A week in a year in the life...

[curiouswombat]

I have been quiet around here this week! However, I have started the 365 day photo project, and have just started a Flickr account to put them all in - I'll put a link in my sidebar when I get it organised properly.

So - I will give you a quick run-down of the week, in pictures,

Sunday - my husband died... well, he was dead to the world all afternoon anyway - good job I didn't 'marry for the companionship'!



Monday I went to the local hospital to take a clinic, as usual, it was wet. This is the view from the car-park to the hospital itself.



Tuesday was the first Tuesday in the month - so I headed south to take a clinic in Port Erin - it was wet and windy - this is the sea beside the main road at Gansey.



When I woke on Wednesday it had been snowing. I was too busy hacking the snow off the windscreen of the car to take a picture. However, by the afternoon the sun had come out - I passed through St. John's and stopped to take a picture of some crocuses.



Thursday - up north to Ramsey - the sun shone, but it was cold - and there was still snow anywhere much above sea-level - but only a dusting -



Friday I was off work. I spent the morning at a funeral - but thought it not really the place to take photos! My great-aunt had lived to 98, and was ready to go, so it was not one of those very, very sad funerals - just an acceptance that she had moved on.

However, by mid-afternoon I was doing something much more cheerful - I collected Daughter-dear from the airport - she is on a flying visit home, to see friends before they go travelling for a year or two, celebrate a couple of birthdays etc. It was a damp, grey, afternoon - the weather at the funeral had been much more cheerful! This is recognisable to most Manx people - 'Leggy' here is a sort of 'Welcome Home' figure as you step outside of the airport building. (He is really called 'Three Legs' and is a bronze sculpture by Brian Kneale.)



As for today - it is damp, and boring outside - a day for cleaning the kitchen, sitting playing on the computer, and doing a bit of reading. All go better with a hot drink. So here is my kettle - because I love it, and yes - it really does glow blue whilst it boils!

.



I also took a couple of pictures of my shiny new cooker - I'll post them later when I upload them onto my usual photobucket account.

Comments

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm cairistiona... hope you don't mind that I added you as a friend. *waves*

What lovely pictures... the Isle of Man seems a beautiful place. And love your blue-glowing kettle. My condolences on the death of your aunt. It does seem she lived a very long and full life, and that is always a comfort.

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

Condolences on the loss of your aunt. May she rest in peace.

The sea looks beautiful, even when grey. I would like to live near the sea some day!

Kieran started a 365 project and did it for about 2.5 months, but then he was really busy at work and missed a few days, and it sort of went off the rails... I wish you luck in your project!

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Quite a week, and a photo a day for 360 days! Wow. I would be sure to forget if I tried that!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling that there may be quite a lot of pictures of the kitchen, cat, etc. during the year, but then I spend quite a bit of time in the kitchen, with the cat, etc, so it would be a fair representation!

The kettle is a by-product of the new cooker - I complained about the size of the delivery cost and the connection cost and the 'taking your old one away cost' when they were making a good bit on the cooker itself - the salesman didn't want to set a precedent of waiving any of it - but agreed that I could have 'something to the value' of the delivery and connection charge! I went - 'That!' straight away!

I think I am most pleased with the crocuses this week - perhaps I should choose a 'pic of the week' each time.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Hello! lovely to meet you - welcome.

I love my kettle, and feel sorry for all my American friends who don't have pretty electric kettles...

My island is rather photogenic - although over 65 days you might get a bit bored with sea.

My Aragorn icon is not smiley enough for a hello - here is The Soup Dragon, from children's TV series The Clangers, instead!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The thing that struck me most, at my aunt's funeral, was that my Mum is now the oldest member of the family left - all her aunts and uncles are now gone, and she is the oldest of all the cousins.

I really do aim to complete this 365 - but there may be a few pictures taken with my phone, and a few of the kitchen etc... and enough of the sea to bore all but the most enthusiastic. :~)

[ellaygee-09.livejournal.com]

My condolences on the death of your aunt.

[ellaygee-09.livejournal.com]

Are those palm trees in the second picture?

And the spring flowers look beautiful! Ours are still buried under the snow.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about your Aunt. And I have to laugh because all your recent photos of speakr2customrs have shown him sound asleep.
"Leggy" is..just neat!

[calizen.livejournal.com]

Just love all these pictures -- and that you're including the sea but also little things that mean a lot to you -- like crocuses coming up through snow and your shining blue electric tea kettle. Those little touches say a lot about you.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I'm going to try to stick to the picture project as a self-discipline thing - let's see how well I do...

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Wonderful photos!!

After you mentioned it on your LJ, I decided to give this one a try, too... especially since you proposed the idea of only posting the photos once a week. That just seems so much more manageable!

Of course, none of mine are as cool as yours... I'm afraid there were a few days where I remembered right before going to bed and just took a picture of something around the house. :-p

Love your kettle! I'm so jealous that you guys have so many electric kettle options... I really wish they'd catch on here, as well. But for now, they seem to be stuck being specialty items (i.e. hard to find and highly priced).

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - she was my Mum's aunt, and to be honest, as a child I much preferred her husband! But it is still an end-of-an-era thing.

This icon is my grandmother - Aunty Gladys' sister-in-law. It somehow brings home just how different a generation Aunty G was.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Yes - and in the Friday one - we have quite a lot of them - they do well in the wind, and we don't get a lot of frost. They look funny on the odd day it does snow though!

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

Yes, that awareness of the passage of time is hard. At my grandma's friend's funeral last year, there were a brother and sister in their 40s, whose mother had been friends with Gay but who had died years ago. They were particularly sad because Gay was the last person who had known their mother as a young woman. Our own mortality is a tricky thing!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I think it's his age... actually he usd to disappear upstairs 'to close the curtains' and then fall asleep even ten years ago - now he just doesn't bother going upstairs but just flops out on the settee.

When they first put that sculpture there, about thirty or more years ago, everyone complained that it was horrible, but now it is a real part-of-the-island thing. When it was being cleaned and repaired the space looked really odd.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I see a lot of the sea... and I do like to look at it.

The crocuses are lovely, aren't they? And I am a just a bit of a gadget-geek when it comes to my 'glow in the dark' kettle!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I think there will be a good few household pictures through the year, too!

I love my kettle - it is a real geek-girl gadget! Pity your electricity supply is so different from ours...

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

My husband can assume the EXACT same pose. Must be universal man.....

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Hee! Do you think they have to have lessons, or does it just come naturally?

[debris4spike]

That is great - I thought of you today as I had the TV on and there was an old Time-Team from your part of the world.

There are some stunning views - we are so lucky where we both live.

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

Oh you are lucky not to have hard water with that kettle! I have a glass kettle and we have to keep de-scaling it because it doesn't take long before it looks tatty!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Aren't we? These are all simply taken by stopping the car on my way to or from somewhere - well apart from the one of the husband and the one of the kettle... :~)

I remember that Time Team - I think it was damp and windy - no surprises there, then!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

You know it hadn't ever occured to me how it would look with hard water! Fortunately ours is soft.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

And it's a very smiley dragon, at that! *waves back*

I have a nice little blue with white speckled kettle, but it's not electric, nor does it glow. Ah well! :)

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

I could take a photo of my husband right now, and he'd pass as a brother! His hand is in the same position. The main difference between the two is that my husband puts a pillow on his lap, because the cat can hardly resist hopping up and making 'muffins' at his groin if he doesn't cover up!

I marvel that you can have palm trees and snow!

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

"Three Legs" is Manannan mac Lir! ...Er, you may have a different spelling in Manx though.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Shaka can often be found sitting on S2C when he is lying there, but on Sunday he was curled up on a nearby cushion.

Having both palms and the snow is fun, isn't they?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

No - this is his home, (http://www.manxman.ch/indexdata/mannanin/mannanin.htm) after all....

Th link is to an article written in English as a good Manxman would speak it.

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking they are born with the ability to nap on the couch even if the house is burning down.

[jerusha]

Oooh! I love the blue glowy kettle!

And I'm planning on starting this meme on my birthday. I think it will be good.

Whichever way you throw me, I stand

[artykat.livejournal.com]

I love that motto, and it should be my own!

I love your idea of taking photos for every day. I am going to try to adopt it. I have such a limited life that I will surely bore people to tears, but my husband says that I should go for it, so I will. Knowing you are doing it, too, will help.

Are you a doctor? Going to clinics...

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

This is fun. I'm tempted to do it as well!

As always when you post pictures of flowers, I've nicked the crocuses for possible use at a later date! I love Brian Kneale's drawings (I have a set of his dinosaur stamps somewhere) but I haven't seen much of his sculpture. Leggy's interesting -- sort of anatomical, but not... Maybe it's AU anatomy.

Your kettle is absolutely stunning.

And thank you for voting over at legolasicontest, btw.

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

The photo meme is tempting. I will think about it before I leap in though.

The kettle is wonderful. Electric kettles aren't as popular in the U.S. as they are in the UK or on the Isle of Mann, but we do have them. What brand is yours? I will have to look for one. It has a wonderful sci-fi'ish aspect.

My husband also spends a lot of time napping and he doesn't work nights. I think he studied napping with our cats.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

This one that I took a couple of years ago, of Tholt-y-Will glen, always makes me think of elves -

(http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y109/curiouswombat/WILD/?action=view&current=iom2033.jpg)

The kettle really is a thing of beauty, isn't it? It's by Breville, and is also very fast-boiling.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

You are certainly going to have a very interesting year! My year will include D-d's 21st and her graduation.

The kettle is real geekdom in the kitchen, isn't it? And I loves it, Precioussss....

Re: Whichever way you throw me, I stand

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

debris4spike is doing it, and so far hers have included the vacuum cleaner and some nive frsh carrots, so around the house would certainly work.

I am treating it as a sort of self-discipline.

I am not a doctor, but a Clinical Nurse Specialist, so carry my own caseload, run my own clinics etc. - my specialism is usually a bit of a conversation stopper - I am a Continence Specialist...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

My daughter says she hopes I don't bore people to death with the pictures!

The kettle is a Breville (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Breville-JK147-Blue-Ice-Kettle/dp/B000ZJ4PZ2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1236473008&sr=8-1) and is the epitome of geekdom in kettles, I think! I love it dearly!

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

I poked around the internet and found it. Unfortunately that model does not seem to be available in the U.S. Other Breville electric kettles are available but they are more ordinary. I saw more pictures of it and it is wonderful.

Pls reassure D-d that we are not so easily bored as she might fear.

Re: Whichever way you throw me, I stand

[artykat.livejournal.com]

That's right, I forgot. My memory is horrible. forgive me.

I think it will be a good discipline for me as well. it isn't the easiest thing to put pictures up, using Photobucket as I am. I like them to be larger than what LJ gives, and I doubt there's enough room there anyway.

I like it that she used the vacuum cleaner! I can also use this as the first year of my new name. i changed my user name from pastorbear to quilterbear a few minutes ago.

[artykat.livejournal.com]

We have an electric kettle and have gone through a couple. I LOVE that blue one though!

[winsomeone.livejournal.com]

Personally I love cat pics and you'll probably be bored to tears by me during the year with many pics of the assistants, too.

I also love pics of the Isle-it really is very scenic and so different from my coastline.

Sorry to hear about your Great-Aunt.

Re: Whichever way you throw me, I stand

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I like the new name.

I use photobucket for my journal pictures too, but I decided to start a new account for these, so that I could make them public rather than private. Photobucket used to only allow one account per e-mail, and I already have one for me and one for church, so I thought I would open a flickr one instead. But, unless I am missing something, it is harder to upload them to flickr :~(

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is really eye-catching, isn't it? Hopefully it will be available in the US soon!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The main problems with Shaka pictures is that he tends to be pretty well camoflaged on our dark brown settee - I have to catch him when he sleeps on our bed - which has cream covers!

[kortirion.livejournal.com]

Oooooo photos *slavers in anticipation* and nope.... I never get tired of sea pictures!

Maybe when I get a decent digital camera I'll have a go at this, it really does seem a lovely project, I'm very much looking forward watching yours.

Kettle is great - I had one with an orange glow a year os so back - now defunct. Then I had the kitchen decorated a very pale shell pink and since then I plan to accumulate pink bits and pieces. I have the kettle (pink enamel) and have my eye on a toaster when I can afford it. Not that I'm a 'pink' person by any means, I just like the sillyness of a pink kettle... but a glowing pink kettle.... that would be awesome!

And palm trees - are those cordelines? I planted a couple in my garden, just little ones 2' high; one died and one now tops 10'+ ...was just wondering if it going to grow to that scale. I always thought they stayed as bunches of long strap leaves and grew outwards into bigger clumps - obviously not! Not that I'm worried, I do love a good tree. (see icon - my favourite tree in the local park)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Oh - that is a nice tree.

My kitchen walls are pale pink too, although it is hard to tell in that picture! But I have dark blue work tops and so the blue kettle looks rather good.

Yes - the 'Manx Palms' are actually Cordelines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbage_tree_(New_Zealand)) - goodness knows when they arrived here from New Zealand as they've been around for a good long time.