It was my birthday at the weekend and as a special treat my husband took me to the seaside (look, what can I say, I may be getting on a bit, but inside I’m still five years old!). Where we live it’s always a bit of a trek to get to the beach. The journey takes a good couple of hours mostly across the windy, up and downy, country roads that transverse the spectacular North Yorkshire Moors, so we don’t do it very often. In fact we’d never been to Robin Hood’s Bay before, but as you can see from the pictures it is really rather pretty (and quintessentially English), and we had a perfect day there eating ice creams, paddling in the icy sea, eating fish and chips,walking along the cliff, eating cake, lying about a bit more…..you can tell there was a bit of a theme going on!

Anyhoo… back to ‘on the way’. You can’t really drive down to the beach, as the roads are so narrow, so I took this snap of our first glimpse of the sea as we walked down the very steep hill (it seemed even steeper on the way up, especially after all that food!!).

Although they don’t really fit the remit, I thought you might like to see a couple of other photos we took while we were messing about at the seaside! I’m afraid I didn’t have my ‘proper’ camera with me, so the quality is slightly iffyer than usual!

May 26, 2015 by rebootingkaye

Broken :-(

Posted in response to the Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge – this week’s theme ‘Broken’

This is my Sooty eggcup. It was an Easter present, complete with chocolate egg, that I received when I was seven or eight years old – that means that this little eggcup is now getting on for sixty. It got broken like this when we moved house some 22 years ago, and for some reason I didn’t have the heart to throw it away.

I don’t really know why I have kept it so long. It’s like a ghost of my childhood sitting in the kitchen drawer. I can actually remember getting it, and being quite excited, after all there is nothing quite like a boiled egg and soldiers out of your own Sooty eggcup. It’s also a reminder of how clumsy and lackadaisical I am – originally I had the broken off piece and had intended to stick it back together, but of course that never happened and the piece has long since disappeared.

Perhaps, now I have taken photographic evidence of it I should throw the darn thing away. Lets face it,it’s junk and it takes up valuable space in my kitchen drawer. Will I though?? I’m pretty sure you and I both know the answer….

May 16, 2015 by rebootingkaye

All tucked up

Posted in response to the Daily Post weekly photo challenge – this weeks theme ‘Enveloped’

This is a bud of an Allium. Sorry, I can’t remember the name of this particular type of Allium, but its little individual flowers will soon burst out of this wrapper and in no time at all look like a brilliant blue firework.

May 11, 2015 by rebootingkaye

Dead or Alive?

Posted in response to the Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s theme – ‘Forces of Nature’

This gnarly, worm eaten,old apple tree in our meadow is all but dead, showing no new growth at the top at all. But it’s still fighting for life, pushing out these blossoms towards the bottom. Wonder if it will produce any apples?

May 5, 2015 by rebootingkaye

Intricate

Posted in response to the Daily Post weekly photo challenge. This week’s theme ‘Intricate‘

Well, I was spoilt for choice with this topic. First of all I thought of some of the lovely patterns on the buildings in Morocco, then I thought about taking some pics of the beautiful tablecloth that my mother-in-law spent years embroidering for me, but then, I remembered China. The beautiful buildings there are all covered in gorgeous decoration one way or another, but I thought these roof details that we saw at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing just about take the biscuit as far as intricacy goes. What do you think??

April 28, 2015 by rebootingkaye

Motion – splish splash

Posted in response to the Daily Post weekly photo challenge – this week’s theme ‘Motion’

I captured this battle at the Cardiff International White Water park a couple of years ago. I don’t know who he is, but he was a masterful Kayak-er!

April 13, 2015 by rebootingkaye

Floating

So hard to choose between pictures for this weeks Daily Post photo challenge so I’ve given you a selection. Let me know which you like best!! The prompt is ‘Afloat’:

Ok, this first one is a little self-indulgent. I didn’t take the picture either….’cos yes, that’s me up there, floating about, light as a feather, above the beautiful blue sea off the coast of Marmaris, Turkey. I was particularly chuffed with the smiley face parachute! 😉

This next one is of the harbour at Kovalam, Kerala, India. When you see these hundreds of fishing boats out at night with their lanterns lit, it looks like the stars have fallen from the sky and are bobbing about on the water.

These next three were all taken on the backwaters of Kerala.

We were astonished by the ‘school buses’ like the one below that were crammed alarmingly with chattering children on their way home!

It was very atmospheric in the deep dark midst of the backwaters!

But at least when you eventually surfaced into the open, you could get a snack from a floating restaurant!

Oh I nearly forgot my paper boat made with my own fair hands especially for this challenge. The photo’s weren’t as stunningly wonderful or even half as interesting as I’d imagined,but hey ho, I’m sharing anyway!!

March 30, 2015 by rebootingkaye

Ephemeral – a moment of my life

Posted in response to the Daily Post weekly photo challenge. This weeks theme ‘Ephemeral’

Ephemeral – lasting a very short time.

It took me six years of hard slog study to achieve my Open University degree at the age of 58. To say I was chuffed to have passed would be the understatement of the century. I know, I know, most people manage to get theirs in their early twenties, but better late than never eh?

Anyhoo, you may be wondering why I’ve been rambling about that as something ‘ephemeral’, when clearly the process was quite the opposite. Well… just like any other graduates, OU students are presented with their qualifications at a big glittery award. The ceremony I attended was at the famous Barbican Centre in London. My husband and daughters had come along to watch and be proud, and I was beyond excited. The event itself took a couple of hours, but prior to it, there was the thrill of getting my robe fitted (disappointingly the OU students don’t get to wear mortar boards though) and getting formal pictures taken. Then the nervous wait for my turn.

I’m sure most of you will know that these ceremonies are basically a long procession of students walking across the stage, shaking hands, taking their awards and walking off again. It’s like watching paint dry when it’s not one of your own. However, when it’s your turn, or the turn of someone you love, it really is a top couple of minutes.

I remember it exactly. The tip tap of my shoes on the polished wood, the clapping and cheering from the audience (they managed to keep it up for every single person), the brief exchange of words, and the exit, all of which I managed without falling over or generally making a fool of myself (and there were stairs, I hope you’re impressed!) It was indeed a very fleeting moment in the scheme of things, but one which meant so much and has made an indelible imprint on my mind.

Yes, that’s me!!

March 23, 2015 by rebootingkaye

Brrr….it’s a bit Fresh!

Posted in response to the Daily Post weekly photo challenge. This week’s prompt ‘Fresh’.

Hmm.. I struggled with trying to find something anywhere near original for this. I have got quite a nice picture of a bowl of fruit that I took for practice when I first got my new camera, but that seemed to be a bit cliched, and anyway, I did use it for the ‘orange’ challenge a couple of weeks ago. I’m guessing pictures of snow are a bit cliched too, but really, I can’t think of anything else this morning and I do quite like these that I took in our garden after a sudden and heavy snowfall a couple of years ago. Apologies if it makes anyone feel a bit chilly 😉

p.s. Hope you like my freshly made, somewhat menacing snowman!

March 16, 2015 by rebootingkaye

Lace walls

Posted in response to the Daily Post weekly photo challenge ‘Wall’

We were lucky enough to visit the exquisite Bahia Palace in Marrakesh on our brief trip to Morocco a few years ago. This is a detail from the cool and peaceful little courtyard. All the walls are heavily decorated which make them look as though they are made of lace! It’s a beautiful, calm, oasis in that exciting and colourful city.