TUTT + 1, Topic: Daily

This was my theme, I thought it would be fun to have something very open ended that everybody could take in any direction and share something about their every day lives.  I chose this picture:

We bake bread every day - we have this amazing little bread machine and you throw in the wet ingredients, dump in the flour, make a little nest on top for the yeast, set the timer and voila!  At 5:30 the next morning you wake up to the smell of a freshly baked loaf of bread.  It is heaven, especially in the winter when it is cold outside, and as I said to the girls, it is a comforting smell, it wraps its arms around you and helps you to gently embrace the day.  Aaaaahhh.  It is delicious too!  Americans are wonderful at many things, they are kind and giving people, they throw a mean party, and they are action driven - people don't sit about whining, they get off their tails and DO something and make a difference - it is very inspiring.  But they can't bake bread.  Sorry, but it is true.  And I love bread.  It ranks right up there with potatoes. 

I think it is because they add so much sugar to it to sweeten the taste, but it means that the only thing that works is peanut butter and jelly (every line you can think of from every advert and movie is true on this one).  Cold sliced deli ham with cheese and tomato and fresh pepper on sweet tasting bread is, well, gross.  And let's not even go to the rare roast beef and mustard!  But it doesn't even have to be gourmet sandwiches, our beloved Marmite sandwiches even taste horrible.  Plus, they add in all kinds of other junk!  The average loaf of bread from the store has around 12 ingredients so don't ask me what happened to the only five it is necessary to make bread. 

I love my bread machine, I do.  I would say that bread is my daily temptation too!  Linda took a photo of hers:

Linda says she made the mistake of giving the machine her number and now it calls her ALL the time, not as in 'oooohhhhhh Lindaaaa . . . ' but as in literally, on the phone!  Linda, I know he is tall, dark and handsome but really, you are a married woman!  The photo of the nougat is what did it for me, now I have a yearning for Woolies honey and walnut (or was it pecan?) nougat.  That stuff was AMAZING!  And always baked fresh.  Other nougats from less worthy stores were always chewy, but not the Woolies nougat.  If they put that in a vending machine near me I too would have a scandalously flirtatious relationship with it and they could just transfer my salary to it each month! 

Mariette didn't focus on food (that is why she has such a divinely skinny figure I am sure!)  She took a photo of a scene she passes every day on her way to work:

So often she says, we pass things without even seeing them, let alone taking a minute to appreciate them.  She is right, how often I have been driving around with my mind on other things only to stop at a light, look around and think 'where am I?  I don't recognize that big gorgeous old tree' meanwhile I have driven past it a hundred times. 

Lovely theme this week, I am looking forward to next week . . . although 'heritage' is a little confusing when you live in a foreign country!

TUTT + 1 (sort of), Topic: Berries

Mariette's theme this week came a little early for New England, our beautiful berries only start to really brighten up in another few weeks - the temperatures haven't dipped low enough to really light their fires!  Her picture is berrylicious, and if you want to see more you should check out her blog:

The dish-dash lines of the leaves off-set the round berries nicely Mariette.  Claire is the reason we are TUTT + 1 (sort of).  She has stuff going on and has opted to take a break for a few weeks.  We all understand when sometimes life throws so much at you that you just want to strip your 'to do' list down to its skeleton - we are with you in spirit +1, and we look forward to filling your days up with meaningless musings soon.   Claire's photo:

It is autumnal in its beauty.  Makes me want to make a wreath.  Linda of course went in a completely different direction, kudo's to you for being creative and I believe there is a story to this photo - with Linda there usually is and it seldom comes from the place you expect it so she keeps us waiting on the edge of her seat for her blog post:

I do love that there is a map in the background, because technology has made this world of ours shrink.  Looking forward to reading your post Linda.  I don't know why I am so adverse to taking photo's of the obvious when I am given the theme, but I am. 

Here is our little bird, his name started out as Wimpy (our get-in-eat-get-out breakfast haunt from when the kids were little and we lived in SA) - we called him this because the cats salivated over him and I always thought if a door was left open they too would get-in-eat-get-out.  Unfortunately, we had to change his name because Wimpy also implies lack of courage and this little bird has courage in spades, or rather he has buckets of bravado.  He thinks he is a Rottweiler in feathers, his nick-name was Robbie Williams for a while because he too thinks he is an indestructible babe magnet.  April chose Blueberry and that is the name that stuck, but this little bird does not hop to the other side of the cage when the cats approach, oh no.  He approaches them!  He pulls the hair out of whatever is pressed up against the little bars that keep his life safe, usually a tail or a paw, and will even 'shout' at the cats if he thinks they are ignoring him.  They spend hours chasing each other around the cage, Dudley batting, Blueberry pecking.  If I had any inkling that Dudley wouldn't turn him in to breakfast I would let him out just to see what happens. 

Of course, I could not resist the urge to snap away at real berries too - last week we spoke of white flowers and I said I would share them this week, well, here the are - and the white flowers on the pale stem turn into green berries on a pink stem . . .

Which then ripen into dark red berries on a bright pink stem . . .

This is Pokeweed, which is poisonous to us, especially the berries I think - you can expect a very upset tummy if you wish to sample them but the Indians put them to good use in dies, and early colonists used the juice as ink for their pens.  Later in the season, when the berries have been eaten by birds (to whom they are not poisonous), they are all stems and look like this:

Finally some other berries . . .

I thought these were really pretty - they are McDonald's berries!  And what makes a grape not a berry?  Anybody have any idea?  I don't, but we do have some growing in our yard, they cry out each year for a trellis and each year I swear will be the year that I build one but each year time hurtles by and I don't get to it, so they grow on the floor:

Oh well, the wild bunnies in our garden love them.  My last photo I am very proud of, I happened to be in my garden looking for berries and saw a bunch of yellow flowers being visited by bees.  I love bees, they are responsible for about 60% of our food through pollination and so are to be cherished.  This pretty little lady was hard at work and do you know what was amazing standing watching her and her sisters at work?  If they happened to land on the same flower, they didn't waste time arguing about who found it first or who deserved it more, one of them just left to find another flower.  They are so cooperative and practical, we could learn a thing or two . . .

I thought it fitting to end this post with this photo, because without these little little ladies, there would be far fewer berries! 

TUTT + 1, Topic: White

Caution: Complaining and Whining About To Begin, Sensitive Readers Should Proceed With Caution or Block Their Ears and Squeeze Their Eyes Shut!

Our car is making a whining noise from the back.  Wheel bearing!  I thought.  So off to Toyota I go.  No, not the wheel bearing.  The viscous coupling in our rear diff is going and needs to be replaced - $2,100 in cash please.  F@&%K!!!  At this point I feel like throwing my hands up in the air, it has been one thing after another and we just don't seem to catch a break.  Thousands of dollars in the last few months in unexpected expenses and now this . . . anyone got some lighter fluid and a match???

So, sorry my blog is late but it is a little hard to find my happy place this week and do some writing - however, life goes on and so must the play!  Here is Claire's photo since she is the chooser of the topic this week:

Nice Claire - great texture and depth of field.  If this is a laundry hamper I am even more impressed because lately, you can't even see mine for the piles it is emersed in.  I have forgotten what it looks like, I wonder if it is white - I'll have to check!

Mariette:

 Graceful and beautiful, lovely texture in the water offset by soft white - and I love the drips.  Nice job.  I had much the same idea this week . . . more about that later.

Linda:

I have no idea what flowers these are - very pretty, do they come in purple?  If they do I think I have some in my garden.  Nice photo Linda.  I also was thinking of flowers for this theme, and we have some really special white ones out in the garden with bright pink stems, but the idea is not lost . . .

My photo:

I took this on the pond accross the road from us.  To be honest, I did not take it this week - there is no way I had the inner peace for a photo like this, my emotional state would have me photographing a great big junk yard where cars are smashed into tiny cubes and then sent to the incinerator  . . . back to the swan.  I took a few of these photos, here are some more . . .

I thought these might be nice printed on canvas for my daughters room one day . . . one day.

Well that is it for me this week.  I am sorry I didn't get to embrace the theme this week, I wanted to, even had a great idea: shoes!  This topic fell over Labor Day long weekend here in the U.S. which is the official marker on our calendar for when it becomes inappropriate to wear white shoes!  Yes, you read right, from now until Memorial Day in the spring, it is taboo to wear white shoes, especially in business (I don't think sneakers count).  If I had white shoes, I would have photographed them.  I have a cream pair and thought of doing an overexposed black and white number to make them look white but then my car broke and I did not feel like photographing shoes anymore.  Just junkyards with big cranes and smashy things . . .

Through The Eyes of Sisters, Topic: Close Up

This was a wonderful theme, I SO enjoyed it because my sister is right, it does kind of make you stop to look at things a little more closely.  Heids, who you will all know by now is a city girl found a fuzzy thingy in her garden and attacked it with a spade (don't you think that's kinda like shooting a goldfish with an oozy Heids?).  Turns out, that the fuzzy 'thing' morphed into something quite beautiful:

Heids, I love these flowers, we get them here too and in fact, I did a painting of them which I will have to take a photo of to share with you.  They smell beautiful too, don't they?  I want one in my garden!!!

I had fun with this theme, here is my photo:

These are of some fungi growing at the base of a birch tree in our garden.  They transported me back in time to when Heidi and I were little girls, we used to go into our garden and find a magical spot where fairies might live, and then make special fairy gardens for them with flowers and treasures and pebbles.  We had such fun doing it, and of course, grownups could never know!  So these look like little fairy steps up a tree, or balconies if you were to watch a fairy play, or maybe they are awnings, a place to hide from the rain!  From the top down . . .

Since I was crawling on the grass for different angles, here is one of a mushroom:

Isn't that sweet, I took another . . .

I am pretty sure you can't eat these mushrooms.  When you touch them or break them they bruise, as in they turn blue where ever it is you offended them, and then the blue turns to a reddy brown and then a dark yellow.  They are fascinating, good fairy magic in them I am sure!

These were taken while I was clearing up outside to prepare for Hurricane Irene, who blew through at a heck of a speed, never get in the way of a lady in a hurry that's for sure.  So while I was dismantling the trampoline, I took this:

That is my take on close up this week.  We survived the hurricane, only a broken window and some damaged trees (poor trees).  The weather is beautiful, it is a magical day here today - which reminds me, I need to go check on the fairies . . .

TUTT + 1 - Topic: Faces

Faces.  What an interesting choice Mariette made this week, and you could go so, so many places with it.  Mariette snapped a pic of her daughter playing video games:

Mariette, I think this is an exquisite photograph.  The light on her face is so soft, her eyes twinkle and draw you in and she looks so engrossed.  I think you nailed it my dear, it's lovely.  About that photography class . . .

Claire remembered a photo shoot she did a year ago when Christine visited from South Africa, bringing these four girls together for the first time in ages.  Claire said she drove them nuts photographing them, can you tell?

What a fun photo - I know how it is when you know the moment is special and you want to catch it in your hands (or camera) and hold onto it forever.  I have driven a few people crazy myself, but there is nothing nicer when you are feeling glum to look back at these otherwise forgotten moments and re-live the joy!

My dear sister in-law went to eggstra special lengths to capture faces.  I love that it wasn't enough to just draw the faces on with a marker (that would be 'koki' in South African language, a far more expressive word), she colored them in too.  I think they are super sweet and a little eggcentric, eggcellent effort Linda!

As for me, I don't know, sometimes I think all I ever do is complain but really!  I think a broken transmission, hurricane, and back to school all in one week entitles me, don't you?  I made all the TUTT + 1 chickadees late this week because we had no power and I know we are uber dependant on energy and fossil fuels but after losing it for a few days, I now KNOW, you know?  Thanks ladies for your patience, here is my photo:

This is from the pizza box of our favorite pizza place (as I said girls and boys, not all pizza places are created equal - I'm just saying . . .) - Capone's.  Named for Al Capone, notorious Italian gangster from Chicago in the early 1900's during the years of prohibition when the sale of alcohol was illegal, so was the manufacture, transport, import export . . . well, you get the picture.  I told the girls that this theme, my photo, and current events all tie up together very nicely on our side of the world and here's why.  The state of New Jersey is currently reviewing legislature around the identification of baddies from police line-ups.  They are saying that it is an unreliable source of information. 

Try this, while stopped at a robot aka traffic light take a glance at a person walking by on the sidewalk and look away while you try to describe what they were wearing, how tall they were, their gait or any unusual features.  Then look back and see how accurate you were.  In high stress situations our recall is even worse, but it goes deeper than that.  They have done some psychological studies (of course they have) over a number of years and all based on previous cases where wrongful convictions were overturned once DNA testing proved murderers were in fact, not murderers at all but actually innocent citizens - in almost all of the cases identification through a police line-up is what sealed the case.  So in these studies, they had a look at how we humans recognize and recall the faces of people we meet.  Interestingly enough, we have an easier time recalling people who look like us, are the same age, have the same color hair or ethnicity and are similar in height and weight.  You can show us ten people that look like us and we can easily tell them apart.  If there is a huge age difference or if they are of another ethnic origin, we don't do so good.  Show us ten people who look very different to us and they all look the same, in those instances we need to see their faces a few times to make recall accurate.  So, to summarize, everybody that looks the same is totally different, and the people that look different are all the same - capiche?

Of course, other considerations in line-ups are the environment in which the line-up is conducted, who is with you at the time, their body language etc. etc. etc. but I thought the above was very interesting, especially when we were photographing faces this week.  And Al Capone was a criminal.  And his picture is faceless.  Told you it all weaves a good story, but since faces are also full of expression and tell their own story, here is another photo from our pizza place and this one makes Al Capone come alive, a real person, with a good-time enigmatic personality and a flagrant disregard for the rules - his face says all that don't you think?

That's my take on this theme, next week will be pure and clean!