2014 Photographic Scavenger Hunt

And so it begins...

Yesterday the list was published, today I took my first photograph. Mr M reminded me that we have our own lamp post so I took a picture of it as it is seen when climbing up the stairs.

 Then I went up onto the landing and took a view of it as seen when coming out of our bedroom

And when I looked at the result I realised that I technically have two pictures already because my lamp picture has been photo-bombed by Miss Boo.

And I'm done - PSH

18. Your local pub/bar/coffee house or tea shop.

I thought this would be hard because I was thinking of a place where I regularly go as being my "local". The problem here being that Mr M and I don't drink. Now we are not anti alcoho, although I do intensely dislike what it does to people, I don't leave the house unless I am with Mr M and he cannot walk into the city centre anymore because of his knees so coffee houses and teashops are not on our radar, at least not here. How was I going to do this one. I asked Mr M.
He gave me the look - sorry, The Look

"We'll take a picture of the OWL" he said. So we did

Now you might notice that the pub is not called the OWL it is called the Royal Mail. That's because the name was changed in the 1990s when the Royal Mail paid for the outside to be painted so all the bits that are now black were pillar box red. To say thank you the brewery changed the name. It used to be called
THE OLD WHITE LION
Aaah, see I know what you thought.
Now I'll tell you a bit of a tale that is quite embarrassing for me but it even makes me laugh.

When we first moved into our house, just up the hill from here, we used to regularly meet up with my cousin and her husband and go out for a drink - Mr M had coke I would have lemonade or water. Louisa would say "We'll meet you in the OWL" but we never got there because we would stop at the Old White Lion on the way (I thought) and there they would be so we would stay there instead of going to the OWL. This went on for a couple of years until one evening as we trudged back up the hill to home I paused and gasped "Why don't we ever get to the OWL?" Mr M stopped, paused and turned. "What do you mean?" he asked. Well Louisa says she'll meet us in the OWL and then we always stop in the Old White Lion and she is there so we stay there, we never go on to the OWL... Where is the OWL?"
He tried very hard, I'll give him that. He struggled manfully to keep a straight face but it was too much. He grasped the pole of the no waiting sign at the roadside and laughed so hard no sound came out and his face went very, VERY red.
I had an inkling that I had said something that was going to echo down the years. I was right. When he finally caught his breath, and it was several minutes before that happened, he managed to whisper "Three Letter Acronym"
As I write it I can feel the flush of embarrassment creeping up my neck and across my face. "Oh bother!" I said, "Of course!" I said "I should have realised!" and then I could see that this was going to be something to talk about for years and I could also imagine my face. Thank heavens we didn't have phone cameras back then!

So that's me done with this year's Photograph Scavenger Hunt. My thanks to Rinda for setting the challenge. I really enjoyed seeking out the pictures and giving it my own personal slant. I have made a mini album and told the story of each picture on the pages.As I won a prize last year I don't want to be considered this year. I have really enjoyed it and look forward to next year.

More pictures for PSH

21. A photograph of you with an artistic tool or craft supply (you cannot substitute this one)

1. Open air market.

Those of you that have been here before know that most of my photography is done at speed. Not haste but speed, usually around 40mph because that's what Mr M slows don to when I say "OOOH Picture!" Mostly I get a hedge or a tree or a green blur, but sometimes, like when we were going through Ledbury today, he is forced to stop because the traffic lights are red. 

He leaned back, I leaned sideways, used the zoom a little to cut out his arm and tummy and managed to catch these few stalls before the lights went green and we were off into the wild blue yonder... or something. It took three goes to get that picture because the first time a car went the other way - nice car too. The second one a bloke with a cigarette in his mouth was walking along and that darned delay between pressing the button and a digital camera responding meant that he was right in the middle of the picture. Third time lucky with that one.

The picture of me with my newest toy - the Bigshot - was taken by Mr M up in my craft room. so I am surrounded by craft supplies and stuff - gorgeous stuff. If you look carefully you can just see the turquoise edge of an 8x8 album sticking out above the Bigshot. That's the album that contains this years Scavenger Hunt pictures.

How clever is that? getting a picture of the album IN the album. Thinking about that is threatening to make my brain ache so I am going to stop - OH, oh, We weren't travelling anywhere for that picture because Mr M took it. We stop for him to take pictures. I might just have to start driving again, just to make him try and take pictures at 40mph... nah, too much like hard work.

A Fisherman - Scavenger Hunt again

Today we had one of our days out with the Bluefunnels. We did the Quantock Hills Treasure Trail and during the course of the trail we had to stop near a reservoir to find the answer to a clue. While we were finding the answer Mr M noticed that there was a man fly fishing just down below us.

This is where I was Exceptionally Brave. I am not tall. I used to be 5 feet one and threequarter inches tall, but as I get older I am shrinking. This meant that while I could see the fisherman there was an awful lot of frondy grass waving about between me and him.
"Stand on there," said Mr M. I looked at there and realised that he meant me to step up onto a little wall. The little wall that was built to stop idiots falling down the slope and into the reservoir.
I gave him the look - sorry The Look. You know the one, it says 'You must be....... joking!'
He gave me a look. "No," he said, "step up there then onto that flat bit, I will hold you."
That made everything alright. So I stepped up there and then onto the flat bit and took the picture and was helped safely down again. We took the answer to the clue back to the car and drove on to the next place to find the answer to another clue.
We completed the Trail and I crossed another picture of the list.

Only three left now

More for the Scavenger Hunt

5. A Sunset. Took this from the doorway of our caravan. not a particularly inflamed sunset but I like it.

"Stand there! No, over to your right a bit. I want to get a picture of the tall policewoman and her van. Miss Em is delighted with the recent purchase of her fishing net and we were just off to try it in the sea

We went to Manor House Wildlife Park, just outside Tenby - or as we say in Welsh Dinbych-y-Pisgod. The Meerkats were all sprawled out in the sun except one who was up on the tree stump on duty. They changed places every so often and took it in turns to be on guard duty. 

A quick check of my list tells me that I seem to have only four left to find..... I wonder which one I will fail on this year.

Someone or something taking a nap - PSH

This is my baby boy - well my youngest son. He had keyhole surgery on his shoulder last Tuesday and seems to think that because he is home and can walk about that he should not still have pain and should be able to "be back to normal". I have explained that after invasive surgery your body has to recover from the trauma and that ten years ago he would have been kept in hospital for a week, but what do I know? I am just him Mum.
He thinks that sleeping all the time is wrong. I sigh to myself and explain that your body can only do so much and to give it chance to recover it is ok to sleep, because then your body doesn't have to waste energy keeping you awake and doing things it can concentrate on healing -But what do I know? I am just Mum.
He says he keeps getting hot all the time, I explain it is the weather and having 30 degree temperatures means that everyone is feeling hot just as he does - But what do I know? I am just Mum.
I say "do you have pain?" he says yes.
I say "have you taken the pain killers?" he says no.
I roll my eyes and explain that they gave him the pain killer for a reason and I wonder if he knows what that reason is. He looks at me like I am speaking in tongues. "They are to stop the pain so you can sleep" I say, and we immediately go back to "Sleeping is wrong"
Then he finishes his drink of water, taking two pain killers because I gave them to him and stood over him in a threatening (but motherly) manner, and within 20 minutes was sound asleep again.
You would imagine that someone over 40 who has served in the army in Bosnia and in Northern Ireland would be able to cope but because he is living with us again it's just like he has regressed into a teenager. It's a good job I love him - but that's cos I'm just Mum

Scavenger hunt 3. City Hall

3. City Hall, Capitol or other similar civic building.

This is our Civic Centre. That's its real title. It was built in the 1930s as you can see by the style - you can't actually see the entrance because that is below the level of the car park boundary. Mr M did stop for me to take this. Wasn't that kind? the Tower was not added until the 1960s and there were those who thought it ruined the building. I think it just shows that the council at that time had too much time on their hands as they were desperately trying to get our town recognised as a city - and that didn't happen until 2002.

We had hoped to take its picture from the other side but since they built the new Court building they have totally spoilt it AND when we drove past I realised that the trees in the car park on that side totally blocked the view of the building and all we could see was the tower sticking out of the tree tops.

Inside the foyer of the building are a series of murals that were painted in the 1960s by Hans Feibusch there is more information and a picture of the Murals here

I like that our Murals are done by an artist that also did murals for Port Meirion.