Soooo... after a few aborted attempts at playing with it over the last few weeks, I finally bit the bullet and went for a new (shock horror) template.
It feels like going to the hairdresser and coming out with a completely different hair style - your face and personality are the same but somehow you feel everyone is staring at you!
Friday, 15 October 2010
IF: Spooky
Hmm, the theme for Illustration Friday this week is Spooky... so I figured everyone will be doing illustrations of Hallowe'en and haunted houses, or maybe spooky pumpkins.
I thought I'd have a play around and just see what happened (and also used it as an ArtRage learning process!).
When you're strolling on the beach in the late afternoon, you'd expect one shadow... but three? That seems pretty spooky to me....
I thought I'd have a play around and just see what happened (and also used it as an ArtRage learning process!).
When you're strolling on the beach in the late afternoon, you'd expect one shadow... but three? That seems pretty spooky to me....
I still can't get over the size of those screws
So... it's getting on for four months and I've just had the CD of my latest x-rays, so I guess time for another update. Here is one of the x-rays, with mark-up by me.. I will post the others on the separate x-rays page.
As those of you who have been following my blog for a while know, I was confined to non-weight bearing from the end of June until 4th October; and thankfully this time everything was progressing swimmingly so I am now allowed to put 30% of my bodyweight onto it. Judging that has been - well - an inexact science! Although I did try the 'standing on the bathroom scales' as advised, in real life there is no guage so I just use intuition, of which we women have so much apparently.
The downside of this is that all the aches and pains in my knee and hip, and in my general thigh muscles have come back; just when they thought it was safe to relax I'm making them work again.
The accident now feels a little dream-like to me, unreal and distant; sometimes a thought or memory will come into my head and upset me, but more often than not they are to do with being in hospital and knowing how much Mr H. and my friends and family must have been feeling. It is almost an empathetic upset-ness, putting myself in their places; I hate to think of the ones I love in distress.
Even looking at the x-rays is surreal - that isn't really the inside of my leg, it's just a picture of some bones; and the scars are just there, but don't seem to evoke any feeling now when I see them... I wonder how I'll feel about them in 10 years time?
I've settled into working from home, and living downstairs (although I have promised Mr H. we can sleep upstairs next weekend when he is home), and have a pretty fixed routine of what time I wake up, get up, start work, have lunch, stop work, shower, study (if I'm in the right mood), cook tea, go to bed... and on special occasions I'll fit in a walk to the post box or to the corner shop.
I can't imagine being back in the office and my old routines of walking or cycling to work, walking the dog, nipping into town on a Saturday morning, driving to visit friends.
But then 2 months ago I couldn't imagine putting any weight on my leg or posting my own letters....
TP 119: Turning Colder
It's nowhere near cold enough here to be taking suitable pictures for Carmi's Thematic Photographic this week, "Turning Colder"; for the first time I had to have a search through my existing pictures.
The one I chose has some sentimental value, it was taken in February 2009 in the Trossachs in Scotland while Mr H. was on his degree work placement there for a year. I had many happy visits to the north to discover the area; he lived on the edge of a very flat valley which then rose suddenly into hills, it felt like the end of the Lowlands and the start of the Highlands; although we were apart, it was an area he came to love.
On this occasion my best friend G had flown up with me for a 3-day weekend, and we spent it driving around giving her a whistle-stop tour of the area. One afternoon, as the last visit that day, we went to Loch Katrine which was in Mr H.'s working area (for the Forestry Commission). Judging by the lack of snow we must have been in a mid-winter thaw period - the loch looked beautiful in the dimming light, with traces of snow on the ground and white hilltops in the distance.
The one I chose has some sentimental value, it was taken in February 2009 in the Trossachs in Scotland while Mr H. was on his degree work placement there for a year. I had many happy visits to the north to discover the area; he lived on the edge of a very flat valley which then rose suddenly into hills, it felt like the end of the Lowlands and the start of the Highlands; although we were apart, it was an area he came to love.
On this occasion my best friend G had flown up with me for a 3-day weekend, and we spent it driving around giving her a whistle-stop tour of the area. One afternoon, as the last visit that day, we went to Loch Katrine which was in Mr H.'s working area (for the Forestry Commission). Judging by the lack of snow we must have been in a mid-winter thaw period - the loch looked beautiful in the dimming light, with traces of snow on the ground and white hilltops in the distance.
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Expect the unexpected
Since I started blogging more, and participating in Thematic Photographic each week, I have started carrying my camera everywhere I go - not that I go far at the moment, but I mean it is always in pocket, or my bag which I use to carry things from room to room.
Until now the bathroom has been the exception... around lunchtime today I was, um, availing myself of the facilities when I saw the sunlight playing reflection games on the wall. I had to rush out and get my camera in order to get a shot of it before the sun moved.
I've never seen this pattern on the wall before, although that bathroom hasn't changed for 17 years; it must just be down to timing.
I've upped the contrast a bit on this, but that's all:
Until now the bathroom has been the exception... around lunchtime today I was, um, availing myself of the facilities when I saw the sunlight playing reflection games on the wall. I had to rush out and get my camera in order to get a shot of it before the sun moved.
I've never seen this pattern on the wall before, although that bathroom hasn't changed for 17 years; it must just be down to timing.
I've upped the contrast a bit on this, but that's all:
Versatile? hell yeah, why not!
Thank you to The Adorkable Ditz for awarding me the Versatile Blog award! I'm so pleased that I can just write what comes into my head, more or less without editing it, and people enjoy reading it.
My task is to tell you 7 things about myself that you probably don't know. It's taken me the morning to think of them but here goes:
1. I wore my mother's wedding dress when I got married in 1989. It is a beautiful off-white, silk dress which she wore when she married my dad in 1958. I will admit though that it had to be let out a little for me ;-)
2. I have 4 tattoos; the first in my late twenties and the last aged 42 at the time of our 20th wedding anniversary.
3. I only just missed being born in Australia. My dad got a job on a 3 year contract in Melbourne in the early '60s so my parents moved out their with my brother and sister; when the contract was up in 1964 they decided to move back to the UK and decide whether to stay here or go back to Australia. They stayed here and I was born in 1966.
4. I never wanted children but have 5 nephews/nieces plus another 6 from Mr H.s side of the family. Mr H. and I are officially a Cool Auntie and Uncle.
5. I had my first (and hopefully last) brush with anti-depressants when I had my annus horribilis in 1997 - I won't go into reasons but I hated taking them and got myself off them after 6 months.
6. I have naturally curly, dull brown hair but over the years it has been long, short, blonde, mid-length, brown, straight, red. I didn't straighten it until a couple of years ago and now it spends its time curly or straight about 50/50 (depending how lazy I'm feeling); I have a great hairdresser now who actually styles it (unlike others I've had over the years) and it works either way. I feel like a different person when it's straight, very noticeably more confident and less like a 'little girl'.
7. The girl who is now my best girl friend, and has been my rock since Mr H. moved to Scotland, didn't like me when she first met me, at college aged 16. Interestingly we don't have a lot in common with hobbies etc. But we know we can count on each other whether it is a life-changing crisis or just needing a small favour.
My task is to tell you 7 things about myself that you probably don't know. It's taken me the morning to think of them but here goes:
1. I wore my mother's wedding dress when I got married in 1989. It is a beautiful off-white, silk dress which she wore when she married my dad in 1958. I will admit though that it had to be let out a little for me ;-)
2. I have 4 tattoos; the first in my late twenties and the last aged 42 at the time of our 20th wedding anniversary.
3. I only just missed being born in Australia. My dad got a job on a 3 year contract in Melbourne in the early '60s so my parents moved out their with my brother and sister; when the contract was up in 1964 they decided to move back to the UK and decide whether to stay here or go back to Australia. They stayed here and I was born in 1966.
4. I never wanted children but have 5 nephews/nieces plus another 6 from Mr H.s side of the family. Mr H. and I are officially a Cool Auntie and Uncle.
5. I had my first (and hopefully last) brush with anti-depressants when I had my annus horribilis in 1997 - I won't go into reasons but I hated taking them and got myself off them after 6 months.
6. I have naturally curly, dull brown hair but over the years it has been long, short, blonde, mid-length, brown, straight, red. I didn't straighten it until a couple of years ago and now it spends its time curly or straight about 50/50 (depending how lazy I'm feeling); I have a great hairdresser now who actually styles it (unlike others I've had over the years) and it works either way. I feel like a different person when it's straight, very noticeably more confident and less like a 'little girl'.
7. The girl who is now my best girl friend, and has been my rock since Mr H. moved to Scotland, didn't like me when she first met me, at college aged 16. Interestingly we don't have a lot in common with hobbies etc. But we know we can count on each other whether it is a life-changing crisis or just needing a small favour.
I can't choose 5 of you over others, to award this to as there are too many I enjoy. Take a look at my blogroll over there on the right and check out some of them you haven't looked at before. Happy reading!
Shorts: Tactile
Look at this...
Now, (bearing in mind the casing is soft not hard) tell me without your fingers crossed behind your back that you don't want to pick that up and just handle it...
Yesterday I bought a box of Fairy Liquitabs* (as above) and discovered that they have changed the box lid (why???) so it no longer has a hinge on it. So I decided to transfer the 20 new gel-slightly-squishy-but-not-too-much things into my old box. Wow! they felt amazing, so much so that I spent some time savouring the job.
Weird, maybe.
Pleasurable, yes.
*For those of you in a country where they don't sell these - they are a coupla inches square and go in the washing machine.
Now, (bearing in mind the casing is soft not hard) tell me without your fingers crossed behind your back that you don't want to pick that up and just handle it...
Yesterday I bought a box of Fairy Liquitabs* (as above) and discovered that they have changed the box lid (why???) so it no longer has a hinge on it. So I decided to transfer the 20 new gel-slightly-squishy-but-not-too-much things into my old box. Wow! they felt amazing, so much so that I spent some time savouring the job.
Weird, maybe.
Pleasurable, yes.
*For those of you in a country where they don't sell these - they are a coupla inches square and go in the washing machine.
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Wordless Wednesday
Well, it's Wednesday, and I've seen other WW's and I have a few photos to share with you, so here goes...
A busy spider on one of the many cobwebs around the veranda
Mid-October!? and the first time I managed to hang washing out on the line!
Self-portrait, relaxing in the sun
I knew Django was bored when he attacked the roll of recycling sacks that had been sitting by the front door for a week.
So I gave him a beef pie box to shred instead.
Little Mr Innocent...
A Coal Tit (I think) on one of the feeders outside my 'office' window.
Doves managing to s-t-r-e-t-c-h into the ground feeder for some seed.
An orchid given to me by work, lit up in the morning sun against our old Crittall windows.
Beautiful
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