Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Friday Photo

I took this about 18 months ago, on the shore of Lake Rotorua, so he's an inland gull, a member of one of the hundred or so gull species; these red-legged ones are the most common we see on our coasts, along with the bigger Pacific gull.
The sun was just starting to set, and there was a nice quality to the light which picked up the colour of the rust on the pole.

 

Happy Friday - and Happy New Year.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Favourite Shots of the Year #3

Wintry light

These are photos which I took in midwinter this year in Northland, New Zealand. They were all taken between 10.00 am and noon.  (Click to enlarge)

It was very cold; there was rain about, the sun was struggling to come through, and the light was strange, eerie at times:

Mussel Farm and Barge (and Blue Heron)

Mussel Farming



Mussel barge
Whangaroa

 
Mahinepua Bay



 Sorry to post so many - I couldn't decide which to leave out ...   

Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Friday Photo

I've decided to indulge myself and start a weekly Friday photo post. Just because.

I was going to post this one as part of Thematic Photographic's favourite shots of the year - until I realised that I took it last year....

Driftwood on the beach after an autumn storm, May 2009.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Another TP favourite Pic

Little boys in Turkey are traditionally circumcised - it can be done at birth, but is often delayed until they are 7 or 8 years old. On Circumcision Eve they have a big party, receive gold coins and other gifts, and dress in a costume which is meant to look like that of a King or a Sultan.
In Istanbul this little chap was happy to pose for a photo, and his parents gave their smiling consent when I asked if it was ok.


I love his expression. Am I just being fanciful when I say that I can see excitement, pride, shyness and fear in that little frowning face?

See more entries in Thematic Photographic 128.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Favourite Shots of the Year #1


The new Thematic Photographic challenge is around favourite photos, and we've been given 3 weeks for it - whew!

This year I have done some travelling, thanks to a small bequest and a promise I made to the person who left it to me. That promise was to "just get out there and do it!" So I've made a start - and I mean to keep on going.

First, Barcelona, where my son lives. Click on photos to embiggen.
Three four Five favourite shots from that fascinating city:

 


Palau de la Musica Catalana


Street performer on the Rambla
Street scene

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Monday rave: why I love being a teacher

  • I like that it's never, ever boring - and as someone who gets bored easily - that's a real bonus. It's never the same from one day to another. Or from one year to another.
  • I like the energy, creativity, ideas, and  humour of the colleagues I work with.
  • I like the energy, creativity, ideas and humour that I get from the students in my classroom.
  •  I like that I get to (justifiably) spend money on books and movies.
  •  I like it when a student or a group takes an idea and runs with it. I'm a big fan of veering off at tangents.
  •  I love it when kids are racing each other to get in the door so that they can be the first to see what the "Word of the Day" is - and I really love it when so many of those words turn up in their writing.
  • I love sitting on the stage at Prizegiving - with a number of tissues at the ready - and seeing the fine young people who are finishing their secondary school career.
  • I love that I get paid to be passionate about books and poems and song lyrics and films and words.
  • It's fantastic when a student gets so involved in something that they are really angry or upset - like when Othello is sooo blind to Iago's evil, or when Piggy dies....
  • I like that I sometimes enter my classroom in the morning feeling grumpy for some reason - I'm tired, or it's raining, or some political skirmish has broken out in the staffroom - and realise 20 minutes later that I'm feeling great!
  • I love it when a student points out something that I hadn't thought of.
  • I love those Christmas cards which tell you how much they have come to love English.
  • and I especially love being a teacher when it's the first day of the summer holidays!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Thematic Photographic 127: Family (2)

On a happier note

My grand-daughter, aged about 19 months:

And her new brother, about 20 hours old, taken yesterday:



Thursday, December 9, 2010

Thematic Photographic 127 : Family

 

This man was my father.

When I was born, he was 65 years old. My mother was 45. He had been married for more than 30 years to a woman who was institutionalised for most of those years, because of mental health problems. They never had children. Finally, her death liberated both of them.

A few years later he met my mother, a widow with four daughters, the youngest of whom was about 9 years old. They married, and he was a wonderful stepfather to her girls – but he always spoke with regret of never having had a child of his own.  So, although she must have previously felt that her days of having kids were finished, and although it must have been scary to become pregnant at her age, she allowed that to happen.

He doted on me. Everyone said that they had never seen a man adore a child as he did me.

When I was 3 years old, and he was 68, he died, suddenly, of a heart attack. Apparently, I became sick with grief when he “disappeared”.
I wish I had known him. Because of his age he was probably never going to see me become an adult, but I wish I had known him long enough to have some memories of him. What memories there are, are buried deep in my psyche, and are more like scars.

I know little of him, sadly – my mother spoke of him very little, and the few things I do know came from the two eldest of my half-sisters. He was a farmer. His parents were born in Scotland, and emigrated to New Zealand for a better life. He was very tall – 6 feet 4 inches. He loved me.

I have my father's colouring, his bone structure, his chin. My son has his height, and we both have his enquiring mind and his intellect.

Hei maumaharatanga

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Thematic Photographic 126 : Night


This week's theme is Night, and Carmi asks why some night-time scenes seem so sad.
 "There is something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceivable mystery."  ~ Joseph Conrad
Van Gogh - Starry Night over the Rhone

There are so many connotations around darkness, blackness, death... Many of us have been fearful of the night as children, and night often suggests danger and evil - just think of all the links to bad deeds, ghosts, vampires. It all goes along with the sense of night's all-encompassing darkness, and its taking-away of our sense of sight.

"Fooey! The porchlight is burnt out, and I can't see whether it's dark outside or not."  ~ Dave Beard

Humans were daylight animals from their beginning, until fire then electricity came along, and night is innately associated with our feelings of vulnerability when we cannot see. Scary stuff is concealed by darkness.
Image: NASA

In nearly all societies and cultures, there are stories and myths warning of the dangers of the night.
"The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve. 
Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time."  ~ Shakespeare
 
And the sadness?
If you are feeling down, lonely, frightened, then all of those feelings are magnified when night comes down.

I hate having to go to sleep. Life is so short, there are so many things I want to do: it really irks me that I have to waste a third of each day in bed asleep!
"It is one of life's bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives just when things are really getting interesting." ~ Lemony Snicket

Last night I went outside and thought once again that it is a shame suburban skies are so encumbered and made ugly by wires and aerials :

 

















Good night!