Tag: Monochrome Madness

The Space Between….

That’s the title of Stupidity Hole‘s intriguing challenge as guest presenter of Monochrome Madness.

I started off with the obvious. The restricted spaces in narrow lanes, alleyways and thoroughfares.

Then I remembered the time when my grandson leapt into the space between the strokes of the letter O in a street installation.

Or there’s the curious tree near us where the space between the two parts of its malformed trunk form an ad hoc picture frame.

And lastly, a negative image. The tree occupies the space between an apparently endless expanse of – well- fresh air.

Thanks, Stupidity Hole for providing a provocative challenge to engage the mind on an excessively windy winter morning.

Leaves and Petals?

It’s November, so leaves and petals in the UK have largely done a bunk. Still, maybe I can find a little spring and summer time cheer in the archives, and fulfill my obligations to Monochrome Madness‘ host this week, Dawn; as well as to Becky’s NovemberShadows.

The header photograph includes both: tulip leaves shafting upwards, and topped by the simple clean lines of the tulip flower.

For the rest, it’s a miscellany that took my fancy. But all are either in shadow, or casting a shadow. So first … leaves…

… and flowers…

And finally, a doughty dandelion, flourishing on a brick wall in the gardens of Beningbrough Hall, near York. How it nourished all those leaves and petals is quite beyond me.

Farmer Fisher’s Farmyard Friends

One of the first picture books to come into the house – oh gosh – more than 45 years ago, delighted all three of my children, and the adults who read it with them. It’s still sought after, this early edition, but you’ll have to shell out about £25 to get a copy. The book was Farmer Fisher.

Farmer Fisher had a fine fat truck.
You couldn't see the colour for the farmyard muck.
In the front was a rabbit and a chicken and a duck -
On the way to market.

Well. I won’t be showing you a rabbit. I haven’t got a shot of one. Or a chicken. Or a duck. Elke, for this week’s Monochrome Madness would like us to show farmyard animals, so I’m sticking to four legged examples.

Like cows …

… and sheep …

… and pigs …

… and a goat …

… and not forgetting donkeys. Not useful, but easy to love.

And here’s a little library of livestock to finish with.

For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness.

Au Cas Où

I mentioned the other day our habit of having with us at all times an au cas où bag, foraging for the use of. At this time of year, this bag is a completely necessary accessory. Here’s my haul from last Thursday.

Here we are. Crab apples; cooking apples; windfall pears; red mirabelles. These have become crab apple and chilli jelly; cooked down with previously foraged then frozen blackberries; scrumped; mirabelle frangipane with a good number of them, then … not sure yet. We’ve made quite enough mirabelle jam, thank you.

This is the time of year for mushrooming, but we haven’t been lucky yet. Apart from the obvious field mushrooms (no pictures!) I’m only confident to look for football sized puffballs (which make, apart from other dishes, excellent steak substitutes) …

… and shaggy inkcaps, which need to come home quickly before they deliquesce into inky pools.

Here are some of the other regular finds: crab apples in the feature photo; mirabelles both yellow and red; blackberries; apples of all kinds.

Here’s some of the kitchen activity: Weighing, then straining the juices from simmered-down fruits.

… and some of the results:

In this case, the only photo I had to hand was of jars of marmalade (I even forage Seville oranges when we’re in Spain in winter), and gin which I have made in Seville orange, mulberry, sloe, and mirabelle varieties at different times.

Foraging is some of the best fun to be had in autumn. Just don’t forget your au cas où bag.

For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness.

Dogs on the Beach

This week’s Monochrome Madness, hosted by Elke of Pictures Imperfect, takes pets as its subject. We don’t have one of those, though we are required to provide daily chats and cuddles to Newt, the dog next door on one side, and catering services when her owner is away to MiMi, the cat next door on the other side.

So I’m taking you to Bamburgh in Northumbria, where we were walking recently on the best sort of afternoon at an English seaside, with bright sun, breeze and gentle warmth. It was an afternoon for beach strolls and games … and for taking the dog out to play.

Found at the Fair!

Now I’ve always hated funfairs, even as a child. Too noisy! Too crowded! Too scary! But I’ve always loved markets – local markets I mean, full (ideally)of stalls selling freshly picked lettuce and spinach, earth-covered newly-pulled potatoes or carrots. Local cheeses. Local fish. Local anything really.

But … I haven’t got time this week to curate photos from dozens of irresistible markets in France, in Spain, in Germany for this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge, Found at the Fair or Market, hosted by Anne-Christine. Most of my Spanish family is coming over for a fortnight. Hooray! So I’ll use this opportunity to present just one photo, taken when they were with us last year, and we visited Beamish and its properly old fashioned fairground. It can serve for Leanne’s Monochrome Madness too.

I’m off duty now. No posts (apart from Indian Friday, which I’ve scheduled). No comments. No visits to all the blogs I enjoy reading. My daughter will usually be working remotely: so we’ll be i/c the children, now 4 years old and 20 months. So … a different kind of duty, even more pleasurable than the world of blogging.

Backlighting for the Bold

Oooh. For Monochrome Madness this week, Brian Bushboy has set a challenge and a half. Backlighting. What? I hear non-photographers ask. Here’s what Brian says: ‘Backlighting in photography is a way for photographers to create dramatic lighting. This involves positioning the main light source for a photograph behind the primary subject’. In other words, do what you spend your photographic life trying NOT to do. Take shots direct into the sun, or the light source, anyway. It’s easier in a sunny country, so let’s take the ferry to Spain.

I have no idea who this couple are. But they were enjoying a meal, a glass of wine, with the sun shining over the coast we were heading for.

And here we are in Premià, staying with daughter and family.

We won’t outstay our welcome, but nip down to Valencia. To l’Albufera.

After, we’ll come back to the UK. To Pembrokeshire:

The featured photo is from the UK too. No idea where.

And that is all I have to say on the subject.