pictures from the allotment

"Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but Footprints"

Here are some more photographs taken from the allotment
I talked about yesterday, some of which I have sold in my Gallery and that has had me puzzling over the quote above.

'Frosted Flowers'

Photography is one of the very few things I do, with a growing family, that doesn't cost me money. Wandering along on my own with my camera capturing the 'magic' is mine and I don't have to pay a fee or a tax for any of it. The countryside is just there waiting for me with birds, squirrels, water voles, sheep and cows putting on a show that

doesn't cost a penny.

'Rays of Light'
But thinking about the quote, I do 'take'. I print my photographs and sell them, I get something out of all this natural giving and do I ever put anything back? Suddenly I feel very selfish and .. eek ... exploitative! Perhaps I'm over thinking it - hey I've nothing to feel guilty about today so lets invent something! hmmmm

'Smiling Flowers'

When my group and I visit the local nature parks and places of interest we pay for the car parks or we pay an entrance fee so thats fine, no guilt there and when I go to my favourite canal locations in this area I take bread for the shivery ducks so I supposed they don't mind being my muses for half an hour. The cows, well cows are such flirts they will happily pose for hours on end pulling funny faces for absolutely nothing. But how does it work when you are photographing something that in essence belongs to someone else, like the allotment, should you ask first?

'Cold Cabbage'
I went to take pictures in Leicester at the Highcross Centre, a gem of patterns and architectural elements for any photographer and I got 'told off' by security. It hadn't occurred to me that I would need permission to photograph outside the building at 8am but the manager from Waggamamas (which had an amazing reflection of the building in the window ) came out and told me to go away and then the heavys descended in the form of a gadget laden security guard, who directed me to the Management Suite to get my okays. I tried to show her on my camera that I was infact taking pictures of the stunning blue sky against the supporting steel of the top most corner of the centre but apparently in that part of Leicester even the sky belongs to the big boys and us mere mortals cant have a piece of it without permission.

'Dawn of an English Morn'

The same thing happened in my local Co-Op (a large department store) They have some amazing displays in their homewares department, lovely patterns made by repeated objects and shiny, sparkly things hanging in rows holding reflections to die for. So I was snapping away with my i-phone in order to put them on my Instgram page and I have to admit this time I did feel a little sheepish but I wasn't going to sell these pictures, I was just taking them for the joy of the capture when oops wrist slap by the manageress
" I can't let you take photographs, you might be a competitor trying to steel our ideas"

I'm hoping to take a model to Calke Abbey to capture some Vouge like shots against the blistering shutters in the abandoned rooms. Now I know I'm going to need permission for that and I suspect its going to cost rather a lot for the privilege. I haven't plucked up the courage to make the phone call yet......

quote 7

"You were created with a spirit, soul and body. The amount of victory you have in your life will be determined by which one is dominating you."

Annette Biggers

http://www.triplecord.com/

photograph taken at Coombe Abbey, Warwickshire

quote 6 with a big ouch!

"its better to have loved and lost, then to never have loved at all"

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Poor Millie Moo had to go and have a tooth out, shes now lost all of her front teeth but there is hope, we have some catty mouth wash that should solve the problem.
Getting it into her mouth however is another story, as soon as she sees the bottle shes off. It needs to be sprayed directly onto her tongue and you would have thought that they would have made it taste like smoked salmon so she would just lick it right off my hand but it is the foulest stuff that i would object to having sprayed into my mouth daily, so we have no chance with Moosance Nuisance. She is very cross with us!

She is so good at the vets but as soon as he had pulled out the tooth she turned and looked directly at me as if to say "what on earth did you let him do that for!" I tried to telepathy back that it was very necessary but she had already slunk back into her cage and refused to speak to me until some time later when she felt I had been thoroughly punished. Animals break your heart sometimes!

My friends Great Dane died suddenly at only two years old last week, such a shock. An adorable dog, so gentle for his size and utterly adored by the whole family. It reminds you once again how short life is and how we should make the most of the moments we have with the ones we love. It upset me very much not only because of how I felt for my friend and his grief but also because its that 'powerless to stop it happening' thing again.
It was a gastric twist and the vet could do nothing to help him, they just had to watch him go. It brought back a lot of memories. Yes I know Forrest was just a dog but he was a loved soul and one that they had to say goodbye to, when they didn't want to at all.

We tried to get my Grandma to have a dog when she had spent some time living on her own. We had always been an extensive doggy family and my grandma loved to doggy sit all of ours at various times so it seems only logical that she would warmly welcome one of her own. It was later on in her life, all of our dogs had been and gone and her response was "i don't want one, I've had enough of death, i don't want to say goodbye to another dog"
At the time I found that a hideous attitude, why deny yourself all the joy of something for years just because your so scared of something right at the end. Lately I'm beginning to understand what she meant. When we studied Tennyson at school I use to puzzle over the quote above. Surly if you played your cards right Love would never be lost? But I was very young then and hadn't experienced that sometimes Love is taken away through absolutely no fault of your own. Sometimes as my Grandma had said, it is an inevitable conclusion to events.
But i think after puzzling it over again, I still believe even after what has happened to us this year and what continues to happen to those around me, that it is better to have Loved. Even when you have to suffer the enormity of pain when Love is lost, if we don't leave ourselves wide open to those moments of wonderfulness in life and grasp the opportunities to experience them because we are scared of the outcome, then have we even really lived at all.

quote 5 and Anna Razumovskaya

"its never too late to be what you might have been"

photograph taken in the Maldives

Just about breaking the back of the food poisoning now and getting back to normal. Of course a few days of feverish housework has been required before i could get back to my laptop properly, meals and general goings on having run very smoothly without me but washing, re-cycling and defiantly cleaning seem to have been beyond the capabilities of the remaining healthy members of the household. During my holiday to 'woe-is-me-on-sea' even my eyes hurt so i have read nothing, watched nothing, seen nothing of any interest to tell you about. With my stairs as an insurmountable obstacle and the world beyond the front door a forgotten land, I haven't taken a single photograph in a fortnight, so I'm feeling very twitchy and very dull!!

However, exciting news, if I can face the drive to Birmingham later I have an invitation to meet the Russian Artist 'Anna Razumovskaya' at her latest exhibition.

A strong, confident, beautiful and immensely talented women who has become all that she might have been. I will visit with a mix of awe, intrigue and yes a little bit of envy.

Blue Note II by Anna Razumovskaya

quote 4

"you have to give to the world the thing that you want the most, in order to fix the broken parts inside you"

by Eve Enser, a quote on http://galadarling.com/

When my Father and Grandmother both became sick years ago, I fixed the broken parts inside of me by having children. This quote made me realise that what I wanted the most was family and I added to ours to somehow fix things. Today what I still want the most is family and I realise I've been rather half heartedly looking after mine after all this loss, its time to be a mum and family member again. I spotted the little girl above while out photographing one day, the kind of child you can't take your eyes off, she had such a wonderful manner about her. She didn't know I was photographing her which give the shots of her such a natural feel.

7 years later I now add to this post. A lot has changed in 7 years and I now would not dream of taking photographs of children that I didn't know. We are now far more aware. 

quote 3

"Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

taken from the blog http://every-daydreamer.blogspot.com

photograph taken at Chelsea Flower Show

quote 2

"If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come"

Chinese proverb

photograph by Shenton Canal, Sony 550

quote

"Some say life is too short, others say its too long but I know that nothing we do makes sense if we don't touch the hearts of others ... while it lasts!"

taken from an e-mail sent to me about these two guys who found each other and a new reason to live when they were both very sick :-)