he followed the sun & she followed the stars & in dreams they listenedclosely for the beginning of all things, for that was where they knewthey'd find each other

he followed the sun & she followed the stars & in dreams they listened closely for the beginning of all things, for that was where they knew they'd find each other, a photo by boo * on Flickr.

I've been reworking up some old shots to try and get a folder of images organised to stock my empty Etsy shop! Its been a manic last few days; I decided to completely reinstall my operating system in order to try and get my aging Mac running a little faster. All was well and good - after I'd cleared space on my external hard drive, until I came to reinstall my applications. Needless to say, my chaotic life means lost discs, no record of serial numbers etc. So Flickr, blogging - all ground to a halt. But slowly I'm getting back up and running...

The Happy Royal Wedding Campers

It's been quite a while since I added to my blog and a lot has happened over the past week and a half. The first piece, of quite terrible (although not unexpected) news, was that my job - in fact the entire team I work with, has been put at risk. Effectively, this will mean redundancy as it appears we are being replaced by an unqualified and untrained team. As my team give efficient and successful teaching in literacy and numeracy to students on vocational subjects, who in the main do not have basic GCSE qualifications, despite the fact that the vocational equivalent they are studying is (in my case) A'level standard - I don't quite see how the new plan is going to work. Only yesterday I corrected a student's essay with her - to discover that the vocational tutor had corrected it already. The first example I came across was that the students had typed the word 'consists'. Absolutely correct, nothing wrong with it. The vocational tutor, untrained and unqualified in English, had crossed this out and written her correction; 'consite'. The essay proceeded with at least TWENTY FIVE similar examples!!!! The student, who is dyslexic, was in a terrible state, asking me why she had gone so wrong. And diplomatically I had to explain she hadn't - and all her careful work was correct. I am looking at redundancy. I cannot apply to join a team, to do the same work I am doing at present for half the money, over three quarters of the year and to see years of training, qualifications and experience be equated with others who have none of these things.

Despite the shock -and I felt, and still feel it deeply, we, (twenty five of us) embarked on our long awaited 'Royal Wedding Camp'.

We met at our chosen campsite in Cromer, to discover that our excitement was about to be severely dampened. My friend Maureen had been given a brand new Bell Tent for Christmas and was literally jumping for joy at the thought of its first outing. Can you imagine her distress when the tent was hauled from its bag, to discover that despite the assurances of the company, there were no poles, no tent pegs and no guy ropes. I thought the whole trip was going to fall apart. But no, M and her husband G were made of sterner stuff. They raced all the way back to Norwich, managed to make Go Outdoors by 7.45, grabbed the first tent that could squeeze 6 of them in, paid over £250 and returned to the camp site as darkness was settling in to put up the replacement.

 

The next calamity was when a 2nd group of friends, comprising the owner of the fab 1821 Art Gallery and her family, discovered they'd arrived without any bedding. Undeterred, they accepted gratefully my partner's dust sheets and plastering blankets that he'd left in the car. And a third group of friends, also arrived with a tent without tent poles. Luckily (as I'd sold them the tent!) they returned to Norwich to discover they'd left them behind in the under stairs cupboard. As for myself - I'd managed to forget toothbrush and mugs. But my Bell Tent looked wonderful, despite the additional pain it must have given poor Maureen, to see what she was so close to having had.

On Friday morning, we leapt from our various tents, cooked breakfast 

(isn't funny how when you're camping you feel so healthy and yet you put away more cooked breakfasts than you ever would at home?) and then raced down to The Welliington in the centre of Cromer where we had been promised they would be showing the Royal Wedding. What a fab morning! The pub was packed - they'd supplied loads of cakes for us to eat and the entire place was decorated with bunting! And what could be a better excuse than a pub venue to watch the wedding of the decade, than to drink double G&Ts all morning??!!

We meandered back to our camp site after the balcony appearance to set out our wedding tea. Friends arrived from Norwich for our alternative street party - and although the wind picked up quite sharply, we all enjoyed the food which covered every inch of our tables!

It was lovely to see all our teenagers, (14 in total), enjoying themselves in the fresh air.

Now, I've rambled on far too long - but the weekend was fab and I (and the two others of our party affected by losing jobs) were able to forget, for a while, the horrors of losing our jobs.

My Girls and Me

My Girls and Me, a photo by boo * on Flickr.

We had a lovely, but very quiet Easter day. Although we'd been planning a picnic, the weather was so gorgeous and the garden was looking so welcoming, that we ended up taking all the food outside and eating there. We had the little fountain running, and we pulled the benches around the pond. Perfect! In the cool of the later afternoon, we took the dogs up to Mousehold Heath, a huge expanse of heath, woodland and open spaces we are lucky enough to have just 5 minutes walk away. It always amazes me that in one direction I have acres of wild countryside, and ten minutes walk in the other direction, I am in the middle of a busy medieval city. It's been so lovely having Ella home for a whole week and I shall really miss her when she returns to university tomorrow.

Via Flickr:
It's very rare to have a photo taken of myself with my daughters - they have grown up to be beautiful young women - in every sense of the word. I am so proud of them!

Getting Ready for Glamping!

For the Royal Wedding weekend, 25 of us (a motley bunch of 40 somethings and their accompanying teens) are heading for Cromer for a long weekend in our tents!! I am sooo excited about getting my beautiful Bell Tent out of its winter wrappings! One of my friends who is coming along too - got her Bell Tent as a Christmas present and we can't wait to see them up together! In preparation, my daughter Flora and I spent yesterday making bunting. We chose 5 different Amy Butler designs, and John Lewis cut them into 20cm lengths. This was enough for us to create two lengths of bunting, one for my Bell Tent, and one for Flora's brand new and oh so exciting classic orange Vango tent. She likes to have her own tent, and for the past few camp trips she's had a basic £30 model from Tesco. This has always done the job - until the last two camping trips. In Wales she got drowned out on her first night - and in Norfolk she almost blew away in hurricane conditions. So the Tesco tent is being relegated for festivals (my older teens seem to like these) and we splashed out on the orange expedition classic. Off for my first golf lesson of this season (yes, golf) - you'll hear more about that in a future post - and I'll leave you with these two pics of the bunting in progress.

Quiet Times

This is a very quiet week. I'm back at work, but there are no students, so the college is a vast space with a few members of staff and the occasional student who comes in to se the library. Ive spent the time catching up on my CPD - (professional development) - which as teachers we have to undertake. Yesterday I completed the essential Data Protection online course - and also carried on with my own CPD project. This involves trying to understand what it feels like to be told that your sketchbook doesn't have enough writing in it!! And where there is writing, how to make it analytical and evaluative. So, maybe some shots soon on how that's progressing! in the meantime, some springtime blossoms to give pleasure.

Both pictures above have been processed using Pixel Lounge's fab overlays, which I am enjoying so much at the moment. Below, is one of them with a different colour - I wasn't able to choose which one I preferred!!

A walk to blow away the winter cobwebs

We finally made it out to West Runton, to walk the three miles along the beach to Cromer. Once there we treated ourselves to chips, the best freshly made donuts, freshly ground coffee and finally - an ice cream!! Perfect food for a trip to the coast!!

West Runton looking towards Cromer.

Reaching Cromer, a quintessential English seaside town, full of Victorian charm and the best freshly made donuts we have come across!!

Cromer Pier.

Back at West Runton, the view if we continued along the coast westwards...

What makes me happy?

1. When I spend a while on a photograph and Photoshop and I end up really pleased with the result! I used a photo I had of an acer in my garden, which had very shallow depth of field. I cropped it to the shape I wanted. Using a texture and overlay from the talented Pixel Lounge, I played with contrast, magic brush and contrast levels. Nothing seemed to be working. It was almost there - for a few minutes I was stumped. And then I remembered 'curves'. I love curves! And curves worked their magic and gave me a result I am actually really happy with!

 

It will be interesting to see what the reaction is on Flickr - often, when I really like something, it doesn't pull the same admiration from my contacts!! Conversely, when I'm not that happy with a pic - it tends to gather quite a few faves!