business park. Enclosed all around with a high, high fence all the buildings were built in the sixties in a mock twenties style. The roads around the site are all signposted, even though there are no buildings on them that need addresses. The road that goes around the park is a big circle, nothing more. It's like a strange, low-rent version of Portmeirion, but something about it fascinates me. It's strangely genteel, in a run-down sort of way.

Gnomes!

Yup. It's gnomes. Does it really need any further explanation?

I made this! Wedding cupcake of epic proportions

The cupcake was 10 cups in volume, both the top and the bottom are sponge, sandwiched with buttercream. The top is iced with white sugarpaste icing and decorated with blue edible glitter. Around the base are Love Hearts.


The result of a considerable amount of blood, sweat and tears of baking frustration. I'm so glad they liked it on their special day.

No Entry

I don't know what it is about dereliction that I find so alluring. I just can't resist it.

Lime Avenue, Westonbirt Arboretum

I want to go back.

More sky?

It was inevitable, really.

Autumn trees at Westonbirt Arboretum

Today was mine and Mr G's wedding anniversary. We took the day off from work, packed a picnic and took  a drive to Westonbirt Arboretum.

The last time we went there, we went for the forestry side which is more like a woodland park. We went to the old arboretum this time, which is more of a tree garden with open spaces and loads of benches for people to sit and listen to the rustling in the leaves.

I'm posting this with my friend Alex in mind, who loves being amongst the trees. I thought of her while I was there.

Orange chrysanthemums

Orange chrysanthemums from the park in the summer. Other things are turning russet and gold now, just a month later. Tomorrow I’ll be off to an arboretum to spend the day amongst the falling leaves. I’ll try not to bomb the place with pictures of Japanese maples and carpets of fallen foliage when I return.

The Yardarm

There was a pub in Cardiff Bay called The Yardarm. It's now derelict and all that remains of its identity is the ironwork in the window that is smashed and broken.

Ringu

This is one of the most effective pieces of graffiti I've seen in a long time. It genuinely gave me the creeps when I rounded the corner in the alleyway where it was sprayed, surrounded by tags and 'CCFC 4 EVA'. It really stood out.

The South Wales Soft Fruit Massacre

You can't make a cherry pie without blowing out a few cherry brains...

An eye for detail

My eye tends to focus on the detail in things. Pattern and regularity. Randomness and idiosyncracy. Colour and shape. I have loads of pictures of paving and bricks. I just can’t help myself.

I'm nothing if not fixated

Why yes, I am obsessed with sky. Thanks for noticing...

Cardiff Bay at sunset

This evening we went to Cardiff Bay before sunset. We ate fish and chips, then I lay with my head in his lap until the sun had gone down completely, watching the sky and listening to seagulls crying overhead.

I’ve not felt that peaceful in a long time.

Kodak paper

A little later than advertised...

A little while ago, I got together with some family and looked through old photographs of distant relatives long since dead. My cousin looked at me a little strangely when I asked if I could take a picture of the box that the photos were stored in. What can I tell you? I'm a sucker for retro.