May Round Up (2010)

May has been and has now almost gone. Is it a total lie that May used to be a month of lovely spring weather? My head wants to recall Mays of the past as gently warm, with the odd shower of light rain, but perhaps I am mistooken? This month the weather in the first half of the month was particularly cold, grey and wet. Which is not what we needed after the winter just past. It has redeemed itself a little in the last 10 days with some lovely warm days (and the humidity wasn't high either which meant my asthma didn't flare up as it often does in hot weather).

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On the crafting front, I decided I *must* make some sort of blankety thing of knit. I decided it some time ago, right after determining that it must be bright, colourful, and perhaps even clashingly gaudy. I tried knitting a few squares (well, three actually) before coming to the conclusion that crochet might be the way to go.

Anyway, I have collected my 'colours':

Watch this space for the colours turning into something remotely approaching a blankety thing.

I did do something a teeny bit creative this month when I made a cushion for Scarlett's first birthday. Her family are not sure what she can see or hear, but she does like to feel soft textures. Thus, I made her a cushion in the shape of the initial 'S'. I thought the curve of the letter might be nice to feel. I made it in a brown fake-fur fabric ... No.1 and I went through the whole fabric shop, feeling each and every bolt to determine which was the softest, most tactile fabric there. After it was sewn and stuffed, I trimmed the finished cushion in an equally soft pink marabou. It's not the most visually pleasing thing I've ever made, but it did feel wonderful:

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I neglected to mention in my April round-up that the kids and I met up with one of my forum/bloggy/facebook friends last month. Sas and I first became friends when we 'met' on a Big Brother thread over at Digital Spy forums in 2005. We quickly found out that we shared an interest in astrological doings, and when she set up her own forum, I was pleased to become one of her ('Foxy Five') moderators. We hadn't met in person until last month, when she and her lovely husband, stayed in a local B&B on their way to North Devon for a holiday.

She is into photography, so of course we had to go out and get some shots - we went up to a Youth Hostel on the Ridgeway, and had a nice wander through the woods. It was a beautiful day and the kids and I really enjoyed their company. Thank you Sas and Mr A - it was a real pleasure to meet you - xx.

My favourite shot from that day was this one taken in the woods ...

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Ladies and Jellyspoons (as my friend Tracy used to say) please meet Humphrey:

Humphrey came to live with us for three and a bit weeks whilst Miss Maisie was at The Body Shop having herself done up after I wounded her (details in this post). They said it would take 'a good week' to mend Miss Maisie, and I was very thankful that my insurance policy included a courtesy car. I was a tad nervous about driving Humphrey as he is brand spanking new, straight off the showroom floor. He has air conditioning, a CD player and is extremely responsive. Very aware that we had to hand him back in pristine condition, I drove like an elderly spinster (shut up whoever said that's really what I am - I know I am :p) and banned anyone from eating whilst sitting on his blue and black seats.

I had never driven a Hyundai before, but after a couple of days it was mostly fine. He drank more petrol than Maisie, and his gears were a lot more stiff (must not make smutty pun, must not make smutty pun ... :-#) but the thing that really bugged me about him was that if I pulled the sun visor down, it interfered with my view of the rearview mirror. I don't know if it is just my particular height, or the position in which I drive (how many positions can there be whilst driving? (That was a rhetorical question but feel free to make suggestions), but after around 10 days it was really getting on my nerves.

I am very happy to report that Miss Maisie is now 'home', looking absolutely gorgeous, and that it is a joy to have her back.

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Does anyone remember the frustration I expressed at the missing puzzle piece in our England World Cup 1966 puzzle (posted in my April round up)? Some people might have been put off puzzlng at that instance, but not the Wrinkles. Oh no, we are made of stiffer puzzling stuff than that. I found a cool jigsaw at the Red Cross Shop in town, I brought it home and I sorted all the 'edge' pieces. Funny how the kids like helping with the puzzle (especially No.1) but aren't the least bit interested in the boring job of sorting the edges.

Anyway, I digress. We did the new puzzle. We enjoyed doing the new puzzle ... right up until we realised about this:-

Aaarrrrggggghhhhhhhhh! Do you know what I think? I think there is a puzzle goblin who goes around taking bits (no, make that RED bits) out of the puzzle(s) that we choose to do.

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No.2 has been a bit of a Clever-Trevor this month and acquired a new trophy:

Along with a certificate. A trophy was presented to each of the boys in his squad at the annual end-of-season 'do' at his Club. He has also played in a tournament this month, and for the first time ever, came away with no trophy or medal. I don't think I've ever heard him so down as when he was telling me all about it. He said they played really badly. Disappointing for them all I'm sure, but character-building (as my friend Lisa would say)!

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I'll leave you with one of my favourite shots of this month. It's a comical pigeon, who seemed to be saying to me ' 'ere ... are you taking my picture?':

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Round 2

Earlier this month the local Camera Club staged Round 2 of their open (ie no set subject) Digital Image competition. If you remember, Round 1 back in February left me a tad gobsmacked. After doing so well in Round 1, I felt I had to submit three good images for this next stage, and as usual agonised over which three images to put forward. I have a folder on my poota entitled 'Possibles' which are shots I consider possibly good enough for competition. There were nine images in that folder, and once again I'd like to thank the friend who helped me decide on which three to choose.

As a relative newbie at this whole Camera Club thing, I have never encountered the Judges before - they are all independent; have years of experience in photography, and of course their own opinion on how things 'should' be. The guy who was judging this particular competition announced at the start of the evening that he "hates wasted pixels", and that by the end of the evening, we would be tired of hearing him say he wanted to chop bits off images to make them 'stronger'. It's an interesting viewpoint, but I am of the opinion that sometimes 'empty space' makes an image better and/or more appealing precisely because of that space. I guess I am looking at images with an 'artistic' eye rather than a technical one. And at the end of the day, we all like what we like, don't we?

Anyway, off we went, and with a total of 75 images that evening, the club was making him work for his fee. My first image was this one:-

I had been after a shot of a robin for months, when I finally saw this little chap, singing away on a branch up on the Ridgeway earlier this year. As you will see, there is quite a bit of 'space' in this picture, which I like. The judge, however, wasn't keen, and hated the branch 'growing out of the robin's head'. I can see what he means, and perhaps should have cloned out that branch; but because it clearly linked to itself lower down in the image, I felt it had 'context'. He gave this picture 16 points out of a possible 20.

My second image was this:-

Which is me doing what I love to do - getting my lens right inside a flower (in this instance a pretty pink tulip) and having a really good look at what's in there! I have to force myself to take 'ordinary' shots, as time after time I gravitate back to macro shots. I find them so rewarding, and enjoy seeing parts of anything taken slightly out of context of the 'whole'.

As you can see, there are no so-called 'wasted pixels' in this shot, and the Judge liked that. He kept it back for later consideration. (Judges sometimes do that with images they particularly like, so they can come back to them to reevaluate them. It also allows them to look at what they view as the 'best' images all together and thus assess their qualities against other 'good' images).

My third image of that evening was my personal favourite of the three:-

Georgie-cat giving me one of her best 'what the hell are you doing, you stupid woman?' expressions. Again there are a few 'wasted pixels' down that left hand side, although the Judge didn't specifically mention those. He said it was a nice portrait, and that the Black & White treatment suited it very well. He gave it 17 points out of a possible 20. Of course I wanted him to exclaim what a beautiful cat she is, but he didn't.

By this stage of the evening, this Judge had suggested chopping bits off tops, bottoms and sides of at least two thirds of all the images he'd seen. Do you remember, Dear Reader, when you were at school, if one of the teachers was being quite stern, and you got the giggles? Well the chap I was sitting beside (let's call him Dave, as that's his name) and I began to chuckle about half way through the evening each time 'cropping' of images was mentioned. By the end, my sides ached with trying to stifle giggles so the Judge couldn't hear us laughing at him. We (sarcastically) decided that this particular Judge would most have liked to see a tiny image of 9 pixels square with no two pixels of the same colour.

After all three images from everyone had been seen, the Judge went back to the images he'd 'kept back'. I should think there were around 9 of them (including my pink tulip). Four were given 19 marks out of 20, and five were given top 'score' of 20 points ... luckily for me, my shot was one of those five. So I ended the evening on 53 points - the same score I got for Round 1 back in February. This time though, I was in fourth place for the evening. I don't know where it places me overall after two rounds as the scores haven't made their way to the club website yet. I do know that the bloke with whom I was 'leading' scored one point more than me in Round 2 - so he will be one point ahead of me for Round 3 (which is in September). One of the people who came first or second that evening might have leap-frogged us both into first place overall though.

I didn't warm to the Judge that night. I didn't agree with his opinions on many of the images. He gave high scores to pictures to which I didn't feel drawn; and gave low scores to pictures I loved. As I've said before, at the end of the day it's all down to personal taste!

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R.I.P Herbie Hamster

It is with enormous sadness that I am making this post to say that our lovely, mad, friendly hamster, Herbie, has died. :( I wanted something to be 'there' in future blog books to mark his passing.

He was born on 14th November 2007, and became a member of our family when my brother drove to Surrey to collect him from a hamster breeder there. This was a few days before Christmas that year, and my brother had to keep him at his house for those few days until Christmas Day when he was to be given to the (not-so) smalls. They unwrapped a box on the day, only to find a hamster exercise ball, food, treats and bedding. I will never forget the puzzled looks on their faces as they looked at their Uncle, who then said 'that's a load of stuff for your hamster'. 'But we don't have a hamster' they replied, at which moment Uncle N clasped his hands to his face in mock horror and said 'oh no ... I'd better go and get one for you then'. :D He went upstairs and returned with a baby hamster all ready in his own cage. The kids were over the moon.

After a quick cuddle with their wriggly new pet, and watching him for a while, we had to decide on a name. There were many suggestions, but the final vote was, I seem to remember between Herbie or Percy. Herbie Hamster it was. The kids went off to their dad's later that day, and I'll always remember how I just laid in bed and listened that night, to the sounds coming from our new family member. He got on his wheel and ran, and ran, and ran for what seemed like the whole night!

It soon became clear that the kids and I weren't the only ones interested in what Herbie was doing ... as I have posted here many times before, another family member was fascinated by him.

Herbie proved himself to be a hamster of great character. He had a couple of daring adventures when he escaped the confines of his cage. The first was in January 2008 and detailed here. The second was in August 2008 and posted here. He never, ever bit the children. He did bite me once, but it was on the day we left our old home, and I think he was just a bit upset and unsettled (as were we all). He was fine again the very next day.

When he was younger, he would trawl round the whole downstairs in his little exercise ball. I remember once, he was enthusiastically running around in it, and doing a wee at the same time. The result was a sort of smelly, trundling fountain as the offending liquid escaped out of the 'air holes' in the ball. Others found that whole episode a lot more amusing than I did, but then I was the one who had to clear it up. I hadn't realised, before we had him, that hamster wee has such a strong odour. :-O

As he got older, he didn't go as far when he was put in his ball, which was every week when his cage was cleaned out. It has to be said that he became MY hamster, as it fell to me to do most of that cleaning out, and to feed him every day. I used to get him out of his cage and have a quick cuddle before his dinner every night. He soon cottoned on to the fact that after the cuddle, a peanut or something else yummy would follow. If I put a morsel of something he liked in my hand and lowered my hand into his cage, he would put his little front paws up on my hand and chomp at the food. Sometimes he would just hop right into my hand and sit and stuff his pouches there.

It wasn't long after Christmas this year that I told the kids I thought we should prepare ourselves for the fact that Herbie might not be with us for much longer. He seemed to be shrinking in his old age, and was going bald, bless him. He wasn't eating quite as much, but was still drinking plenty. In the last week of his life, I spent - quite literally - hours hand-feeding him bits of cucumber, nuts, grapes and other things to try to tempt him to eat. I also used to stand and hold his water bottle for him to drink water, as he seemed to not even have the energy to get over to the side of the cage where it hung. His little face had such a grateful expression.

I am very pleased that he waited until two days after my birthday to breathe his last breath. I would have felt terrible if it had been my actual birthday. The night before the day in question, his breathing became slower and slower. We kept going to check on him. He refused anything to eat or drink. I came down at 2.20am, and he was still with us; but when we came down at 7, he had gone. :(

Whilst the kids were at school that day, I went to the garden centre and chose a plant for him to lie under in the garden. It is a creamy white clematis, which will hopefully enjoy it's position climbing up the fence. That afternoon after school we had a little 'ceremony' for him - it was persisting down with rain, but the three of us stood outside and placed him, in a tissue paper shroud, underneath the new climber. We added a couple of new forget-me-not plants for their symbolism.

Georgie-cat cannot understand where he has gone. She keeps going and sitting where his cage used to be, and looking at us as if to say 'where is he?' Whenever I slice cucumber, I go to share a bit with him, and then remember. No.2 seems to have taken the loss in his stride, but No.1 has been very upset.

Rest in peace, Herbie. It was a real pleasure knowing you.

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Scarlett

I'm sure most people reading this won't recall my monthly round up of June last year in which I posted a picture of a little pink cardigan I'd knitted for a new baby in the family of a good friend of mine. The baby girl, born on 22nd May last year is named Scarlett; here she is on the day she was born.

Scarlett Isabella Kay is a stunningly beautiful little girl, and whilst she was always going to be special, she has turned out to be special in ways which her family can never have anticipated.

Scarlett and her family

When she was a few months old, Scarlett's parents noticed that she was experiencing seizures of some sort, so she was admitted to hospital for observation and tests. She was in and out of hospital for a while, but admitted pretty much full time in October of last year - at just 5 months old. Her local hospital (in Scotland) transferred her to The Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh, where she was diagnosed in December 2009 with a condition named Migrating Partial Epilepsy in Infancy (also known as MPE).

This is an extremely rare form of epilepsy, identified and named just 15 years ago, and which is known to affect only 50 children worldwide. It begins with the affected child (at only a few weeks old) experiencing mild seizures, but those seizures typically become more frequent, with some sufferers having up to 50 seizures a day ... every single day. At the time of writing this post, no effective treatment has been found for this form of epilepsy, and since it affects relatively few, there is not a huge likelihood that extensive research into the condition will receive funding.

Earlier this year, Scarlett was moved from hospital in Edinburgh, to the Sunndach Centre - a place which cares for children with severe disabilities, and who need high levels of medical care and attention. By all accounts Sunndach (the word is Gaelic, and means 'cheerful') is a wonderful place, and is much closer to the home of Scarlett's family than was the case with the hospital (which they had to try to reach during all that appalling weather in the winter just gone). But what Scarlett's family would really like to do is to be able to bring her home. She will celebrate her first birthay in a couple of weeks, but has spent most of that first year in hospital.

To bring her home sounds quite simple, but is far from that. She needs round-the-clock care, and the special equipment that needs to be bought so Scarlett will be both comfortable and safe at home, is expensive. A major fundraising drive is therefore in place. Should they manage to exceed their target, any 'extra' money will be donated by the family: Half back to Sunndach to help the staff there in their support of other children and their families; and the other half to Rachel House - Scotland's first hospice dedicated specifically to children and their families.

I have never written a blog post like this before, but then I've never been personally affected like this before, by a situation like the one facing Scarlett and those who love her. This post has been written with the full consent of her family. I plan to publish details of events which the family and others stage, to raise funds for their cause. The first of those takes place on Saturday, 19th June 2010: A cycle ride from Edinburgh to St Andrews. The ride will be leaving the centre of Edinburgh at 8.45am and will follow a well-planned route to the Forth Road Bridge. The cyclists will then ride over the Cleish Hills and through Fife's country, north to St Andrew's; the whole route totals 67 miles. Should any of you wish to take part, or know someone else who might like to take part, you can contact the organisers on lynsey@almond-valley.co.uk.

The next 'big' fundraising event, will be on Saturday, 18th September 2010, when there is to be a climb of Ben Nevis, near Fort William in Scotland. Just as before, if anyone would like to take part, or knows someone else who might like to take part, please contact the organisers via lynsey@almond-valley.co.uk. If you wish to donate to the fund, you can do so via this link - that page belongs to Hollie Kay - Scarlett's Aunt - who is planning to do both the cycle ride, and the Ben Nevis climb. If any of you have a Facebook account, and would like to 'friend' Scarlett to be kept abreast of all fundraising information, you can find her profile here. It is an account set up specifically for the purpose of helping to publicise fundraising efforts.

The prognosis of children with MPE is not good. If you can help the family be able to have Scarlett at home for some of whatever life she has ahead of her, I know they would be extremely grateful. Or if you can think of ways they can raise funds to help her, that too would be good. Thank you.

Kind of puts everything else into perspective, doesn't it?

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