I started the bank holiday weekend a little early by taking the afternoon off work on Friday. I used the time to cook the ‘no knead bread’ I had started the night before and to go for a photowalk in Top Wood with Dave and the dogs. Gracie was in fine posing form and Maya was just having a brilliant time.

Later, for dinner, I made omelette with a goose egg and hen eggs I had got from my Mum. I added chard and thyme from the garden and we ate it with the bread I had just cooked. For pudding we had vanilla ice cream with stewed rhubarb that our neighbour gave us.

Saturday was spent knitting, walking the dogs, playing Frisbee with Dave and Gracie, tidying the house and eating tasty food. We had scrambled eggs (from Mum) and bacon (from Hillstown Farm Shop) for lunch. For dinner we had sausage and bean bake with a pile of buttered ‘no knead bread’.

On Sunday we went walking – a fine stroll, into the wind, along Portstewart Strand. Back at home we dozed, then we ate pasta with aubergine (cooked by Dave), then back to sleep.

Monday we took easy – I made oatcakes for lunch, which we ate with melted cheese and more of our bacon. It was a rainy day so we just went walking to Waterfoot Beach – nothing too strenuous. Then I visited my Granny. Later we had lightly smoked salmon, béarnaise sauce, mashed potatoes and puy lentils for dinner. All cooked by Dave and a marvellous job it was! I ate until I thought I would burst.

Last night I dreamt that there was something wrong with daylight – it was broken – and everything was the colour of a film negative but 3-dimensional.

So, that is what I have been up to. What is coming up is a week away in France, happy me! We leave on Saturday for a week in a wooden cabin in the Dordogne. Sadly, the dogs aren’t able to join us on this trip and will have to spend a week in the Leighinmohr Dog Hotel. On our return we will stop over in London for a night and maybe take in a few sights. I can’t wait!

I know that in my last post I said that I would love to have Gracie in work to keep me calm and that I would keep her in my drawer. Well… today I had both dogs in work after having locked myself out of the house at lunchtime, following the dogs lunchtime walk. Naturally, I didn’t have my phone with me, so my only option was to go back to work with the dogs.

At first I tied them up to the railings outside the building and ran inside to see if I had ever gotten around to stashing an emergency house key somewhere handy – no. Nor did I have any useful phone numbers written down.

The Director of Personnel came into the office with some stuff and I told him the situation and explained that I was distressed about my pooches being outside, so he suggested I bring them in.

Pooches came in. Maya was very excited and barked loudly. Shhhhh Maya, don’t give the game away!

I tried phoning the only number I could remember, Dave’s parents but they weren’t home. Then I realised that I could get the number of the guy Dave was out for lunch with and I could call him.

Much relieved to speak to Dave and for him to agree to come and take the dogs home. Though he took his time about it. Meanwhile Gracie relaxed on my lap and Maya stared out the window and barked at the leaves blowing outside.

The programme arrived last week and I now have a very big head. Every time I looked at the programme I smiled.

It’s not the first time I have had pictures published in print, I have had a few dodgy experiences with finding that local groups have used my pictures without crediting me correctly, but it’s the first time that I have been asked, have given approval and have got to see the result.

So, if you are interested in the festival or the brochure you can order a copy of the programme at www.openhousefestival.com

This is for my family – if you want to access my photobox photos in order to get high quality prints send me an email or leave a comment and I will send you the password for my gallery.

I got the results of the OU photography course I completed last December -

94%

Visual Awareness – Excellent
Technical Quality – Outstanding
Written component – Excellent

Naturally I am very pleased with the result.

No time for much else but eating, sleeping, working and taking photographs. As part of my photography course I have to submit 10 photographs as a final project. Much as I want to submit 10 photos of Gracie, I know that I am blinded by my love for her and that 10 photos of her could be quite boring to another person.

So, I have put together a small grouping (11) of pictures at Flickr, if you don’t see them all that’s because you are not special. I would appreciate any comments regarding what you think are the weaker images (I already have a few thoughts but I’ll keep them to myself for now). I am too lazy to add a proper link, so follow the cactus.

If you are wondering who that woman is with the camera, tripod and small white dog, taking photographs around town – it is me doing my homework. I wouldn’t really say I’m a fan of nighttime photography; or maybe it’s just this town that is the problem – I haven’t found anything inspiring to photograph and the boy racers keep shouting ‘cheese’ at me.

So this may be the hardest week for me. Last week was taking pictures of my favourite things and I had a ball taking photos. Gracie and I went on two long walks, the first being from Portstewart to Portrush. I was all set to walk all the way to White Rocks beach when I realised that I had lost my mobile phone (my way of telling D where to pick me up). I had the white rocks in sight when I had to turn back to Portrush East Strand, where earlier I had sat down to rest and Gracie had dug me a nice hole. Natch, the phone was buried in the hole.

Our second walk was at Ballycastle. Gracie is a total beach bum – beaches send her into a complete tizzy. She also likes forests a lot, but beaches narrowly win the competition.

But the best bit of the day for photographs was visiting the Dark Hedges, near Armoy. The results (above) are delightfully spooky, I think.

This weekend I will have to clear the laptop for what will surely be a memory assault next weekend when we go to Edinburgh. Both D and I will be using DSLRs and I plan to take a heap of pictures.

I picked up some photos yesterday from Boots. I had enquired in several places around the town if they developed black and white films, to be told that they didn’t anymore. Boots, fortunately, still develop black and white, but I had to wait two weeks for the prints.

In the old days I would have developed and processed the film myself, but I just don’t have the time to do that anymore.

For the first time in ages, nearly all the photos in the pack were, I felt, worthy of scanning and uploading to flickr. Naturally, I cropped and edited a few once they were scanned.

The film I used was Rollei Retro 100 and my new favourite camera – my Canon Canonet QL 17 G-III.

In the meantime, I thought I may as well do myself a wee photography course. Just a 10 week thing, probably a load of stuff I know already, but a good way to see if I can hack the routine of doing projects and learning.

I will, of course, knit as well. I still need to work on a few easy-peasy designs and then try selling them by myself. It will be relaxed and I will enjoy it.

Oh – and the worms? They are doing okay and have settled back into their home. Turning the contents of the wormery over seemed to do the job.

Looks like I was quite attached to the old bear.

30 years on I have a soft spot for my new bear.