Very Nice Weekend

Had a great day on Saturday. We went to Edinburgh to see the musical Evita. Was very, very good.

Marti Pellow was in it and still looking good!

Afterwards discovered this amazing exhibition - 'Field of Light' by Bruce Munro -

Was a beautiful sight and well worth a visit if you are in Edinburgh before 27 April.

Mich :)

Monday 30 December 2013

Well we are coming to the end of the year. My most memorable thing will be this shoulder injury which has and is still a pain in the neck! (if you know what I mean!)

I am managing to get out and about thanks to a very helpful partner (I bet he will be as happy as me when I'm back to full fitness and he can take off his nurse's hat!)

On Saturday it was a lovely but cold day and we went for a walk to the Loch Leven area and I managed to take these 2 pictures (he had to hold the camera for me as I couldn't take the weight of it on my right hand).

The geese then took flight and I managed to snap this -

After our walk we headed to the sales! (can very easily get my purse out with my left hand lol!)

Have a great day.

Mich :)

Advent Calendar 13 December 2013

Back to Christmas with today's picture.

This is a photograph of my tree - obviously took the picture a bit differently to get this effect.

Well it is Friday - Friday the 13th - wishing you an uneventful day. (Hope there are no little glitches for me today - did have a puncture on Wednesday so am hoping that the fact that it's the 13th today I wont have a repeat episode!)

Mich :)

Advent Calendar 11 December 2013

Today's picutre is one from inside the Vatican in Rome. Everywhere you looked there was something to photograph! I love the ornateness and the gold.

It is so mild outside today - doesn't feel like winter at all!

Have a great day.
Mich :)

Advent Calendar 8 December 2013

Back to a festive picutre today.  Put up my Chirstmas tree yesterday and took a few photos. With a bit of artistic licence on the editing came up with this.

Unfortunately the weather today isn't very Christmas like - it's raining and windy at the moment but it is mild.

Have a lovely Sunday.
Mich :)

Advent Calendar 7 December 2013

Today's picutre was taken in a lovely little cafe I sometimes go to in Crieff. It has a sort of gothic theme inside with lots of black and purple. They also do a lovely coffee.

Heading into town today to join the Christmas throng as I've realised it's not that far away!

Have a great day!
Mich :)

Advent Calendar 6 December

Today's picutre is the calming photograph of a candle.  After yesterday's horrendous weather thought it would be nice to have a gentle quiet picture today.

Have a great day!

Mich :)

Advent Calendar 4 December

Today's picutre was taken as I walked through a park early in the morning. I am looking forward to seeing some snow on this tree in the not too distant future!

Have a great day!

Mich :) 

Advent Calendar 3 December

For today's picutre it's a festive cup of coffee! I love it when the guy who makes the coffee goes that extra mile in the presentation.

Have a great day!
Mich :)

December - Advent Photo Calendar

As it's 1 December, thought it may be fun having a sort of 'Advent Calendar' of picutres on the blog for December - a mixutre of tartan, Christmassy things and general photos.

Here is the picutre for 1 December -

1 Dec 

Was out for breakfast today and this was the table decoration - a nice little reminder that Christmas is on the way!

Have a great evening.
Mich :)

My Weekend

Sunday night again - it does seem to come round so quickly! Had a lovely weekend though.  Popped through to Dundee on Saturday for a bit of shopping. It was a lovely if cold day.

Took this picutre of a Dundee street looking down to the railway bridge. Edited it in black and white as I thought it looked more interesting!

Also took this one of the railway bridge from a different position:

Found time to make these 3 - Henderson, Anderson & Stewart (Old) - sounds a bit like a firm of solicitors!

Did a bit of studying too as the next exam is on Tuesday.  On Thursday now we are massaging client's at college for our assessment in the body massage class. Was absolutely exhausted on Thursday night after doing 2 full body massages. Felt in need a of a massage myself by the end of it!

Hope you had a good weekend too.
Mich :)

Busy Busy Busy

My weeks seem to be so busy just now - the 2 night classes are really taking their toll on my time and just to compound everything work is soooo busy and I am starting work at 8am.

I really value my weekends and being able to slow down!

On Saturday we went up to Aberfeldy - about 40 mins away from here. It was a dry day and was nice just to potter around.

Wades Bridge Aberfeldy

This poor duck thought we may have had some food so came right over to us!

Hungry duck!

I have been busy too with my corsages and my orders have increased which is a really nice feeling! I have been trying to make some cards to attach the brooches on to so they are better for packaging.  Working on something like this:

One of my friends came down tonight too for a massage - I have to get as much practice as I can.  I will say that my friends are loving all the practice I have to do!

Tomorrow night's anatomy class - one more week till exam No. 3!

Take care.
Mich :)

I Know I said 'No More Ducks'

I know I said it, but honestly at the park on Sunday morning this duck was posing -

I saw it look at me! Couldn't resist snapping it! I was originally to be taking pictures of the water trying to get it to look good with the light, however ......

....I then saw this mum and baby and what could I do?

It's not often you see ducklings at this time of year.

But definitely no more ducks - even if they are standing on their beaks in a row - I am not photographing any more ducks!

To stay on an 'all things nature' theme, on Saturday in town they were collecting for guide dogs for the blind and obviously had out their cutest recruits to boost funds -

Well that's been my weekend!
Mich :)

What to do when you can't sleep

Some nights I sleep for so long and then I have a real problem getting back to sleep even though it is nowhere near time to get up.

Tuesday night  was such a night - woke about 3.30am and tossed and turned.  Eventually got up at around 4am. Did a bit of sewing and made this pin/brooch.

It's in the St Johnstone FC tartan.  We will soon be getting into the autumn type weather when jackets will be needed (well up here anyway, maybe those of you further south will be ok for a while yet!) and it's sometimes nice just to pop a little thing on a plain jacket.

Then I noticed the sun was starting to rise so out I ventured camera in hand looking for a sunrise picture and managed to get this one after a short walk.

I didn't actually know I'd got the little bird (top left) until I downloaded the picture to my computer.

All in all it was a productive very early morning! (Let's hope tonight is not the same!)

Have a good day.

Mich :)

New Camera

Last week I bought a new camera - after a lot of investigation and reading and chatting with the owner of the local camera shop I decided on a Fujifilm bridge camera - and I have to say I love it. It does all I want it to do!

First pictures -

View of Dundee railway bridge

I am watching my daughter's dog for a couple of days while she's away so took the opportunity to use her as a model (not that she is any more enthusiastic than my own dog when the camera comes out!)

Visiting the Dundee Flower Show at the weekend so hoping for a few good pictures there.

Have a great day.
Mich :)

Dubrovnik Wedding

I'm sure that you all know how much I'm enjoying photography, so I wanted to share a picture of the bride and groom from the wedding in Dubrovnik.

I saw this idea of the groom making a heart shape with his hands on-line and thought it would make a really different picture.  Was pleased with how it turned out.

Have a good day!
Mich :)

Countryside

At the weekend went out into the countryside - well actually was en route to a little coffee shop!

The fields were looking lovely - everywhere looks lovely when you have a bit of sun I must say.

Wheat on one side of the road -

wheat

Barley on the other -

Barley

Have to say I do like the feather look of the barley more than the wheat.

Well am all packed for my trip to Dubrovnik.  I am sure I'll get some really great pictures of what looks like a beautiful place.  Corsage No. 1 from this post is going with me. Also taking the headband I made plus a decorated comb to decide on the day which one to wear.

Beaded headband

Ok everyone have a great week and I'll be back next week.

Mich :)

York

I had been through York and spent time in the railway station but had never really spent any time in the city. However, last week spent a couple of days there and it is a really interesting city.

There are so many things to see - the wall, York Minster, Cliffords Tower, museums.  Speaking of museums, the Castle Museum is really worth a visit.

York Minster

The Castle Museum is set out like old York - with streets and shops how they used to be.  Some shops have people in them dressed up like long ago.  They also have the sounds and smells of long ago (some of them not very pleasant!).

Inside the Castle Museum

We also saw some actors dressed up in old costumes.  I spoke to one of them and they were filming the follow up to Price & Prejudice which is being shown on the BBC over Christmas.  Didn't unfortunately see any of the stars!

Actors in York

An interesting window in York.

York window

All in all, would recommend York for a city break.

Mich :)

Beginning with 'D'

Just realised that the 2 pictures I'm posting today begin with the letter 'D'!

This one of the oh so cute duckling was taken on Saturday - thought it was maybe too late for ducklings as the last ones I took were in June.

Today at lunchtime while out on my bike from work, I was just 'practising' with my camera.  Taking pictures of the river with different aperture settings etc when a dog suddenly ran past me and into the river!

He totally ignored me!  It was a refreshing change to take a picture of something a bit out of the norm.

Here he is staring towards the path looking for his master coming.

I am heading off to York and then Whitby this week so looking forward to some very interesting things to photograph.

Have a good evening.

Mich :)

Weekend

Had such an interesting day on Sunday.  We were going to Crathes Castle however, en route we spotted that the Glamis Castle extravaganza was on so we decided to head there instead.  I think it's an annual thing and there are lots of classic cars and old style buses, tractors etc all in pristine condition.

I had never actually been into Glamis Castle itself so we went on a tour and it is such an impressive place and it was very interesting to find out all about the place.  Glamis Castle was the childhood home of the Queen Mother and indeed Princess Margaret was born there.  There are lots of pictures of the Queen and Princess Margaret when they were little in photo frames in the various rooms.

There is also a small chapel which is said to be haunted by 'the grey lady' and the guide showed us the seat she sits in when she is 'seen' in the chapel.

The gardens too are lovely - especially the Italian Garden.

I'm not going to tell you any more though, you should definitely try and visit the Castle if you are up this way! You can find out more info here.

(Naturally the good weather at the weekend made such a difference.)

Here is a little collage of pictures from Sunday - unfortunately you weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle, but here are three from the Italian Garden and a photo of the interesting castle roof.

Mich :)