Leeds Castle with My Girl!

 Sunday saw Julia and I head over to Leeds Castle for a walk and talk day out. Time to just wander and catch up with each other, we took Sunday Lunch in the restaurant and generally had a good time.

This is us in the maze - Julia is getting pretty adept at correctly leading us around the maze to the centre and then it's through the shell grotto before heading back outside.

Rain stopped play in the end, as predicted it caught up with us on the walk back and we got quite wet.

But it was good to spend some quality time together and just have a really good natter 💓

Gaia - By Day and By Night

 

Friday 27th May saw me, Dad & Tedster pop down to see the new Gaia exhibition at Rochester Cathedral, a bit like the Moon but this time it's us - the Earth.

Very interesting, the globe rotates around constantly - a bit like us I guess and I think the images that make it up come from NASA.

Very interesting albeit my geography is pretty poor so had to resort to Google Maps to point out some land masses and in particular the different seas - more of them than I thought! Dad was much better than me at figuring out what was what! To be honest the UK is too high up to see it from the ground level, you almost need either a mirror above or to be able to reach the balcony that runs around the top of the Cathedral.

We stopped for tea and cake in the cafe in the crypt and when I got home we booked a couple of evening tickets to see it illuminated...

So this is Gaia at Night, lit up inside the Cathedral, I think it was the better way to view it. The day tickets were free but you had to still book a timed slot and the evening tickets were £4 for an adult. Well worth seeing it at night although it will soon be packed up and moved onto the next venue.

The Cathedral makes for quite an iconic place for these sorts of exhibits - Dad reckons with all the latest interest in Mars, that it could be the next one we see on display!

Dinosaur Cakes

 

So Wednesday 25th May saw work do a few cake sales and our project resurrected the bake off competition after 2yrs absent due to Covid-19 - all ready for the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations and to raise money for the current charity.

This little chappie was made by a lady in the office - Roarsome! Needless to say she won the bake off and holds the celebratory wooden spoon for a year. Or at least until they hold it again ;-)

Sunday Afternoon Mooch

 

Sunday afternoon saw me take a mooch out, get some fresh air and exercise and away from the new neighbour who's here DIY'ing the new house 🤨

Just did a bit of a circuit around the local area, up through Horsted park which is where these were taken on the Galaxy S20.

Quite warm outside, glad I wore the hat, keep the sun off my head, although they end up leaving me with a headache!

Good to be outside, over 7100 steps walked so all good, helps keep the weight down, called round via Julia and James's and walked back home with them as they were off over the fields with Annie - bet she went home covered in seeds ;-) Still she enjoys a good free run off the lead, something she didn't get whilst staying here with me as I'm nervous about her not coming back to me!

Still another weekend is almost over - not quite sure where the time goes these days, rapidly heading towards the longest day and then it's downhill from there 😱

Having a Clear Out!

 

So Friday being a wet & miserable day I decided to have a bit of a clear out of the handbags. Had spent some time looking through my stash for a suitable bag to carry into the office my non-laptop stuff, handbag bits, lunch, pac-a-mac etc. So quite a big ask given the crap I insist on taking with me ;-)

Found that some of the older items were beginning to break down, the surface peeling away from the backing fabric - not sure quite why that happens? Obviously I knew they weren't leather and not every "cheap" bag does this, but many seem to, including most of the Anna Smith bags I purchased some years ago through eBay.

So found a canvas bag that seemed to be big enough to carry all my crap in it and left the rest to sort out - today.

The photo shows the possible items that Julia is going to take to try and sell online, a wide selection and not all are in mint condition, far from it, but they might do someone a turn for a couple of quid!

And in fact today, Sunday, I went through my footwear, you know, all the pairs of shoes/sandals I've bought which felt OK in the store but much less comfortable once I got them home 😭

Found a pair of shoes, a couple of pairs of sandals and two pairs of winter boots that again she can try to flog.

Feels good to make some room although I still have enough bags left to fill the two drawers under the bed 🤣 And that's not counting the myriad of Mia Tui bags hanging in the wardrobe that are my recent purchases! Plus what might still be lurking up in the loft.

Gotta love a handbag, they always fit 🤣

Mum's Pinks

So these are my pinks, re-potted and in a new pot holder which hangs on the wall alongside Mum's sewing machine.

Bought these a short-ish while ago and thought as I was already out gardening and had some spare pots/soil that I'd take the opportunity to re-pot them before they start growing too big for the pot they came in.

Bought the grey pot holder at Nottcutts while I was there the other weekend with Dad. It has a hook which allows it to sit over the edge of the wall and keeps the flowers up more in the sunshine rather than the shade of just standing on the wall.

Bought these to accompany my memorial tributes to Mum, you can just see the edge of the memorial pillow on the right hand side of the photo.

In easy view of the dining room window I can see them anytime I like, not that I need visuals to remind me of what an amazing woman she was and how sorely she is still missed. She was and always will be Mum and she was quite simply the best ever 💓

 

Moving Into The Blue!

 Weyhey, looks like we are rapidly moving into the blue as far as Covid-19 cases per 100,000 are concerned! These three maps show progress over the last three weeks or so.

Medway was sitting at 95 cases per 100,000 people, probably the lowest I've ever seen it, apart from the very beginning! And considering the map was so red towards Christmas, when Omicron started to make it's presence felt, that they had to adjust the legend, we've done remarkably well.

Long may it continue...

My 4-legged House Guest!

 

So Annie has come to stay for a few days, here she is working her way through one of her frozen Kongs - the only thing that keeps her busy for any length of time!

Although this morning we did have a mix of kibble, blueberries, sliced carrot with a dash of cod-liver oil 🥴 think I'll stick to the Rice Krispies ;-)

This at least kept her occupied for a little while when dished up in her slow feeder bowl, which if you've not seen them involve several deep grooves meaning that she was to work things out with her tongue rather than the usual inhale which is what would happen with a normal bowl!

Anyone would think she was starved - she's definitely a foodie.

I think in reality Julia and James will miss her more than she will miss them ;-)

This was her earlier today...

Not the sharpest image as she was moving around but she was in a playful mood. She enjoys a good belly rub.

Arty Bluebells

 

This is another attempt at using the Topaz Buzz filter with some sort of underpainting with the find edges filter applied in Photoshop to give some sort of outline. Quite like the effect but failed to remember quite what option I used the other day in the Topaz Filter to get the other watercolour effect. White border added and some text.

Whilst I use Lightroom most prolifically, edits like this remind me of just how arty one can be outside of Lightroom. I can make a lot of interesting edits from within Lightroom  and I'm often astounded just how much artistic license it allows for given you have no access to the pixel level of an image. I like how all edits are non-destructive and you can return to an image and continue to make tweaks at any time. The original is always there and virtual copies allow for seamless different edits of just a single image without incurring lots of copies - the downside to nipping into Photoshop from Lightroom is that large TIF files are created.

But when you want to get really creative you can't beat the power of Photoshop. As a regular monthly subscriber I have access to both programs and regular updates keep them current. Sometimes I forget just how fun using Photoshop can be and the Topaz Buzz Filter especially.

I came across this particular filter years ago as a freebie from a magazine. Kept it going on various new PC's for many years until a flavour of Windows came along with which it was incompatible. Topaz Buzz Filter provides an easier interface (?) and lots of different presets which is where I usually start and finish. There are a myriad of sliders and stuff allowing endless tweaking but I tend to pick a preset and leave it at the defaults. Given I'm no artist and many painterly techniques rely on "painting" on to the image I find these sorts of plug-ins quite helpful to obtain an arty effect without having to have the knowledge of brush strokes etc.

Anyways, my Bank Holiday weekend is almost over and it's back to the home office tomorrow.

Bluebells @ Walderslade Woods!

 

Late Sunday morning saw Dad and me head along the road to Walderslade Woods to find more Bluebells. Really impressed, there were loads, easy to get the distinct "carpet" effect. These are a few bluebells and greater stitchwort (the white flowers) with a Topaz buzz split tone filter effect applied via Photoshop.

The woods split across both sides of a main road but we found most of them seemed to grow more on one side, fortunately the side which isn't prone to what looks like motorbike routes/jumps or whatever and a far hillier walking experience. 

Bearing in mind that we haven't been able to park at the usual main entrance at Ranscombe to go find the bluebells there this year and Walderslade Woods is literally on the doorstep, this seems to be a good place to find them next year too!

The traditional "carpet" view of the bluebells focusing on a tree stump in the middle of this bunch.

Slightly wider viewpoint and focused on the tree to my left throws the flowers nicely out of focus thus accentuating the colour.

Another Topaz Buzz split tone filter applied here, same as the first image, creating a painterly effect.

So all in all a good find as it can be hard to track down decent places to find these elusive spring flowers where there aren't crowds or you got to pay to get in to see them.

Whilst I enjoy snapping my own garden variety of these flowers, they are what's commonly referred to as the Spanish Bluebell which is not the same as these wild ones, which are far more delicate and are proper flower bells.

Found this on Google explaining the difference between the Spanish Bluebell which many of us have in the garden, a hybrid (undesirable as it can undermine and take over the native English Bluebell) and of course the original English Bluebell which is what we expect to see growing in the woodlands and is protected, meaning that it is illegal to dig up these plants.

Disclaimer: all photos shot from the safety of the pathways through the woods - no bluebells were harmed in the taking of these images!