Annie Doppelganger!

 

So I was watching the latest series of Master of Photography on Sky Arts this week and the assignment was to photograph a series on images portraying transgender. Each entrant was allocated a subject to follow around, and this particular subject had this dog as his pet... I took one look at the TV screen and thought - that looks EXACTLY like Annie 🐶

How totally bizarre is that?? Given that even in this country she is a rare combination of breeds, bred by the Guide Dog Association to pacify those wanting a GSD as a guide dog, they breed a GSD/Golden Retriever Cross and this is what Annie is and what this dog looks like.

Essentially the combination makes just as poor a guide dog as a pure GSD would, their intelligence is too independent and they are not a dog who does things to please it's owner. Unlike the pure bred Golden Retriever.

Still if Annie hadn't failed abysmally then we wouldn't have had the amazing opportunity to rehome her - every cloud...

Tedster's 6th Birthday!

 

So Tedster is 6 years old today, he came into being when I bought him at a touristy type stall on a Wellness Works trip to Windsor. I can never resist a teddy-bear and Julia and I had thought about buying a bear to take with us on my 50th birthday holiday visit to the Isle of Wight to replicate the "Teddy Does the Isle of Wight" book idea that we'd purchased on an early trip to the island.

The little book had been written by two ladies who whilst both being keen photographers didn't want to appear in their photos of places around the island. So they bought an Isle of Wight bear and he appeared in various places, including having his lunch and what not at pubs and venues.

So Tedster was "born" and he came with us for that holiday trip and has been my photo companion ever since. Tucked in the chest strap of my rucksack he accompanies me on my photo days out and appears in my pictures. He helps me to not feel so alone when I'm out and about, I don't have to worry about where he's wandered off to and he doesn't talk back 🤣 On the odd holiday that I have taken away from home he also helps people to remember who I am and he's quite the ice breaker when people stop to ask about him. I've also learnt that I'm not the only one who has a travel bear, apparently they are more prevalent than you'd realise!

So HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY TEDSTER 🎂 🎉 🎁

Back to The Yard!

 

So Tedster and I ventured back to The Yard this Saturday, given the weather was supposed to be heaps better than our first visit a few weeks ago. And indeed it was sunny, mainly, and warm enough for just a t-shirt, no coat required!

Being 3wks on from my second jab I'm feeling a tad more confident to get out and about but went upstairs on the bus to avoid the queues from busses not turning up and some nutter who'd been shouting his mouth off whilst we were queuing at the bus stop.

At least at the Dockyard it is wide open spaces and easy to spend the day without mixing with people, perfect for me. The downside to this visit being that the day before I'd worn some new wellies which had left my foot feeling sore so trying to walk in my shoes proved to be very uncomfortable at times, not conducive to feeling particularly creative in my photography.

Still we had a good few hours wandering around, the garden looked amazing and I was happy with the images I did manage to take. 

A little example of the creative views you can find around the Yard if you look hard enough...

Father's Day 2021 Part 2

 

Spent Father's Day over at my Dad's with my brother and his family. Good to catch up with them as we've been parted more or less for most of the Lockdown since last year apart from the recent funeral for our Step-Mum.

Having called into Dockside after my 2nd Covid-19 jab I saw this amazing metal garden bi-plane that you can see in the photo above. Given I had no better ideas for my Dad for Father's Day I thought he'd like something in the garden that was a bit more "boy toy"!

This is after he and my 'bro assembled it and Dad came outside to test drive the propellers being blown around. Works amazingly well :-)

This is me in between my Dad and 'bro, taken by Joanne in the garden. Thought it would be good to get a snap of the three of us as we'd already done another image of the "Letley's" - Dad, Darren (my 'bro) and his boys George & William. Last image taken was many years ago when I think William was only little.

Happy days and good to spend some family time together in what has been a really weird and lonely fourteen months whilst the pandemic has been keeping families apart.

Mote Park - Father's Day 2021

 So despite it being a quite cool and overcast day we set off to Mote Park as planned to celebrate a slightly early Father's Day. Dad, James, Julia, Annie and me had a good walk around first - just in case we got rained off - and then had our picnic before heading back home to warm up.

Irritating that I've sat in too hot temperatures all bloody week at work and yet once again when it gets to the weekend and some time off the weather decides that is the right time to totally change. Yesterday we had wall to wall rain all day - total washout for getting anything useful done outside and today whilst it's stayed dry in the main the temps have been low and uninspiring.

Still Dad & I took our cameras along as usual and took a few snaps and in this particular shot Julia chucked a stone into the water to create the splash you see here to add some interest to the still water.

All in all it was just really good to spend some quality time together especially as last year I had to get gifts/cards posted to Dad as Covid-19 prevented all of us from meeting up as usual. 

At least with most of us jabbed twice and Julia & James having had one shot at least we are definitely getting there.

And it was good to wander around the park and see how much it has changed since last summer which was my last visit. The new café is being built, the dam (?) work has completed and generally the park is looking good. Maybe now that I've had both of my jabs I'll feel a bit more confident to bus over there for a proper mooch around. It used to be one of my many haunts pre-Covid-19.