Gardening, the next writing comp and summer hols

Exciting news!!  Its stopped raining.  The problem with rain and grass is that whilst its raining you can't cut it and whilst its raining at this time of year it grows very fast.  All you can do is watch it grow and imagine the effort that's going to be needed when the rain stops.  That day came yesterday, so on went the wellies and out came the mower.  The good thing is that once the grass is cut no matter how many weeds there are in the borders the garden all of a sudden looks a hundred times better.  We still have lots of empty beds to fill with plants; some of the background shrubs have now been purchased and we have lots of previously rescued herbaceous stuff to bring down from the field so this weekend with its promise of dry weather involves lots of garden activity.  Wellies, yoga stretches (thanks to Julia Thorley) and ibuprofen at the ready.

The Alfred East Open 14 Exhibition draws to a close today, and I'm chuffed with the comments received about the photo I entered, thanks to those who gave me the comments x.  The next big thing on the photography agenda is the personal exhibition planned at the gallery for October when two photography friends and I have hired the long gallery at the AE for a month long exhibition.  So now all there is to do is create 14 beautiful images, get them mounted and ready for hanging, think about a preview evening, arrange advertising etc etc ....  Oh and raid the piggy banks in order to pay for it all.  The idea of these exhibitions is to sell something, selling enough to pay the expenses would be great because I really do enjoy the process - so here's hoping!  Here's a preview of one of the 14 ....... its a view from Neist Point on Skye looking out to the Outer Hebrides, if you look close enough you can see a couple of people standing 1,000 feet up on the cliff - its not me, don't worry.

On the writing front things have come down a little since my foray into the literary world at the Ruth Rendell event last week, and thankfully my aching feet from walking the streets of London have returned to normal.  But on Thursday with some gusto I decided at the last minute to enter a flash fiction piece, a short story and a poem to the Bridport Prize. This competition is international and has become one of the big ones with its winners ranking among the famous.  The judges this year include the poet Liz Lochhead whose work I really like - so again here's hoping!
For those interested my two short stories (Answers from Ghosts and Letter to Barbara) already on Kindle are on offer and free to download for the next few days.

The pack from Eurocamp came yesterday!  We're off to Brittany at the end of the month for week.  The two of us plus our two 6' 4" offspring in a caravan, hopefully in the sunshine.  The thing that keeps making me smile is the rule that men are not allowed to wear shorts-type swimwear going down the slides into the pools, so the speedos have to be found. The menfolk have been warned.
In the past we've always done the Dover - Calais crossing and then the long drive across, this year we're going Plymouth - Roscoff overnight - tips for an overnight ferry crossing would be welcome.

So, time to get out the wellies and forks!
Elaine x

London, short story comp success and bloody Shakespeare

Today I'll be mostly wearing soft slippers and drinking camomile tea (regards to the Fast Show).  Yesterday was a magical day in London attending a couple of exciting events with my better half and the boys and included hours of walking, as it always does, but this time  in ill-suited shoes. 
The two events kicked off with my luncheon date at the Ruth Rendell Short Story Awards in Kensington where I was awarded runner-up for my short story 'Race to the Shiny Trees'.  The competition is organised by a brilliant charity called Interact Reading (have a look at their website here), and the judging of the stories is done by the Baroness herself.  We got to meet her and lots of other interesting people from the charity and the literary world (only about 40 people in all but big and grand enough for me).  As well as winning the runner-up prize two other lovely things happened - firstly all three of the short-listed stories were read out loud by professional actors (you'll see why if you have a look at Interact's website) which was great to listen to, and secondly I met Nell Dunn, writer of the famous 'Up the Junction' back in the 1960s.  What a wonderfully gracious lady she is.
The afternoon was spent by the four of us walking our way around London, with stops for cream tea, and dinner later on, to eventually end up at the Globe Theatre to watch Titus Andronicus courtesy of our eldest who'd bought us standing tickets.  What an experience!  The Globe Theatre is amazing, you get a real feel of what it may have been like back in The Bard's day.  The actors were on a raised stage plus bits of the action took place among the standing audience which was great.  I'm not a fan of Shakespeare (I'm ready for the abuse - don't worry, lots of people over the years have tried to convince me of its cleverness), but I can admire the splendour of it all, and do enjoy reading and listening to selected passages. The story of Titus is full of murder and treachery, typical Shakespeare, but this one has lots, and I mean lots of murder.  The 'blood' was everywhere.  Well done Will, a great little short story!
Thanks family for a lovely and exhausting day out.  And thanks Ruth for liking my story.

Report from the Hebrides, photos, good and bad news

Well its official - I've fallen in love with Skye.  Its a magical place - lots of mountains and sea and lovely people.  We were really lucky with the weather - we caught the odd shower and grey cloud but enjoyed quite a bit of the big yellow thing.  It was still cool up there so the suntan extends only to face, hands and forearms - a bit of coverage was needed to protect from the breeze.  The only exception was the walk out to Neist Point and lighthouse where the sheer effort needed in the climb and the fear of the sheer drop bought on a bit of a glow, so for 15 minutes the sleeveless top was on show. 
The rest of the 10 days included great views of the Outer Hebrides, the pair of golden eagles, lots of tea and cake, and the two lovely B&Bs - The Rowans on Skye at Portnalong (a very special little place, use the link to see it), and Dunborrowdale at Portree. And a big thank you to my better half for the 1,500 miles of near perfect driving. The trip was book-ended with a overnight stay in Milngavie on the way up an overnight stay at New Lanark Mill (really interesting place, use the link to have a look) and a visit to the beautiful Harlow Carr gardens in Harrogate on the way back.
Many photos were taken as you may imagine - about 550 in all.  I have to add at this point that every one was taken on the manual setting on the camera - so lots of quick, and not so quick fiddling to achieve best exposure etc.  I got news that I'd been given a distinction grade for my City and Guilds in photography - so it would have been a bit of a cheat if I'd gone back to using auto!  A couple photos appear below, hope you like them .....

 

 

 
The youngest offspring has had an exciting weekend helping at City Sound Project music festival in Canterbury with one day spent as artist liaison - supporting the bands before and after appearances, it also got him invited to an after show party - lucky boy! 

Talking of exciting things ............... I was lucky enough to have one of my photo chosen to appear in the Alfred East Open 14 exhibition, its on until the end of May and includes some lovely pieces of art work - worth a look.
Also .............. I've been shortlisted for the Ruth Rendell short story award with two other writers.  Its a competition run by Interact Reading which I entered last October and had nearly forgotten about it until the phone call came a few weeks ago.  I'm off to London on May 21st to a lunch where the winner will be announced, and get to meet Ruth herself.  Excited?  Over the moon!

So April has been a good month overall, but for one thing.  I lost touch with a dear nursing friend, Ian, about ten years ago only to learn from someone recently that he is very poorly with cancer, and not long for this world.  I've exchanged a couple of emails with him and he seems to be as funny and talented as he ever was.  Many of my thoughts at the moment are with him and his partner and family.

Skye, end of the football season and PMQs

We're getting ready for our trip '...over the sea to Skye' as the boat song goes.  The tourist information says that the best way to approach Skye is by the ferry from Mallaig to Armadale on the southern edge, but the way most people go these days is via the bridge at Kyle of Lochalsh - we haven't decided yet which way to go.  Neither of us are good sailors so unless the sun is shining and the sea a millpond - there's a line in the boat song that says 'Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar' - its probably going to be the bridge. 

Talking of weather, one of my favourite internet connections is to the BBC weather website which gives you local hour by hour predictions for weather for the next five days.  I love it.  I've used it this morning already because I've got the grass to cut and a football match to go to so its helped me decide when to get the mower out.  The football match is AFC Rushden and Diamonds vs Wellingborough Town, a real local derby because we share a ground between us down at London Road in Wellingborough, so you can't get more 'local' than that.  Its the last home game this year and we'll be there to thank AFC R&D for a great season and congratulate them for coming close to the top of the division in their first year.

Another bit of the BBC website I like is the 'week in pictures' and the 'your pictures' page, use the link to have a look.  When I last looked it was showing some great photos of South Africa.

Talking of pictures ........... I've entered 3 photos into the Alfred East Open 14 - one of which appears here.  
Here's hoping that at least one of the judges likes one of the pictures and lets me in.









Looking back at the news this week it was great to hear that some of the female MPs don't bother going to Prime Minister's Questions in the commons because its a waste of time.  They've got better things to do than sitting watching a bunch of idiots shout, ball and show off at each other whilst saying nothing of any substance (my words, not theirs).  At one point in the news coverage of the issue John Bercow was seen on one recent occasion, reminding members of the house that there was a group of children in the gallery.  I presume they'd come to see how our wonderful democracy functions - I wonder what they thought of it all.

So here's hoping that the weather in the Hebrides is kind to us - yes I've looked at it on the BBC weather website and I'm not saying what it says - and we come back with tales of the Bonnie Prince and Flora MacDonald and some good pictures of one of Britain's most dramatic landscapes. 

P.S. For those interested there is another short fiction story of mine on Amazon Kindle, its called 'Letter to Barbara'............ a story of family life mixed with murder!

exhibitions, pub quizzes and Anja Niedringhaus

I entered 3 photos into the Alfred East Art Gallery Open Exhibition last year and was lucky enough to have one chosen to be part of the show.  Open 14 is upon us, so its now time to decide which ones to enter this year.   There is also a local village art show that I want to do in May and then in October along with two other photographers there is the month long exhibition at the Alfred East Gallery to plan for.  I've put aside this afternoon to look through my pictures and see what I've got already, and then look at any new ones I might want to try out.  The problem is always one of balancing time and finance; getting photos mounted and framed is costly in both effort and money, and all has to be done well in advance - the knack is then to sell something at a price that returns at least what it cost you to produce, let alone make a bit of profit.  Tricky, but fun.

Talking of enjoyable things ..... last evening was spent with old friends at a pub quiz at The Three Cranes, Cransley.  We answered 100 questions and managed to come 6th out of 13 teams.  We all have different talents when it comes to knowledge so putting heads together nearly always comes up with some sort of answer - with lots of laughter on the way.  Thanks girls for a good night out.

Looking back at the news this week it was sad to hear of the death of Anja Niedringhaus, the German photographer who was shot by an Afghan policeman.  She is quoted by the Guardian newspaper when describing conflict as saying 'two sides fighting for territory, for power, for ideologies. And in the middle is the population who is suffering'.  How true that is.  She'd experienced many conflicts and had become famous for taking photos which helped people realise what was going on at some of the world's 'darkest' moments.  So its sad to think that as someone who through her photography tried to give under-privileged people a voice, she was murdered.  Or maybe it was because of what she was doing that that man decided to take her life.  Who knows.

On a happier note, the sun is shining, birds are singing and weeds are growing so I really must out there and do some gardening!!

Holidays, old poetry and old friends

We have plans for the weekend, as the saying goes.  Off to London on Sunday to pick up oldest boy and then onto youngest boy in Canterbury for the day, and it happens to be you know what day so maybe a couple of treats in store for their old mother.  Then on Monday we bring the young one back for his Easter break from Uni.

Many moons ago I did an OU Creative Writing course through which I met two lovely people.  For several years after we met regularly at our local Waitrose cafe to encourage each other in our literary attempts.  One of the antics we got up to was our 'guerrilla poetry' where small poems were written, mostly about things on sale in the store, and then placed carefully onto shelves next to the appropriate products; all under the watchful eye of the in-store cameras (a sample sits below).  Daft I know but it gave us practice in our writing skills and great laughs along the way.  This week we met again after a break of about 18 months and it was great to see them, two of us still write and the other one thinks a lot about it but has little time to put pen to paper.  Spurred on by my recent 'success' in putting a short story on Amazon Kindle the other two have taken up the challenge, and the task we have set ourselves is to make at least £5 out of writing something before we meet again in June.  However, I've been told that in order to level the playing field I must publish something under a pseudonym so as not to take advantage of my 'world-wide known literary status', haha - does this sound fair?  I'm not sure, but the immediate problem I have is thinking up another name for myself - suggestions welcome.

Anti-Wrinkle Cream

Make me smooth,

Never mind the truth,

Take away the mirrors,

Bring on the youth,

Bring on the cream,

Lotion and potion,

Leave everyone else

Without a notion.

My better half and I are off over the sea to Skye at the end of April.  Its somewhere I've always wanted to visit - probably the Scottish genes in me.  We have one friend who describes her visit to Skye and the Western Isles as the worst holiday she's ever had and another who has been more than a few times and loves it.  So we'll see when our time comes, here's hoping for good weather and calm seas.

The other trip is a bit of a blast from the past.  All four of us are headed to Eurocamp in Brittany one more time in June.  We've had a few Eurocamp adventures with the boys over the years and after a request from the youngest one we are going for one last time.  How my two 6ft 4inch, adult offspring will fit into the caravan beds, and manage a holiday among a campsite full of toddlers is another matter!

The City and Guilds Level One in Photography comes to an end this evening with the handing in of the six photos that will determine my fate.  There's a sneak preview of two of them below..........

We went to a great yoga workshop last Sunday run by Julia Thorley and Penny Taylor.  It lasted for 3 hours, with intervals for tea and cake, and great fun was had by all.  Honestly, despite the sweaty red-faced appearance to the contrary in some of the poses.  Thanks Julia.

latest news from the photo course, pics from the seaside, thoughts on Bob Crow and Tony Benn

Completed a satisfying evening of work yesterday on my poetry presentation and ended up boggled eyed at the end of it.  Looked through and printed off many of my poems from my newly organised computer file, see last post, and thumbed the poetry books from the bookshelf to find one's I liked from real poets which I can add in between mine.  I'm hoping this will improve the quality of the presentation - the members of the group I'm presenting to are well read - so I'm out to impress.  All thats left to do is get my poetry voice sorted and practise reading them out loud.

The photography City and Guilds is at week nine of ten, so we are concentrating on the final submission of six mounted photos complete with the technical information of how it was shot.  My theme is indeed to be 'seaside', with pics mostly taken from our trip to Cromer and the east coast a couple of weeks ago.  There's a couple of them below - your are allowed to give me a score out of ten for each one, this will probably be better than the one coming from my tutor.  Its funny how at some point when learning a new skill you feel less clear about things than you did before the start, here's hoping that my understanding of all things to do with shutter speed, aperture, depth of field and ISO come into focus by a week on Thursday!

This week saw the death of both Bob Crow and Tony Benn.  Two people from very different backgrounds who ended up very similar.  The Guardian yesterday asked the question raised in a couple of letters from readers - '.......who is left to defend working people'.

I've made contact again with a old friend, Karen Shapley, whose is a very talented ceramicist and textile artist, take a look at her blog here.....  http://karenshapley.blogspot.co.uk
......... we have one of her lovely jugs in our kitchen.