March Photo Challenge - Day 19, 20, 21 & 22

I have hopefully networked my blog so that when I blog it is linked with my Facebook page which means only one posting rather than two, so fingers crossed it all works!!!

Day 19

We've had some glorious weather these past few days and the 19th was no exception the kids spent most of the day in the garden and the lovely sunshine meant I could get out and about with my camera. I'd been watching the blossom appear on the trees in the garden for the past week and have been trying to capture that softness of the blossom, so I didn't want all of it to be in focus but I still wanted to see the blossom, if you catch my drift. I've tried to use a technique called Bokeh, which is a Japenese word to describe the out of focus shapes and colours that you get in many photographs.

you can read more about this technique here

 The Pioneer Woman Photography

 Day 20

 The 20th was Tomas' birthday and I can't quite believe he is already three and will be starting nursery after Easter. He is such a cheeky chappie and a real bundle of fun and we all enjoyed a real family day in the garden. Ate a lovely roast dinner and then watched Tomas open his presents and blow out the candles on his cake!!!

 

Day 21

Not much in the way of inspiration today but I did take my camera up to school in the afternoon and took a picture of the tiny church next door, I also took a picture of the church sign on the hall next door and superimposed it. I would have liked to have had the whole sign showing but for some reason Picasa wouldn't let me do that!!!

 

Day 22

We were bathroom hunting today and I had hoped for a picture of a long line of toilets, which we did see in this super huge warehouse full of bathroom stuff, but with Tomas running around and me sitting in baths (fully clothed obviously) there just wasn't enough time.. and so after a busy hour looking and trying out bathrooms suites we headed off to Southend for Rossi's ice-cream followed by chips. I know that seems like the wrong way round but boy was it delicious!!! The tide was out when we arrived but just a short time later the water had hit the sandy shore, Tomas and I were collected treasure from the beach when I took this shot!

 

March Photo Challenge Day 15,16,17 &18

Day 15
Not much in the way of photography today, grey skies, grey mood! But a trip to the local Tesco Homestore and I saw this crane opposite grabbed the camera and took a quick shot before rushing off on the school run. Once it was on the computer it looked a bit bland so it was changed to black and white and then the yellow colour background added.


Day 16
Belgian Bun - or as it is more commonly known in our house Tit Cake!

Day 17

Decided to take my camera into our out of town branch of Next today and spied these shoes on display and just couldn't resist a quick snap!!!
Not sure these will be very practical for the school run though!
Felt rather conspicuous  - more strange middle aged woman with camera than arty student type!!!

Day 18
Rain really stopped play today.
A day indoors playing cars.
This is my version of the rush hour traffic over the QE2 bridge!!!

Right that's me up to date now. Let's hope I can keep it up!

Check out this blog!

I came accross this new blog

365llanelli

where 13 phtographers have taken up the challenge of a photograph every day for a year

here's what it says on their about page

365 Llanelli is a document, diary, learning experience of 13 Llanelli based photographers. The aim is to keep photography at the fore front of our minds, lives & rituals & to publish one photo every day through 2011. Easy, you may think so but with our busy lives it can be quite difficult to find the time, the inspiration & the passion to reach for the camera. Why not bookmark this page & follow this band of Welsh photographers document a year in their lives.

there are some fantastic shots on here and it really has made me think about opening my eyes to your every day surroundings for taking photos. Well worth a look!

March Photo Challenge Day 11,12,13 & 14

Day 11

Saw Tomas getting a few pointers from this book!

Day 12

A walk in the woods - too many pictures to choose from so it's a collage today!


Day 13

A birthday treat to see Fireman Sam in Pontpandy Rocks!

Day 14

This windmill was blowing about in the car park of the local pre-school and has been cropped and soft focus added.

March Photo Challenge Day 6,7,8 & 9

Okay my grand plan of blogging every day with my photos didn't last long did it?? I have posted these on my FACEBOOK page and really need to get in the habit of posting on both FB and my blog.

Anyhow here are my photo choices for

Day 6

If you're wondering if a wild animal had wandered into our garden then the answer would be NO.
The only wild thing about Hugo would be his tongue licking you to death.
This gentle giant is a Dogue de Bordeaux or French Mastiff (like the dog in the film Turner & Hooch).

Day 7

A glorious sunny afternoon spent in the garden where daffodils were picked and laid to rest in the bottom of our boat!!!

If you're wondering why we have a boat in the garden it's all Johnny Depp's fault for making Jack a huge Pirates of the Carribean fan.

Day 8

Barney, our Patterdale Terrier/Jack Russell enjoying a run!

Day 9

The local farmer has spent the past few days getting the fields at the back of our house ready for the crop of peas that will be planted in the not too distant future. The seagulls were having a wonderful time!

This is an extra Day 9 (or can I call it day 10 as I didn't quite get a photo for day 10 don't ask me what happened because I'm not sure either!)
It just shows how close the tractor came to our fence and garden

March Photo Challenge Day 5

Blue Soup



I have this pair of jeans that I picked up in the charity shop a couple of years ago, they're 3/4 length with big turn ups, from M and S, not amazingly trendy but I like them and they're comfortable....but they are a little faded and I know I won't be able to find another pair so I thought I'd dye them and see what happens!!!!

I was on strict instructions that the blue soup was not allowed anywhere near the new kitchen so out into the garden went I with my bucket and wooden spoon to stir my blue soup....

The jeans spent an hour stewing and are in the washing machine as we speak so maybe tomorrows picture could be my all new blue jeans drying on the line........

March Photo Challenge Day 3 & 4

Sorry for not posting up yesterday's photo but I seem to have caught what the children had at the beginning of the week and decided that the only place to be was in my bed. Luckily it was only one of the 24 hour tired achy lurgies so I'm feeling much better today.

On day 3 I took my son and his friend off to a mother and toddler group I took this photo in the rear view mirror and couldn't resist adding the speech bubble...

 

They had a great morning together and were as cheeky as their smiles!!!

Day 4 is my spotty charity shop bargains, I seem to have acquired a love affair with all things red since we had our new kitchen fitted so I couldn't resist buying these.

March Photo Challenge Day 2

I seem to be keeping with the Welsh theme today, which is.........

SHEEP



I spotted this black lamb on the way to pick up the kids from school yesterday and decided that this had to be today's shot!!!

So after I picked up my daughter we drove past the field but the sheep were at the far end and the sun directly in front of us, so it was a no go....Disaster!!!

I was really disappointed as I had no back up plan and the daylight wasn't going to be around for long.
 So on our way to pick up my son we detoured to see if there were anymore sheep at a nearby farm, but no luck....
What was I going to do???
After picking up my son I decided to have one last look to see if the sheep have moved and they had.
Much to the kids embarrassment I left them in the car to traipse over the A12 bridge  and down to the field where the sheep were grazing.
Although I had my 55-200 lens I still couldn't get the shot I wanted so I walked down a bit further and took some more shots. This seemed to worry the sheep some what and they started coming towards me baaing.

When I got home and explained what happened to my husband he said they just thought I was going to feed them but I'm sure they had a much sinister idea and I was glad that we had the fence between us!!!

I would have liked it to have been more focused on the black lamb, but with the kids waiting in the car and trying to take the shots through the hedgerow it proved a little difficult. Maybe next time.

So anyhow this is my shot for today......

March Photo Scavenger Hunt

I'm really going for it this month as I have taken up another challenge over at

 Postcards from the PP

This challenge works on a list of items for you to hunt and photograph you can take a look at many of the amazing photographs that some of the participants have taken here.

The list for March is....

a lion
a rainbow
something green
an empty chair
something sentimental
peeling paint
a collection
a ring
a fancy gate
a shadow
something as old as you
a lamb

If you fancy joining in then pop over to Postcards from the PP to find out more.



March Photo Challenge - Day 1

With it being March the 1st I decided to go with the Welsh theme of daffodils as my first picture.



I was very lucky to find this open daffodil as all the others were still in bud.

March Photo Challenge

A new challenge for March has been set and as you can see it's

"a photo a day challenge"

I am hoping that this is

a) going to remind me to take my camera out everyday

b) inspire me to take more pictures

c) start using this blog to record my photos

So watch this space.....

Right where did I put that camera!!!!!