Out and About - The Cotswolds...

Less than an hour from where we live lie The Cotswolds, one of my favourite parts of the UK.  Yesterday we went to the village of Broadway (click here for more info and history), which is such a quintessentially perfect English village you'd think someone had made it specifically for the role of 'Tourist Attraction'.  On that note may I say that it is a very, VERY, popular tourist destination so try not to go there in the summer as you will not be able to move and will become hot, bothered and possibly violent (or is that just me?).  I would also like to add that there is an excellent tea room there called Tisanes where there are more types of tea than you can shake a stick at - if I had a tea shop I would want it to be just like this one.

Cats on Tuesday...

Another Tuesday, another post about egotistical cats... Posky went for his acupuncture with Linda (they call each other Auntie Linda and Mr P now) and was a very good boy.  Charlie went to the vets for another glucose curve and was not... The upshot is that he's going to have his own glucometer at home so that he doesn't get to scare people at the vets.

On with the photos - we have two guest appearances this week... first of all here is 'Market Bosworth Car Park Kitten...'

He sat there very nicely until he saw the camera

and realised he was going to be in Cats on Tuesday,

then he just became over-excited and silly...

'Omg, omg, omg, OMG,

I can't believe it! Cats on Tuesday!

I've made it, MUM MUM, can you see me?!?'

Then on Friday when we were down in Leighton Buzzard taking photos of Fiona in the graveyard at All Saint's Church, along came 'Slinky Graveyard Cat'.  Of course we all forgot what we were doing and made a fuss of him...

Not content with being cuddled by a photographer, he

was determined to get in on the photo shoot.

Here he is with Fiona...

I'd better leave you with pics of some of ours before anarchy and revolution break out...

Here's Pepper with some of the squash that I bought...

she's a little upset here as I got her a diamante

charm for her collar and David broke the catch on it...

...and here's Mrs P.

'The idiot brothers' as Pepper calls them,

were not co-operative about posing nicely

with the squash so have been banned from appearing

this week.

For more kitties visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday...

A busy week photographically so I thought I might as well see if I could make some of the pics I took fit in with the Scavenger Hunt (not the right way to do it but needs must etc...).

Shadow...
A beautiful bright, crisp autumn day
in Cadeby, Leicestershire.

...and another one for Shadow just because...

Slightly less crisp and bright this one;
I was out with my camera in the fog this morning

and found an atmospherically shadowy alley.

Key...
Not much else to say!
This is the only one from the archives.

Smile...

A shot from Friday's photo shoot with Fiona Harrison.

Unedited...
I got six squash/pumpkins from the farm shop yesterday.
I was a very happy bunny about this.

Spice... 

Ok well spice was one that evaded me,
so instead here are some spicy autumn colours...

Green/Journey (Nurture Photography Challenge)...

So anyway,  this is how we're dressing in England this autumn... :O) 

Musing on photographic journeys I'm amazed to look back on how far I've come since I first picked up a digital camera - I'm also constantly kicking myself for not getting the image I have in my mind onto the screen.  The thing is to keep trying, keep going, and keep learning.

A bit of a different take on autumn these - they are shots of Fiona Harrison who asked me to take some pics of her seriously fabulous 18th C style dress - the wonderful setting is the graveyard of All Saints Church, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire (very nice coffee shop too).

Out and About... Calke Abbey

As we're off work for two weeks we took the opportunity of heading north for forty minutes to Calke Abbey (pronounced Cork) just over the county border in Derbyshire.  I've been there before but David hadn't, and after he'd been bribed with coffee and a cookie and recovered from getting up early he really enjoyed it.  We had great weather in the morning and spent an enjoyable few hours lurking in the grounds taking a lot of photos.  For shots of the Abbey itself see last October's post when I went off exploring by myself for the day (David had a BIG THING ON HIS LIP going on then and couldn't leave the house).

Love my wide-angle lens so much - it gives great warp...
This is part of the very long Drive up to the house.

Is it a Dhalia?
I think it's a Dhalia, we'll say that it is...

A few shots taken around the buildings...

David almost smiling...

Last year it was Edward Thomas,

this year they had my man TH...

I may have to have a poetry chalk board

in my own garden now
(even if it's only the cats and any passing literate slugs who would see it).

From the sublime to the...
well it just had to be done.
David's impression of The Wicker Man...

And just because it wouldn't be October
without pumpkins...

Cats on Tuesday (in which cats look weird)

The saga of Charlie's diabetes continues... as we were at home most of the day yesterday we borrowed a gadget from the Vet to test Charlie's glucose levels every couple of hours.  As this involved stabbing his paw with a needle then squeezing a drop of blood out it made us very unpopular with him (my thumb was bitten in the process - I'm thinking it was Charlie rather than David).  Anyway, his results for the morning were fine, but by the afternoon his levels had gone through the roof; whether this was because he was stressed or whether he was having a bad day is unknown at this time.  It looks like we'll have to do it again next week although I'm hoping we only have to repeat the afternoon tests - not sure if mine or Charlie's nerves (or my thumb) could stand up to another all-day bloodbath.

Other cat news... Posky is being BAD with regards to his food and is refusing to eat anything that is good for him.   Mrs P's ear is a lot better although her behaviour at the vets isn't.  Pepper meanwhile is thinking of advertising the other three on Ebay as she's fed up with them getting all the attention.

Here are some photos I took of the little sods angels... if you're wondering how I made them look this bizarre it's down to the distorting effects of a wide-angle lens (revenge is sweet) :O)

Posky looking odd - and slightly malevolent...

Mrs P looking scruffy - although still malevolent...

Pepper looking like the world's first vulcan cat...

...and Charlie looking like he's got a new means of self-defence.

For more kitties visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday.

It's Monday - What are you Reading?

For once I managed to get hold of two of the books on my wish list and read one of them in a few days - double hurrah!  Take a bow Anthony Horowitz's The House of Silk, a wonderful homage to the Sherlock Holmes stories of Conan Doyle.  All the ingredients are there - Holmes, Watson, fog, 221b Baker Street, street urchins, fog, dastardly villains, Victorian London, Homes's violin, and did I mention fog?

Horowitz captures the essence of the originals but adds 21st century slant to it - the main 'crime' in the book (which I can't mention as it's a major spoiler) is one that I'm sure Conan Doyle wouldn't have touched with a barge pole, but it works.  A heck of a good read... I just wish he'd write some more.

Next on the list is The Snow Child...

... and whilst we're on the subject of Holmes,

don't you think David has a very Moriarty-ish expression on his face here? 

If I'd done this in colour you could

have seen how spiffing my brown velvet coat (how

19th century can you get?) looks, but then you would

also have seen how badly my roots need doing...

Memo to self - wear hat...