After the ‘take down’ at the gallery yesterday, I stopped off at Boxgrove Priory and wondered around the graveyard for a little while. Here are the some of the fruits of my labours. The full set along with the Foxglove shots from the other day can be viewed on my Flickr account. Boxgrove Priory is the perfect place for a bit of quiet photographic therapy. It’s very tranquil and and scenic. The original 12th-14th century Benedictine Priory (where regular archaeological digs take place) is situated next to the Boxgrove Church dedicated to St. Mary and St.Blaise. I didn’t take any shots of the old Priory itself yesterday, as it is well covered ground, though previous shots can also be found on my Flickr account. Essentially, this is about getting to know my new camera.

She is a funny little soul.

Old boots and blossom

We have a Cherry tree in our garden. It’s a ‘Non Fruiting Cherry’ tree. Yes, such a thing can exist and I don’t get it either. It’s a strange old thing, and in fact has a preservation order on it, much to the chagrin of the neighbour whose garden backs on to our, and who would love to see it gone. He prunes diligently any branches that over hang his garden.

It’s gnarly and has big leaves, that over the course of the summer become splotchy and not that pretty. But, we love the tree, and in fact when we moved in, our little girl who was two years old at the time, called it ‘Lizzie tree’.  However, for about two weeks out of the year during my favourite time of the year, it is in blossom, and  GLORIOUS. Big fat white Sakura blossom, and the Bees love it. When it is in full blossom, if you stand underneath it, the buzzing is intense, as there are probably about thirty bees in there, I kid you not.  We have been in the house for nearly three years now, seen three Springs, and every Spring I take pictures of the blossom, and try very hard to get a decent picture of a Bee. Have I ever succeeded in getting a good capture of one of these wonderful mini beasts?  Have I bugger! You  would think with the amount of bees in this tree at any one time I would, but no.

Suffice to say I shall keep trying, and while we are on the subject of Bees, there are some things I should mention. The British Bee is in decline. Three species are extinct already, and more are under threat. This is due to pesticides, and the erosion of their natural habitat. But there are things we can do to help. Because Bees are CRUCIAL. No Bees, no food. Check out this website about how to help Bees. It’s excellent. It’s not overlong, over wordy or too heavy, but carries some very pertinent and important content.

Now for some blossom pics from this years batch.

But, it could have been better. Reviewing my years resolutions I can safely say that few of them I was able to accomplish.   I did not lose two stone, I didn’t get fit,  I didn’t spend less time on my laptop, I wasn’t significantly nicer to my husband. There are others, but these will suffice.

However, rather than being negative, let’s look at what I did achieve.

1. I built my own online  shop on Zen Cart. A LOT of work, not just coding but understanding how a pretty nifty ecommerce solution worked.

2. I bought a new camera and filters, and learnt a lot more about the technical process of photography.

3. I improved my artistic skills and got better (in my opini0on) at painting, and sold quite a bit of art, both online and privately.

4.  I entered two very big national competitions. One photography and one original art. I wasn’t placed in either, but it was a valuable learning experience from both, and I plan to re-enter this year.

5.  Went to South Africa and survived the horrendous flight. Also, actually drove there, first time I have driven a car in a foreign country.

6.  Bought the Gocco printer I wanted and worked out how NOT to make  a mess.

7. Played my flute more than I have done for a long time.

8.  Forged some new friendships and reinforced old ones. In particular, Nicola Humphries; a lovely warm and friendly human being. Also, Andrea Roberts; kind, patient and generous. Lastly, my oldest friend Felix Muckart. We ‘found’ each other and I was able to let go of ancient hurt and heal old scars.

9.  Rebuilt two of my websites from scratch, one using a CMS and another (this one) on WordPress.

10. Bought a very good printer and started selling my own prints for my artwork.

11. Coped better than expected with my little girl starting school, joined the committee and actually made things for the school fair.

So, not too shabby. Here is what I intend to achieve in 2010.

2010 Goals and Aspirations:

1.  Be a better friend to my husband, who deserves so much more.

2.  Be a better mother (always striving) to my Orla, and spend more quality time with her, and less time on my laptop etc.

3.  Remember to count my blessings and live every day to the fullest.

4.  Continue to improve my artistic skills both technically and spiritually,  and explore new mediums. Go back to my roots somewhat and undertake new work with traditional subject matter, e.g. life drawing. Also, work my way through my Photoshop and Painter manuals and utilise my Wacom Intuos a lot more.

5.  Find one or two good, friendly and trustworthy galleries to showcase my work.

6.  Put on my own art exhibition. Not as hard as it sounds, I did it before when I was younger, I can do it again.

7.  Enter three competitions this year, both photographic and art.

8.  Play my flute every day.

9.  Start singing again.

10.  Lose two stone and start training and cycling again.

11. Cut down on my chocolate consumption and eat a healthier diet.

12.  Build a fitted wardrobe in our bedroom and redecorate my studio/workspace.

13. Save up enough money for our trip to South Africa next Christmas.

14. Start hanging all the lovely art and photography I have collected in my own home.

So that’s it.  Here is to a better year for all of us.  Striving to be a better person, and more creative. On a positive note, a gallery owner recently told me that my art was ‘an antidote to the recession’. I take that as a compliment and to be very encouraging.

EDIT:

Jessica Doyle, my talented friend has just written her 2010 Goals and tagged me. So, later on today I will tag some friends also.

Books for Christmas

And below were all carefully chosen by my lovely little girl, Orla. The green book in the middle is a lovely embroidered journal with indian Khaddi paper in, and the little pink square item on the right with a littlebutton in the middle is a tape measure, there is also a large slice of ‘cake soap’ and the bag behind is illustrated with Kokeshi dolls. The bag was bought by Luke, but everything else was chosen by her with some help and encouragement. She loved handing me my pressies and the ones she got her Daddy, and this is the first Christmas she has actively participated, and it was lovely to watcher her excitment, not only opening her own pressies, but in watching us open ours too. Hope all my friends had a wonderful Christmas. xxx

Pressies from Orla

Mummy and Orla - New 'do'

I had my hair done, and bought  a new hat. Two things always guaranteed traditionally to make a woman feel better.

I had looked forward to getting my hair done for literally months. Why wait so long? Well the fact is, earlier in the year I had dyed it dark red, and though it looked great at the time, I hated doing it because the process is messy and the dye hurt my head. Why bother at all? Well, sadly since having my little girl over four years ago,  my hair became darker, courser, wavy and a lot of grey came through. Gone was the lustrous, golden and silky mane of my youth.

Because the dye hurt so much I decided to stop colouring it all over,  grow out all the red, which has made the hair terribly dry and then have it cut and low lighted. This took months, and consequently I had to go about with this awful half head of red and grey/brown colour, and a grown out cut. A ‘non’ do in fact. I felt it looked horrendous.

So, because I felt my hair looked so bad, I kept it pulled back in a pony tail, a style not very flattering to a woman in her forties. This had the knock on effect of making me abandon my diet, and just not bother generally with my appearance. My feeling being, why bother to try and look nice when my hair looked so crap!?

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, my lovely hairdresser Kathy cut and coloured my hair, using two colours, gold and dark red. I must admit it came out looking very nice thank you. I was so chuffed, I bought one of my mate Julie’s lovely vintage inspired cloche hats (in deep velvet plum) and have invested in one or two new clothes.

New 'do'

Added to which, I got a fabulously huge magnifying mirror so I can see to put my make-up on again. Sadly,  along with many other not so lovely aspects of being in ones forties, is that I have become shockingly long sighted. I am now to be seen trotting about with a pair of glasses permanently perched on top of my head as I need to put them on to: read, eat my dinner, do my nails, make-up, cook, draw, knit etc, etc.

Suffice to say, I now feel more like me again with my new ‘do’ and some much needed makeup..when the occasion demands.

Also, c0me the new year, I shall once again take up my diet and fitness regime and put into use the workout trampolene my hubby so kindly bought me!