Through the Eyes of Sisters, Topic: Black and White

Oh my word!  Where do I begin?  What a week!  I won't even go into it because I am so bored with myself, but the photo was a challenge - not taking it of course, just getting it off the camera and on to the computer to email my sister required massive effort and eventually I got fed up and just did it to do it.  Heid's did not take her photo this week, but she edited it this week so it does count, sort of:

It is so beautiful and ethereal.  It is The-Red-War-Goddess's Volcano.  Why?  Well, our maiden name is Le Roux you see, or 'The Red' and Heid's name means 'War Goddess'.  Powerful name for a powerful woman who now lives near an active volcano which I think is a little bit scary.  Do the people of her new home town know that she has moved there I wonder?  Then again, look at that volcano, it is the picture of a sleeping beauty not a fiery goddess so maybe the energies balance each other out, who knows. 

My name stands for 'Honey'.  Honey The Red.  Sweet but temperamental.  Or maybe vibrant honey from red flowers.  Or what about 'no Honey, pass me the red chainsaw!  The RED ONE!'  That is kinda how this week has been all in all, nothing has cooperated with me and dissection by mutilation has been considered more than once for a variety of things from computers to family members.  Luckily honey flows through my red hot veins so the fire coagulates into syrup before a crime is committed ;-). 

For my photo this week I took some time out to visit a friend who has two black and white horses - I thought they would make lovely subjects, here is photo number 1:

Good triumphs over evil.  They are such sweetie pies, the handsome flirt and shy boy.  I so enjoyed my afternoon with them, turns out my friend had quite the week herself so I felt in good company.  The afternoon turned out to be quite a relaxing one, walking in the new sunflower beds, standing in wonder of a new green paddock that was just seeds a few days earlier and picking some fresh baby bok choy, kale and radishes for a salad when I got home.   Here are some of the other photos - Mr. Handsome in the flesh:

And Shy Boy . . . .

And the mom who loves them both:

It never ceases to amaze me how, no matter what your mood, when you visit with horses you come away completely . . .  normal, sane.  They are like karma sorbet.   They take all the craziness away and restore balance and I think they make us better people.  So that is my post for the week, I have to come up with a theme for next week and best I make it an easy one since I have short-changed us a few days to work on it!  Here's my parting shot, see you soon . . .

Through the Eyes of Sisters, Topic: Letters

What a fun topic this promised to be this week - unfortunately, fate played her hand and worked against me.  I have been sick with flu, and just unable to shake it for about a week now.  So I have been cold all the time, full of aches, stuffy nose, headache - ugh.  Just horrible.  Despite my groans, I took the kids for a nature walk in one of our forests on Saturday with a local professor who showed us all the plants that we live with, what we can eat, and what is good for remedies.  It was so interesting, and I took my trusty point and shoot camera along (you know the one, I was bragging about it just last week) so that I could capture for eternity what my mind would forget in the car ride home - and April dropped it!  Gasp!  Lens first on the tar road as we were getting ready to start out.  It's dead.  We killed it.  I was devastated, we have had such good times together me and my trusty little camera, I wanted to cry but April was already in tears and so I had to be the grownup.  But I am sure it contributed to my overall poor feeling this week - I am in mourning.

So!  That being said, I no longer had a trusty to drag around with me, I had to haul out the big guns and, to be honest, my hopes for this theme died with my camera.  No matter how hard I tried, I just could NOT get into it.  My sister sent me her photo early because she was super busy:

Isn't it fun?  Didn't she do a great job?  Don't you feel the love of mother nature emanating in rays from the picture?  I loved it, and so even though she was uber-busy she did a wonderful job.  So I copied her:

I figured I would use man-made stuff only though.  We have such different pictures each week and now even on the same theme our pictures are so different.  What is ironic, is that my sis, who hates camping, is not a fan of bugs or pets, or hair or animals or dirt but instead favors room service and, well, electricity, took the nature LOVE.  And me, who is happiest smelling of horses and hay, or hiking, or doing ANYTHING outside, especially if there is dirt involved, took the man-made LOVE.  How funny is that?

I am glad the week is done, I am glad I don't have to look at letters anymore, I love Heid's photo - I may print it and frame it for my bedroom or something, I am looking forward to moving on.  No other photos this week since I don't have a trusty to take them with - my mother-in-law took pity on me and ordered a replacement, although nothing could fill the hole my last camera left, I am open to a new relationship and hopefully it will be here in time for next week's challenge and I think I will have to name this one - I never expected to get so attached to the last one.  Any ideas?  I am thinking of 'Henry' . . . 

Through the Eyes of Sisters, Topic: Light

I LOVED the topic this week, as a hobbyist photographer I have learned that if you can work with the light you have, you can make 'amazing' out of 'ordinary'.  It's kinda magical - so when Heids suggested it as her theme this week my mind started to race.  Of course, we also had a RECORD week at South Shore Organics - most sign ups in one week, most deliveries in one week, most going on in one week which all translates to MOST STRESS IN ONE WEEK!  We survived, we did a good job, all my customers have their healthy food and are (and I quote) 'happy', 'delighted' and 'excited' and even 'in love'.  I do wish I could have taken a whole day to play with the theme this week though because the possibilities are endless - Heidi decided to hit the town at night and she took these two photos which she joined:

She loved how the changing traffic light changed the statue, and how it even appears to change direction with the changing light.  It is awesome, very creative.  I of course, pushed my point and shoot Canon PowerShot to the limit again.  I haven't actually taken out my beautiful talented Nikon in weeks . . . oops!  Months!  Time flies.  But it served me well, here is my pic:

This is our cat Dudley - he has issues.  I wrote to my sister that he lights up my life and she wrote that he is the light of my life - not quite sis, he is damn hard work and he can be an idiot and just when you want to squeeze the breath out of him he goes all adorable on you and you decide to let him live another week.  He often makes me smile though - he is a funny cat.  Our bird is funny too, he is a Rottweiler in feathers I swear and not because he is aggressive, no no, he is a mooch, but he definitely has a warped sense of self and is not afraid of the cats at all even when they sit salivating millimeters from him with just a few strands of cage wire between them.  He pulls out their hairs for attention, yup, plucks them with his beak, taunts them with his scent and then watches in glee, GLEE I tell you, while they drool.  I say God makes him and then they come live by us, my sister says birds of a feather  . . .

I also took this photo, we were at a sheep shearing event at one of our local farms on Saturday and I think it qualifies - I didn't take a before but please believe me, after the winter we just had these sheep can only have been happy, delighted, excited and maybe just a little in love when the shearer walked into the barn door - they are much lighter post shave!

See - don't they look happy?

They also had a demonstration of the working sheep dog, it was AMAZING to watch.  These dogs are SO well trained and who knew so much went in to it?  The sheep have to like the dog, and respect him, they dog has to tap into its predatory instinct, so the sheep are dinner, but not dinner, and the handler all the while is communicating through whistles or brief hand gestures and from across the field the dog knows exactly what to do.  It really is incredible, the handler who has been doing this for 20 plus years - his name is Rick Seaman and I couldn't resist but snap a pic while he was talking - the way the his hair, blowing in the wind was back lit, I nearly chose this pic this week instead of Dudles:

It's a Pantene advert - don't you think?  Well, that's it from me for now.  I had to choose the topic this week, my sister always says I choose great topics, actually, I don't think so - I like hers better (except that 'work' one).  I guess it is always nice to receive a topic than to think one up - there must be a website somewhere with a random Team Up Thursday's Topic Selector where you click a button and poof, there you go!  I'm off to Google that!



Through The Eyes of Sisters, Topic: Pink

This was my theme, I had no idea's this week - just wanted to try and pick something easy because our business is growing and time, time, time, it's an age-old word with an infinite future and yet holding on to it and making use of each tick of the clock is like trying to catch a sly eel in an oil slick: elusive, slippery and . . . there it goes.  Gone.

My sister, who is a wonderful source of inspiration MADE time, good girl, and got her photo in ON time - unlike me.  Her post will be late and it is my fault, and the fault of a 16 hour time DIFFERENCE.  Sorry Heid's - here is her pic:

This is of her neighbor's daughter - beautiful neighbor don't you think?  And exquisite photo, I think my sis did an awesome job and I love watching her grow as a photographer, each week she is better than the last, has a better eye, and does a better job, it is like watching a butterfly emerge.  I love it - well done!  I think you found your thing!  The stuff that feeds your mojo and emanates from you.  It is very important to do something that feeds you instead of you feeding it.  How many of us have jobs that are a drain?  That take, take, take?  How much happier would we all be if we could find something that feeds our tummies AND our souls!!

I did not make time, I did not go in search of something specific, instead, I had to be resourceful and find something in my environment (at my desk or on deliveries) and so here is my pic:

Pink means friendship, at least in the flower world, and my sister is my friend and sometimes the 16 time zones feel like a massive gulf that can never be crossed and I will never reach her again.  It makes my heart sad.  Thank goodness for skype, for email, and for Team Up Thursdays is all I can say.  I also managed to take this on our delivery run yesterday since we ARE in the throws of spring:

Aren't they lovely.  I think I want a tree like this in my yard.  My son is still in an origami phase and he folded this for me, how cute is he?  He better find a nice woman to marry one day who will look after his heart otherwise I will be one of those nasty mother-in-laws!

That's my post this week.  Love to you all, I have the topic for next week (thanks Heid's), hopefully there is some light at the end of the tunnel and I can make an effort to actually grab a few clock ticks and tocks and dedicate a photo shoot to the topic! 

Through the Eyes of Sisters - Topic: Work

Well, this was Heid's theme and I have to say when I got I was not so enthusiastic - but I felt better when even Heid's said she thought it was a kak theme although I wouldn't have gone that far.  She said she had hopes of dragging her girls down to the harbour and taking pics of oil tankers and the big lift trucks and the containers and the workers, but they had a hideous wind storm for the last week and have pretty much stayed couped up indoors.   So she improvised and captured her new "work" .. so that has been the inspiration behind her pic.

I like it!  Nice job - through the lens, through the eyes, eyes are windows to the soul, photography is a soulful past time . . .

I just couldn't bring myself to photograph more of my work than I already do for my South Shore Organics facebook page, so I had to find inspiration elsewhere and this week I went looking for it.  Sort of.  Remember I told you about our swan?  Who is sitting on a nest making cygnets and earning jewellery?  Well, here she is:

Not the best photo, but I didn't want to get too close and it was misty and raining and WINDY too (not just in New Zealand Heid's, did you see the news about our tornado's?  187 of them in one day thank you very much!  Poor Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia - in fact, the southern half of the eastern seaboard seems to have been hard hit).  Back to my picture.   I chose her because she has not budged since she laid the eggs, you can go past her any time night or day and she is ALWAYS there.  That's WORK if you ask me, but then, ask any mother and she will tell you that children are hard work - there is no down time, no 'off duty' sign you can put up like a cab driver (although, that's not a bad idea!).  Regardless of how tired you are, you will still get up to answer the whimpers of a sick child, or wake up early to finish a science project . . . and here is this beautiful lady, sitting on hard round eggs for WEEKS for her progeny.  Is this mother nature or a nurturing mother?  I think raising young can only be a labor of love, so the answer to that old question is nurture for sure!  Sorry, what did you say?  Where is the expectant dad?  I am happy to report he is not out drinking with the boys, but rather hovering and foraging . . . isn't he a handsome fellow?  You can see how she got into this mess, I mean, nest.

And speaking of dad's, one of my other ideas for this week was to catch Mark hard at work:

Our first barbie/bbq/braai for the season!  The weather finally broke - YIPPEE!  And last photo for this blog, just so that you can see that I do actually work for a living, here is our van loaded up to go:

This was not taken this week, it is from a few weeks ago (there is still snow on the ground) but I attended a women's business network breakfast this morning, and a motivation speaker gave us permission to break the rules!  Since I didn't author the rule book and I don't know the person who did (do you?) I have decided she is right, that I should work on my own rule book, and who knows, maybe I'll get published!

Through the Eyes of Sisters - Topic: Old

I chose the topic - this week, again, all these visions of a super-wrinkly person National Geographic like photo filled my mind, or, or, or - an age old tree!  Gasp, OLD SHOES!  Old buildings, old cars, old hands, old clothes, old farm tools - and listen, I live in a 300-400 year old city, I am surrounded by old!  Of course, all of these ideas actually required me to dedicate something very precious: time.  HA!  That was never going to happen!  My sister did a great job, she said: "The topic pushed me to look into our local history of Taranaki, and it was actually quite interesting. But like any other place the world over the prominent story is one of war and violence ... ! I went to St Mary's Cathedral which homes the graveyard for fallen hero's of Taranaki, so lots of memorial stones, there was even one honouring Taranaki's fallen troopers in the South African war (as it reads) but the one that sparks my curiosity the most is the one in the pic, in amongst all these gravestones outlining the plight of the individuals is this weathered old cross, no engravings, nothing. I can't help but wonder who it belongs to and if anyone knows and why doesn't he or she have their name mentioned. How sad it makes me feel."  Here is her pic . . .

We have quite a few really old graveyards in Boston and in the surrounding towns.  I used to spend my lunch break when I worked in Boston visiting some of them, I used to love reading the inscriptions - they gave me more of a sense of what life was like, how long people lived, how many kids they had (and whether they had a sense of humor) than anything else since I have arrived.  One guy is buried next to his mistress while his wife lies on the other side of the graveyard - another gentlemen paid for all his servants and their families to be buried in the same graveyard as the rest of his family - a graveyard of stature.  There are headstones for children who died of what are considered curable diseases today, and the average life expectancy seems to be around 40 years.  Graveyards tell stories, and sometimes they give you the opportunity to create your own.

I did pretty well I think, as usual, I was on the run this week and so I brought my camera with me and had to snap at whatever I could, no time to go searching for old hands or trees that's for sure, but I still achieved my target - here I got an old man and an old car at the same time!:

And here is an old building:

This is a three storey building in Boston, they dug out earth floor basements or cellars and lined the walls with stone and concrete, then built brick on top.  The actual building looks like it is only JUST standing, I will take a photo of the whole thing sometime, I just liked the red, brick, black, grey and green.  Then, I got a picture of an old road - this is especially for you South Africans who think you are the only ones with potholes and patches on the patches!  I counted eight different colors of tar . . . (yes I know, I am counting tar colors, I can't be normal!)

This is a road in Quincy that I have to bounce down, not drive down, to deliver a veggie basket, I have to go slooooowwwwwlllyyyyyyy lest I bruise my plums!  And finally, this one is for Ryan who loved the 'wall art' in the bottom left corner - and yes, it is on an old building so it qualifies . . .

After that, there is nothing left for me to say.  I bid ye farewell, goode tidings and goode night.  Tag Heids, you're it!  Theme for next week please . . .

Through the Eyes of Sisters - Topic: New

My blessed sister, who is up at the crack of dawn each morning - literally - captured a 'new day' in her photo:

The lucky lady has this view every morning from just about every window in the house.  She says she goes about prioritizing her day as the sun peeks over the horizon and calls all the roosters to crow and the people to rise, adding NEW things to her to-do list and carrying over old ones.  It is a nice sentiment - I start most of my days half way around the world with a list as well . . .

My photo this week is of my birthday present, a NEW bicycle.  I have wanted a bike for a while now but really wasn't fussed about what bicycle I got, looking for something second hand that no longer served any purpose with its previous owner - that was, until I saw this baby.  Isn't she beautiful?  Her name is Sunshine, and I do love her so:

Of course, we all know I am OCD and can't add just one photo to this blog, the point is to share right?  So I took my new bicycle around the pond and thought I would snap at anything I see that's new and include it too - I was hoping the swan sitting on her eggs would have some cygnets to show for her work (no, not gemstones, baby swans!!! although she deserves jewelry, she has been sitting there forever!  Rain, sleet, sun - it matters not, what a good mom!).  Baby swans are new.  Alas, she is still earning her jewelry, no babies yet.  I did find this sign of spring, sorry it's blurry but it turns out it's kinda hard to take photos and ride a bike at the same time:

I also found this and it's new - I guess he didn't want the woodsmen to come hack up his tree.  As my mom can testify, we are surrounded by hundreds of acres of natural forest and wood companies send teams out to retrieve fallen trees after the winter to cut up and dry for sale the next winter for people to heat their homes.  It is a great service because it reduces the fire hazard in the forests, but I guess they can be a nuisance if you are tree territorial:

I also met a new neighbor who was out gardening and watching curiously as a woman cycling by on a yellow and blue bicycle stopped to photograph a fallen tree.  Her name is Penny, she seems very sweet but I couldn't photograph her, somehow 'can I take a photo of you for the internet' doesn't seem to be a good neighborly introduction so I restrained myself.  I know!  Can you believe it?  I must be growing up!

When I returned to our house, I saw our daffodils have emerged as well - another sign of spring.  Most signs of spring seem to be yellow - anyone ever notice that?

Aren't they pretty?  So that is my 'new' this week.  It was fun!  I choose the theme for next week and by then, this post will be old news!