Today is the 25th of June, a Wednesday. We have reached the half way mark in the week. We have also reached the half way mark in the year. It’s 6 months till Christmas. This year is zooming by and this month has kept me spinning. I’m working toward being able to just be still and to be able to have time to come in to my little home here and write, I’m truly missing it at the moment.
Happy Wednesday, we’ve almost made it to Friday!
The first day back to school after a break is always the longest. It has been a very busy day with lots of exam prep! The theme for the first exam is “Tools”. So I put together a different still life in each studio. Above is a close-up of one of them. I was so happy to find that blue and white stripped ribbon, it fit perfectly into the nozzle of that vintage watering can and swirled very gracefully around the other objects.
I’m pooped, but nothing that a slice of pie can’t cure! Happy Monday!
I had my second diving lesson last night. Being in the water is freedom. We went through how to set up your gear yourself, more underwater hand signals and how to clear your regulator and your mask underwater if water gets in it. I was sad that we had to come out, I would have been quite happy bobbing along a little longer!
The air was cool this morning and the sun was bright. There is still a breeze blowing but it is starting to heat up now. It reminded me of spring time in the Blue Ridge mountains. The air would be cool in the morning and would stay that way under the shade of a tree throughout the day, even in the relentless heat. I grew up at the base of those mountains and they still call to me. Once the Blue Ridge is in your blood it stays there, its the same for the coast. I was lucky I had the best of both worlds, the mountains and the sea.
The sun was beaming down and there was a mist over the lake that I pass on my way into work, so I snapped a picture from my train window. It was a beautiful journey in to central London today. It just makes me sad that it is Monday, today is too beautiful to be trapped indoors at school!
Last night I had my first diving lesson, scuba diving that is. It was more of a trial session, to make sure that anyone who signed up actually wanted to continue with the course once they got a taste for it.
I have wanted to dive since I was in High School, I was saving all my babysitting money to do a course but the timing was off and it just didn’t work out. It’s all about the timing. I haven’t had the opportunity since, but there are two divers at my school who are instructors as well and have kindly offered to teach anyone who’s interested at cost. I couldn’t get any luckier than that!
So, last night I went to the pool, threw on my bathing suit and began my first lesson. We went through a couple of basics as this was just a taster session. I learned underwater hand signals, where everything was on my tank and how to get my gear on.
We jumped in in the shallow end and pulled on our tanks. We put on our flippers and our goggles and had a chance to sit down then lay down on the bottom of the pool and finally do two test swims around the shallow end with our diving buddy at our side. Trying to give yourself enough room to turn a corner with your giant flippers on was like the underwater equivalent of driving a bus around a tight corner.
Diving was like driving a car for the first time, exhilarating, the feeling of freedom just in front of you but a lot to think about too. Were you watching your gauges, keeping the right buoyancy, making sure your partner was okay, following the instructor’s hand signals as well as remembering to breath, sounds like a silly thing to say, I know! The only set back for me was that we eventually had to get out of the pool. I wanted to go, go, go! I felt so free. It was magical!
I’m hoping that I can eventually log enough hours that maybe I can get in on an underwater dig, nothing fancy, I just loved all my Archaeology classes when I was in College and considered being an Archaeologist for awhile, but there was just something about Art History that pulled at my heart strings. They are disciplines however, that I believe go hand in hand. Knowing one only heightens your knowledge of the other. I’m ready for an adventure.
I can’t wait for my next class! I’ve got my eye on a pair of goggles that won’t pull my hair, an inexpensive underwater camera and a pretty good idea of where I want to do my first real qualified dive. But, down to the basics first, I’m getting ahead of myself!
{I’m sorry I can’t show you a funny diving picture, I was having so much fun, I forgot to snap a pic of me and my Donald Duck feet!}
This was my view as I came out of the tube this morning. The sun was shining and it was a glorious walk to school. All I could think of was the beat to Monday Monday, the Mamas & The Papas song. Although, compared to the lyrics of the song, I have had a wonderful morning, it was just the sound of this song that was in my head as I walked down the street. Happy Monday to you, wherever you may be today!
We had a wonderful weekend. I have so much to share with you, but for now, I’m sharing something that made us laugh, as after my day today, I need to laugh. This was such a long day at school, it all went wrong when my train was cancelled and the heavens opened up and I was soaked before I made it on to the next train. Couple that with rude people who were pushing to get on, which I refuse to do and a really lovely gentleman (NOT!) who moved me out of his way, so he could rush to a seat! Where have manners and common decency gone?
From that point on, the tone of my day was set, no matter what I seemed to do to shake it, things kept going wrong. It was like the old Shirelles’ song, “Mama Said”. (Mama said there will be days like this, there will be days like this my Mama said!). This has been one heck of day, so you have two choices, you either laugh or you cry and I’m choosing laughter.
This made Mr. Michie and I laugh the other night when we were watching Jimmy Fallon! Hope your having a better Monday than me, wherever you may be today!
I’m co-teaching a pinhole photography course this term and we have moved away from our coffee tin cameras to shoebox cameras.
One of the girls was having an issue with her camera. After inspecting her developed prints, I fixed what I thought was the problem and then I took a test shot myself to see if I fixed it and got this after doing a double exposure:
I never grow tired of this process. It is plain and simple magic!
It didn’t feel like Spring when I left the house this morning. The air was bitter and a mist was shrouding my little world like a blanket. By lunch time however, the clouds had passed and the sunshine came out to play for just a little bit, until the skies turned grey again and it began to rain.
While the sun was out, I snapped this picture coming down the staircase in the Science building where I had ventured over to get some distilled water for the dark room. I loved how the light was dancing across the glassy green tiles and I stopped for a moment to watch it. It is cold again this evening, but that little taste of Spring today was enough to make me happy.
Magnolia liliiflora, or as I have always called them Japanese or sometimes tulip magnolias practically line a particular street that I stroll down on my walk to school in the morning.
They are all in full bloom and every single one, is this blushing creamy, pinky, purpley hue. They are dazzling to see. The ground is strewn with their petals. I feel guilty walking across the delicate fallen who mark my path. They look almost sacred as if they line the pathway to a mountain temple where a little Buddha sits in waiting.