365/313: 29 December 2010: Tom’s Midnight Garden

Went to see the performance of the above at the Theatre  by the Lake in Keswick this evening. Just the right amount of spookiness to be engaging, just the right amount of humour to lighten the oddness. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a bad production there and their alternatives to Xmas pantos are always brilliant.
I already had todays photo in the bag, but thought I’d do one inspired by the show instead.

365/312: 28 December 2010: The Ambassador's Dinner Party

For all of you who remember the rather silly advert with the diplomats and their friends and the giant piles of Ferrero Rocher – here’s my tribute. Sadly I cant afford a giant pile – and even if I could I’d never keep the kids away from them for long enough to take a photo.

365/311: 27 December 2010: Buffet

Spent most of the morning beavering away on food and house preparation as we had the neighbours around for drinks and nibbles. Here’s the spread. The chilli popcorn (behind the Pringles) was a little bit zappier than intended.

365/310: 26 December 2010: Orchids - again

Obviously food, drink and inactivity have dulled my senses ‘cos I struggled to find a subject today. These orchids came up trumps again – think this is a slightly more conventional treatment than my previous shot of these.

365/309: 25 December 2010: Christmas Day

Thought this might be a different take on Christmas Day:

Also couldn’t resist this one from the back window again – although it looks remarkably summery for December:

365/308: 24 December 2010: Tarts

Mince Tarts to be precise – or are they pies? And what’s the difference? Who cares they taste delicious. These are Marion’s home-made version – distinctly preferable to shop bought ones. Can’t imagine they’ll last very long though.

And on an unrelated point – is liking ‘You belong with me’ by Taylor Swift aberrant behaviour in a 50-something bloke?

365/307: 23 December 2010: Long-tailed Tit

One of my favourite birds – and I had a whole clutch of them on the bird feeder late on this afternoon. Too dark for a shot without flash so I just got right up close to the window so that the reflection didn’t interfere. Seems to have worked OK.

I love watching groups of these in woodland as they follow each other in single file from tree to tree.

365/306: 22 December 2010: Toaster design

Once upon a time toasters were rather scrappy bits of kit that sat unlovely and unloved in the corner of the kitchen – but I’ve noticed recently that they’ve become all art-deco, neo-classical, shiny chrome kitschy kitchenware. Anyone know why? After all is said and done they’re just machines designed to burn adequately cooked bread.
Anyway – here’s ours – I’m just fascinated by the amount of design effort someone has put into it. It even has a cold toast warming button.

365/305: 21 December 2010: Bright lights

Technically this photo is a mess, but I can’t help liking all the bright colours and flare and so on – so mess or not here it is.

365/304: 20 December 2010: Poinsettia

It wouldn’t be Christmas without a Poinsettia, but how many people know why? Once again Wikipedia to the rescue.  Apparently it’s association with Christmas began with a legend from 16th century Mexico, about a young girl who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus' birthday so she gathered weeds from the roadside and put them in front of the altar. Crimson "blossoms" sprouted from the weeds and became beautiful poinsettias. The star-shaped leaf pattern is said to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, and the red colour represents the blood of the crucifixion.

365/303: 19 December 2010: The Spirit of a Misplaced Childhood

Went to see Fish in Maryport tonight – special for two reasons – Fish is a class act and Ashley was in the support act (13 stars). Good on both fronts.
13 Stars were good – A seemed to enjoy himself.
First saw Fish in Marillion in 1981 at Reading but had not heard any of his solo material before. For once that didn’t seem to matter because the songs were so good. He had real stage presence and a great sense of drama in his delivery. Only sour note was that he didn’t play an encore because a couple of drunken scumbags wouldn’t shut up during the quiet numbers (of which there were lots because it was a semi-acoustic set) What is it with these people – why the hell pay all that cash for a gig simply to talk all the way through and spoil it for everyone else? Morons. I’m sure a good kicking would help them understand. Move on – it was a great gig.

365/302: 18 December 2010: Yet more snow

Risked the snowy roads to Silloth today for youngest daughter’s keyboard lesson. Don’t very often get to stroll along a seafront in snow, so took the camera for a walk. Weather was more than a bit grey and gloomy which meant little point in looking for shots with lovely skies so tried a couple of experimental shots.

365/301: 17 December 2010: A Fat Rabbit

Obviously getting a bit complacent because I nearly missed today’s shot. Think this may be the first appearance for Tubs – our second rabbit. Am always amused by the idea that dwarf rabbits could be so large. Tubs weights around 7 pounds and has the worlds largest dewlap. Very inquisitive too – which was handy as she kept staring at me so I had time for this one:

365/300: 16 December 2010: A Marmalade Tail

A bit of a fun shot tonight to mark the start of the home straight. Marmalade wouldn’t play ball for a portrait – typical cat – so I went for a shot of his tail instead. mildly eccentric perhaps but I quite like it.

365/299: 15 December 2010: Bridie the bear

Bridie joined us on a holiday from Caledonian Bears a couple of years ago and liked it so much she decided to stay. Obviously we (that is – Marion) had to make a matching cushion with broderie anglais trim to ensure she feels comfortable atop my speakers. Greater love hath no man than that he share his speakers with a cute teddy.

PS: Actually it was me that wanted her to join us. Moment of madness, perhaps?

365/298: 14 December 2010: Guess the subject

Taken in another hotel room.

365/297: 13 December 2010: Salad days

A nice crispy mix of chopped peppers and celery for today’s shot. Struggled with the lighting a bit on this one – needed a more diffuse source to lose the large highlights on the pepper.

365/296: 12 December 2010: Mosher - again

Nice colourful shot this. Mosher is obviously a bit of a media tart – likes to sit and pose while the flash guns fire.

365/295: 11 December2010: Xmas tree time

Put most of the Christmas decoration up today. Youngest daughter has been pestering all week. Am I alone in not being quite sure about blue lights?

365/294: 10 December 2010: Uncorked

Opened a bottle of Il Papavero - my favourite easy drinking red tonight. Sadly this is all that is now left of it as it is rather too easy to drink.

365/293: 09 December 2010: Blue-nosed friends

And well they might be in this weather. How cute is this?

365/292: 08 December 2010: Frosty, frosty, very, very frosty…

…it’s very frosty. And I’m glad I took the opportunity to grab this shot because it thawed about 3 hours later. The gardens in the hotel were rather surreal because there was so much hoar frost that it appeared to have been rendered in black and white rather than the usual mix of colours.

365/291: 07 December 2010: Christmas Cheer

Rather a fetching tree in the hotel lobby of the Tortworth Court this evening. Couldn’t resist this shot from the atrium

365/290: 06 December 2010: Introducing the Dunnock

Perhaps the ultimate ‘small brown job’ (SBJ) in birders parlance the Dunnock frequents hedgerows and gardens – shuffling about quietly getting on with it’s life and not bothering anyone else. But like so much else in  suburbia  – it’s much more interesting beneath the surface. Dunnock breeding behaviour is far from dull, with monogamous pairs, pairs with two males and one female and even pairs with two males and two females (although that’s the first time I’ve heard of four as a pair).

Not sure if this one is Bob, Carol,Ted or Alice (for those who remember the sixties).

365/289: 05 December 2010: Solway Snow and Sunset

Ok – gonna try a panorama – this is quite a big picture so you’ll need to open it by clicking on it to see it at all well. Taken this evening in rather ‘fresh’ conditions. the original file came in at 178 megs after I stitched together the nine shots I used to make this. Rest assured this one is considerably smaller.
If you want to see a much bigger version follow this link
to my Flickr pages

365/288: 04 December 2010: A British Tradition

Guess what we had for dinner tonight. Had planned to take another outdoor shot but the weather was so cold, damp and generally awful I couldn’t be bothered.

365/287: 03 December 2010: Snowy Allerby

This is the view this morning from my bedroom window as the rising sun caught next door’s silver birch trees. Fired off a couple of shots then had a mega-quick shower, intending to get outside and take a few more, but the light had gone by the time I came out.

Consoled myself with a few more shots of our feathered friends – this time a robin and a jackdaw.

385/286: 02 December 2010: Colours of the Night

Spent the evening wandering around Carlisle shooting the Christmas lights at –5C. Thank goodness for Lakeland Sheepskins – it’s not often cold enough for their flying jacket, but when it is nothing else hits the spot. Anyway the chance to shoot the lights is rather messed up by the motley collection of tens which form the Xmas market, so I concentrated on these rather surreal trees down by the Cathedral.

Just for the hell of it here’s a slide show of some of my wintery shots from the last few days as well.

365/285: 01 December 2010: Tebay Services in the snow

Drove through some fairly foul conditions on the way home, although they had cleared up a bit by the time I got as far north as Tebay. There was still a bit of light in the sky so I rested the camera on the car roof for this shot. All those lovely orange lights just make you want to go inside I think.

365/284: 30 November 2010: Xmas Market, Manchester

Very picturesque – all these little huts in the middle of freezing cold Manchester selling who knows what. Must be absolutely freezing spending all day in one. Was tempted by the gluhwein stall but sadly didn’t have time.
This particular stall is outside the Royal Exchange Theatre on Corporation Street. I even used one of the pillars as a handy tripod.