More kitties: Lina and Kira

Sarah and I are kitten-sitting this week, for our friend Sam and Liz's two babies, Lina and Kira. They are absolutely adorable and love the camera! I don't often take photos in black and white, but this one just looked better that way!

Cassie

This is Jon and Vikki's cat Cassie who I went to visit the other day out in Pill. Both their kitties are lovely, but Cassie was much happier with the camera! I suppose if I was an animal I wouldnt want a camera in my face all the time! They are really going to miss Jon when he goes to visit Vikki in America, so I get to go and keep the kitties company!

Carding Mill Valley

I almost put down my camera recently, I didn't feel like doing photography and really wasn't sure on keeping the blog, but I found renewed interest when I went up to Carding Mill Valley on Sunday. I really like this photo, I think it really sums up how I was feeling, I didn't know where the track would go and I didn't know what life would bring. It thankfully was a really sunny day, a bit windy, but perfect walking weather, and apart from nearly killing myself trying to catch my camera from falling, it was a great afternoon out. I love roads and tracks, they may have to be added to my photos of my favorite things :)

How to get lost in a garden

I wandered all around the gardens, and got quite lost. They have tons of little paths here there and everywhere. The gardens really are beautiful, but is hard to get the whole feel of the place in a picture, so I settled on close up's of my favourite flowers! I also got to wander out to the edge of the gardens, which overlooks the whole area, you can see the Cadbury factory and the hills, Telford, and lots of stuff that far away. It was really pretty, but again, not something that makes a great photo!

Chirk Castle

Today I decided I deserved a trip to take some photos, and apparenly Chirk Castle is the prettiest gardens in the surrounding area. I was quite pleased with myself, I dont often go exploring new places on my own, but I drove the 45 minutes out there. I had just paid for the outdoor ticket, so I couldn't go inside the Castle, but I have been in before when I was younger. This time, I got some photos of all the ivy growing over the door frames, which I thought was great. And of course, what photo excursion would be complete without a photo of a lamp?

Very close up of a very pretty flower

This is another VERY close photo of the flower on the bushes around the side of my house. I have no clue what type of flowers they are, but they are large and look quite exotic! I probably should invest in a little nifty fifty (50mil) lens, but Mike has one and is quite lovely about me borrowing it!

Blue

I am in love with these pretty blue flowers. Mummy also got some white ones, but the blue ones just really remind me of the month of May! I thought they looked great on the table with Mum's bright blue chairs, and made the colour really pop. I seem to take a lot of really close photos of flowers, but I think that is because they are so delicate and special! And each little bud is unique, which I quite like. I often take many photos of the flowers, but always prefer the ones which are up close!

Bits and bobs

This post is quite randon - there are lots of interesting shapes and patterns all over Mummy's house - she got this lamp from Venice or Italy or somewhere (it's all blown glass) and I love the stripey vase - it does something to you eyes though!

A little heart

This little heart is on a little pillow on Mum's bed, it looks like one of those ones which might hold poupurri (however you spell that!) I love how this photo almost looks like it is in black and white-and I love the shadows on it :)I dont know why I love hearts so much, probably what they symbolize, and I would love to make this photo pink and white - hearts should always be pink!

Down the stairs

It's been way too long since I had my camera out - in fact it was probably getting dusty. I'm all done with lectures now and so came home for the weekend. The weather was lovely and i put off going and taking photos until the evening, so had to make do with some new ones of out and around the house. Mummy has a lovely house, mainly creams and beiges, but the house itself is quite old fashioned, and I do love the stairs which spiral down the centre of the house - so I took this photo.

St Pauls in a good light!

My youth hostel was right by the Cathedral, and every time I have ever been to St Pauls, it is always a bit grey and cloudy, so I was finally pleased to get some great light to take some good photos! The sun was really shining by the time the wedding was finished! Wish I had time for more photos!

At the Dorchester

The Dorchester is a very prominent Picadilly hotel in London, and as a result of it being the Royal Wedding, they were giving away free ice cream! How nice! It was really yummy ice cream too! We stopped and had some and also took some photos of the beautiful flowers outside! I loved the cute shaped trees, and the vibrant flowers! They were great!

Animals at War Memorial

On our walk from Hyde Park, we had to go all the way to Green Park, because they had to close quite a few other tube stations, and we went via this memorial. I think it's a really lovely idea, and animals go to war with no choice, and many do not survive. This was far more common in the olden days, but still lovely and fitting, and there are always lots of poppy wreaths there.

Royal Wedding - 140,000 people

On Friday, I got up at 6am to make my way to Hyde Park for 7am to sit with 140,000 other Londoners and watch the Royal Wedding - it was an awesome atmosphere - flags, confetti, and big screens, the National Anthem, hymns and news crews! I made it on several news stations again, mainly for eating breakfast in the park at 7am! (strawberries and cream!) There were so many people there it was unbelievable!

Big Bears!

On the 2nd floor of Harrods, in the souvenir section, right by the lifts are these MASSIVE BEARS - one is a Bobby, one is a Beefeater, one is a Highland Scotsman, one is a Palace Guard and the last one was a Harrods Doorman! They were so adorable, and actually for sale, but for about 2000 pounds! I loved them and had my photo with all of them!

A giant wedding cake

Harrods also had this most amazing wedding cake, which featured the staff outfits, and a massive fondant replica of the building. It was all shiny and amazing. I figured it probably wasn't edible, but it was made to look like it - it was so fab!

Wedding in the Windows

After Westminster Abbey, we went for a little bit of shopping, and their windows are all made up to reflect the upcoming Royal Wedding. They had all this pretty china, and pillows, wedding dresses and a giant royal wedding invite. The windows were so pretty, and everyone was stopping and taking photos!

Lincoln in London

Near the Abbey is this statue of Lincoln. I really had no clue why a statue of an American President would be in London, so I had to go and look it up on Wikipedia. Apparently it is a copy of the 1887 Standing Lincoln in Chicago, and there is another one at Lincoln's Tomb in Springfield, Illinois! So it is quite interesting I suppose, but it is still quite weird to see this here in London. There are lots of statues in London, I suppose a lot of tourists see it and go "What?"

Westminster Abbey from a different Angle

Last time I visited Westminster Abbey, I only visited the one side, but this time we went to the other doors (North Doors maybe?) and took a photo of the sun shining on it. It was these doors that Kate (now Princess Catherine) walked through at the wedding Friday, so it was quite cool that we were there the day before! I really like the sun glinting off the stone, it's not often I get a good photo like this!

Royal Wedding Preparations

On Thursday I took the train down to London to watch the Royal Wedding, which was on the Friday. Mike was working so I met up with Dave, who I know from Bristol and we went to explore the area around Westminster Abbey, which was filled with crazies camped out for days for the prime spot to watch the wedding. We made it onto several news stations backdrops that evening - even the 6pm BBC News!

A cake of a thousand hours

Easter also happened to be Kevin's birthday, and we decided to make him a cake. Rather, my mother picked out the hardest recipe she could find and asked me to make it - it was a custard, orange liquer, strawberry jam type cake, complete with lady finger edging. Mike did the edging, and that took tons of precision, and I did the middle, but by golly it took us ages! I made the custard from scratch and everything! I was so pleased with it, I had to take a photo!