I had a prang in the car this morning.....

a dog ran out in front of me whilst driving to work. Why couldn't it have been a small dog?!?!?! It was a St Bernard, it got up and ran away, but it has really damaged my car quite badly. It is going into the garage tomorrow to be assessed, I will take a photo of it tonight and post it so that you can see how much damage a St Bernard can do to a car going at about 25MPH!!!

Chris and I did a talk at Photography Club last night!!!

We didn't really know how it was going to go down, as most of the membership is male and over 60....

We decided to talk about how we had got interested in photograhy.....which was, of course, through scrapbooking. We started by asking the members where they kept their old photos, you know, the ones your parents handed down to you....... the answers came back, as expected, in a box under the stairs.....in the bottom of the wardrobe........at the top of the book case. We then asked if they knew who ALL the people were in the photos and where, when and why the photos were taken. Mostly they shook their heads.....so far so good.

We then went on to explain what Scrapbooking or Memory albums were and how we started doing it. They seemed very interested, even asked questions as we went on. I don't think we will have any new members to our scrapbooking club, but now they know what we do with the photographs we take, and that we really can be serious when the mood takes, it just doesn't take us that way very often!!!! :)

Have had puter problems

Paul decided to "fiddle" with the registries, and we lost Windows!!!

So puter has been in hospital for a few days, but as you can see, it is back now and I am trying to find my way around again!!!!

Why does everything move when puters go into hospital?!?!?! One wonderful thing though, it went in with Photoshop, and came out with CS2!!!!

Vikki had her birthday on the 26th, she is now 28!!! doesn't time fly!?!?!

We went round to Adam's dads' house and his wife Viv made us a fabulous dinner. A full roast with beef and pork with almost every veg imaginable!!! Unfortunately, I had had to go to the dentists that afternoon, and had a huge filling, but I managed to eat almost everything. Dessert was a wonderful home made trifle, yummy. Had a wonderful evening, Vikki thought it went well too, so that's good.

Vikki and I went down to London on the 29th for the weekend, we saw "Dirty Dancing" the musical on stage at the Aldwych Theatre in Covent Garden. It was absolutely fantastic, the stage was spectacular, the dancers were brilliant, the singers were "just like the real thing". If you like the film - Vikkis' favourite ever film - you will thoroughly enjoy the West End Show!!!

I think Vikki wants to go again, but this time I think she would rather go with her girlfriends, as I think I slowed down her shopping in Covent Garden on the Sunday, but she was very patient, letting her dear ol' mum stop to take photos of everything!!!!! :)

Although the photos didn't turn out very well at all!!!!! :(

Middle of September already!!!

Here we are and it is the middle of September already, it is my "littlest's" birthday on Sunday, he will be 25 - he says he is getting old now - a quarter of a century!!!!

I am going to see James Last on Sunday with my mum, my sister and my friend Chris. My mum has been asking me to find a concert she could go to see him for the last few years, but he hasn't done any that she could get to. So when she read that he was coming to England for his "farewell tour" this year she tried to get tickets through a coach company. They couldn't guarantee that they could get a ticket with no steps, as she has difficulties with too many steps - so she was resigned to the fact that she wouldn't get to see him.

So I surfed the net, and found some tickets at Manchester MEN for Sunday night, I rang and they had 4 tickets in the disabled section, so I bought them.

Had a phone call from my sister about 2 hours ago, to say that my mum isn't well, she has a bad chest. My sister is going to see her, as I am in work, and is going to try to persuade her to go to the doctors, but I know my mum won't go!!!!

I just hope that she is well enough to go on Sunday.....

Chris and I started another on line photography course again last week, we are trying to learn about Aperture priority photography at the moment, so we had a play last night, I took about 100 photos of her living room, using different Apertures, Shutter speeds and ISO settings!!! I haven't looked at them all yet, but I would think almost all of them will be rubbish :)

Have given up on the Acupuncture for my knee, everything started off fine, I definitely found it a help to begin with, but recently I have had more pain - enough sometimes to take a painkiller, which I don't like taking!!!!!

Got to go now, will try to post some photos from the photography course in the next couple of days......

Middle of September already!!!

Check out my Slide Show!

Morning....

It is the 11th of August already......



Last Sunday Chris and I went to Leeds to the Golden Acre Park, a beautiful place, only minutes from the city centre. It has a formal garden, a large lake, with ducks and geese and a woodland walk. Took loads of photos, including this one of some "wild" californian poppies, I quite like this photo, and might even use it in the photographic society competition











I also like this photo as well....it was taken down a country lane, while we were looking for red kites, which we were reliably informed were there.....but they must have been having a siesta, as they were nowhere to be seen. This seed head popped its head up above the hedgerow, and was silhouetted against a bright cornfield, I thought it would make an interesting photo, and it actually came out how I wanted it to......for a change!!!! :)




I took yesterday afternoon off work, as the sun was shining, but by the time I got home the sun had gon in, so I had a "play" in the garden. I wanted to get a picture of the fuschia, but I wanted to have the pollen in focus but the flower out of focus, and this photo was straight out of the camera, the only thing I did in photoshop was cropped and re-sized for the internet. I can't believe that I actually got the photo as I wanted.....






Chris and I are out all day today scrapbookin, and then Vikki and I are doing a carboot sale tomorrow at the Chester Rugby Club. Mum wants to get rid of her cabinets in the living room but needed to empty them first. So we went up on Thursday night and wrapped it all up ready for the car boot tomorrow. Just need to look around now for anything I need to get rid of as well.

Speak to you again soon

It's the 1st of August....

....As promised I have come back to post more often :)

On Sunday Chris and I went to Tatton Park in Cheshire and took quite a few photos, mostly flowers, but did manage to get a photo of a few aeroplanes, which were taking off from Manchester Airport every few minutes.......

On Monday night, we decided to go to Chester, down by the river, as the sun was going down, to get some photos of the river at dusk.

I quite like this photo, it is a bit different to the photos I usually take.

Enough of photos, what else has happened since I last posted???? i made an appointment at the dentist for a 6 monthly check up back in January, and the appointment was for tonight at 4:45, why is it, that I started with a tooth ache last Thursday???? She couldn't find a reason for the pain, so I am using Sensitive toothpaste, to see if that improves it...we will have to wait and see.

Chris and I are going to Leeds on Sunday, to meet up with our friends from http://www.photography4allforum.co.uk/ which is a photography forum we belong to. We are hoping that the weather will hold until at least Monday, as every time we all meet up, the weather isn't too good....

I have lost another 2lbs so I have now lost 36.5 lbs in total.....still a long way to go.

I have another lot of acupuncture tomorrow, on my knee..... this will be the third go, it does seem to be helping, but would probably be better if I gave it a rest at the weekends :)

Magical March "Me Treat" in Mollington, near Chester

Forgot to tell you all that a friend is arranging a "Metreat" in a wonderful Hotel just outside Chester http://moiramcadam.blogspot.com/

If I knew how to attach a link I would.....will have to see Chris to give me a lesson.....it is such a shame when you are old and lose touch with technology

Amended to read that I have managed to figure out how to attach a link :)

OOPS

I seem to have been neglecting my blog lately, a lot of things have happened since I last posted "a few weeks ago" ;)

For one, I had my birthday on March 27th, I have been away to Brecon with Chris to the Scappers unlimited Retreat, when the weather was glorious we took rather a lot of photos on the way there and even more on the way back!!!!This photo was taken in the grounds of the hotel



This photo of a bluebell was taken on the way home at Berrington Hall



We went to Betws y coed in March, this is my favourite photo from this trip



Also quite like this candid of a photographer by the river......



At Easter, Paul and I booked a "last minute" weekend at a hotel called Bosworth Hall, near Leicester. I can't say that I was very impressed with the hotel, but we had a lovely weekend, and the weather was very good to us......little did we know that that was our summer!!!!!

A couple of photos, this is the hotel....



I got up at 6am on the Sunday morning to get this sunrise. I must say, that I just love this photo, and I was crossing my fingers as I was taking it, hoping that it would come out OK.....



In May, chris and I did a photo session with my daughter Vikki, we both got some rather nice photos.....



and



In June Chris and I went to Bodnant Gardens in North Wales, near to Colwyn Bay, and took some fabulous photos....

The Laburnum Grove



And this young man was "strutting his stuff" trying to impress the ladies....



On the 6 june, Chris and some of her friends from work ran the Race For Life at Chester Zoo, I was nominated the official photographer, because I couldn't even walk it due to my "gammy" knee.

Chris........



About a 100 metres from the finish line.....



At the end of June Paul and I went to our favourite Hotel Thorseby Hall in Nottinghamshire, where we were meeting a couple form Kent who we had met there last year......



This is another peacock who was "strutting his stuff" but the poor thing doesn't even have a peahen to show off too - poor thing!! However, he was very good and just stood there and posed for me!!!!



i had taken wome wild bird seed with us, and fed the birds every morning and afternoon, this little chap was one of the very many who came to feed....



In July i went to Center Parcs in the Lake District with my mum, sister, brother in law, daughter and her partner, son and his partner, nephew and his partner, and little nephew and his mate.

We had a wonderful week, and it only rained on the Thursday afternoon...... Here is Vikki doing a tree trek!!



and Vikki and Mand, my eldest nephews' girlfriend.....



Enough of photos!!!!

I am back on my diet and have lost nearly 6lbs in 2 weeks, making 36.25lbs, which in English money is 2 stone 8.25 lbs!!! I want to have lost 4 stone by Christmas, but would really love to have lost 4.5 stone!!!! We will have to wait and see.........

Speak soon

Gill
xx

Your Dominant Intelligence is Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

You are great at finding patterns and relationships between things. Always curious about how things work, you love to set up experiments. You need for the world to make sense - and are good at making sense of it. You have a head for numbers and math ... and you can solve almost any logic puzzle. You would make a great scientist, engineer, computer programmer, researcher, accountant, or mathematician.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

I have lost another 4 lbs

I have been trying to lose weight now for the last 15 months, as I now know that I need a knee replacement before I am 60, I know that I cannot afford to sit on my laurals and allow the weight to go back on again. Since my second knee operation in December last year, I have put on about half a stone :( So this week, I gave myself a kick up the bum (very difficult to do, especially when you have a gammy knee!!) and decided that I had to make a concerted effort to start my healthy eating plan again.

It has worked, because, today I got onto the scales and I have lost 4 lbs this week. Another 4lb to lose to get back to where I was before Christmas!!!

I would be happy to lose 2 stone this year but would prefer if I could lose another 3 stone by this Christmas, that is a target of 1 lb a week!! I think I can manage that......we will see.

I will tell you now and not a lot of pwople know this!!! On January 3 2005 when I plucked up the courage to get onto the scales I was horrified to find out that I weighed 17 stone and 2 lbs. I knew that you had to be under 17 stone to have an MRI scan, which I had to have the following week, and I was petrified that I would get stuck in the damn thing!!!!

Today I weigh 14 stone and 4 lbs (a loss of 40lbs). So if I get my wish, and be a VERY good girl until Christmas, I could be somewhere between 11 and 12 stone!! Then I will take it as it come, if I feel OK at that weight, I will try to maintain it, but if I feel I could afford to lose a bit more, I will.........we will see.

We're going to Crickhowell

Chris and I are going to Crickhowell in South Wales on the 11 April to see our friends from Scrappers Unlimited!!!

We are leaving on Wednesday afternoon, and staying in a hotel in Llandidrod Wells and travelling the rest of the way on the Thursday morning.

We have booked our classes and an extra nights stay at the hotel on the Saturday night, so we will be exhausted when we get home, and I will need a day off to recover!!!!

When I was leaving the house this morning, an ambulance was going down our lane (it is a cul de sac) and as I got to the bottom of the drive it went back up the lane. As I was going through our village, it came back out of another lane - think he was lost - I though " I hope the poor person who is waiting for it isn't dying!"

At about 8.30 my DS rings me from A & E, his girlfriend had fallen down the stairs and hurt her back!!! Yes you'ce got it - it was their house they were looking for. Their house is on the other side of the valley to ours, no wonder it took 15 minutes to reach their house (I haven't told DS about it yet!!!!

Anyway, she was on a spinal board in A & E, after tripping half way down the stairs and hurting her back on the way down. I haven't heard anything else yet, DS hasn't called, so I am assuming that no news is good news at the moment.

Will give him a call, if he doesn't call soon.

I am at work on my lunch hour, and have forgotten to bring my book to read, so I thought I would update my blog, because Chris will shout at me if I don't!!!!

Off to the gym after work, and to have a nice healthy tea there afterwards too.

I have been very naughty, and not posted in my blog for 6 months :(

I am so sorry for this, and I promise that I will do better in the future.

I have had another operation on my knee since I last posted, and I now know that I have to have a knee replacement - but not until I am 60, and I am 52 next week!!! So I have a while to wait :(

I am really enjoying my photography, and here are a few photos I have taken in recent months



This photo was taken in November at Lower Slaughter in the Costwolds, on the way home from the Scrappers Unlimited Scrapbooking Retreat in Gloucester.







This photo was taken of the River Dee at Eccleston, just outside Chester last year, we were attempting to get Autumn colour, but for some reason the autumn colours were later this year.

Chris and I have bought a light tent, so that we can take still life photos under controlled lighting conditions, and here are some of the photos taken using it




























And I couldn't post these without letting you see how we managed to take them so here is a photo of Chris taking one of the photos





Chris and I went on a trip on the "Ferry across the Mersey" a couple of weeks ago, with a couple of friends from a Wirral Photography forum, here are a few of the photos taken on that trip










The first is of the oil depot at Eastham, the second is of the Liver Bird on the top of the Liver Buildings, the third is of the Liverpool Waterfront, and the last one is of the Pilot boat coming across the river to the Birkenhead landing stage. (I particularly like this photo)

What else has happened in the last 6 months? VIkki, my daughter moved house to Helsby on the 1 December, and she also had to undergo surgery on the 5 February, she had a cyst in her neck. All is well and there were no complications.

Paul, my husband took early retirement from Vauxhall Motors at the end of September, and has now had 6 months off work, and is bored, He is starting a new job as a gardener/handy man at a local Home for the Elderly, it is 18 hours a week, so it will keep him active and he will still be able to do the housework and cook my tea :)

I think that that is enough for now, and I will try to post a little more often in the future

Bye