Happy Birthday to ya!

Lola worked extra hard at hydrotherapy tonight, she had the resistance jets on and she actually had to properly swim rather than paddling around at her spa day!

The most important event though today was lovely Emma's Birthday! Happy Birthday hun!!

Spring has sprung!

It finally feels like Spring might be here at last! After some horrendous wind and rain the last few days, the turning forward of the clocks seems to have actually brought the nice weather with it! The girls enjoyed the lovely weather too!

Not only that, but we were able to get out and about this evening exploring some picturesque New Forest villages and to find the Shetlands... so cute!

Can i get a witness?

I was lucky enough last night to witness the creation on one of the first scraplifts for our challenge over on Scrapping Frenzy. Sandie's page is wicked and i'm sure she'll be sharing soon! She used Feb's yum Studio Calico Kit - some of my pages using mine coming later today!

Had my first chance to try my new lens indoors this morning, Martha was the lucky model and it's pretty cool to be able to shoot at lower ISOs in crap light because with the IS you can be a bit mean with the shutter speeds! This was at f4 at 70mm at 1/20 sec. Nice!

I love my postie after all!

Thank goodness it's Friday!! The 4 days after Easter have seemed to have been the longest ever! Although it's rained all day, I managed to snap this gorgeous little New Forest donkey!

The other great news is my Studio Calico kit is here!!! And it's bliddy gorgeous!!

Scrapping tonight with Sandie so might have some bits to share tomorrow!

Sharpy Sharpyson!

It's sharp, fast, and a joy to use... I was having so much fun I didn't notice the giant branch in the foreground! But check out how sharp these little guys are! Love it!

Yummy Scrummy!

There is a rather lovely page (by the very lovely Jo!!) as the docrafts Scrapbook Project of the week at the moment! You can find it in all it's zoomy glory by clicking here.

Please do pop along and show the love by leaving 'Our Jo' a lovely comment!

Told you that Mooses ruled!

Ok, ok... i know it's not Mooses... but i don't care. It's funnier! You know how when you talk about what you'd do if you won the lottery, well my current comedy idea is a nice big field with Moose (Mooses!)... everyone reckons they are fierce, but as you can see they are like little kittens! Hehe

Om nom nom!

Went to an amazing Chinese in Poole tonight called Flame (I'm sure a name like that needs an exclamation mark!) with some of the crop girls and have come home rather full....It was so yummy and we had a good old gossip and a great laugh! I don't think i'll be able to eat for the rest of the month which is actually just as well as I probably can't afford to because this little beauty arrived today...


It's long, white and has that all important little red 'L'. I want the weekend to be here NOW so I can set him loose, but for now he's safely tucked up in bed in his own little suedette sleeping bag! Sleep tight!

Typical!

Why is it the minute you go back to work the weather improves? So to try and beat the UK weather at it's own game, I just had to pop down to the Forest after work! Paddling and pictures.... great time.

Very James Bond!

Genius...

A long way from home.

You may expect the New Forest to be home to just New Forest Ponies, but there are also a few Shetlands and I came across a group of about 15 today. They are just the cutest!


They are all gorgeous but this little guy was my favourite! (I think he must be one of last year's foals) I knelt down to get some pictures from his level and he wandered straight over and more or less got on my lap and wanted a cuddle! It's ok though... he wasn't any bigger than Martha!

He also tried to follow me back to the car! I'm sure no one would notice if i'd bunged him in the back of the car with Martha!

Lolly Time!

Lola and Martha came to visit Sandie and Joe today for a yummy Roast Turkey Easter Dinner. They had a fab time and enjoyed the traditional annual lolly afterwards! Enjoyed a bit of impromptu Karaoke after as well! (Not the dogs!)

The Easter Bunny.... she say...

It's just as well Martha isn't really the Easter Bunny... cause she'd eat everyone's eggs.... She does look rather cute in her ears though!

Happy Easter!

A hooved theme?

Anyone would think I only have cows to photograph! I just can't resisit them though! Just check out their little faces!

Anita and I have been cooking up a little plan! It's sounding like great fun and a great excuse to invest in some more photographic kit! So if you love your furbabies.. but despair of catching a great picture, you might like to watch this space!

Lot's of pages...

Wanted to share this pic of another Sika deer, (actually a few of them) it was a miracle that it didn't run off with Martha's enthusiastic barking!


Here's a few of my pages from over the last week including a couple from the crop... los of yummy Basic Grey and the remnants of my Studio Calico Kit!

On the way home from the crop...

Just heard this on the Colin Murray show on Radio1 and loved it! Had a fab time with the SF girls as usual! Lots of gossip, stash comparing and just a bit of scrapping! Bliss!

Eye Candy!

I'm a big fan of Prison Break and a small part of the wonderfulness of this amazing and powerful drama is Wentworth Miller - enough to make you want to get locked up! I heard this interview on Radio 1 yesterday and as the series has finished now I just had to re-visit it for his totally velvety tones and to gaze at him as well!
As an aside, how amazing is the hotel! It's the George V - Four Seasons in Paris and if you fancy a suite like the one in the vid it's about £1500 a night! Bargain!

What a loads of cows!

No, not you!! These guys! I think the Highland Cows are my favourites of the New Forest residents, especially as you don't get much farther than the Highlands in the UK! They are pretty mellow and I was able to get pretty close - you wouldn't want to startle them with those horns and Martha stayed safely in the car!!

Off to the crop tonight and i'm a bit gutted that my Studio Calico Kit didn't turn up... I was hoping to travel light tonight! Never mind.. I guess I'll load my tote up and off i'll go!

Deer oh Deer!

Hurrah! Finally got a reasonable and close pic of one of the New Forest Sika deer! (Just think how cool he'd look through some Canon L-glass!)


I'm rather excited about the pending arrival of my first ever Survival Kit from Homegrown Scrapbooks, it's scarily good value and jam packed with so much scrappy goodness, i'm sure I won't be needing anything else for months! (Yeah right!!)

Happy Birthday Mum!

It's Mum's birthday today and to celebrate we (plus Sandie and Joe) took Martha up to a pub in the New Forest for lunch! Yummy food and amazingly Martha behaved quite well, she even got treats from the bar staff!

I fashioned Martha a new bib as well, which she modelled today, i'll get some pics tomorrow! It's so cute, bright pink! I think it could do with some girly touches though! It's a bit utilitarian at the mo! Any suggestions?

I'll be there for you!!

It's amazing what a bit of stress and anger can do for your creativity! I've been churning out the pages already today and i'm just off to do some more! It's such a shame when people you think are kind generous souls show their true colours. Thanks goodness for the people who you can really count on to be there for you... You know who you are!

The power is mine!

'We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.' Stewart L. Udall.... Where batteries for your dSLR are concerned....rubbish!! You can never have too much power!

Dancing On Ice

I'm very excited about the final of Dancing on Ice coming up on Sunday night! I'm never sure about the wire work in the final, but i'm sure that Chris Fountain will pull it off! I can't wait!

Little Owl

What a terrible picture! But i'm over the moon with it all the same! I was driving back from taking Martha for a paddle after work and spotted this little guy! I have no idea how I spotted him and I only managed to fire off 1 frame before he flew off - it's through a filthy car windscreen, manual focus and at ISO1600 and at 300mm ... i'm gutted i didn't have the camera in raw cause I might have been able to salvage a bit more but at the end of the day I've got a pic of a Little Owl! Love him!

HDR

This is my first attempt at some HDR (High Dynamic Range Processing) and I have to say i think it's pretty 'rad'! It's all about capturing all the detail of the highlights and shadows by combining a number of different exposures of the same scene! Love it!

Love my postie!

Hurrah he's finally here! My lovely monopod came today, can't wait to get out and about tomorrow after work with it... hope those deer are ready for me and it better be nice weather!

Get a grip!

Hurrah!! At least one of my parcels has arrived - my Battery Grip is here! Was so excited I had to whip it out in the office (so to speak!) and show it off! Here's te lovely Holly clearly looking very excited to be my first model/victim! If you have an dSLR I can highly recommend it.... the camera feels so much more balanced now, and it's worth it if only to pretend you have a big posh pro-camera!

I'd Do Anything..

I love a bit of Musical Theatre - Reality TV, so I just had to post this trailer for the new BBC series looking for stars for the new production of Oliver! It can't hurt that JB is in it too!

Ribbit!

This is Martha's slobbery frog toy... (he's sitting on a dirt-trapper mat... that's not my carpet!) he's made of towling, so extra absorbant... like a toy and slobber cloth in one! Martha loves him and enjoys flailing him about and throwing him up in the air.
I'm waiting (not very) patiently for my Studio Calico kit to arrive. Last month it was here on the 11th so i'm going to be stalking the postman, particilarly as he's also still got my monopod and my battery grip! Come on Postie!!

Big tongue!

Wisdom from Madonna?

Well who would have though that Madonna would be a source of wisdom... "My priority is my family, absolutely, 100 percent."

All growed up!

Lovely bit of sun today so the perfect opportunity for some pics of my big baby Martha in the garden, can't believe how grown up she's looking in this one. She's now 14 months and when she was vaccinated yesterday she weighed 63kg!!! (thats 139lb in old money!)
Also managed to snap this picture of a female blackbird on her nest... She was rather well hidden between the branches, but caught this glimpse.