Sonny :)

As featured on MyCatHatesYou.com

Past It's Best?

Jim the Halloween Pumpkin is starting to look a little worse for wear now. I know I should have thrown him out ages ago but I've got quite attached to him, and besides if someone had eaten your insides, filled your head with candles then used you as a prop for photographing sparklers you probably wouldn't look so hot either. :)


Mmmmm? I wonder how long it will take for him to turn into a complete pile of mush? Maybe I should just leave him where he is for a little bit longer and see :)

Fame?

Imortalised forever in the style of Andy Warhol and featuring on Cat-A-Log, is there no end to this cats talent? could he become the most famous cat on flickr?

Bees!

Despite a really, really wet, miserable Friday the weekend turned out to be really nice again. the uncharacteristically warm weather for this time of year seems to be showing no sign of stopping. Although understandably it's pretty cold in the evenings (possibly something to do with the sun going down?) the days are still mostly bright and filled with that really annoying low autumn sun that gets in the way of both driving and photography! I can't get my head round the fact that my sunglasses are still out in November!

I resisted the urge to stay in, to watch the England V South Africa Rugby match on Saturday and gave in to a drive/walk locally to play with cameras and find a nice country pub. Despite all good intentions and a bit of an aimless drive we ended up back at The Chequers in Well, which is rapidly becoming a bit of a fave at weekends. It's a really nice, friendly. relaxed pub with great food, both bar snacks and a full blown restaurant if you want it and we seem to be ending up there a lot. We drifted upon it by accident a few weeks back and despite a very surreal conversation with a local man about the virtues of rolling your own cigarettes and just how many different types of rolling 'backy there is we've been back a few times now.

When it came time to leave I was surprised to find a Bee had settled on the sunroof of our car, convinced (although since corrected) that Bees hibernate in winter. Apparently they just cluster together to keep warm, taking turns to be on the cold outside, either way I'm sure this one shouldn't have still been buzzing round a pub garden! I'm not sure this was a very well Bee, it seemed very docile. So much so that I could get up quite close for a pic (Dear Santa, if I'm good can I have a macro lens please?). I like the effect of the reflection in the roof and shall continue my quest for the perfect bee pic next summer.

Interestingness!

flickr says I'm interesting, so I must be :P

Remembrance Day

Today was Remembrance Day and across the country wreaths were laid and ceremonies held to remember the people that lost their lives in wars throughout history. With the main focus on World War 1 and World War 11.

Odiham held a traditional ceremony with wreaths laid by RAF Odiham, The Royal British Legion, The Fire Brigade, The Parish Council, the Odiham Society, Guides and Scouts followed by a March along the High Street

Remembrance Day is held on November 11th to recognise the end of World War 1 on that day in 1918. The tradition of observing two minutes silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month marked the time that the armistice came into effect in Britain and the two minutes represent the two World Wars, prior to 1945 only one minutes silence was observed.

The poppy's significance to Remembrance Day is a result of Canadian military physician John McCrae's poem In Flanders Fields. The poppy emblem was chosen because of the poppies that bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their red colour an appropriate symbol for the bloodshed of trench warfare. Last year over 5000 veterans, servicemen and women and their families were helped by the support of the poppy appeal every month but there are still many more out there in need.

There was a record turnout for the ceremony in Odiham today, maybe not that surprising given the current terrorism threat and the present war situation and in conjunction with the Royal British Legion this was the second year that Odiham marked the start of the two minutes silence with the firing of maroons and a short ceremony at the War Memorial.

Elvis!

News Flash! Elvis is alive and well and performing, for one night only, in Ewshot in Surrey.

Oops!

Who's been a naughty girl then? One of Hampshire's finest took offence to the fact that wearing my seatbelt seemed to have slipped my mind on the way back from seeing Borat at the cinema - oops!

I wasn't too concerned, apart from the possibility of a fine for not wearing my belt I knew I hadn't done anything else wrong. He asked me to blow into the breathaliser and that was all clear, checked my driving licence on the police database, no problems there, but when it came to the insurance the car came back as uninsured - and it's definitely insured! Although he was concerned that he couldn't find a record of the insurance he let me go with nothing but a telling off and an order to produce my documents within seven days. The only problem I've got now is catching our local Police Station actually open. We only have one policeman in the village so tracking him down is not an easy task, still I've got a week, I should be able to find him by then.


UPDATE!

Found him, showed him my documents and I'm now officially off the hook! :)

Waiting!

Today has been a bored day! One of those listless, don't know what I want to do, can't be bothered with the things I know I should do, generally fed up sort of days!

In an attempt to snap out of my gloomy mood I decided to go for a wander with my camera. Even that was a little half hearted, I couldn't be bothered to drive anywhere so I ended up roaming the same old places in Odiham, and believe me when I say it's not a big place so there's only so much to see.

I decided to see if I could capture any of the Autumn colours that there are around at the moment, especially as it seemed like we'd almost skipped Autumn this year. The weather seemed to suddenly go from summer to winter, t-shirts and sunshine one moment and then dark evenings and winter coats the next.

As is so often the case, I soon got sidetracked from my original quest and spotted a flock of birds on the church roof. I'm not sure what sort of birds they are but they're always there. They sit there for ages then fly off and circle around landing occasionally in a tree or a field then returning to their perch on the roof.

The falling leaves and Autumn colours that I expected to see seemed very sparse, I was surprised at just how green everything still is but I managed to capture a few of the changing colours none the less and the walk and a dose of fresh air helped clear my head and lift my mood ready for a few hours of late afternoon/early evening work.

Remember Remember...

The fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot. I love fireworks and always make the effort to try to get to a see a display if at all possible. I was even more determined this year as I have a new toy to play with - a Canon 300D, although I've obviously still got a lot to learn about using it, I still didn't get any really good pictures of the fireworks. Despite the fact that I spent nearly all of the half hour display looking through the viewfinder of the camera fireing of a barrage of 369 shots and with my back bent at a very unnatural angle. Did I pay for that over the next few days in back pain or what! Note to self - get a tripod - soon.

Halloween

This years effort at pumpkin carving!



And in the nature of the sudden realisation by councils across the UK that recycling is a good thing and therefore should now be enforced at every opportunity. To the point where Hart Council has now introduced a well meant but utterly confusing list of what can and therefore must be recycled the rest of the pumpkin was expertly recycled by Matt who turned it into a very tasty Pumpkin and Chicken Stew.

It's been a strange Halloween for me this year I had to put my business into liquidation on Monday, due to reasons (mainly) beyond my control so instead of selling Halloween balloons and general tat to the residents of Odiham from my little gift shop I was doing the graveyard (if you'll pardon the pun) shift at the local Wine Rack.

I was also deprived of my usual partner in crime for Trick or Treating by virtue of the fact that she's moved to Lancashire. And lets face it, without a child to drag along with you knocking on strangers doors dressed as a Vampire and asking for sweeties seems a little desperate!

So instead we had a chilled out Halloween, drank a bit of wine (Red - of course), listened to all the clichéd Halloween songs that Radio Paradise could churn out and ate delicious pumpkin stew.

Happy Halloween

:)