Posted just in the nick of time

I have decided I’m not going to do resolutions this year, unless keeping my head down and getting through it counts but I do plan on each month doing the appropriate month of Bustle and Sew’s Rosie and Bear quilt and I started with December (obviously). This is not quite finished as there is meant to be an applique fabric border but to be honest, right now, I don’t know where my iron is *blush*, so it will get done later. I thought I’d just post a picture of it as it is now, whilst it’s still December.

Finally, my new camera!

Ok, it’s not strictly speaking my birthday yet but I had almost gathered together enough money by Christmas Day for my new camera, so I ordered it anyway. It’s a Fujifilm FinePix S1800 (and actually going into Amazon just now to get the link and the photo I see it’s gone up a bit in price since I ordered it, so I’m doubly glad I didn’t wait till my birthday now!).

My last camera, which I lost on the way home from Legoland in October (*sob*) was a ‘good’ point and shoot Cybershot and it did take some nice photos but it was getting on a bit, the white balance was getting a bit flaky and it was developing some intermittent problems with the focus, so although I was gutted (and blinking annoyed with myself) about loosing my camera (there had been some really nice photos of the kids I’d taken at Legoland for a start that obviously I never had a chance to take off the camera), the level of being gutted was slightly tempered with the sneaking knowledge that I was probably approaching the time of needing a new camera anyway, it’s just the having to beg and borrow other people’s cameras for the few months between October and now wasn’t good.

Anyway as good as my old Cybershot was (and I was a big fan of Cybershots, this one had been my third), my new camera seems so much more ‘grown up’, it’s much bigger and heavier for a start and the zoom is amazing! The macro function (which is the most important function for me on a camera, not just for embroidery photos but because I love taking macros of stuff when out and about) is amazing to. Anyway, the camera arrived yesterday and we had planned a family walk in the park today so that I could take some photos and have a play but Boy Lacer is currently on the tail end of another round of de-compaction and the sounds his stomach was making, we did not want to have to take him out of the house unnecessarily! So instead as I needed to go to the supermarket anyway I walked the slightly long way round (only a few minutes longer really) and took my camera with me. I now present the highlights of my journey to the supermarket (in order of taking the photos).

The first photo I took outside (I told you I liked macros) and this happens to be my favourite, I happen to be very fond of this fence (I may be wrong but from what I’ve heard I think this fence may be listed) and I walk past it everyday and I love the flakiness of the paint against the bright yellow-green of the lichens (someone is going to tell me now that’s not lichen). The fence also gets some fantastic spider webs on it in the autumn.

Another macro, so nice to see flowers budding in December.

I like how some of the boats jut out at you from the photo.

I had to include a photo of the actual river, although it can be hard to find new ways of taking photos of a stretch of river I’ve photographed so many times before. This photo makes the Thames look a lot narrower than it actually is, the ‘bank’ on the left hand side of the photo is actually a tiny island in the middle of the river. Needless to say I can’t wait for some bright light to take photos in, but I don’t think the camera did too badly.

Experimenting with the zoom now (no way would I get too close to those things, yuck!), I think I like the reflection on the water behind them more than the geese themselves.

Another zoom shot, I like how this time the river looks almost white behind the seagull.

A shot I’ve taken a lot of times before but it is one of my favourite views, I always think there’s something almost Narnia-ish about having a bandstand amongst the trees.

Hopefully from now on photos of my crafting and my cooking will look a little better!

Highlights of 2010

Ok it’s highlights of the year time again.

Family Highlight

Boy Lacer starting school and starting school reasonably well, yes he is overly fond of the sick day but other than that it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

Personal Highlight

Finally getting my allotment and although as of this point there is still nothing really growing in it (bar weeds and an every decreasing amount of raspberry bushes) and there is still quite a bit to dig over, next year is going to be great for it.

Book highlight(s)

Time for the nerdy book stats again, this year I have read or listened to 42 books which is amazingly up 5 books from last year (and I thought I’d had a really bad book year, worse than last year, although in fairness if I want to write whether it’s 37 books or 42 books, neither is enough). That number can be broken down to 14 audiobooks and 27 ‘normal’ books and 1 e-book. Out of those 22 were adult fiction (+5 from last year), 16 were children’s fiction (+2 from last year but still must do better), 3 non-fiction (+2 from last year) and 1 book of short stories (-1 from last year) – hmmm those numbers don’t quite add up but never mind.

My adult fiction favourite

My adult fiction favourite has to be from very early on in the year and it happened to be an audiobook (but I now possess the paperback, the only audiobook that made me go out and buy the actual book), it was The Children’s Book by AS Byatt. It is incredibly long (it took me ages to listen to), but I love how it encompasses two families histories from the end of the Victorian era to the First World War and there are some incredibly sad and incredibly uplifting moments in it. Honorably mentions also go to The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland, Under the Dome by Stephen King and Pandaemonium by Christopher Brookmyre (the latter two both happen to be audiobooks to).

My children’s fiction favourite

It has to be the incredibly scary The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd (which also happened to be another audiobook), it was enough to doubly make sure I set the dishwasher and washing machine to their eco-cycles and turn all the lights off.

Cook book highlight

I think my favourite cookbook would have to be Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights , the recipes in it are lovely and pretty much work and I went through a phase after getting it of cooking loads from it and then stopped because I pretty much stopped cooking full stop and other than some brief encouragement from Nigella, I still haven’t started properly again, may 2011 be better.

Craft book highlight

I think the one I’ve certainly got the most use out of (as in I’ve made the grand total of two projects out of it) was The Embroidery Companion by Alicia Paulson, I need to do something next year to make sure I actually use more of the craft books I buy.

Film / DVD highlight

I haven’t seen that many films in 2010 and I certainly haven’t been blogging about many. I think off the top of my head my favourite was Inception (which I didn’t blog about), I thought it was a clever, original movie.

TV highlight(s)

Getting to see the end of Lost was a big one for me, also seeing the end of 24 as well and I think this may have been the year I finally caught up with the end of Battlestar Galactica to (on DVD), this has been a year of TV endings. Oh and Ashes to Ashes to, must not forget that. Spooks was also good and of course Doctor Who, as much as it was good under Russell T Davies and David Tennant, I think it’s even better under Stephen Moffat and Matt Smith.

Music highlight

Finally getting to see more live music of course, Linkin Park were excellent!