Another Scottish Summer

Little Ro enjoying the scenery of Scotland, on another visit up north.

Plant Pots

The thrill of a new arrival of plant pots (purchased from ebay).

Project Front Garden

When we bought our house, several years ago, it had no front garden. The garden-wall that ought to have been there had been demolished, and thick concrete had replaced where the garden should have been. Effectively, we just had an extra wide pavement, that people used to skateboard on. Not ideal. 

Around March 2014, I started to make enquiries about replacing the wall. (I felt there was no point in reinstating the garden, without some means of stopping people from walking across it). One day, I went onto a local facebook group, to ask if anyone could recommend a local brick-layer. And by chance, a few posts down, someone was offering free bricks...

I rang them on the same day, and we went to their garden, where sure enough, they had knocked down their crumbling garden wall, and had around 2000 bricks on offer (more than enough to rebuild our own wall, as well as our neighbours', as theirs was also missing). Not only that, but the bricks were from the right era - they were identical to the wall that should have been there. They even had matching half-round bricks for the top of the wall on offer, so we could match our new wall with the original, existing wall from next door.

There were two obstacles in place: firstly, the transportation of the bricks. They were free for collection, and only a couple of miles away, but bricks are heavy! The garden they came from was up a narrow side street where an articulated lorry would never have had room to manoeuvre (even if the cost of hiring one had been an option).

Everyone said we were mad, but we took the back seats out of our Citroen Xsara Picasso, read the manual to establish the maximum weight capacity, did some sums, and began transporting bricks - load by load - back to our house. It took about twenty journeys, and we worked in rain and sun, but eventually, we had accumulated enough bricks (we hoped!) to do the job.

The second obstacle was the fact that the thick concrete was still in place. Logic dictates that it would have made sense to remove the concrete before reinstating the wall. But free bricks wouldn't wait, and I knew the opportunity was too good to pass up. So we left the concrete in place, while we collected enough bricks. The two photos below demonstrate about twenty loads of bricks, prior to dressing, stacked on the ugly concrete in front of our house.

That enormous pile of bricks then had to be dressed, by hand. The stack on the right (of grubby bricks) gradually became the stack on the left (of dressed bricks). Fortunately, our neighbours were cooperative! The photo below is the project 'at its worst.' The dressed bricks were stacked and waiting, and the concrete had been dug out enough to enable the wall to be built. It was at this point, we discovered just how thick the concrete was, and that it would be a big task to remove it.

Nevertheless, the wall went up, using most of the pile of bricks, as well as the half-rounds for the top.

 And we then began the mammoth task of breaking up these thick chunks of concrete.

Once the concrete was eventually broken up, we then hired a skip for its removal (and had a little help, from a certain small person).

And the front garden began to resemble a front garden...

We bought some railway sleepers to make a raised garden. (They were a bargain on ebay, but believe me when I tell you, they weigh a tonne! Again, transported by hand, via the Xsara Picasso). And we used most of the remaining bricks to raise the ground level up to the doorway.

We then positioned the railway sleepers and top-soil for the raised bed, and had gravel delivered to fill in the gap and cover the unusable earth. And at last, I was finally able to plant up my front garden with some hollies (for year-round foliage), roses for summer colour, and various other plants and shrubs. This photo was taken towards the end of last summer, after the garden was planted up, but before it was completed.

In autumn I planted a variety of spring bulbs, which have burst into life this spring now that the garden is completed. The bins are disguised with a bamboo screen, and there is a dividing fence between our own garden and the neighbours'. There is bamboo growing in an upcycled galvanised bin, and a Corkscrew Hazel beside the front door. I'll upload a separate post with photos and descriptions of the plants in our new front garden, but this completes our front garden! (With apologies that most of these photos are poor quality phone photos. Expensive cameras and heavy labour don't mix well, but I still wanted to document the progress of this project).

The latter two photos were added retrospectively, in spring 2015.

The Littlest Brickie

In the process of reinstating our front garden, we reclaimed about two tonnes of bricks, and hand-dressed them to build the garden wall. Little Ro enjoyed getting in on the action, and wanted to have an outfit like Daddy's.

Fairy Garden

I made a fairy garden, today. It was inspired by an idea I saw on Pinterest, so I can't take credit for the concept, but I did modify it to suit myself. This consists entirely of 'found objects' (with the exception of the alpines, which I bought specially for the purpose). As much as I'd like to say I built this for the sake of my toddler, the reality is that he napped throughout its creation, and wasn't all that interested in the finished product (apart from the fairy jewels. Those, he'd love to play with... and lose... instantly).

The pot belonged to a friend, whose garden I visited recently. He was mourning the loss of this fabulous pot, due to fox damage (or some other creature). I sympathised, and asked if I could have it! May have seemed an odd request, but I already had the fairy garden in mind. I had originally hoped to find or create a little fairy-house for the top of it, but as I already had this rather fabulous tree root amongst my collection of found objects, I thought a tree-house made a much more organic 'home' for the fairies to inhabit. Other ingredients include some glass beads, some odd earrings (I'm always losing one of the pair), some moss taken from other plants around the garden, and a borrowed snail. I'm not sure what the little 'tree' to the right is. It looks like a bonsai, though I'm certain it isn't. My Mum gave it to me, and it seems to thrive in all conditions, so I'm hoping it will cope with the same conditions as the alpines (even if the moss doesn't).

For anyone interested in such things, the alpines are (according to their labels):
Leptinella (Platt's Black)
Isotama (Fairy Carpet)
Armeria (Nifty Thrifty)
Sedum (Coral Carpet)
Ajuga (Metallica Crispa)
Mentha (Requienii) - which smells divine, by the way.

And at night, the tree house is lit by a little LED light, so the fairies can party in style. Hopefully, word will spread, and it will be inhabited by the fairy folk by Summer Solstice, tomorrow. 

Bluebell Woods

Another Easter

Another Easter, another outfit...

Mini Adventurer

Following his second birthday, he started another year full of mischief, and ready to learn... (nothing changes).

Snowdrops

Snowdrops, heralding the first signs of spring.

And Faces...

Some of my candid, street photography from around the world. I am a huge fan of the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson (who many consider to be the father of candid photography), whose work inspires me. However, I'm not insensible to the 'moral dilemma' that street photography presents (which is the question of whether it's fair to take photographs of strangers without their knowledge or consent). Western society, in particular, is becoming increasingly protective of their own image, and there is a growing 'distrust' of photographers. I do see both sides of this argument, and in the years it has taken me to decide whether or not to showcase my photography publicly, I have debated whether or not to include photos such as these. In the end, I have come to the conclusion that without candid street photography, there would be no visual record for future generations to look back on. While all these photos were taken for my own enjoyment, I also think that sharing them serves a purpose - whether that is just to appreciate them aesthetically; to reveal a home-truth; or as a catalogue for future generations to look back on. All were taken in public (and currently, there are no laws against photographing people in public spaces). Some were taken as part of a public performance. Others were taken, admittedly, without the knowledge of the subject. The nature of candid photography, is such that you can't rush up to a person to ask their permission to shoot them, or for their consent to use a photograph you have already taken (especially as in most of these cases, there is a language barrier). I see a moment, and I capture it before it is gone, forever. These are some of my favourite photos that I treasure most, and I hope you can appreciate my reasons for sharing them. However, the difference with this set is that I don't feel it would be right to profit from a photograph taken of someone else without their knowledge, so I make the following exception below:

The vast majority of my photographs on this blog are available to purchase as prints, or as large digital files for commercial or stock use. As with other photos on this site, this particular set is available to purchase as prints: any profit from print sales from this set will be donated to Action Aid (my personal favourite overseas charity). Unlike other images on my blog, this set is not available for commercial, advertising or stock purposes.

 Steps of Dubrovnik

 Egyptian guard, by the pyramids of Giza

 Bornean firebreather at Night Safari, Singapore

 Brazilian dancers in Rio de Janeiro

 Camel rider, in Petra, Jordan

 Conductor at an open air concert, in Rome

 Dancer on the QM2

 Indian woman

 Passengers waving farewell on the QE2's final UK voyage

 Man receiving a blessing from a Buddha statue, in Singapore

 Fisherman in Lisbon

 Japanese monk at a funeral

 Jordanian guard, in Petra

 Indian woman

 Indian factory worker

 Girl 'dives' from pier in Italy

 Donkey and rider in Petra, Jordan

Indian factory worker

 Couple embracing, in Barcelona

 Indian man, sorting yams

 Japanese monk

 Woman feeding pigeons, in Dubrovnik

  Indian man, sorting yams

 Woman on the streets of Rome

 Boy with his bike, France

 Conductor at open air concert in Rome

 Sleeping rickshaw driver in Singapore

 Fisherman in Thailand

 Boy with a tortoise

 Vatican City

 Shoppers in Vietnamese market

 Walkers in India

 Bornean firebreather 

 Young boy and girl chatting in India

Dancer on the QM2