Welcome to this month’s Photo-a-Day collection. There is no actual theme this month, but it’s February, so there is a sort of “Love theme” over arching things, and ideas connected to Weddings also seem to make a show. A slight issue for me as I’m really not that much of a Romantic.
Feb 1st – Today’s weather
As often happens, the day before the weather was a lovely winter’s day with bright sunshine, but on the day of the prompt: a dull, flat grey sky.
So the challenge became how to make the sky look interesting, and the pylons at the Walthamstow Wetlands came to the rescue.
Feb 2nd – Floral
Floral isn’t a pattern I normally wear or buy, but the stained glass in my front door fits the bill.
It is possibly a Victorian or Edwardian door, which I rescued from a neighbour’s front garden (with their permission) and I completely adore it.
Feb 3rd – Something beautiful
One of my orchids is in flower, and it is reather wonderful. And following on from yesterday’s prompt, these are the floral things I love.
Feb 4th – A duo
A duo of geese standing rather wonderfully still and quietly on one leg.
Feb 5th – My Happy place
The one I have easiest access to is the Walthamstow Wetlands, which are a reasonable walk from my home. They have been a really boon and mental self care during lockdown.
I also adore Fountain’s Abbey in Yorkshire, but that’s not particularly available to me at the moment. And also getting stuck into a good book is a happy place.
Feb 6th – Something borrowed
My other half’s flat cap… trying out the look to see if it would be reaching peak Hipster.
Feb 7th – Morning picture
I don’t really do mornings, really I don’t. And I don’t really do conversations before coffee….
Feb 8th – Bright
Some of the self care tools that I have are very brightly coloured.
Feb 9th – Fave food
I know that last month I said my favourite food was pasta (it still is) but I also love cake, and a loaf cake you can smother in butter is also lovely (though less so for the waistband). This is my homemade Bara Brith (BBC recipe here), that’s lovely (as the welsh might say).
Feb 10th – Love is…
Love is the Law, according to this tile found in the St James Street Station Roundel by Maud Milton. This is one of a series of community projects that she has produced in and around London, particularly Waltham Forest.
Feb 11th – 10am
Learning, always learning (when I can). So 10am on the day I took this found me going through MFR UK‘s new online 200hr Certificate in Myofascial Theraphy (CiMFT). I am so proud to be one of their assistants, but that means I have to make sure I know what’s on the course and stay up to date with the research on Fascia.
Feb 12th – Kindness
Kindness is in the palm of your hand…
Feb 13th – Red
I am Red Fox.
During the snowy weather we had in London in February the urban foxes were very bold. I caught this moment of pleasure on a neighbours roof. I wish I had looked ahead as it will be one of my favourite photos of this year.
The title “I am red fox” comes from the Lost Spells book by Jackie Morris (Artist and Co-author) and Robert MacFarlane (Co-author). Jackie Morris recites the poem whilst painting a fox in this video.
Feb 14th – Heart
A heart of ribbons, through my homemade kaleidoscope.
Feb 15th – Pink
A pink camellia, braving the cold weather, although the snow was too much for the first blooms.
Feb 16th – Something new
A new skull, naturally.
I treated myself to an anatomical model of a skull, so something offbeat and different. I had also recieved my new laptop on this day, but I couldn’t make it look photogenic.
Feb 17th – A fave photo
I should have looked ahead as the Red Fox from 13th February is going to be one of my all time favourite photos, and I could have used him here. But I went for this cheeky chubby chappy of a Robin, that came so close my lens struggled to get a picture.
Feb 18th – A view I love
A view out over the reservoirs at the Walthamstow Wetlands, always nice.
Feb 19th – Something old
A vintage top viewing camera that belonged to my SO’s grandfather. Many in the photo group suggested I should get some film and see if it still works…
Feb 20th – Sweets
If you’ve been reading these blogs you may remember that I love Licorice Allsorts, so it was a real hardship that I had to go and buy some to go in the Allsorts jar…
Feb 21st – This made me smile
The foxes have been very bold this year, and this pair in particular (they same ones as the previous picture) and they’ve made me smile many times. And this one also seems to be quite smug and happy with life.
Feb 22nd – A good thing
Technology, computers, the internet are all good things, mostly. I will say that the Photo-a-Day communities I’m a member of definitely make the internet a better place.
Feb 23rd – A love story
A love story of a Fairy Tale sort: Beauty and the Beast, illustrated by Charles van Sandwyk for the Folio Society’s Blue Fairy Book.
Feb 24th – Something blue
Spring was definitely in the air on this day as I spotted this tiny blue Veronica flower (one of the speedwell family).
Feb 25th – Handwritten note
A mundane one, but a list of the coming week’s meals… So many people commented that I was very organised… But I go shopping once a week, so need to know what I’m going to be buying. And with the Covid lockdown it helps keep track of the days.
Feb 26th – A wedding photo
A wedding photo shoot interrupted… Well what do you expect if you pose in the arch of the street that leads from Granda to the Alhambra Palace.
Feb 27th – Life is…
Life is so much better with coffee. I really don’t function very well before my first coffee. Only at weekends do we gring our own (and it’s not that hard with a good grinder).
Feb 28th – What I’m reading.
I’ve done something similar before, as I can’t think of any other way of showing that I have multiple books on the go.
I always have a single book for pleasure on the go (in this case Grace of Kings by Ken Liu), but also have at least one book for work on the go. Currently these are Chyna Honey’s Using Reiki (an excellent book looking at ways of building a reiki self care practice and overcoming the obstacles to that practice) and also John Gibbons’ The Vital Nerves (another excellent book looking at the Peripheral Nervous System).
So that’s it for this month, I hope you enjoyed the photos. I wasn’t lucky enough to have been chosen as a fab four this month. Although the fox photos, particularly the “Made me smile” one were very popular with the people on Facebook.
There will be a constant (some might think endless) stream of photos on my Instagram feed, so if you can’t wait until next month then follow me there. There will be another summary of my photos next month.
Thanks for reading this, my lovely interonauts.
Tim
