PInk is truly my favourite, forever! However I also love red - not much, but still... It is a wonderful, powerful colour which fascinates and makes a clear statement. I love clear statements :)

Yet thousands upon thousands of people buy a new camera each year (duty free or otherwise) and a week later, claim to be photographers.

As a result there are pictures of amateurs trying to be quirky all over the net,

Like this under exposed shot of.... electrical connectors?

Then, when you look a little harder, (lets be honest, a lot harder) on rare occasion you might find a stunning shot of the strange compositions that amatuers fail to capture adequately. When that does happen, it really is a moment of beauty, as in the shots below.

The contrast in this picture is stunning

Same photographer, again, amazing use of colour and contrast

Again, the same photographer, great use of texture this time.

I feel it within, I feel it begin...

Wool: Elle Rustica

Colour:

Stitches: 22 st

Rows: 34 r

Needles: 6.5mm Elle Bamboo

This block was created using the left over wool from my first jersey / pullover. I learnt how to purl knitting the jersey, so I decided to use this technique for this block.

I will be making tags this evening in order to properly label all blocks I create.

I am just back from my 3 day Donegal trip to Downies, Rosguil Peninsula. Again wonderful wheather and loads of full memory cards (10 gig worth). I was with six members of the Navan Camera Club. A lot of driving was done over the few days and I interduced a couple of the members to the 5 o'clock sunrise. The image above was taken on the road down from Fanad Head to Portsalon looking out over Lough Swilly and the Inishowen Peninsula. More to follow if I can get the time to process let alone look at the images.

I find that sometimes it is better to hook a motif and then adjust it, especially if the rug is large and you can't really see what the matching motif on the other end looks like!!!  : ) 

I know I'll have to adjust the center leaves in the golden brown border.  This pattern was printed with some different sizes and pattern orientation on each end.  I don't know if that is the regular pattern or if it is just a little "off".  I don't mind some variations but I don' t want too many size differences so that one end of the rug has much larger leaves, etc. than the other end!!!!  LOL

I'll adjust the leaves tomorrow and check for other adjustments I might have to make too.  If you are looking at the rug each day, you might notice where I have done a motif one day and changed it a little on the next day!

South Tyneside's new Mayor and Mayoress

Our borough has elected a new Mayor and Mayoress for the next municipal year, they will be our "first citizens" representing the people of South Tyneside in an ambassadorial role on our behalf. I was privileged and honoured to be invited to South Shields Town Hall to join the new Mayor and Mayoress Cllr. Alex Donaldson and his wife Brenda for coffee and to produce this portrait, they are stood in the upper corridor of the Town Hall which leads to the ante room, the Mayor's Parlour, and the Council Chamber.

The badges on the chains of office show the coat of arms of the old County Borough of South Shields and are about 150 years old, the new South Tyneside Borough was formed in 1974 so Cllr. Donaldson is the 34th. Mayor of the new authority.

We reminisced over the times of my childhood and teenage years in an area of the town which has changed dramatically since then, and discussed our shared interest in the future for our borough's children and young people.

Cllr. Donaldson is a retired policeman and represents the Cleadon Park ward of South Tyneside, and his first week in office has already been quite busy with an official visit to Belgium to see the bridge where Capt. Richard Annand won his Victoria Cross, and welcoming the Queen's cousin the Duke of Gloucester to South Shields when he opened new port facilities at Tyne Dock.

South Shields Daily Photo would like to thank Cllr. Donaldson for his hospitality and wishes our new Mayor and Mayoress lots of success as they face a busy year in office.

Camera details; Pentax K100D. 42mm lens, 1/30 second, f4.0, iso 200

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The system of the chakras and nadis came down from the cosmology of Samkhya. Samkhya philosophy heavily influenced the cosmology of yoga and tantrism. This is only a description of each chakra and its attributes.

A chakra is an energy center or vortex that exists in the pranic sheath of the ethereal body. A nadi is an ethereal tube that allows prana to move through the body, much like blood moves through the blood vessels. Chakras are located at nexus points where nadis intersect. Every point where nadis intersect with one another there is a chakra. There are 72,000 nadis throughout the body and thousands of chakras.

There are ten major nadis and fourteen major chakras. Yoga and tantra consider three nadis and seven chakras to be the most important. The three most important nadis are named Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna. The seven most important chakras are named Muladhara, Svadisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vissudha, Ajna, and Sahsrara. The Sushumna, perhaps the most important nadi, is a hair-like ethereal tube that begins just below the base of the spine and extends through the middle of the spine, then up to the top center of the head. The Sushumna runs through the seven most important chakras, which are located each located along it’s path.

Chakra is a Sanskrit word for wheel or disk. They are called chakras because one of the ways that these energy centers were perceived by the ancient rishis and seers was as spinning disks. Sometimes a chakra is called a lotus because it can appear like a flower. A metaphor used to describe what happens when a chakra is energized is the opening of the lotus petals. Each chakra has a variety of individual characteristics and attributes. I will describe the major attributes of the seven most important chakras. I hope you find this information interesting and useful.

Explanation of the attributes

SANSKRIT NAME: The English transliteration of the Sanskrit names of some of the chakras vary a little from author to author. Some of the chakras have two common spellings. The first spelling is my personal preference, the spelling in parenthesis is another common spelling. The Sanskrit name is followed be a translation of the name.

COMMON NAME: Most of the chakras have a common name, like Base, Sacral, Solar Plexus, Heart, Throat, Third Eye and Crown Chakra.

LOCATION: There are a few differences between authors as to the exact location, shape and size of the chakras. Most authorities agree that the first five of the seven most important chakras are located along the spine. There is a school of thought that the chakras are located in specific organs. I believe that is a mistaken idea. The mistake comes from confusing the pranic sheath of the ethereal body with the physical body. Although there are some direct correlations between the physical body and the ethereal, and they do occupy the same physical space, they are organised independently of each other and their differences should not be overlooked. The chakras are not physical organs and the nadis are not the physical nervous system, however in order for us to understand their importance in our lives we as humans has ascribe them to specific places on the physical body. For example, thr Throat Chakra is associated with the thyriod gland and the Third Eye Chakra is associated with the pineal gland.

SEED SOUND: The Sanskrit word is Bija. Each chakra has a letter of the Sanskrit alphabet associated with it as it’s seed sound (Bija). The sound of the Bija has a distinct vibration. Repeating the Bija is one of the ways to energize the chakra and induce “the opening of the lotus petals.” Again, transliteration makes the exact English spelling of the Sanskrit sound questionable. I’ve chosen a spelling that I think is phonetically understandable.

COLOR AND NUMBER OF PETALS: Each chakra has a different number of petals. The petals are a specific color for each chakra. This is one of the colors that can be associated with the chakra.

TATTVA AND TATTVA COLOR: Tattva literally means thatness. A tattva is sort of a basic constituent part of something. The tattvas are to existent reality as the musical notes are to a chord. The tattvas are “the divine inherent in, and inseparable from, all things.” The Samkhya system enumerates twenty five tattvas. Everything that exists in the physical world has some measure (however small) of each tattva. The Panchatattva are the five tattvas that we usually think of as the primitive elements - earth, water, fire, air, and space. Each chakra is associated with one of these five tattvas and the color of that tattva.

YANTRA AND YANTRA COLOR: A yantra is an image or design that is held in the mind for mediation. A yantra can be a simple shape or a complex design. Each chakra has a simple yantra and the yantra has a color.

RAINBOW COLOR: Each chakra has a color of the rainbow associated with it. This seems to have been first introduced by the Theosophist Society in the early twentieth century. This is a commonly accepted color scheme that is related to the vibrational frequencies of the different colors of light. The red light is a lower frequency than the blue light, so the red chakra must be at a lower frequency than the blue chakra.

OTHER ATTRIBUTES: Each chakra has a number of additional attributes. Every chakra has a certain number of nadis (rays) coming into it, a mythic animal and a god and goddess associated with it. The Muladhara (lowest chakra), the Anahata (Heart Chakra), and the Ajna (third eye) have mystical fertility symbols associated with them. Each chakra is also associated with a different sense, different organs and body parts, different personality attributes, etc. I will leave all of these topics for another time so as not to make this short description of the chakras too unwieldy.

Description of the Chakras

SANSKRIT NAME: Muladhara = Root of Tree
COMMON NAME: Root Chakra
PLANET: Saturn
LOCATION: Base of Spine
SEED SOUND: Lum
COLOR AND NUMBER OF PETALS: Red / 4
TATTVA AND TATTVA COLOR: Prithivi (earth) / Yellow
YANTRA AND YANTRA COLOR: Square / Yellow
RAINBOW COLOR: Red

SANSKRIT NAME: Svadhisthana (also Swadhisthana,) = One’s Own Place
COMMON NAME:
PLANET: Jupiter
LOCATION: Along the spine behind the genitals
SEED SOUND: Vum
COLOR AND NUMBER OF PETALS: Vermilion / 6
TATTVA AND TATTVA COLOR: Apas (water) / White
YANTRA AND YANTRA COLOR: Crescent Moon with points up / White
RAINBOW COLOR: Orange

SANSKRIT NAME: Manipura = Jewel City
COMMON NAME:
PLANET: Mars
LOCATION: Along the spine behind the region four fingers above the navel
SEED SOUND: Rum
COLOR AND NUMBER OF PETALS: Rain cloud Gray
TATTVA AND TATTVA COLOR: Agni (fire) / Red
YANTRA AND YANTRA COLOR: Inverted Triangle / Red
RAINBOW COLOR: Yellow

SANSKRIT NAME: Anahata = Un-struck Sound
COMMON NAME: Heart Chakra
PLANET: Venus
LOCATION: Along the spine behind the heart region
SEED SOUND: Yum
COLOR AND NUMBER OF PETALS: Red / 12
TATTVA AND TATTVA COLOR: Vayu (air) / Blue
YANTRA AND YANTRA COLOR: Six-pointed Star / Smoky Purple
RAINBOW COLOR: Green

SANSKRIT NAME: Vissudha (also Vishuda, Visuddha) = With Purity
COMMON NAME: Throat Chakra
PLANET: Mercury
LOCATION: Along the spine behind the pit of the throat
SEED SOUND: Hum
COLOR AND NUMBER OF PETALS: Smokey Purple / 16
TATTVA AND TATTVA COLOR: Akasa (space) / spotted
YANTRA AND YANTRA COLOR: Circular Disk / White
RAINBOW COLOR: Blue

SANSKRIT NAME: Ajna = Wisdom Center
COMMON NAME: Third Eye
PLANET: Sun / Moon
LOCATION: Three fingers behind the center of the brow
SEED SOUND: Aum (Om)
COLOR AND NUMBER OF PETALS: White / 2
TATTVA AND TATTVA COLOR: Akasa (space) / Spotted (that which foreshadows all color)
YANTRA AND YANTRA COLOR: Dot / Red
RAINBOW COLOR: Indigo

SANSKRIT NAME: Sahasrara (also Sahashrara) = Thousand
COMMON NAME: Crown Chakra; The Thousand Petaled Lotus
PLANET:
LOCATION: Crown of head (Most authorities say the Lotus is located above the crown of the head. Some authorities say the Lotus petals are turned downward, covering the crown of the head.)
SEED SOUND:
COLOR AND NUMBER OF PETALS: White / 1000
TATTVA AND TATTVA COLOR: Akasa (space) / Spotted (that which foreshadows all color)
YANTRA AND YANTRA COLOR:
RAINBOW COLOR: Violet

Quite a formal shot this one, showing the new look Kings Parade just in front of the Echo Arena.

(*Click images to enlarge)

© Els Vanopstal

I finally remembered to email myself.  :D

This is the "proper" photo of the Spring quilt I made for Four Seasons Quilt Swap.  It's wending its way overseas, so my fingers are crossed that it might be delivered tomorrow.  Colours are a little brighter than the photo shows.  The darker flowers range from lipstick pink through to coral; the leaves from bright emerald to yellow/lime.  Closer view below, but colours are still not quite right.  There are blue and yellow tones through the fabrics, too.

Gawd, I hope she likes it.

"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,'and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

Matthew 19:4-6

"Missy" on a pink carpet

"Missy" couldn't get a book today because we were late arriving at the library, but she managed to find a pink carpet of cherry blossom on another grey day. The building at the rear is the Cleadon branch library on Sunderland Road, South Shields set at the end of a small avenue of trees.

We didn't need a book really because "every picture tells a story".

Camera details; Pentax K100D, 28mm lens, 1/45 second, f13, iso 200

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I can see why folks who do larger rugs sometimes use a large floor frame to work on them!!  I must finish this one before summertime or I'll be buried under a big wooly rug and get heat stroke!!!!

Happy Hooking!  : )

I have no idea why I thought that someone out there would be interested in the back of this rug...but I'm showing it so that the one person interested will be able to see it!!!!  LOL

As I said, I'm not sure if anyone is really interested in the back side of this rug...but I know that I enjoyed seeing the back of rugs when I first started hooking.  I remember being amazed at one well-known primitive rug hooker whose rug backs had large spaces between the hooked rows!  I later found several primitive hookers doing the same thing!  But not many people seem to show the backs of rugs!!  LOL

For some reason, I have always hooked close rows with narrow spaces showing on the back.  I felt that if my rug  steams flat and smooth after hooking,  I am doing alright with my spacing.   Of course too close spacing can buckle the backing and weaken the rug.  Beginners who have tried hooking in every space have found that out fast!!!!  : )

See you later today!  Keep on Hooking!  : )

This pretty pink box was made in a workshop this afternoon. When you take the lid off, you find a mini-album "explodes" into being. This lovely thing was the last thing left on the table when we all packed up after a fabulous day of scrapbooking, eating and talking, all accompanied by lots of laughter. But not so much box making!

But really, I simply choose my part of the rug to work on by my mood or the colour I feel like using or whether my back is bothering me so I want to hook in straight lines and not lift the rug around and around circles and curves, etc.    : )

Also, as I've said before, I am used to designing a rug as I go...and it is somewhat difficult for me not to be changing "this and that" while I work.  I still like my random, wacky freewheeling style of working best, but I really am enjoying this rug and will do other commercial patterns in the future in addition to my own!  : )

Oh yes...I know that it is usual to do the design and then the background, but with some of these leaves and flowers I want to check out the size  as compared with the other images on the other end of the rug!   It is easier for me to do that by hooking the background around them first.

 The leaves and flowers are mostly not exactly  the same, but on one corner (the one I'm working on now with the brown background) the leaf in the center of the three leaves was printed a bit "off".  So I changed the leaf to look more like the other corner leaves.  You can see the angle on the past photos of that leaf.  It's a bit weird!  : )  I may have to adjust the leaf a bit more, but not a problem!!!  I don't want it too close to the edge of the background.

Happy Hooking...and thank you to all of you visiting and following my progress on this rug! : )

Quadrus Centre

I seem to have an affinity with swans at the moment, or do the swans have an affinity for South Shields and the surrounding areas, it seems every puddle has it's own swan these days!

This beauty was found as the sun drew proceedings to a close at the Quadrus Centre, Boldon, just on the outskirts of South Shields, it's mate was not too far away.

The Photoshop work that was needed here was quite extensive but related only to cloning out a collection of lamp posts and electricity pylons which formed distracting silhouettes on the skyline.

Camera details: Pentax K100D, 28mm lens, /180 second, f11, iso 200

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This morning on the radio they were discussing the dilemma some people encounter when a major sporting event coincides with a wedding. I never suffer from this for two reasons. One is that I am almost never invited to weddings (they seem to belong to a parallel culture to the one in which I live); the other is that I'm not much of a sports fan.

One of my sisters is getting married soon, so this summer is a rarity for me with a wedding involved. I've been invited to a couple of receptions over the past 6-7 years, but otherwise, the last wedding I went to was my own.

We got married in the town hall of my wife's village, the mayor presiding. We walked down there and walked back, and there were some relatives in attendance (only my - other - sister and her family on my side) and some party food for the 20 or so people and that was it. The cake was a pile of profiteroles drizzled with caramel.

At the crucial point in the ceremony we realised we'd forgotten about a ring.

I was wearing an open-necked linen shirt, sandals, and some linen jeans. It was summer, so this was really just me in my "nice" summer clothes, the sort of thing you might find in the summer edition of the Boden catalogue.

My own wedding just about sums up my attitude to the whole wedding scene. We got married in France because under French law it means the kids were officially mine, and should something unthinkable happen, there'd be no issue about responsibility. The fact that there was food at all was down to my mother-in-law. Personally, I wasn't bothered. I think most men have a kind of distant tolerance to wedding arrangements, and the business with the flouncy white dress, the multi-tiered cake, the flowers, the cars, the reception, the photographer, DJ, etc. is mostly down to the woman.

Apparently the average cost of a wedding is £12,000; more if you live in London. That's about the list price of a Ford Fiesta. Or, for the price of a London wedding (£14,000), you could get a deal on a new VW Golf. It's also, in these credit crunch times, a 10% deposit on a £120,000 mortgage.

I've always felt that weddings and wedding paraphernalia were a colossal waste of time, money, and nervous energy. And, sorry if I offend anyone - including my sister - but I think anyone who pays out that kind of money for some fantasy of dressing up like a princess for a day is actually stupid. What you get at the end of the day is generally a lot of red-faced people (from the alcohol), some photos/video and if you're very unlucky, some food poisoning from eating vol-au-vents that had been left in a hot tent all afternoon.

I think the wedding industry is a giant leech preying on the gullible. Six hundred quid for a cake? I'm surprised that people don't have Tom and Jerry style dollar signs on their eyeballs when they see people coming.

As I said, it's a parallel culture. I don't know people who have weddings like this, I only hear about it and occasionally see it on TV (The wedding show on The Apprentice this week was an example). It's like that scene in Stardust Memories, with the two trains in the station. I'm on the train without all the people whooping it up and enjoying themselves.

We were in Riberac and walked up to the local church. There was heart-shaped confetti everywhere, and my daughter collected a load and tossed it in the air. I got a couple of decent shots. In one her face was covered, but you get the idea.

1 & 2. 1/200th of a sec, f7.1, ISO 50.
3. 1/40th sec, f3.2, ISO 50

It sure sounds wonderful, doesn't it? The first person to subscribe will win a free air guitar, signed by yours truly!

You would have to be an idiot to pass this up!

(Just a note here...if you don't remember the size  of this rug, it is the 38 inches by 52 inches pattern.  There is also one available from Harry Fraser Co that is much larger!  Whew!!!  I won't be doing that rug!!!  LOL)  : )

I'm really having fun with this rug again!!   : )  Sometimes it is hard for me to "match" the flowers, etc. that I've already done because I'm so used to designing and choosing colours as I go along!!!  And...not matching things...kinda free-wheeling!!!  LOL  The Bradley Primitive rug is teaching me discipline!!!  : )