What do you say when you haven't seen someone for a long time?

When I was small, relatives usually said "My, how you've grown". I've tried desperately not to say that to my young relatives but I've slipped up a few times.

So....

It's been forever since I last blogged and the DH has started blogging himself (here). He asks me whether I've seen his latest post which is what I used to say to him, so I've been feeling that I should perhaps resume my blog. 

I need to make a few changes to update the look and feel of the thing but the good news is that there is lots to say and hopefully I'll avoid the tired clichés.

 From the DH's blog post about the phantom flutterer

Getting the right camera angle

So....
A long time ago I was invited to spend a morning at the Durban Botanic Gardens. The guy who suggested we go said he usually took his camera along so of course I said that he should do what he usually does.
When he unpacked (yes, unpacked) his camera I realised that this was a serious hobby. I had been expecting an SLR camera but not the large selection of lenses.
One of the things that impressed me was his attention to detail while taking photographs. I now have pics of him from various trips on his knees and elbows getting just the right angle.
A few weeks ago we went away together, and here, side-by-side, are two photos that we took, both with our phone cameras.

I love that his seriousness and attention to detail has resulted in effortless brilliance.

Moss magnified

Well, in this post I promised some amazing photos and here they are:

What makes them so amazing is that these images are of moss (that furry stuff that grows inbetween paving stones) and the large grains are actually soil. I think they look like succulents and beach sand.

They are photos taken using a microscope that connects to a computer that my husband bought from adafruit.com to use with his electronics projects. For example...

Add a little sparkle

We had some fun last night playing with sparklers that I bought on the weekend. 

I'd particularly like to thank Busy Bee Lauren for the inspiration and my husband for the photography.

Owl imprint from BBC news

From BBC News, this almost perfect imprint of an owl that bumped into a glass window. It is presumed that the owl survived the impact because it could not be found in the area outside the window.

The silhouette was left by the bird's powder down - a substance protecting growing feathers

The view from up here

I've been struggling with anxiety out of all proportion to my situation for the last couple of months and when I wake up on a Sunday and have a view like this one, I take a moment to just be glad I'm alive, with family, and with time to relax and enjoy the day. Those tiny white specks on the sea are yachts. My camera is just a leetle one and doesn't really do justice to the stark contrast between the white sails and the dark blue sea. 

Luckily for me, my husband is the photographer in the family and when we go on holiday we come back with a couple of family photos by me and a stack of stunning photographs of scenery, buildings, animals and insects by my husband. One mistake we made on our last holiday overseas was not to take a photo of the two of us together. I'm not going to make that mistake again...

Winter Wonderland

I've been admiring Tania Kindersley's photos of her bit of Scotland in winter (her blog Backwards in High Heels is a daily treat) and because I have been trying to convince my husband to visit England in winter, I came across some photos of Kew Gardens in the snow. 
This one is my absolute favourite though. It's by BearTomCat (BTC) / John. He's an amateur photographer who seems to mostly do macro photography but this icy statue is just perfect. It's called Hercules in Ice.

Here is today's view from my window. The horizon in almost invisible so I'm guessing that out there it's still bad weather. It always makes me stop and think when I realise that at the same time that we are having such warm and humid weather, another part of the globe has snow and ice. Somehow for me, it puts my life into perspective, that I am just a small link in a giant chain that is human life on earth.

On a clear day you can see forever

My title today is the title of a 1965 play by Alan Jay Lerner and later a 1970 film starring Barbara Streisand. It's a phrase that has always lodged in my mind because I love places where you can stand and look from left to right and see the horizon in all directions. I'm lucky enough to live in Durban and in a house with a sea view (so covetable) which shows the far off horizon to the East. I'm thinking of starting a series of the same view because our weather has been so very changeable recently and the series may prove interesting. I've been inspired by Tania Kindersley of Backwards in High Heels. Thank you Tania.

Fridays and Christmases seem to come around faster every time

For those of you who are on holiday, will be going on holiday or wish you were on holiday, here's my quote of the week (photo by my husband):

"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars,
you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."

Earth as Art

Byrd Glacier, Antarctica

Sometimes I like being reminded that life in all its forms is utterly awesome. The image and text are from Wired Science

Truly a river of ice, Antarctica's relatively fast-moving Byrd Glacier courses through the Trans-Antarctic Mountains at a rate of 0.8 kilometers [0.5 miles] per year. More than 180 kilometers [112 miles] long, the glacier flows down from the polar plateau (left) to the Ross Ice Shelf (right). Long, sweeping flow lines are crossed in places by much shorter lines, which are deep cracks in the ice called crevasses. The conspicuous red patches indicate areas of exposed rock.

Image taken by Landsat 7 on Jan. 11, 2000

Interconnectedness of all things

Origami-type folded paper terrier (circa 1945)

Rear view of paper folded terrier

The i heart market this weekend put so many ideas into my head and re-inforced so many concepts that were "seeding" in my mind. It reminded me of the Herman Mellville quote: "We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibres connect us with our fellow men; and among these fibres as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes and they come back as effects"


The doggie in the pictures on the right belongs to my father. It was made by a sailor who was in hospital in Pietermaritzburg around the end of World War II. I was inspired to take these photos because I bought an origami paper weave bracelet from Denise at Freshly Found that reminded me of the folding technique on the dog.

I browsed to my heart's content and saw so many of my own ideas represented in various forms and bought some beautiful, original Christmas presents. I am so deeply moved by the large number of people who are making original products, often by hand. And others who are recycling in the most interesting and creative ways. The market feels like a haven of natural charm and simplicity. One of the stall-holders said a quick goodbye to the item I bought. It seemed that what had been created was like a child that was now being sent out into the world.


I wanted time to write down all of the things that had inspired me but alas, the weekend is truly over and I will have to find time to do it during the week.





*Update: I inadvertently misattributed the quote above. I've just found out via Wikipedia that the quote was not by Herman Mellville (an American novelist) but rather by Henry Melvill (Canon of St Paul's Cathedral)

Oh what a wonderful holiday

Despite hailstones the size of marbles...

The necessity for a complete getaway took us to Cathedral Peak Hotel for a week. Just looking at their WeatherWebcam showing the tea garden and the mountains in the background proves it's a very restful place to get away from city life and daily worries.

On Monday night (1st November) there was a brief thunderstorm which developed into a hailstorm. We have a friend with a fantastic photo of a bolt of lightning and I was hoping we would get a chance to catch some similar images but the storm was over too quickly. Not that I mind about the rain stopping. My husband tends to get gloomy when he can't take photos.

I got the chance to catch up on some reading (biographies and the latest British Vogue) while my husband added almost 1000 photographs to his portfolio.

I know the break did me a lot of good. I feel as though some of the cobwebs in my brain have been cleared away. Now to set out my goals for the next few weeks and months...