umdenken umm

The lovely photo newletter photojojo is fairly new to me but I’m coming to rely on it a source of interesting and amusing little photo related thingys.  The latest issue has the 10 second tealight photo holder, which is a cunning little creation.

The tealight photo holder is one of a number of bizarre creations at umdenken. Some are pure genius, some pure comedy and some quite unfathomable, like bauchschmucker, which babel fish translated as ‘more belly-neatly’.

crashing waves

Lovely weekend in Dorset with friends and our goddaughter. We went walking by the incredible Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door. It’s one of those areas that I’ve been quite close to a number of times and never gotten round to going to. It lived up to all expectations and was made all the more impressive by the looming clouds.

peat puddle

Its a long way to Northumberland but it was worth it. Just had a lovely weekend in the Cheviots. A bad weather forecast turned out to be wrong and we had a good days walking, including a stop over in Scotland for lunch. Moors in the morning, mushroom-laden woods in the afternoon.

Big Dave’s Gusset

It has been a favourite piece of graffiti of mine for years, I must have passed it hundreds of times on the train from London Bridge. Now In the Aquarium has solved one of London’s great mysteries, and even corresponded with Big Dave himself. Here is the story behind Big Dave’s Gusset.

Ivy Maud Cooper - 1909 - 2006

My grandma died last week, her funeral was this week. She was 97, after a healthy old age she broke her hip in a fall at the start of the summer and declined from there. It wasn’t unexpected when I got the call, I was at the top of Pillar in the Lake District when I heard. My feelings were stoical and practial; I was sad without being upset, knew that she was ready to go and glad that she wasn’t in pain any more.

The funeral hit everyone a lot harder than we were expecting. My extended family only really get together at events, but for years, decades now, the events have only been weddings. There were a lot of tears for the only surviving member of a generation of one family. My job was to read a poem, I didn’t do so well, I hadn’t expected the massive wave of emotion that swept through the crematorium, when I was practicising the poem in the kitchen a few days earlier. The peom was Song by Christina Rossetti.

When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on as it in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise not set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.

My grandama had a good life, I knew very little of it. I knew an old lady who had all her marbles and a few more, a cracking sense of humour, a genuine interest in people and life and a love of strong cheese sandwiches. My mum had put up a display of old photos. They were fantastic, images of a person that I’d never connected with my grandma before; a young couple wearing swimming costumes, on a beach with their daughter. A group of friends in 1930’s tennis whites, posing with their rackets. A young woman being given a piggy back by her husband.

Illgill Head and Wast Water

Rain and the Lake District

It’s supposed to rain in the Lake District

And it did.

We’re just back from a week in the Lake District. It was lovely and it rained, which is to be expected in October. We were camping and managed to stay dry all week until the final night when water started to rise up into the tent. The walking was good, we got in the Mosedale Horeshoe. Illgill Head was an alternative on the day when the weather was so bad it would have been a bit silly to go up Scafell Pike as originally planned. Over the top of Illgill was good, the route back round the base was a bit tricky, involving lots of boulder scrambling. Slimy, spikey boulders in the rain aren’t ideal and I ended up tearing my jacket and waterproof trousers, gashing my boots and smacking my knee. All of which was more than enough battle scarring for one day.

I’m now sat on the sofa with that horrible constricted feeling you get when you’re back in a building after spending a lot of time outside. It feels too stuffy and quiet.

still here

I was trying to get myself back into the habit of posting more regularly but then I got struck down with flu (everyone always seems to say flu these days for when they just have a sniffle) a cold and have been struggling to keep up with the day to day stuff.  Here’s a summary;

• Eagerly awaiting my MOO cards, as offered by the lovely Flickr
• Got a copy of I’m from Barcelona’s new album ‘Let Me Introduce My Friends’, it’s OK but We’re from Barcelona is the standout track
• Lucy has some lovely photos of (lovely looking) food
• Heard about the Margate Exodus earlier in the week, sounded interesting and now it’s happened
• Google Sync was mentioned on the Productivty Show but frankly I’m not too impressed. The backup element is useful but it’s clunky and got a bit annoying

Second hand books

Second hand bookshops are the best of all bookshops, particualrly given the route that the big chain bookshops are taking these days. The range of books available in the chain stores is going down, while shoppers are spoonfed publishers selections through the three for two deals. In second hand bookshops the books you are lucky finds, sometimes gems, books with their own history. I came across the wonderful Tlon Books at Elephant and Castle today. I was pushed for time so wasn’t able to spend that much time in the shop, but I did manage to finally pick up a copy of Austerliz along with Colette’s Cheri and Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood.

blackberries

It’s a good year for blackberries this year. These lovely specimens were picked shortly after this photo was taken on a walk in Kent yesterday. Pie and crumble to follow.