My Pocket

sheep and other creatures

Hello! I'm here. Blogging just hasn't been what I needed to do for this past week. Taking photos was exactly what I needed however, so feel free to have a look where I've been lately. I'm learning to love having my camera with me wherever I go and regret it whenever I decide against it. Like seeing the newly sheared sheep that shone bright white in the sunshine against the green of their field, black faces looking up at me. The sheep in the fields surrounding the school isn't the same breed, but beautiful nonetheless.

The black sheep in the family is my little hero. When she was born her mother left her by the fence after licking her. She was lying with her head down, little thing, and look at her now! Go girl!

I love sheep...

...and pretty much all creatures.

Even though they don't always want to hang out with me...

elderflower

Wishing you dappled sunlight, warm breezes and blue skies. I'll be back soon.

poppy

Have you ever been inside a poppy?

haircut

I had my hair cut - this is the new length:

My best friend cut it after I came back from the hairdresser all disappointed with myself - it looked exactly the same as before I went in, minus two centimeters of length... I love it now, she cut a good chunk off, not quite 10 centimeters I suppose but nearly. Afterwards I cut some off myself too in front of the mirror - I loved doing that, I'll do it again. I'm not too fussed about it being straight and even and I need to let loose a bit for sure. Self portraits are a sign of that too because I normally can't stand having my picture taken, but I think I'm going to experiment with that...

my plants

The sun is out again - after a few weeks of rain. Before that it had been consistently hot, sunny and dry for something like 7 weeks, so we certainly deserved to be poured on, but nevertheless it lifts my spirits to have warm air and light pouring into my room instead.

I'm taking the opportunity to introduce my green friends in the window today. The climber sprawling across the top has been with us for three years now and seems happy to not explore any further. The wee succulent in the left corner was a birthday present for D's brother two or three years ago but he never made it as we liked him too much having kept him for a week before the event. The tree next to him is an olive variety I got a month or so ago. I love trees and climbers, and succulents as of late (the wee birthday one has been in D's room until I nicked him this year).

This other succulent I found yesterday. I've spotted this plant in quite a few blogs lately so I expect it's popular. It certainly has an amazing colour.

The aloe vera was smuggled by me into Britain three years ago when I moved country from Sweden. Its mother is thriving just the same in my old room in my parents' place (they've got a lust for life for sure!) and it's time for a new pot very soon.

Have a nice Thursday!

blue, green, orange, yellow

I never knew it could be so much fun to fiddle with the basic settings in iPhoto! I've been trying to pluck up the courage to work a bit in Photoshop but so far I haven't done much. My refurbished Powerbook came with all this great software (Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, ImageReady, Photoshop, GoLive, Contribute, Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks. Oh, and QuarkXPress Passport, which I don't know what it is...) but I'm not using any of it! Beautiful icons to keep in my dock though... :] I know how to use InDesign from working with it in the office and I designed my blog banner with it, but apart from that - I've got some playing around to do.

This last one is the original - cor, all my previous photos look colourless and dull compared to the tweaked ones now. Well, that changes things a bit - I think I will be working a bit on my creations from now on. I'm thinking, isn't it the same if I would have set my camera settings to get more saturation into the picture before I capture it as digitally doing it afterwards? Anyway, that's what I'm going to keep telling myself. I mean look at this photo below - boooring!

Mind you, I won't be having blue woods, that's just not right most of the time.

Thursday

Good morning sleepy-head, time to get up!

Shower with a view...

Stretch them legs, wiggle them toes! (note sandal tan line, did I mention I live in them?)

Commute to work : round the corner, through the backyard, across the road, through the rose garden, past the greenhouses and vegetable beds and through the door of the school.

School library : backs of books to toe the line, some to be returned to their places, some just unruly generally, some books need TLC, some need to be given new homes, newcomers need welcoming and worlds come together - anywhere you want to go I can find you the shelf.

Daily-after-lunch-walk through canopy covered lanes.

Studies for this afternoon : Taking the Main Complaint, Questioning the Systems, Cancer and Pulse and Tongue diagnosis...

G'night...

...sleep well!

Here I am.

Well, where were we? Feels like I haven't been here for ages. For a change I have actually been busy though, normally I'm Miss Lazybones content daydreaming away. I did my daydreaming fidgeting on a chair in the classroom for six days last week. The beginning of the second year of college. I don't mind getting back down to business, best get on with it right, but oh were the homework-free days lovely...

I stitched this needle case in the sunshine on our porch:

I found a table for my craft corner but have yet to put the shelf up (with my new powertools kindly left by my very good friend next door when he moved - thank you Kwabena!).

My new desk!

I sanded and stained the top and I love the old worn feeling it gives to the wood. The green Stokke chair is another gift (thank you Kwabena!) and I'm intending to live in it for hours at a time poring over my study books.

I've read so many books over the break that I lost count - The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (wonderfullly touching way to mess with your head), Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman (magic, witches, gypsies, soul animals and strange worlds - yes please), Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes (third time I read that one, the power of fairy tales in women's lives - the only self-help book I read now), Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian (any book where adults are wise and children are allowed to exist as they are is good in my view, but this one is excellent), The Plains of Passage and Shelters of Stone by Jean M Auel (I began reading this series when I was 15 and I still find them enchanting and inspiring - simple, natural life).

Well, that was my break, now back to the heavier books...