All posts by Abi

Edinburgh, a love letter, Photography

The Camera is Back

My phonecam developed a spot about a week ago. Ugly, in the way, and depressing. It ruined a number of photos that I really wanted to take.

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Taken 1 April 2006

Occasionally, I could get a shot in that it didn’t ruin, but that was rare.

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Taken 29 March 2006

Fortunately, my phone insurance covers the functionality of the whole instrument, including the camera. I called Vodafone, and they sent a new phone to replace the old one. So now I have my camera back!

I tried it out on Fiona this morning.

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Taken 4 April 2006

Then I was back to taking the pictures I’ve been missing.

Leaf growing through a fence, Newington

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Taken 4 April 2006

Shadow of a doorknob, looking like a warmer day

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Taken 4 April 2006

Cut-off fence post.

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Taken 4 April 2006

Framing the world, one tree at a time (this photo has been cropped)

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Taken 4 April 2006

Yay new phone!

Edinburgh, a love letter, Photography

I Love My Coffee

…and it loves me back.

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Taken 6 March 2006

I love this city, too, though it doesn’t show its affection in the same way.

I love the Botanics, and they show me the delicate drops of rain on a branch.

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Taken 7 March 2006

The first yellow flowers come out for me, even on a cold day.

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Taken 9 March 2006

The side doors of St Giles Cathedral on the Royal Mile stand solemn and graceful.

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Taken 9 March 2006

And the door handles from the back of the cathedral have their own rhythm. (Yes, this has been cropped.)

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Taken 9 March 2006

Photography

Snow Shots

While I was playing with the kids in the snow, I saw a few things worth photographing. Usually, I can’t do macro photography with other people around – I get too distracted by the company to really see things. But sometimes, with the right people, I can still make it work.

The snow fell thick onto the rosemary.

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Taken 3 March 2006

On this one, you can see the individual snowflakes (cropped).

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Taken 3 March 2006

The holly, too, cupped the snow.

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Taken 3 March 2006

My favourite of the day, probably, is this shot. The hole in the top of the fence post and the angle of the sun left a spiral of fallen snow.

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Taken 3 March 2006

(Miraculously, none of these photos show my usual tendency to want to abandon all colour photography in the snow!)

And, from a previous dramatic weather day, hail in a hedge top.

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Taken 1 March 2006

Family, Photography

Family Time

The last couple of weeks have included some really good family time around the Sutherland household, for no particular reason that I can put my finger on.

Last weekend, Fiona decided she was “full up” of wearing trousers (meaning she didn’t want to any more), and stripped them off. She was clearly very comfortable in this state.

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Taken 26 February 2006

Alex, meanwhile, scampered around and around his prone dad until he fell down giggling.

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Taken 26 February 2006

Finally, Fiona got him to burn some of his energy off pushing her round the room in the block trolley.

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Taken 26 February 2006

This week’s notable burst of photography was Friday, when the snow was falling thick and fast. We went out into the back garden to play in it until we got cold.

Fiona with snow in her hair.

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Taken 3 March 2006

Alex, inevitably, picked up a toy gun to play with.

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Taken 3 March 2006

Fiona, after a time, was troubled by the snow sticking to her gloves

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Taken 3 March 2006

So we all went inside and had hot chocolate. Fiona likes hers foamed with my latte milk foamer. Alex prefers mini marshmallows in his.

Later, we went out to the local garden centre to get materials for planting basil. En route, Alex decided to try making snow angels. This one turned out rather well. (I very nearly tried one myself, but Fiona was getting a bit wigged out, and having Mom lie down in the snow wasn’t going to do her any good at all.)

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Taken 3 March 2006

Sadly, the kids got cold on the way back from the garden centre, and much weeping ensued. Fiona turned out to have been sickening with a cold anyway, and spent Saturday fevered and listless. She recovered quickly, crunching through the remnants of the snow with me to the shops that evening.

Today was more fun again, but sadly unphotographed. You will simply have to imagine it, dear reader.

(Have I been enjoying the family more as my energy levels have lifted? Probably. Why have they lifted? Because this is the view when I walk to the bus in the morning.

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Taken 2 March 2006

And this is the view when I get back in the evening.

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Taken 1 March 2006

Note the visible sun!)

Family

Alex’s Turn to Be Funny

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Taken 26 February 2006

At the dinner table tonight, apropos of nothing whatsoever: If you want to look like a robot, this is what you have to do. First you put a box on your head, with a square hole in it. Then you put socks on your hands. Then you take off all your clothes.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Family

Fiona learns to be silly

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Bit by bit, Fiona’s nature is unfolding before us. She has always been a centred little thing, with a certain poise to her gestures and a grounding of deep silence to her warmth. She’s the kind of girl who loves her cuddles, but loves her quiet times with her books as well.

This is not to say that she is never silly. Witness our conversation yesterday:

F: Mommy!
A: Nony!
F: I not Nony. I Nona!
A (deliberatly misunderstanding): Nana? 1
F: No, I not nana!
A: No? What are you, then?
F: I apple!

  1. Our household name for bananas.

She’s also just old enough to find Martin’s and my long-running game of randomly swapping the words “nose” and “knee” funny. She certainly did this morning.

You gotta laugh. I did.

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Taken 24 February 2006

In other news, last Monday I was picking the kids up from nursery. Alex, who has only now become interested in representational art, presented me with a picture of a number of space ships and aliens in battle, with lines connecting them up to show their alliances and actions. Even his drawings are social. Fiona, less obsessed with diagrams than appearances, drew a swirl of circles on the page, looked up at me and said, “Datsa moon, Mama!”

It was her first drawing of something, at two, while her brother has only started getting serious about it at 4 3/4. How can my children be so very different?

Edinburgh, a love letter, Photography

Hail, Hail!

Yesterday, while I was walking in the Botanics, I came under a sudden assault of hail. I had to shelter under an umbrella under a tree – one layer of protection was not enough.

After the white stuff stopped falling, it seemed to vanish. Only a few balls were left to convince me that it wasn’t a dream.

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Taken 21 February 2006

The hailstones didn’t last, but the raindrops were beautiful as well.

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Taken 21 February 2006

This shot reminds me of one of my favourite poems, No Road by Philip Larkin

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Taken 21 February 2006

I’ve had a few other photos building up that didn’t really deserve their own entries. Of possible interest:

The sacred cow is coming home to roost.

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Taken 20 February 2006

Plant in the car park at the Cuddy Brae. Very red!

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Taken 19 February 2006

Bus stop hardware…one of those tiny details of life that looks so good up close.

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Taken 19 February 2006