[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 6 December 2025].
bearded iris
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 27 May 2025].
I photographed this Iris × germanica at Knebworth House on Sunday while visiting as part of a day trip out of London for my good friend Sophie's birthday.
It may not be evident in the photos when saved for the web, but they shimmered like the frosted flowers you might find on a wedding cake. I thought perhaps I imagined it in the moment, but you can see it in the high-resolution photographs I took, and Wikipedia mentions 'sparkling whites' amongst the colours they may be.
Bearded irises are commonly grown in Muslim cemeteries, according to Wikipedia.
how come u don't call me anymore?
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 14 May 2025].
Egads! Where did April go?
I had a sitting with my regulars near the start of the month, then the ten-day sitting with Dudley and Betsy mentioned in my last post.
My birthday fell just before Easter this year. Usually, I spend it visiting a gallery and/or photo editing. I had thought it would be a sedate affair, editing photos with the doggos for company, as I was away from home.
However, two friends took up my invitation to visit me and the puppers on separate occasions over Easter. I also had an in-person catch-up with a client I'm designing a website for the day before my birthday, which I'd booked as annual leave.
So, I was spoilt for social engagements and spoiled myself with cheese from The Bishop's Cave (as you do). A Cornish Yarg wrapped in nettles (I decided to try the original version, as it had been recommended to me previously, but I'll indulge in the garlic version next time!), a truffle Brie, and a Scottish Blue Murder, formerly known as 'Blue Monday', for those who are wondering.
Since I returned from Bishop's Stortford, I visited The World of Tim Burton exhibition at the Design Museum with a friend. I had another sitting with my regulars, which included three more social engagements, two of which were a little last-minute (and one was virtual and lasted over five hours!)
Then last weekend, I travelled to Brighton to catch up with friends and meet a kitteh called Chilli, whom I'll be sitting for the second half of June.
I'm doing daily visits with a local senior kitteh this weekend, and planning to visit The Face Magazine: Culture Shift exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery with a friend. Otherwise, I'm at home for a stretch, which is nice.
Aside from cheese and socialising, I've been dealing with some health stuff (nothing major), including learning about predictive genetic testing, working my day job, completing over 365 days of learning Welsh on Duolingo, trying to get back up to date with my life admin (more sinking than swimming, it sometimes feels) and trying not to wear my fingertips to the bones with doom scrolling.
I already have photos edited for posts later in the week, but I hope to spend a large portion of this week/end editing more and creating other pieces to share with you.
Oh, and this photo is from my visit to the Isle of Portland in September last year. Nice light on that telephone box.
If you feel inclined, let me know how you're doing in the comments x
a cornish churchyard
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 17 March 2025].
So, in the end, I didn't manage more than the first day of this year's Februllage.
I didn't start the 100 Days Project, and though it's still within the 100 days, I'll be honest and say there's no way on Science's green earth I'll manage it this year.
I'm somewhat disappointed on both counts. Unfortunately, my art practice is the one area that has had to be deprioritised for a while. But, at the same time, I'm not giving myself a hard time about it because, sometimes, that's life.
I did get away for five nights to Cornwall with a friend and my "proper" camera, so I've not been idle with my art. I'm just a little restricted in editing and sharing my work because my day job, pet-sitting and life have left me exhausted a lot lately.
I also spent some time (finally!) cutting up magazines for future collages during February. And I have more to hand to cut up while I'm sitting my floofy friend, Jilly.
In Cornwall, visiting Tate St Ives, I discovered a selection of books explicitly designed to be cut up to create collages. So, I spent money on those instead of replacing my dilapidated trainers.
Towards the beginning of the year, I received an email about my Etihad Guest points expiring at the end of January. That prompted me to check my balance with Emirates Skywards (zero) and Qantas.
It turned out that I had a not insignificant number of Qantas Frequent Flyer (QFF) points that would expire at the end of February if I didn't use some or all of them or take a new flight. Not enough to get me even one way to Australia. Perhaps enough to get me one way to Singapore or the UAE. But enough to get me a return flight to a variety of places in mainland Europe I haven't previously visited or Iceland (which has long been high on my list of places to visit).
However, visiting Iceland solo is problematic, as I don't drive, and it's one of those places you seem to have to unless you know someone there who drives to act as a tour guide or you want to fork out money for tours.
But there were a couple of places on my list where I know people who live there. Or people who are from there and return to visit family semi-regularly.
Sicily was on my list, as I missed attending a former flatmate's wedding there in 2018, as I was broke after returning from being a bridesmaid in New Zealand. However, her next planned visit is in high summer, when I would die from the heat if I did not already have bookings for sittings in London and Bishop's Stortford.
On further investigation, visiting some of my other preferences in mainland Europe didn't make sense as neither Qantas nor their partner airlines fly direct, so I might spend 4+ hours in the air when I could pay for a cheap fare to be there in one to three hours.
But also on my list was Finland, where my lovely friend, Pia, lives. And Qantas fly directly to Helsinki, with reward flights within my QFF points balance.
So, the day before I travelled to Cornwall, I booked return flights from Heathrow to Helsinki in mid-September. I still have an itinerary to plan, but I'll spend some time in the capital and some in Tampere, where Pia lives.
I'm very excited to catch up with Pia in her homeland for once. We met virtually and in person when she was living in London and have caught up most times that she's been back since she returned to Finland.
I'm also excited to see a new country, visit mainland Europe for the first time since September 2014, and go over seas (excluding Australia via airports in other countries - my home country doesn't count as overseas travel) for the first time since 2018 (technically, I've been out of the country (England) at least three times since the pandemic, but not overseas).
I'm always nervous about making plans to visit friends in other countries. Many will enthusiastically invite when it's hypothetical but might not be so welcoming when you ask about suitable dates and discuss more solid travel plans.
It's unlikely that I'll stay with Pia for practical reasons (which I knew in advance and I didn't want to impose anyway), but she's happy to have someone follow through on their threat to visit her in her home country :)
Meanwhile, Phil and I visited the mermaid in St Senara's Church in Zennor, Cornwall, after walking from Sennen Cove to Land's End and back the day before we returned to London. We caught some lovely light in the churchyard (as you can see in the photo above) before venturing into The Tinner's Arms for some tea (for Phil) and a half pint of Cornish cider (for me).
More posts about my Cornwall wanderings are to come as soon as possible!
a solitary red bauble
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 11 December 2024].
the old toll house [reflected]
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 30 July 2024].
The Old Toll House, a Grade II listed building formerly a turnpike tollhouse.
quit you like men | i have fought a good fight
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 21 May 2024].
After digging around on Google, I believe the inscriptions on either side of this grave for (I presume) brothers in Hitchin Cemetery are from Bible verses.
From 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 and 2 Timothy 4:7-8 in the King James version specifically.
A Wesleyan Minister and a World War I soldier buried alongside the wife of the Minister. I didn't check the other side, so there may also have been the wife of the soldier commemorated in this plot.
This inscription style appeared a few times in the cemetery, although sometimes with different fonts.
parisi udvar
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 15 May 2024].
In May 2012, visiting Budapest with my parents, we ventured from our hotel for our first full day in the city.
Just on our doorstep was this beauty, containing the Parisi Udvar arcade, though its full beauty hadn't yet revealed itself when I started photographing the building's exterior.
I'll write a piece about it and our experience when I share the second of three instalments of photographs.
i fall in love too easily
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 17 April 2024].
To celebrate my birthday, I thought I'd look through my archives of unedited self-portraits to find something from ten years ago that I may like to edit and share here and on social media.
In doing so, I found quite a number from a shoot I did in my bedroom in June 2014 that caught my eye after all this time.
I had previously edited a handful of photographs from the shoot, but ten years later, I'm drawn to other images.
As I don't share NSFW content at my lowest tier and can't share NSFW images on most social platforms, I decided to edit a photograph I could share publicly and one I could share early access here to those at 'the perfect 10' tier and above.
I also edited another NSFW image from this shoot that I'll share here in future.
It's been a while since I added work to my interior/exterior series (coming up to three years), but I feel this fits into that series.
Although I won't make this public here as I do with much of my work, I'll potentially share it on my blog and Flickr in a week. But, in the meantime, you get the first look.
I'll share the "safe for work" image with you and across social media later today.
pause for thought
I thought I'd look through my archives of unedited self-portraits to find something from ten years ago that I may like to edit and share to celebrate my birthday.
In doing so, I found quite a number from a shoot I did in my bedroom in June 2014 that caught my eye after all this time.
I had previously edited a handful of photographs from the shoot, but ten years later, I'm drawn to other images.
As I don't share NSFW content at my lowest tier and can't share NSFW images on most social platforms, I decided to edit a photograph I could share publicly and one I could share early access to my patrons at 'the perfect 10' tier and above.
It's been a while since I added work to my interior/exterior series (coming up to three years), but I feel the image I shared on my Patreon in the wee hours of the morning, i fall in love too easily, fits into that series.
Maybe this one does, too.
I edited another NSFW image from this shoot that I'll share with my patrons at 'the perfect 10' tier and above in future.
I also shared a new self-portrait from my wallflowers series, let me hold your heart like a flower, with my patrons early access this morning. That will become public in a month.
death in technicolour
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 8 April 2024].
A couple of flowering Camellia japonica trees brighten up the churchyard of St Peter's Church in Delamere.
Life and death side by side.
pyrus communis
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 7 April 2024].
Flowers of the common pear tree, captured on my photo walk from Delamere to Kelsall last month.
pay here
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 6 March 2024].
coaxing life from death
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 26 February 2024].
west lane baptist church
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 24 February 2024].
strapped in
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 23 February 2024].
so he brought them to the haven where they would be
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 16 February 2024].
hands clasped
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 9 February 2024].
painted gold
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 30 January 2024].
This gold-painted Royal Mail post box caught my eye on the high street in Coedpoeth during a photo walk while sitting Meg and Mog in October 2021.
As the plaques say (in Welsh and English), Royal Mail painted it gold in celebration of Tom James, one of the British coxless four men's rowing team who took gold in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Though he was born in Cardiff, he considers Coedpoeth his hometown, and he also has a post box painted gold in his honour in nearby Wrexham.
I did not know this was a thing. But, according to Wikipedia, All British gold medal winners at the 2012 Olympics were honoured with appearing on Royal Mail postage stamps, and having a post box in their home town painted gold. (I'm not sure why Tom got two, but Wikipedia cites the Wrexham one as his main one).
hedd, perffaith hedd
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 29 January 2024].