Whisper....

I think I've missed a whole lot of the last few weeks...! Sigh, I'm hoping to catch up over the next week or so, life's been so busy and exciting over the last month that it's been hard to keep my mind on everyday things...

I'm doing day 16, not quite sure what happened to 11, 12, 13, 14 & 15....but this is where I'm picking up for now...

So...whisper, by it's very nature should be soft and dreamy,  leaves rustling in the breeze, sparks flying from an open fire, a field mouse rustling through the wheat stubble..! So because it's autumn here in Australia I chose to use an autumn scene, the harvested wheat field full of golden stubble waiting for the whisper of cool nights and frosty mornings....




I love this verse by Rudyard Kipling, growing up in a seaside town in England I was schooled on English poets and writers, I was free to roam the countryside picking blackberries and elderflowers. In my very early teens I lived in a farmhouse that was built in the 1500's (spirits included if you were to believe my brothers) and life was good in that green and pleasant land. Years later a whisper in my head led me to a life here in Australia, no green summers here but hot and dry and the writing of Dorothea Mackellar, her legendary poem 'My Country' evokes a whisper of patriotism and tears every time I hear it...

" I love a sunburnt country,

a land of sweeping plains,

of ragged mountain ranges,

of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

her beauty and her terror -

the wide brown land for me!"

If you've an inkling to read the rest of this, click on the link above...and enjoy!

10 truths....

Day 11 and Kim wants 10 truths about me (and everyone else of course :o) with a photo (or two) that ties in with the topic............sigh! It's not within my comfort zone as I'm sure it isn't for many but here goes.....


1. I love to cook, especially cakes and desserts...




2. way back when I was young (in the age of the dinosaurs) I used to be a hairdresser.

3. in my 40's I worked in a male prison and loved it.

4. I have always hated having my photograph taken but in the last few years I realised that there are very few photos of me with my kids as they grew up and that saddens me, so I've made a huge effort to be on the other side of the lens and to have photographs taken with my four grown children and my wonderful grandchildren.....do it people, it's really important!




5. I love driving and I love driving fast and singing very loud (there's not a note in tune but I don't care).

6. I suffer from Vertigo to the point of the desire to lean forward and fly...so I don't go up in tall buildings or near the edge of anything above first floor height! perversely, I love flying and take off and landing is my favourite part of any flight.

7. I absolutely love quilting and fabric, I love colour and have often bought something just because of the colour...

8. I'm an Apple girl through and through...now! iPhone, iPod, Macbook, iMac and now we have an iPad in the house....but I teach computers on a PC..!

9. I can't remember a time in my life when I haven't had at least one dog, we have two very spoilt white and fluffy (well for a day a month when they get back from the groomers) girls now, Miss Martha and Miss Molly and I could happily have a couple more..!

10. I love my Nikon...full stop, period, end of conversation.. :o)

So there you have it, 10 things about me, riveting yes??

Day 10.....painterly

I'm playing catch up here, weddings and cake making, teaching and working....they're all playing havoc with my play time!! I'm determined to work through it though so hopefully you'll stick with me..

So day 10 of the Beyond Layers course was creating a 'painterly' image using textures and adjustment layers. this is the image I started with....

 

  ..I pretty much followed Kim's 'menu' for this one, just a couple of different adjustments including dropping an extra layer of the texture Sienna on top, I used a multiply blend mode on the top texture layer then soft light on the one directly below, then I brushed some of the texture off the Iris itself and this is the image I ended up with...



 It's quite light I guess but I'm happy with it, I'm not that keen on really dark images. I do like the plaster/paint texture and I like the way the daisies have sort of 'melted' into the background just leaving the Iris in all it's splendour...

choosing happiness....

...that's our objective for today. this is how Kim put it..

Today's Challenge

What makes you happy? Make a list in your journal or on your computer… whatever works for you.

When you are feeling a little blue, a little uninspired, a little blah…  refer to your list…  It just may give you the boost you are needing.

....so, what makes me happy....

sunshine breaking through on a cloudy day...

babies! babies always make me happy, they don't have to be from my family (but that does make me especially happy) or belong to someone I know, I always smile when I see a tiny newborn. sweet, sweet innocence, memories of my own babies many years ago..sigh

sitting curled up in front of the fire, listening to the house settle down for the night, the sweet silence broken by the ticking of a clock and crackle of firewood..peaceful, safe and warm....happiness

watching my grown children follow their destiny and become happy well adjusted and caring adults..

watching my grandchildren do just about anything brings me a huge amount of happiness.....
...this boy, our youngest grandchild, makes my heart happy...

singing along with my favourite music, at the top of my voice (very badly I might add) while I'm driving...

an unexpected message from a special friend...

finding something that I thought was long lost...

lemon gelati ...oh my, now that's happiness...

walking with my camera...

the smell of new mown grass...

the bird that sings outside my bedroom window every morning...

seeing the sun rise...

being alive...

my mother knowing who I am (today she did for a fleeting few minutes)...

picking roses from my garden and having their sweet summer perfume drift through my house...

my friends from the northern hemisphere will laugh at this one but.....
watching the cold winter rain turn to big fluffy snowflakes for a brief few minutes, pure alchemy...
(it's also very special in my part of the world and doesn't last more than a couple of days at the most)

walking barefoot on the beach...

drinking hot chocolate on a cold winters day...

it seems there are lots of things that make me happy, I'd like to think that I choose to be happy but I'm sure that's not the case. I know that random things make me smile just the same way that random things make me cry...

perhaps I need to make more of an effort to 'choose' happiness, to wake in the morning and say out loud that I will be happy with whatever comes my way...now that made me smile 'cos I know it's not going to happen.....