05/02/2011 by Aileen.

Down to Oxford today for Alexander’s first birthdy party. It’s going to be a big celebration with both sides of the family and some friends. We were going to go yesterday, staight after my Creative Writing and John’s midday client - stay in a Premier Inn for a night as Martin was in Cardiff for the rugby and Fiona and I wouldn’t be able to get John up the slope into the house. (Steps out of the question, and grass too steep in the dark) Anyway, John was feeling really sick on Wednesday, and on Thursday evening he noticed his lower leg was red and swollen. He self-diagnosed cellulitis. He had it before at the time he did his parachute jump. ANyway, first thing on Friday we rang the (stand-in) doctor, who asked if John shouldn’t be in hospital. He assured her no, and she prescribed anit-biotics over the phone. However, John has to keep his leg up, so we didn’t go to Oxford. I’m going today, and will just stay overnight. It’s 7.30 now. I just need to do some local shopping, then pack a few things, mainly laptop, two cameras with about 5 lenses between them, my Kindle with all its books, and maybe a change of underwear Oh, and Alexander’s pressies.

Better go now. Conscious that I haven’t written for a while again. I think it’s cos I have some photos, and I need to get them on to the laptop. Mostly fungus and snowdrops. Birds not much in evidence with the cold and wind lately. I thought I might make an effort and enter Am Photographer’s Photographer of the Year this year. The first theme is ‘Shooting Trees’ so I’ve been brainstorming the idea. Just things like shape, colour, texture, momement, sillhouettes, zooming in, bark, fallen trees etc. at the moment. I need to think of an original idea. And then of course take a fantabulous photo. The secret of a good photo is the light. Light’s been rubbish lately. That’s my excuse anyway.

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16/11/2010 by Aileen.

Well, best bit was I walked briskly for an hour yesterday. Beautiful sunny day. And although breathless I didn’t feel I was going to black out at the end of it. As I did an hour in one go I didn’t ‘have to’ do any exercise in the evening. I intended to do a bit of yoga while watching the telly, but I didn’t! See why later.

Meditation - well, Sugar came to sit on my lap. I let her, as from past experience she settles down and purrs in rhythm to my breathing, but this time, after lots of pats to remind me she was there, she began coughing/choking a bit. Although I couldn’t really do anything for her I was stroking her, and lost my concentration. Then, the time seemed to be going on for ever, and when I sneaked a peak at it I found the alarm hadn’t gone off.

For my evening meditation Sugar jumped up again, and this time settled down quickly. But then Ellie noticed, and being jealous she jumped up too. Good job my lap is big enough. We all settled down, but once again the alarm didn’t sound at the end, so I did more than intended.

This morning I discovered that I had it set to put the iPhone to sleep after twenty minutes instead of ringing. Got it right this morning.

My essay! I can’t believe how well it went. Ideas just seemed to flow, and all in a coherent order. Probably rubbish, but at least I have  lots to work with. Much better than an empty page.

Viewfinders. Really interesting talk bu Peter. He showed us these ancient glass slides recording the social history of a Hull village. The vicar took most of them in the mid-19th Century.

Then I got swamped. ‘Everybody’ had brought along their usb sticks with photos on, to put onto my laptop so I could put them on to the website. It took forever.

And in the evening. Shock horror. I don’t know where they went to on my conmputer. I thought Lightroom would leave them in the order they were imported, but it didn’t. Now I have - maybe a hundred - photos all over the place. I don’t know who took them. I’ve tried searching by metadata, but it’s going to take me forever. Can’t find them on my hard drive, but I know they are there. Help.

Anyway, this moring. Slept in until gone 9am, checked website, and it’s back to normal. (Forgot to say that it was playing up something chronic, and nothing was being uploaded). Now all I have to do is locate those pesky photos, and work out who they belong to.

Happy days. (Yes, I’m loving it.)

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04/11/2010 by Aileen.

Regular readers of this column will realise that I spend Mondays tidying, cleaning, and generally working hard. Not this Monday. I wasn’t lazy. Perish the thought. I emptied and sorted two kitchen cupboards. Picked up a repeat prescription. I must have done more, but what exactly escapes me at the moment.

But I didn’t do any hooving and dustering.

Today the place looks decidedly neglected, so out came the hoover this morning. Notice I’m not doing it yet - I’m having a delicious coffee. But my intentions are firm and honourable.

Other plans. Might do a big shop today, so I can load the car up with cardboard for recycling tomorrow. (I go past a recycling place on my way to Hedon for Creative Writing, and I do so like to synchronise car journeys) ((if you know what I mean))

I might have missed the best of the autumn leaves. It’s been so windy, and many leaves have gone. I did intend to go up to Thorpe Perrow, but might give it a miss this year. I can conentrate on close-ups nearer to home. Norma suggested the arboretum at Castle Howard, but it’s some distance still, and after last night’s wind it might not be worth it. Also, the light isn’t very good at the moment.

Oh, and the house needs doing, doesn’t it?

Before I go - we had a great morning at Potteric Carr yeserday. (Couldn’t stay longer as the rear window was being fitted in the afternoon. Anyway, the weather changed)

Here are some photos.

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14/09/2010 by Aileen.

Really, I’m very pleased with myself. One of my photos earned me joint third in the club members vote, and the same one got joint third in the members of the public vote. It was ‘Bluebell Dawn’ - first picture in a previous post.

The bluebells aren’t very distinct, as we had to give the titles to Kate a week earlier, and I just printed the substitute off at the last minute. The bluebells are there - you just can’t see them very clearly. A job for photoshop I believe. (But I won’t get round to it.)

Church Cleaning this morning. Yuck. Why did I volunteer. Oh well. I’ll feel virtuous afterwards, and the church is so pretty and well kept. Oh, I see a couple of photos coming up.

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10/09/2010 by Aileen.

Well, my ten photos are mounted, and John made us bacon sarnies for lunch. I was just juggling with boiling eggs, mixing up a tuna filling and wondering how on earth I am going to transport open sandwiches to Skidby Village Hall this afternoon, when I suddenly realised that I can make up the sarnies there. I only have to prepare the fillings now.

So I am sitting down, waiting for the eggs to boil, and writing this blog.

Bad news this morning. I got (well John got, as it’s his car) a notice of prosecution for driving at 37 miles through the village. I ‘always’ keep to the speeding limit, but it was last Saturday, when I was rushing to the farm shop before out visitors came. I guess I was on the way out of the village as I am inclined to speed up before the 40 mile sign.

Apart from that, things are good. I’llk try to upload small resolution images of my ten exhibition photos, as the printed ones are enormous files. Here goes

.       

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09/09/2010 by Aileen.

Oh I was without the internet from Sunday, and most of Saturday, until Tuesday. It doesn’t sound a tragedy, but it was for me. I kept wanting to Google to find out what was going wrong. Virgin were no help. We don’t have their router and after a while fobbed me off and said I should buy their router to get their assistance. Martin was sure the router wasn’t broken, so I kept trying to reset it. Eventually, when I came to a certain option (click yes if ‘fixed IP address’, or cancel if not) I tried clicking cancel. Suddenly - online. Yay.

Back to the weekend. Don and Chris came up with daughter Charley, and they relieved me of my car, which I never use as I prefer John’s. We’re rarely out to different places at the same time, so a second car is unnecessary,

Anyway, They treated us to a slap-up meal at Skidby Mill House Restaurant, and we had a great time.

Birding started yesterday, and we saw lots of unusual waders, including Little Stint

.

 Today is going to be hectic, as I have to print and mount ten photos for our photo exhibition. (At Skidby again by coincidence) It’s already gone one and we haven’t eaten. I went to PC World to top up on printer ink and get some good paper. Then did a big shop at Morrisons.

I am committed to a science experiment with the OU in Second Life, but daren’t log in until my photos are done. They need to be set up tomorrow. I also need to make refreshments for the exhibition opening.

Then, on Saturday, my Children’s Literature course is open online, and we can see the questions we need to answer.

So after kicking my heels all August, things are beginning to happen. Come back August, all is forgiven!

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17/08/2010 by Aileen.

Great evening yesterday. We (Viewfinders) went to Beverley Minster for a guided tour plus photography. The Minster really is a jewel. So many superlatives justly used. There is a (really good) website,

http://www.beverleyminster.org/

but here are some of my photos.

Beverley was a known centre for music centuries ago, and many of the carvings show angels with musical instruments - even bagpipes. There are some really humourous carvings e.g. these people, one with tummy ache, one with toothache.

 The fabric of the building was of the best, and really talented masons etc. were used. The minster nearly fell into decay after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but local rich merchants bought it. It still fell into a state of disrepair when the North lost it’s sheep trade (oversimplifying here) but it was restored later. First public building to use public appeal for funds. Here are some photos of the building.

After the downstairs tour some of us went up the narrow spiral stone staircase (113  steps)We couldn’t go out on to the tower as there are no barriers there at the moment, but could see through the rose windows. People had etched their names into the glass.

 The roof of the oldest part of th Minster was amazing. Someone said it was like an upside down boat. Blow me down if shipwrights (or whatever) hadn’t built it. Other roofs creak in storms, but this roof just goes with flow (pun!). It has never needed repair. Can’t remember how old this bit is, but between 13th and 15th centuries.

The tour ended with our guide getting into the (largest in England) human treadmill, and raising the heavy cupola(???) so we could look down in to the nave. You can see the beautiful tiling on the floor, and part of the Percy family memorial in the photo.

Great time. Thank you, Neil, for your knowledge and enthusiasm (sorry I’m so vague with what you told us) and thank you, Jane, for organsing the tour.

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02/08/2010 by Aileen.

I really don’t kow why I’m not writing. I’m having such a fab time these days, and I should be recording it. Let’s start at last Saturday. It was the monthly walk I have with OU friends. This time Alex invited us to her house and we had a two hour walk in her neck of the woods. Saw a kingfisher in the first few minutes. There was not much else on the walk, but then we went to Alex’s house, which is something like 17th Century, 18th Century and a 1950s kiitchen! She has a tree house, where we had a fab lunch, and then we played croquet on the lawn. It was another world! Here are a couple of photos.

I didn’t get around to posting photos of our visit to Camp Eden with ‘The Pair.’ They had a great time there, especially in the playground, which was set up as an assault course as far as I could see. John and I sat outside in the sun while they played - well it wasn’t inside, but ‘in’ the playground.

This is not to say they didn’t enjoy the exhibitions. They were fascinated.

Finally, I’ll mention today. I’ve decided (again) that I’m overweight, and must do something about it. I was 11st. 7 this morning. So I did half an hour Wii-fit this morning, and had an hour’s walk this afternoon. I also dieted (ish) I had my usual muesli with apple for breakfast, then had a ham salad for lunch. This evening was Viewfinders, so just had a beef sandwich for tea. John wasn’t hungry today, otherwise we would have had beef and mashed potatoes for lunch. (On Mondays we have to have our main meal at midday because of Viewfinders.) I enjoyed Viewfinders. We strolled along the River Hull, and ended up in a pub. I will upload the photos tomorrow.

The final final - we are expecting our OU results this week, and some people say they will come early, so I’ve been checking a lot. I’m guessing Wednesday, but that doesn’t stop me checking every 15 minutes!

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19/07/2010 by Aileen.

That’s so much to write, so little written. After CenterParcs Liam and Kieran stayed with us for the week. The weather was good and they were outside most of the time, making boats for the paddling pool. Liam also made a gun out of toilet roll and other tubes, and lots of cellotape.

We went to Honeysuckle Farm (inevitably) and altough it was showery we didn’t get too wet. The highlight was jumping on the hay bales as usual.

But the highlight of the week was going to Eden Camp.

http://www.edencamp.co.uk/

They were fascinated by the displays, and spent ages in the playground which was set up as an assault course. I will post some pictures of CenterParcs and Eden Camp separately.

Then, on Saturday, we had our annual Family Reunion at Don’s house. Rachel and Ian couldn’t come owing to work commitments, and Ali and family didn’t come down from Scotland, as they were down for the Christening recently, and also down for CenterParcs.

But we all had a great time. Got to know Charley’s boyfriend, Crouchy, better and enjoyed excellent food and company. I didn’t take many photos, but might put up a few.

Oh well, it’s Monday morning. Time to do a bit of dusting etc. Tonight it’s Viewfinders. We’re doing outdoor portraits, so I’m going to ask someone to take some snaps of me for my travel pass.

Bye all. Have a good week.

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25/06/2010 by Aileen.

It’s just too hot to do anything. No Creative Writing as it’s finitoed for the summer. Did some really leisurely housework (why does it always need doing!) and tried to read/study/surf the net, but just could not settle.

Sorted out shoes and undies.

In the afternoon I went up the Wolds in search of poppies. Ali wants me to give her two of my ‘nature’ photos with a reddish theme. Well, I have bluebells, daffodils, and multicoloured plants and butterflies, not to mention birds, but red??? I did find some poppies, and some autumnal leaves, but decided to go find some 2010 poppies. (I can drive now)

There was nothing up past Market Weighton, and I drove along lanes until I got past Londesborough, when lo and behold, a poppy field. With easy access too. I have worked on four of the photos, and will try to upload them here, but I might have to save them for web if this doesn’t happen automatically.

Tonight, Fr Neville has an ‘emergency’ meeting as the two nuns have retired from the parish and he needs to know who is doing what. (I think he wants rotas) I don’t want to go - I hate committee sort meetings, but he asked if I would.

Yesterdat John had the dentist in Hull so we had lunch in a coffee bar there and did some shopping. I’m really excited about our holiday next week. More so than Florida or any other recent holiday.

For the record, I missed Birding on Wed as I couldn’t drive. Norma rang yesterday offering to take me shopping, which was so kind of her, but day was already planned with John. Oh, and I have my embarrassing boil back. Is this what getting old is all about?

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