SparkyFizz

My Girls...

having fun, dressing up, going out with friends...

   

 

    
 
  

          

Summer Fruits...

Strawberries should be eaten every day at this time of year...

 

Gooseberries, I love... stewed for 5 or 10 mins with yogurt and a trickle of honey. Why are gooseberries so under rated?  Same with rhubarb, which I also love.

 

Colours...

Hydrangeas...

 

Pistachios...

 

both sludgy purple and palest green...  I like that  

City and Guilds National Photography Competition...

 

I won second prize with this photo at the national City and Guilds Photography Competition - Part 1.  My prize was a Fuji Finepix S1500 camera - very pleased! Even more pleased about having the picture in a photography exhibition at Morley College Art Gallery near Waterloo.  It's there until closing time on Monday 26th July.  There were prizes for entries in Part 2 and 3 also.  

The picture is of Burnley Football Ground - Turf Moor, taken in April this year.  It shows the sheer joy and delight, and large amount of money spent on advertising BFC's rise to the Premier League in 2009.  There were lots of these gigantic hoardings surrounding the ground, but I concentrated on this one.  You can get a feeling for the size of it, if you compare it to the traffic lights.

The poignancy and  irony is that this picture was taken just a month or so before Burnley were relegated in 2010, so the elation was short lived, sadly...

Nevertheless, the impact of the images was amazing!  I'm assuming they're still there.  I imagine medieval cathedrals had a similar impact on congregations!

The photos in the exhibition were wonderful and inspiring.  Two of my class friends also had pictures in the exhibition. Glenn had an amazing picture of exploding plastic cups of water, the action frozen as they exploded!  Ric had a fabulous picture of City Hall, (the home of Boris Johnson, London's Mayor) which is an amazing sight on its own, but he shot it from a very unusual angle.  I'll see if I can persuade them to allow me to show them on here...

All three of us are very grateful to Kim Lucas, our professional photography tutor, for giving us the skills to be able to do these pictures.  He spent quite some time cajoling us to enter the competition in the first place!  We're looking forward to studying part two photography with Kim in September, if we ever manage to finish our part one portfolios... deadline looming...

We are all studying City and Guilds Photography at CALAT, Croydon's Adult Education Institute.  Thank you to my old friend Nicky Partridge who persuaded me to have a go... Nicky is a professional photographer who is in charge of the photography and creative courses at CALAT.  In fact the college snapped (no pun intended!) about 6 photography awards altogether, including 1st and 3rd prizes in Part 2!  Nicky's husband, Joe Partridge, who is also a professional photographer teaching at CALAT, won a national award for excellence in technology teaching in photography at the college.  Nicky, Joe and Kim, (who all studied photography together as students, and are old friends) have created a wonderful digital photography studio for all those doing courses at CALAT, so we are blessed with these facilities! 

Also thank you to my good friend, Jan Bennett, who accompanied me to the private view as my guest.  My husband stood me up in favour of a trip to Amsterdam... (working trip though).  Jan, who is a talented artist, has taken some of my photos and recreated them in beautiful pastels.  I'll try to persuade her to show some on here.  She also creates pastel and acrylic pictures of lots of different things, tigers, lions, Geisha Girls flower pictures including many in close up detail, and Buddhas amongst others.  I think she enjoyed it!  We're both just reaching the point where we can abandon our children for a few hours, now that they're old enough to be left alone, so that we can have an evening out - such liberation...!

Vintage...

   

 ...is big at the moment, and I do love the look.  However, not everything needs to be old to fit this criteria.  Nor is the idea new.  I was certainly acquiring vintage (we just called them 'junk' or 'second hand') things back in the late '70's to mid '80's before it became distinctly uncool.  In the punk era I was buying all my clothes from Oxfam, including shoes.  Before that I bought bags, hats, gloves, jewellery, all with a 1930's Art Deco or Victorian/Edwardian flavour, often from a wonderful shop in Oxford called 'Pom Pom', sadly now long gone.  I also bought and wore a selection of 1950's dresses and memorabilia back in the early 1980's in Peckham.  My home was almost completely furnished with second hand furniture (still is).  Beautiful Victorian mahogany dressing tables and full length triptych mirrors (from a shop called Rapscallion in Streatham - now defunct also). Nothing was ever antique in the real sense, my furniture always had imperfections, but I didn't care!      

I suppose Thatcherism the 'power' look, padded shoulders and a buoyant economy put an end to it all for a while.  It's interesting that the 'vintage and craft' resurgence seems to be inextricably linked to the downturn in our economy.  Apart from trying to save money, we seem to feel a need to express ourselves individually when times are tough.  

I will find some old photos to show here, but that involves hunting and scanning, so bear with me. Meanwhile, some 'modern vintage'...

   

Linen is such a fantastic, cool fabric for summer, you just have to learn to live with the creases!  I bought these beautiful beads in a vintage shop in Crystal Palace when my girls were about 3 years old, so about 1999.  I love them, the teardrop beads, the lustrous pastel shades of lilac, palest blue and ivory.  I couldn't resist them, even though they cost only a few pence.  I knew that one day I would wear them, but actually bought them for my girls' dressing up basket...  they just weren't wearable at the time...  'What goes around, comes around'... 

      

 
There are, of course, some things I hope never come round again, partly because of being older - I can't see myself in floaty hippie dresses, much as I loved them. Then there are the early 1970's fashions in particular - brightly striped tank tops... hmm?  However, I see some dreadful things on the streets now, so maybe it wasn't all so bad.

   

I used to love lots of 1970's looks.  Skinheads with their Ben Sherman shirts (bright, loud checks), braces, very wide ankle swinging turned up jeans, Doc Martens and slick crombie coats.  Where I came from, Burnley, Lancashire, the boys wore red hankies and red rose embroidered badges on the breast pocket of the crombie.  A few miles away, over the border in Yorkshire, they wore the same insignia in white.  All associated with the 'Wars of the Roses'.  I'm sure nobody knew a thing about these historical battles, which were basically intermittent civil wars fought by members of the House of Lancaster and the House of York circa 1455-1485.  They ended when King Henry Vll, who started the Tudor dynasty, symbolically united the two roses to create the Tudor Rose.  But still, I digress...

I wasn't a skinhead.  I think my timeline was something like: David Bowie/T Rex/ Tamla Motown/Northern Soul fan, followed by mid '70's hippie (we were a bit behind up North!).  I remember hitching to Brittany in the summer of 1976 (the really hot one...) and being bewildered to see all the chic Parisian teenagers dressed in drainpipe jeans!  Back in Burnley, we were still in flares with inserts and made patterns on them using coins underneath the denim, which we sanded on the outside with matchboxes to make simple flower designs.  We still made dreadful creations such as 'constructing' coats from our grandmothers' beautiful crocheted blankets (I'm ashamed to admit...)  

Going to Lanchester Polytechnic in Coventry in September 1976, I found myself immersed in Ska (the Specials came from Coventry, so it was a very cool place to be then) Reggae, Rock Against Racism gigs and demos, 'Pogo on a Nazi' badges, Punk - Sex Pistols, Siouxie and the Banshees, Buzzcocks and Clash concerts.  At the same time I embraced Disco/Funk/Soul/Jazz -  basically a whole new social scene...  The rest, as they say, is history...  

(In memory of Matthew McFall, Andy Stephens, and Duncan Green who died, aged 18, on this day in 1976 - the long hot summer...  They never progressed beyond mid seventies hippies...  RIP)  

Birthday...

 

Happy 12th Birthday Tom...  still my baby... thank you for making my life so enjoyable!

   

That's my hectic birthday season finished now for another year, (phew).  I wasn't thinking very clearly when I gave birth to all four of my children in June and July... but I'm still delighted to have such stress!

 

Summer's Eve...

 
 

London Buses...

 
   

 

The Serpentine, Hyde Park, London...

Summer evening at the Serpentine...

 
 
  

Makeover...

I've changed the layout of this blog a little.  I want to create a more graphic look, to highlight the photos, and I like to see lots of space around a post.  So I've removed the booklist, bloglist and categories list, changed some of the typeface colours, justified the text, and aligned pictures on the left.  What do you think?  

I mainly wanted to tidy up the sidebar which was a bit cluttered.  I've also edited information about me.  I've removed the background which I was so excited about installing a few months ago.  As I explained then, I never really wanted a background, I was just excited about mastering some aspects of HTML!  So, I hope it all looks cleaner and less messy?

 
 

Comments and Facebook 'Like' Button...

I've got a new Facebook 'Like' button at the end of each post.  I'm not sure what happens if you press it... so please try it and see!  I've changed the method of leaving comments too.  Some people told me that they didn't know how to do this, so I've removed the need to sign in before leaving a comment - this should make things much easier, please let me know.  Although you can leave comments on the individual topic on Facebook, if you go directly to the blog, you can read other entries as well.

 
 

NCT Reunion...

My lifeline 18 years ago, the National Childbirth Trust enabled our group of then, 'mums-to-be', to support each other and meet up regularly before the birth of our first babies.  I subsequently linked up with another more local NCT group after the birth.  I'm still in touch with and meeting many of them.  We now have at least 16 children in our little group!   

   

So, thank you Nina, Oscar, Luke and Imogen for humouring your various mothers the other evening by turning up to the Serpentine in Hyde Park so that we could see you all together once again, and marvel at our progeny 18 years down the line! You were all lovely and sophisticated... which makes us feel like we've done a reasonable job.  Wishing you all the very best for university or gap year.

18 Years Ago...

at St Thomas' Hospital, London.  Wishing you a wonderful 18th birthday Oscar...!  At the risk of embarrassing you, thank you for all the pleasure you've given me, and long may it continue!!

We had a wonderful celebration meal at an Argentinian restaurant in Blackheath, and watched the sun setting over the common.  How lovely to be born in the middle of summer!  All my children were born in June and July.

Photography... Photography... Portfolios...

I think I dream in f-stops, apertures and ISO's now...

I've loved my intensive City and Guilds Photography course, and am now finishing part one.  I will resume part two in September - but this one will last for a whole academic year rather than 4 months.  I've learnt a lot in a very short time, and met some lovely people along the way.  Our college group have gelled well, I think.  We're all different ages, women and men, and from different backgrounds and walks of life, but we have this interest in photography in common.

 But, oh, the portfolios... we have two to complete and they have been time consuming indeed.  I'm amazed at the wonderful pictures my class mates have produced, and we all have  different styles which makes things interesting.

 I'm doing a portfolio on Typography and another on Manipulated Images (Photoshop).  We have all chosen different topics, but we all have to do the Photoshop one, even though there are a variety of  subject matters.  I suppose it is the 'digital darkroom' and therefore, essential that we know how to use it.  You can see how exciting my reading list is this month...!

 All the images here are going in my  portfolios.

My Rose...

My Rosa...

Rosa has grown her first strawberry plant, of which she is very proud...

London Bombings 07/07/05...

In memory of the 52 people who lost their lives in the London bombings five years ago today... and for all the relatives and people who were injured or affected by this tragedy. 

Gardening Skills...

This is how the little cactus looked a few weeks ago...

You'd be forgiven for thinking I was a gardener, or at least had a healthy interest in such things.  Truth is,  I'm hopeless at gardening!  My garden is vast, but so shady with lovely mature oak and ash trees, that nothing can grow in it.  My gardening pursuits, such as they are, are largely confined to pots on my decking.  I love to take pictures of their growth spurts and decline.  I just love to take pictures... the main 'raison d'etre' for this blog I think.

Little Cactus...

I think I have been overwatering this little cactus... I'm more likely to give plants too little.  Suddenly over a two week period, this cactus tripled in size and produced a flourish of tiny, pretty flowers...

     
 

Recycling Garden Furniture...

These lovely metal chairs, five in total, and a round matching table were given to me by the man clearing rubbish from my garage.  They were on his truck destined for the rubbish dump!  They're not cast iron, possibly aluminium, but still...  I think a good wire brushing and some Hammerite metal paint should transform them.  Now, white or black?   

  

Soho...

Part of London with an endless source of photographic opportunities.  The back of the  Nutman's stall on Berwick Street Market.

Street art and graffiti...

In the photo below, I love the cursive writing on the inside of the shop window contrasted with the gritty graffiti outside.
 

The Tudor Queen surveying the Market... surreal! 

A serendipitous picture taken in the sex shop/club area. I felt embarrassed taking this, so it was done quickly and not very well composed.  I had to take it before the 'wet paint' sign disappeared! 

 

This was outside the sex club.  I'm not sure what a hoister is?  I know that to hoist is to lift, but I don't understand the context.  Perhaps it means that men aren't allowed to stop to pick up the girls from the sex club?

 

Geraniums...

One of the things I've discovered about my new found passion for photography, is that I appear to be taking pictures of things that I previously didn't think particularly interested me...   Of course I like flowers, but not this much...  I seem to have an awful lot of them...  It's partly that I like to photograph them at different stages of their development, including dead ones!  So forgive me if I bombard you with them, at least it embraces the season.  I also love the detail that the camera is capable of picking up - the hairy stems and the tiniest imperfections, for example.