Have to share this. I can’t take the credit, however – hubby took this while Spot was perched on his chest, blocking his view of the Wales/Ireland rugby match. Ireland won, by the way. 😎
I can’t stop staring at his nose… It’s just perfect. The line of fur against the pink, and the black, setting it off, and every perfect hair…I just love this pic. Amazing what an iPhone camera can do!
I keep telling the hubby that I’d be more than happy to start and maintain a photo blog for him. This is why:
This was taken within the last hour, out our upstairs (cat-snot-covered) window. Wow.
Not only am I lucky to have a partner who can take such good pictures, I’m really happy I found one who can see the beauty available right outside our front door.
Did you do the Aday.org photo challenge? If not, and you have pictures from May 15 and you’d like to be part of an international project of photos taken on just May 15, you still have two more days to submit them. I’ve just uploaded my two, and while one is much better than the other, I still thought ‘what the hell’ and uploaded both.
The ‘meh’ photo – but there’s something about it I still like. Hubby is watching the dog to make sure she is being good, and has no idea I’m upstairs taking a sneaky shot. Yes, my garden is tiny and full of crap and my dryer vent hose has fallen apart – and he’s in his “lounge pants!” Maybe that why I like it, this is really 100% ‘my view.’
The better one – and the only one I was going to upload as I thought we only got to upload one pic (you can send 10).
This is the front of our house, which is a semi-detached (sorta like a condo in the US). Mostly the neighbor’s side of the house is in the pic, but I took it from inside the car in our driveway – hence the rain spotting. The neighbors had a chimney fire and had to have builders in to fix it, so we had this scaffolding up out front, half in our yard and half next door, for two days. May 15 was the first morning I woke up to looking at this ugly-ass thing and I took a lot of pics, but this was clearly the best.
The part of the story I didn’t include on the Aday site is that the builders offered to paint our chimneys because they had never been painted, ever. We left a bucket of our house colour paint with the neighbors (our house is light yellow, theirs is more of a peach). Chimney was meant to be colour-split up the middle, just like the houses are.
Well, when I came home the next day the scaffolding was gone and even with my three-years-out of date glasses, I could see the entire chimney stack was peach… With just the rim at the top half painted yellow. Yes, the part that should have been white like ALL the trim is on both houses. It looks stupid.
The neighbors were killed apologising. Apparently the contractors painted it, took down the scaffold, and then asked, ‘what do you think?’
Um, we think yer eejits….
This is cool – I can’t get their easy to share PDF to open on my iPad, but I copied and pasted some of the relevant info below. Hit the link for the full story! I’m going to do it, how about you?
May 15th!
Just an ordinary day?
Bring your camera!
Photograph on May 15th!
You have one day to join thousands around the world in using the power of photography to create, share and compare perspectives on daily life! Don’t miss it! You can upload your images until May 22nd.
An event for everyone, everywhere
On May 15th we are looking for perspectives on daily life of everyone who enjoys and values photography! Professionals, amateurs, school children, farmers, social media fans, astronauts, office workers and you.
Picture today, inspire tomorrow
All images will be displayed online for you and everyone to explore. Some of them will be selected for a book, others for exhibitions. Every single one will be saved for future research and education. Let a part of your life inspire generations to come.
What to shoot?
Your life matters! Photograph what is close to you and upload your photos in one of our categories: Home, Work or Connections.
I didn’t expect to have another ‘what the hell IS that?’ photo a week after my first one. But we had a mini adventure in the Mini today and I found this along the way – now, what IS it?
My friend over at Lifelong Photo Exposure does a post now and again (never often enough! hint hint) called Puzzle Wednesday. I thought I might steal the idea just this once and see if you can tell what this is!
I wanted to do a Brushes drawing this eve, as it has been yonks upon yonks since I have. My idea was to find a pic of something in my garden and give a quick, fun once over.
To find the pics, I had to hit FB and troll through thousands of pics me and iDJ have taken.
I got distracted.
So here’s some randomness. It’s mostly Spottie, as he is just adorable.
Him on the radiator cat bed we used to have, until Lokii ate it.
Spot being a ho for sunshine by the front door.
Me and Spottie in a rare foray into the outdoors. What are you lookin at? It’s not his fault I made him go upside down so his bits were on display…
No comment.
More proof that I buy dog toys for me, not the dog. It has a fart-honk-quack noise in the head, and I walked around the shop for ages randomly hugging it just to hear the honk, and giggling. I even did it in the queue for the register. I couldn’t help myself.
Hubby’s caption for this is best,”No computer for you!”
Me cleaning my Harley. I’ve nearly forgotten what it looks like… this is not the country for motorcycling. Judging from the size of the tulips, this was taken about this time of year – but it wasn’t last year 
Best buddies! Spot really is an all-species-friend. He’d probably cuddle up to a parrot, if I ever got one…
Okay, here’s a few shots that say it all about why I love our parade, and why nothing in Dublin or New York City can ever compare to the amount of joy I get out of what happens in my small town.
Zombie babies.
I’m not even into kids or cuteness, but these wee ones were hilarious.
Mini-Jedward. Okay, only my Irish and UK readers are going to even have a clue who these adorable boys are meant to be. But: awwwwwwww! Way more cute than the real thing.
I have no idea. But someone took the time to make a float with nothing but a toilet on it and drive it down the main street behind a tractor.
…?
…!!!!!
I know this man pretty well, and the question every year is what dress will he wear in the parade? He’s well over 6ft, and a well-respected businessman… who is acting out Rhianna being told to not be such a hussy while shooting a video in an Irish farmer’s field last year. I’ve never seen a man in a woman’s bikini smile so much! This was the highlight of the parade for me, and his shenanigans usually are the funniest part every year. I didn’t spill my drink, but nearly wet my pants laughing.
Samba band! For Minlit 
Seeing close friends in the parade is great fun, too! Nurse Bella didn’t really enjoy the noise and activity, but it seems ‘flooding’ worked for her and she’s less of a scaredey-dog than she used to be.
I’ll leave you with not the one, but two pictures stolen from hubby. I realised there was a third shot of his that I really loved. First, another action shot.
We think this was meant to be about some celebrity fat-fighting, boot-camp style reality show. No matter – I love the energy these young lads still have after running and jumping and dragging bloody great tires up at least a mile of the town before they got to iDJ and his camera. I also love that iDJ had the guts to stand right there and let them leap around him!
I’ll finish where I began – with the pipers. Another iDJ shot, and wow! Again he was right out in the road in the way, but our man never blinked an eye. He must know he looks that dammed impressive!
Right! Hubby uploaded 118 pictures today to Facebook from his iPhone and our ‘real’ camera, which now has issues of keeping battery contact and dies constantly and is super annoying.
I forgot I even had a camera until the parade was at least half over. So, these are my pics, except for the two I’ll give him credit for – I only really loved two of his 118 enough to steal them, and I think you’ll see why. My pics are mostly rubbish, but I think they give an idea of what it felt like to be in my town on Saturday afternoon.
First – this is from the night before. The pipe band went all around the town playing in each pub (a shorter journey with fewer stops than it was even six years ago, alas). We were at one end of the town – in a pub, of course – and when the band moved on they lined up smartly in the street, be dammed to traffic coming either way, and marched right down the entire town. I don’t know if any photo can convey how surreal and exciting this was for me. ‘Scotland the Brave’ at full volume at ten o o’clock at night is…amazing. From the other gawkers, I wasn’t alone in appreciating their miniature solitary parade.
Parade day! What’s a parade in the whest of Ireland without a big, feic-off-tractor or three? This was the first one, and the reason I remembered I had a camera in my possession. Can you tell we’re standing outside of the same pub as the night before? Oh yeah.
Bet you didn’t expect a helicopter, though! I think – but I’m not sure – that this is the one I’ve been up in. If you’re afraid of flying, or of being on a motorcycle, don’t go up in a wee two-seater whirlybird like this one. I adored my all-too-brief time in (this?) one.
Classic car 1.
Classic car 2.
Classic car 3.
Classic car 4 – and I’m back to black and white as this just was meant to be in B&W.
Now we’ll have a compare and contrast. This is my best shot of The Rocky Horror Picture Show cast tribute.
This is the one iDJ took. Damn him!!!
I think I should break here and do another post for the rest…
Early on in the pub, iDJ and I were playing around with our phones and the Hipstamatic app. I took this one of him using his phone:
He complained about it at first, because of the blur. According to him, my pics are always blurry. But I pointed out its only his pint that is blurry, his face is clear. It implies movement, even if he was being quite still.
This one is of one of the drummers from the Oldham Pipe Band that is in town for the parade (in just a few hours, yay!). I took a lot of shots but only this one caught his hands.
A shame, really, that this is the only one that turned out. The app is bleedin’ slow! I was snapping away and only got about 5 pics. Lucky I guess to get one good one at all.
Oh, and he’ll give out to me for publishing this with the stupid ‘MAR 82′ date stamp on it! I can’t be arsed to remove it.
Currently I’m out back, freezing, listening to what he calls skiddleyidle music. Irish traditional, or just Trad. He’s got the Weber grill out and we’ll be having burgers and sausages from our amazing local butcher. I’m cold, but I didn’t have the shakes and shivers until he poured me a pint of O’Hara’s Stout, 6%, to follow up my ‘morning’ coffee. Yes, it’s just gone 1 and I’m on the beer…
