Partial Eclipse of the Moon - so they said!!

I spent a very chilly time out on the front deck last night, trying out my skills at night photography, to no avail, I gave up on the moon eventually and turned my lens to the neighbourhood, on a thirty second exposure I got the attached photo, which I was moderately pleased with. Back to the drawing board as far as the moon is concerned, anyway it was only a little eclipse, just a bit off its bottom, I could see it with my naked eye, in between the cloud cover which kept coming and going!!!

A lazy Sunday afternoon!!

And what do you do on a beautiful sunny afternoon in mid winter, you get out into the garden and pot up some of those hundreds of succulents you have around the place?

I have been meaning to do this job for ages, the cuttings I did a while ago have all taken root so now it is just a case of making sure they all survive the transplant shock!!

Frustration!!!

Spent most of last evening (in between watching the 1962 film "Dr No" with a very young looking Sean Connery) trying to put the following photos on my Blog, but do you think they would go, no!!!

So this morning I decided to do them one at a time, no problems, is is me or is it Blogger? (don't answer that)

Now I am in the process of getting frames for all the following photos and hanging them in my very own 'Gallery'

Monochrome Section

The I called "Shades of Blue"



and this you have also seen, it is our present screen saver.

My favourite 'clouds'

Had to put this one in even though it didn't come anywhere! (and - you've seen it before!)

Landscapes and seascapes

Sunset from our deck!

Bird on a Wire - new section on ugly power poles

The one that won this section was power poles and wiring in Hanoi city!!!! Not surprising.

Fly In - Fly Out!

Wait for me, says the little bird coming in on the right!!

Open Section

Reflections at Bushy Park




Caught between Two Trees - not at all planned, quite an accident, I was concentrating on a close up of the beautiful bark on the trees!

Portrait Section - Kiya Kebede

Boo Hoo - World Cup Soccer Results!

Glad I didn't get up to watch the match, I did listen to it from my warm bed, and believe me, it was not worth getting up for. Everyone has been saying today how well Germany played but our lot got re-titled, the Shockeroos instead of the Socceroos, Australians can be very hard on themselves when they don't win.

Local Photo Competition

Through the Camera Club to which I belong, I entered nine of my photos in a Photographic Competition down at Woodbridge yesterday. It was an interesting exercise, and although I did not win any of the categories I enjoyed being part of this very successful competition.

The competition was over twice as large as last year, with some 460 entries from 75 individual photographers. Just shows that I am going in the right direction but I have a LONG way to go yet!!!

The second photo shows my portrait photo of Kiya, second line down, first photo!
Maybe I should show you all nine of the photos I submitted. There were seven categories, including an Open Section, best monochrome, best land/seascape etc. etc. and it was not easy to decide which photos to submit. There are so many good photographers out there, I suppose with digital photography being so accessible more people are 'having a go' than ever before.

I have signed up for a three session Adult Ed class coming up soon, I am looking forward to learning a bit more about my camera!!

Recent Houseguests

This is Bella, had to be nice to her as she shared my mother's name!! She objected very strongly to having to sleep in the laundry and completely demolished the doorstop on the dining room door as well as causing damage to the floor when she tried in vain to get into our bedroom. Little bugger!!




On Bella's last day Amber arrived, she is much more sociable, older, sleeps all the time and does not handle our polished floors very well, which means every now and then her legs go from under her and she is spreadeagled on the floor, doesn't seem to hurt her though.

World Cup - bring it on!!!

What a shame that Germany and Australia are drawn together in their very first match!!
It would have been much more fun if they had played each other a little further down (or up) the ladder. Who do you think will win, and will you be around to watch it live? It is on at a very unsociable hour here, 4 am in the morning I think, so unless I am suffering from insomnia I will have to be content with the result over breakfast!!

Cousin Paul has arrived!!!!

Paul and Alison and two boys have arrived in Tassie for an undetermined stay, while they make up their minds whether to return to live in the UK, go back to Sydney OR stay in Tassie!!!

They are staying with Tim and Mandie. They are very handy to have around as thanks to Alison I have signed up to Audible.com and can listen to audio books on my Ipod while I am walking or whatever. I find it makes walking that much more enjoyable, which is good for me. The first book I have downloaded is "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" which is actually on at our Cinema right now but I would sooner stick to the book, it is unabridged and some 18 hours of listening!!!

P & A have a flash car, as you can see in the photo! Alison is a bookaholic, did her degree in England in English Literature, sound familiar to you, Heidi?

Good morning!

Third time lucky, you never know what is going to happen on this page!

How is this for a healthy looking breakfast? Bit boring really as this is 'it' most days, under the passionfruit, yogurt and apple is my porridge, made without milk or sugar or anything else nice, just rolled oats and water, which I soak overnight and then just pop into the microwave. But the topping makes up for it, and it must be doing me good. The passionfruit are from Tim's garden, I am lucky really as the Newhams Jnr don't like these Nellie Kelly Passionfruit, they only like the Banana Passionfruit which grow like a weed. So whenever I go over I go and pick up any that have fallen on the ground, as then and only then are they really ready to eat.