poppys space - enjoy your visit to my world :)

 

I have been finding beauty on the beach, holding baby owls and being a 'Lady wot Lunched in Rye....and grabbing photos as I went of course!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been asked by a couple of people how I get the copyright sign on my photos and why I put it on there in the first place.

 

I started putting the copyright sign on my pics when I noticed that whenever I uploaded a new batch of photos my Space got an awful lot of 'hits' so I wondered who was looking and why? We are all aware that with the advent of the internet, if you want a picture of something you type in your subject on a search engine and there are literally hundreds of images available. It is so easy to right click on an image and copy it to a document. I have to be fair I have never found one of my images anywhere, but I decided to put the copyright notice on every picture just as a reminder that the image belongs to me, and as such if anyone wants to use it for any purpose they ought to at least ask my permission! If any of my friends on here want any of the pics they are welcome to them for their own use, but they are not to be used for any other purpose, and I would appreciate being asked first.

 

I go through various processes before uploading my pics for you to see, I thought you might like to know what is involved. Firstly I download the pictures to my computer, discard any that are useless (quite a lot!!) and then make sure they are all the right way up. I do this either with the software that came with the camera or by using Microsoft Office Picture Manager. I then save the changes.

 

Next I go through the album again and decide which ones will be suitable for uploading here. Microsoft Office Picture Manager has an 'auto correct' button, which is always good fun to try if only to see what it can do to your picture. It can be undone if you don't like the effect - a lot of the times I don't like the changes so  I may manually correct the photo until I like what I see. Under 'edit photos' is a resize button, I chose a lot smaller size for the photos, the reason for this being its a more suitable size for uploading and, if someone does want to help themselves to my pics they are limited as to what they can do with them - its easy to reduce a photo, but enlarging a picture from a small size does not work! I then save each picture to a new folder, eg Blog June pics. When I have finished going through the album I close the Picture Manager and always get asked if I want to save the changes. the answer is No, because I like to keep the 'base images' just as they come off the camera, and anyway I have already saved the changes I have made!

 

To mark the copyright on the photos I use IrfanView which is a free programme, downloadable from the internet and is very easy to use. All the editing I have mentioned above can be done on this programme too if you prefer. The copyright symbol is made by pressing ALT 0169 (this must be done using the keypad on the right of the keyboard, I am not sure how it works with laptops....) this gives you ©

 

Once that is done the photos are ready to upload and share with you all, its quite time consuming but worth the effort, and hopefully not too many of my photos go astray....

 

Any comments/tips from photographers are more than welcome, this is just the way I do things, there may be better easier ways out there.......and I hope its been a help to some of you :)

 

Hope you are all having a great weekend, here are a couple of photos I did earlier -

 

 

Looking through a clear upturned glass bowl with an orange bowl underneath. Photo taken using flash.....

 

 

and the same bowls without the flash!

 

 

 

 

I am just about to upload the second lot of photos of Sandwich, I would just like to know one thing - why can't I grow a wisteria like that???

 

I also wanted to tell you about the gorgeous birthday cake Zoe and Tom made for me - in the shape of a swan!! Do you think they know me really well?? The cake itself was blue and pink sponge, and was scrummy, and I know it took Zoe all day to ice it! I could never make anything as nice as that, so wanted to say a very BIG thank you to both Tom and Zoe, and they both know I am thoroughly enjoying the game expansion they bought me too...I felt really spoilt, especially as Zoe was recovering from a spell in hospital at the time, there's friends for you :)

 

Still chatting about Zoe and Tom here, last night I went to see the latest production of the Drama done by the Performing Arts Students, (which both Zoe and Tom belong to) it was called Serving Time, and it was really good. Sadly Zoe couldn't take part in the show this time, but she saved me a front row seat, so I had a great view of all the goings on! There was a sign saying 'no photos allowed' so that put the end to that little idea :( One tramp in particular was very good, he was called Scullery - well done Tom!! And could someone explain to me why the tramp we have virtually living in the Library isn't like that one???? The one at work just sits in the corner and moulders......yuck!

 

Talking of work I am off there soon, working until 6pm today and the sun is blazing out of the sky, thats just typical....hope everyone has a great weekend.

 

And below is the picture of my gorgeous cake, photo courtesy of Zoe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

......but have been rumbled by a couple of people, so I will come clean. Its my birthday today - many thanks to those of you who have sent best wishes, you are a lovely lot. As a punishment I have uploaded an avatar picture of me .....just to prove I really do exist lol

 

I am having a great day, its flipping hectic here though...the plan was that I would meet my friend and  her grandaughter, the gorgeous Chloe, and have a cream and jam scone on the pier with them, then come home and spend the day in the garden, or get a blog done on here.....

 

My daughter decided to join us, so we went off to meet Pauline and Chloe, and bumped into another friend, so we ended up a a party of 5 having a refined (yeah right!!! lol) morning coffee/breakfast kinda thingy on the pier. As usual Chloe helped me eat my scone, she is only 2 but she loves the scones I have, and being slave No. 4 or thereabouts I just have to comply with her wishes. And anyway, having a 2 year old sing you Happy Birthday word perfect in a cafe is priceless, it was great!!!!

 

Alice and I then did some shopping, my son had promised me a pair of silver earrings to go with the necklace Alice had got for me, so we went and chose those, got something nice for tea (steak!!!) then toddled off home. I had missed the postman, and the packet he had for me, so went back into town to collect that.......Thank You LINDA, I love my goodies:) By now its lunch time, had a quick chat to Zoe on MSN, will be getting a pressie and a cake from them tomorrow.... did the bare essentials of housework ie hang out the washing, did the washing up. Ran Alice up the station....and its now 4pm, so the garden will have to wait until tomorrow lol

 

I have booked myself into the hairdressers tomorrow, think I might have a change of style - if it turns out ok I might let you lot have a peeek lol

 

And what did my hubby get me for my birthday? Two gorgeous Astilbee's and a Plumbago, take a look as the piccies below, isn't it gorgeous???

 

I am off out tonight too, think I will be collapsing in a heap tomorrow....or maybe I might actually get round to uploading those pictures of Sandwich I promised you all weeks ago.....

 

I hope you are all having a good day too :) xxxxxx

 

 

 

 

A very big thank you to all of you that sent my daughter Birthday Wishes, she was very touched and pleased by all your lovely wishes :) She had a good birthday, which seemed to last about 2 weeks lol. Not only is she now officially an adult but she has also had her last day at school on Friday, she only has to go back in now for the all important exams, then it is a long wait until August 20th to find out if she has the right grades to go to the University of her choice. You may remember she was trying to get into Cambridge? Sadly she didn't make it, but in the feedback the school received, it was between her and the lad that did get the one place available! Thats life, and she is fine about it now, and hopes to get into the School of Oriental and African Studies in London instead. Keeping our fingers crossed that she makes the grades required, I will let you know when the time comes :) 

 

On to the Saturday night now...every now and then we have a girls night out, just a few of us but its always good fun, just a few drinks or so and a lot of nattering and laughter lol. My best friends daughter was down this weekend, (she is the young lady that got married in the Brewery) so that was our excuse!! Last time we did this I drove down to the pub, but it was a nice evening so I decided to walk, I was a bit late arriving as, of course I found things to take photos of on the way.... We had a great evening as usual even though my son kept texting me to see if I was alright! He said he was worried about me, as I didn't get home until about 12.30, I think that was very sweet of him don't you?

 

I will add the photos to the May album after I have finished this, but, do you remember in an earlier blog I mentioned the wrecked shelter on the Green? I was surprised but very pleased to see that the Council are getting it all refurbished again, lets hope the vandals just leave it alone this time!! Picture below, sorry for the quality, my mind was on the beer.....

 

I hope you are all having a good Bank Holiday weekend, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. We have had lovely sun here today, but we are forcast rain for tomorrow so this afternoon I finally finished planting up my pots, it already looks nice, and it will look nicer in the months to come I am sure...

 

 

 

I decided last week to have a 'scive' day, I needed to go to Sandwich to take some photos for a competition, so chose Thursday, unfortunately it was very overcast and dismal, so I reluctantly abandoned that little plan...I tried again on Friday and it was the same but Sunday was a glorious day, so I had a really lovely afternoon snapping away all over the town. I will do a proper blog about it when I can and upload some pictures of that lovely little market town.

 

Even though I didn't manage to get out on Thursday I had a dig around in some of my old things, amongst other things I collect are old postcards, so occasionally I will share one with you. I thought you might like to see Trafalgar Square in a quieter time.....I bet Londoners wish it still looked like this now lol

 

 

 

 

PS Its freezing cold, very windy and not at all nice here today, I am so glad I got out when the weather was nice on Sunday :)

Hi everyone, I am back after a really hectic and quite stressful week! The stressful bit was having to have our little rabbit put to sleep on Thursday, after about 4 days of knowing that she wasn't going to get any better, but that she wasn't in pain right then. She had a poorly eye so I took her to the vets on Monday, he decided to give her an x-ray, which showed that the root of one of her teeth was growing the wrong way, and was nearly touching her eyeball. There was nothing the vet could do, and he advised us to think about having her put to sleep before she did start to suffer.....the hard bit was getting my son used to the idea, as Smokey was his rabbit. By Wednesday the eye was no better in spite of the anti-biotics and eye drops, so the decision was made, but I will say the whole of Thursday was not nice :(

 

Alongside that little lot was the computer problems mentioned in my last blog, and on Wednesday the 2 year old flat screen just decided that it was fed up too, and just broke ......the outcome of all of that was that our friend Stuart spent most of Wednesday here swopping computers, solving problems, upgrading everything etc and I have what amounts to a new computer complete with Vista (minus a flat screen monitor....but what the heck??), and my son has the old one, which is behaving much better now lots of stuff has been deleted from it! He really only uses the computer for his game and to talk on MSN, so it seems to have worked out well!! It is strange having a BIG monitor again though, I will get a flat screen asap!

 

I have been out taking photos, which I will get round to sorting out over the next few days, went to download them to the computer this morning only to find the lead had gone - panic!!!! My darling daughter had for some reason taken it and added it to her pile of computer things, she must have thought it was for her MP3 player....

 

I came on here earlier and decided that the whole page was VERY pink, so time for a colour change, I hope you like the yellow and blue instead, although you can see I couldn't part with all the pink! The background flower is a parrot tulip found in a public planter yesterday morning, it just called out to me to take its photo lol

 

I am getting things on the computer back together now, so will be popping by some spaces as soon as possible. Thanks to all who sent messages while I was missing, and a special thanks to Linda and Ry for listening to my tales of woe all last week. Love to you all xxxxxx

 

 

 

I have been trying to get on mine, and anyone elses Space for days, it looks like my computer is pretty terminal folks! I am hoping to swop with my son later this week( long story there, won't go into it!!) and then hopefully it will be all systems go from there on in!! I hope everyone is keeping ok, I will get by your spaces as soon as I can, take care everyone xxx

 

On saturday we went to the wedding reception of my best friends oldest daughter, which was held in the Shepherd Neame Brewery in Faversham. I believe it is the oldest brewery in England but don't quote me on that!

 

The wedding and the reception were held in the Visitors Centre, it is a beautiful place for a wedding, the ceremony and sit down meal were held in the upper part of the building, and the reception was held in the lower part, no disco, just friends and family mingling and chatting, it was really lovely :) The building itself is very old, I will add a couple of pictures of the interior to this blog...if my silly computer will let me that is!

 

I think you all know by now that I don't usually upload pictures of people, out of respect to their privacy, but you can take it from me the Bride looked just gorgeous, and the happy couple had a great day :) We wish them every happiness in their future life together x

 

My children are on their Easter holidays now, they are old enough to amuse themselves these days, but we will be having a family time over Easter, lets hope the weather stays good!

 

I wish you all a really happy week, I hope the sun is shining where you are!

 

 

The ceremony and the meal were held here :)

 

 

Beautiful beams :)

 

 

A beer bottle chandelier!

 

Its bedtime for me lol but I have been trying to get on here ALL day, all I kept getting was IE cannot display the page.......oh I have been cross about it! Wrote you all a nice blog about a Wedding Reception in a Brewery, went to add photos - ping, it disappeared. I have a draft which I will post tomorrow, hopefully......... I hope others of you aren't having the same problems, if you are you won't be reading this I guess.......by the way, I got on here now by running the CC (crap cleaner as it used to be known as!!!) so goodness knows whats going on.

 

I hope you have all had a good evening, if I disappear again you will all know why - I am paying a visit to the 'computers do my head in Funny Farm' lololol

April already? That took me by surprise lol, I was out for a walk yesterday in the gorgeous sunshine, gathering photos for my March Album, when I suddenly realized its April. No complaints there, I am just glad its a bit warmer now. Its just a shame that today is overcast and a bit chilly, at least its dry!

 

Friday evening I went out for a meal with my work colleagues, one of the ladies was retiring, so that was a good excuse!! There were 9 of us, the meal was gorgeous, and we all had a thoroughly good time with lots of laughter - except the lady I was sitting next to and myself got the blame for making all the noise.......who me??? It must have been the wine....thats my excuse, you all know what a quiet, shy retiring person I am!!!!

 

I am getting the garden a bit straight now, apart from the fact the rabbit seems to have taken a very big liking to my camellia bushes! They are now bare about half way up, now I don't mind her eating the odd leaf or two but no, she bites off branches complete with flower buds ..... ! I am waiting patiently to see if my new wisteria will flower, I have an old one that never did flower so my son bought me a new one last year to put me out of my misery of never getting flowers, we shall see if it works, who knows the old plant might get jealous and flower as well, that would be great but I somehow don't think it will happen!

 

On the cross stitch front I am now stitching a Willow Pattern banner for my daughter, who is 18 in May, and who will be doing Oriental Studies at University later this year if she gets the grades she needs (I think she will, she works hard enough!) but I also realized that I haven't really been sharing any of my stitching on here apart from the photo album in the last blog, so I will show you the pink elephant I made for my friend Linda...who now knows to be careful what New Years Resolutions she makes!! Lol

 

There are a few photos in an April album for you to take a look at, wishing you all a lovely week xx

 

What a lovely day! I had a walk along the promenade this morning in the glorious sunshine, it was wonderful, I decided not to wear a jacket, but its still a chill wind, I just walked a bit faster to keep warm!! The sun was glinting on the sea, and I realized once again how lucky we are to live here, within minutes of the sea.. I walked as far as the childrens paddling pool, nearby is a lovely old shelter that was refurbished a couple of years back - I got such a shock, the vandals have all but demolished it! Not only is there no glass in any of the windows, but the window bars have gone too. I was so sad, those stupid kids just don't realize what they are doing. I expect it won't be long now before its demolished, if its not there to wreck the yobs can't wreck it can they?

 

Right next to the shelter is a mosaic running right along a low wall, the mosaic was made by the school children (and two very talented lady artists) of the town in 2000, I have been meaning to get some pictures of it for some time, which I did today. My daughter was at Junior school and did some work on the wall, she can tell you which bits she did, and, as a parent helper who had walked the children down from the school I got the chance to lay about 3 or 4 bits of the sea....a small claim to fame lol

 

I had a bit of a rush job on cross-stitch wise these last couple of weeks, a friends girlfriend was 18 yesterday, and a few weeks back I said I would make something for her. I started one design, but wasn't totally happy that it was right for her, so started another one, hoping I would get it done in time. Well I did, I finished stitching it yesterday morning, got it mounted at 2.30pm, and Zoe came to collect it at about 5pm....I am not usually that tardy at finishing things, the time just ran away with me - again!! I mounted the piece onto the front of a photo album, Zoe loved it, which I am so pleased about!! I also found out yesterday that not only was it Zoe's 18th birthday, but her and Tom have got engaged, I am thrilled for them both, they are a really lovely couple, and I wish them every happiness for the future :)

 

I am already planning the next cross stitch piece - my daughter is 18 in May, she would like something Chinese themed, which will make a nice change, and I have a little more time to do that one!!

 

I am off to see if I can get some gardening done now, I am just not sure where to start.....take care everyone xx

 

 

The design on Sunday evening, still a lot of work to be done!

 

 

And the finished piece - phew!!!