Chicken and door

Is this the chicken Rosie caught? She dropped it again, whichever one it was, and ran for home.

dried hydrangea

I took this when I was on holiday in Cornwall earlier this year. It was in the house we rented and it appealed to my love of dead things! It's a dried hydrangea which has faded to a beautiful soft creamy colour - I didn't tamper with the colour after photographing it at all. It sat on a window sill in the conservatory and was getting lots of light through it, giving it an ethereal look.

I've been dealing with disappointment at missing Kat's upcoming visit to the UK in October. She's holding a couple of on-location workshops and I'm going to miss both of them because I'll be away on holiday. But it's reminded me that I haven't picked up my camera enough lately and I need to do so. It's a bit like an itch that needs scratching. But I'm a little sick of taking photos of flowers, much though I love them. It's an easy non-challenging thing to do for me - a bit formulaic, and I really want to move on to other subjects. I've recently been inspired by the blog of Nichole Robertson and her beautiful book, Paris in Colour and I think I might take her idea of choosing a colour and photographing a wide range of subjects in that colour and see if I can make it work for me. It will give me focus (no pun intended!) without tying me down to a specific subject. And getting myself out of my comfort zone will encourage me to find out how to solve the problems that come with different types of photography. 

ON MY HOLIDAYS

I'm off on my holidays tomorrow to the border country of Scotland. Today the temperature is 28F in the south of England - a real indian summer. I wonder what it will be in Scotland...

BACK HOME FROM HOLS

This old red 'phone box was just down the road from the house we rented in Wales last week. I have no idea what the Welsh means - it's an impossible language to look at and make any sense of whatsoever!

And here it is in context. The box by the side of the 'phone box is an honesty box containing eggs for sale; they had the yellowest yolks I have ever seen.  We were staying in the house nearest and it was absolutely beautiful and in a stunning location. And the weather really was this good for almost the whole week.

This was the view from the eastern side of the house - so peaceful. A real tonic!