One of the reasons for moving into the country side was to enable us to have Bees, Chickens, and to grow our own vegetables.
Today we made our first step as we purchased the parts necessary to build our bee hives.
Christmas is coming
Friday was our Christmas Lunch at work. So it was a very lazy final day. I am taking the week off, a first in many years.
Enjoy the Christmas Holiday, we have a little more shopping to do and family and friends coming round over the following days so no more photography until the new year, but I need to find a few spare hours as I have some final post processing to do.
What ever your religion or even none, enjoy the holiday.
Bodhi Day
December 8th – On Bodhi day some Buddhists celebrate Gautama’s attainment of enlightenment under the Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya, India.
Hanukkah
December 9th – Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights and marks the restoration of the temple by the Maccabees in 164 BCE. Hanukkah is celebrated at roughly the same time as Christmas, but there is no connection at all between the festivals.
Yule
December 21st – Yule is the time of the winter solstice, when the sun child is reborn, an image of the return of all new life born through the love of the Gods. Within the Northern Tradition Yule is regarded as the New Year.
Christmas
December 25th – The day when Western Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
Oshogatsu
January 1st – Shinto New Year, one of the most popular occasions for shrine visits.
Guru Gobind Singh
January 5th – Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) was the tenth and last of the Sikh Gurus. He instituted the Five Ks and established the Order of the Khalsa.
Orthodox Christmas
January 7th – Most Orthodox churches use the Julian rather than the Gregorian version of the Western calendar. As a result, they celebrate Christmas 13 days later than other Christian churches.
Makar Sankranti
January 14th – Makar Sankranti is one of the most important festivals of the Hindu calendar and celebrates the sun’s journey into the northern hemisphere.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Yes, finally late Friday night we finally got the Christmas Decorations up.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
Not only green when summer’s here,
But also when ’tis cold and drear.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can’st give me;
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can’st give me;
How often has the Christmas tree
Afforded me the greatest glee!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can’st give me.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!
From base to summit, gay and bright,
There’s only splendor for the sight.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee!
Thou bidst us true and faithful be,
And trust in God unchangingly.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee! !”
Day out at the Brewery
We love crafts of all sorts and local artisan food. Recently I got to know Scott who as well as being an IT geek is an expert in the dark arts of Microsoft Exchange; spends his spare time at the family pub, or to be more precise in the old stables at the back of the pub.
Here Scott has converted the stables and created the first new Brewery in Ingoldmells since 1898. Well on finding this out we had to find an excuse to make a visit, and so this Saturday we spend the morning visiting local furniture places trying to source a large dinning room table. Afterwards we headed east to Ingoldmells to drop in and visit Scott at his Leila Cottage Brewery. After a chat and a quick tour we headed into the pub where Scott kindly treated us to a free couple of beers. Of the three I think Ace Ale was our favourite and we will definitely be placing an order for Christmas.
With the local baker in our village and several Lincolnshire Breweries, a local coffee roaster its seems the old arts and crafts are doing well in the Lincoln area.
If you have any local crafts people, do please try and support them otherwise all we will have left will be chain stores and supermarkets.
Children in Need 2013
Its Children in Need again today, while we are raising money here we are not going quite as far as we did in 2005.
Moving Home Update – Making the Office Usable
There always seems to be a never ending list of job to be completed when moving house.
This weekend saw us finally empty the storage units, so all our things are in our new home.
We are now surrounded by boxes but we our gradually getting them unpacked.
Another big step this week was the assembly of my desk. Setting that up emptied several boxes so thing are moving a long nicely.
It was nice to edit my photographs using two monitors again but after calibrating my old Sony CRT I noticed it struggled to reach the appropriate brightness.
Looks like my decision to buy a new monitor for Christmas is justified.
National Stockings Day
Today is National Stockings Day. If I am shooting for my own pleasure in the Studio I always try to get a nice stocking top shot.
Its also a good day to for you ladies to buy some Charnos Stockings or get your partners to. Charnos will donate 10% of the retail price to Breast Cancer Care.
World PhotoWalk Deadline
It kind of crept up on us but Monday was the deadline for the World PhotoWalk. With moving house I had not managed to process any more photographs, so I had to make a quick choice from the ones I had already uploaded to the local Flicker Group.
It was a tough choice but in the end I went with this one ‘View of the lines’, I like the diagonal composition with the bridge and the man in the foreground makes you wonder what he is thinking about as he looks out.
Not a great photograph but it is an interesting photograph.
Reliance on the Internet
Well the move is complete, we still have lots of work to do, including the basics like plumbing in the washing machine, but things are slowly coming together. We have had very little internet access for the last few days, even now its still slow and flakey but its slowly getting better.
Its really surprised me how much we have missed the internet access. Just about everything now a days is easier to do online. Even little plumbing and joinery jobs we have been doing, I would usually just check on line and watch a few YouTube videos just to make sure I knew what I was doing.
We really do live on line lives today.
No Blog Tuesday – and possibly Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
Its sometimes tough, sometimes very enjoyable, but when I started this blog I set the rules that I would blog at least once a month, and where possible four times a week; Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
Well so far I have been pretty good and I have managed to keep to my rule. For the rest of this week though I’ll not be blogging. The reason is that we are moving.
No not virtually but physically. Currently we live in a lovely village just outside Lincoln but it does lack room and when ever I need to use a studio I have to hire a space, either in Lincoln or my favourite studio in Worksop.
Well this week we are now moving to another lovely village near Lincoln but this time, we have room not only for my office, but also for my Photographic Studio; and also for Caroline’s Craft Studio. It will be a while before we have everything fully setup, and will be welcoming clients and models to our new place but this week is the start.
So lots of hard work ahead but great times are ahead.