Joining in with Tara for The Gallery this week as the subject is just too lovely to let pass by when a few days ago I got to meet this gorgeous 5 week old, with brand new eyes. How can a tiny newborn baby have such a deep, knowing look? He had me entranced.

Joining in with Tara’s The Gallery and the theme this week is Something I’m Proud of. Tara says:

At a time when there is an awful lot of bad news emitting from whatever media you choose to watch/read, it’s time to look closer to home and appreciate the things we have. So show us all what you’re proud of and let’s lift this gloom.

These lovelies are what I am most proud of. They make our house a home (sometimes resembling a hurricane aftermath) and never fail to amaze me on a daily basis – mostly with great stuff.

Take a look at the other entries by clicking here

This weeks Gallery prompt from Tara is colour. Inspired by the Unicef campaign to Own A Colour and save a child’s life.

I choose this picture which was taken in Cordoba, Southern Spain.

I’ve taken a colour sample from the wall, which translated as this

http://www.ownacolour.com/#d24338

I now own Cordoba Red, how wonderful is that?

A late entry for Tara’s The Gallery, which this week is Guilty Pleasures.

Well this is my holiday reading pile from August. Yes I read them all. Guilty? – a little bit.

I reviewed most of them over at Love A Book if you are interested.

You can also join in with October’s reading group by getting your hands on one of 10 copies of Black Sea Twilight up for grabs.

I’d love to know what he is thinking.

Taken last week at Jungle Park, Tenerife. Posted for The Gallery – Animals

This weeks prompt from Tara at The Gallery is a celebration of World Photography Day. Celebrating all that is great about photography by capturing your world on 19th August. I only caught up with the prompt a day later, but Tara said it could be from the weekend too, so here is where we were on Sunday 21st August.

Los Gigantes, Tenerife. We can see these magnificent cliffs to the right of the villa we are staying in. They dominate the skyline and tower high above all of the beautiful resort that is at the base of them. It is a little difficult to appreciate their height in the photograph, but if you look to the bottom right of the image you can see the sail boats and tiny jet ski’s to get a sense of perspective. Look how tiny and insignificant the clouds in the distance to the left look too.

As the  World Photography Day site quotes ‘Today, we take our photographs for granted. But next time you’re flicking though photos from your last holiday, remember that there was once a time when photography didn’t exist. A time when those precious moments couldn’t be captured, uploaded and shared.” I’m very appreciative of the pleasure that we take in photography today, and this image will certainly help us to remember the fantastic times we have holidayed in this beautiful, sunny part of the world.

This weeks prompt from Tara for The Gallery is Black & White. We are on hollibobs this week in Tenerife so I don’t have access to any old black & white photographs or fancy scanning equipment. We did however visit Jungle Park yesterday, and as well as the white tigers and the black jaguar they had the cute black and white penguins. So this is my interpretation on the theme.

This week’s prompt from Tara for The Gallery is Water.

Taken at Sandbanks, Poole just over 5 years ago now. You can almost feel the warm heat of the sun, can’t you?

This weeks gallery prompt from Tara at sticky fingers is ‘Vintage’. A prompt I’ve jumped on before when we could choose one word – I showed off my vintage typewriter, sewing machine & baby scales.

I’ve also got a wonderful collection of vintage treasure which I inherited from my Gran. She used to own a haberdashery and wool shop when I was little and had a wonderful little stash of cottons, buttons, fasteners, pins etc. Gran was an amazing knitter and crocheter, she taught me to knit, and I was the proud owner of many a beautiful knitted cardigan as a child. I totally lay my craft obsessions at her door. I think she fueled my own haberdashery/wool hoarding too.

The lovely wooden bobbins are such beautiful colours.

They have names that are just as beautiful too, I particularly love parma violet, majolica blue and gladiole red.

One of my favourite things I found was the glass buttons. Gran used to have a huge wooden box of buttons, which we played with for hours. I’ve had a lovely hour or so visiting all these again, despite shedding a few tears. The memories are wonderful and I can still smell her distinct perfume on them.

Helen this one is for you and Violet.

This week the Gallery prompt from Tara at Sticky Fingers is three words. She explains it so eloquently here.

After posting about potty training last week, ‘we’ have had no interest in the potty at all. We know when little H is, for the want of a better word, doing the ‘business’ as he hides – behind the sofa, a curtain or a door for example. So I have an indicator of when a potty prompt is good. I just get a point blank NO to any coaxing, so I fear that it is going to be a long journey, and a slow and steady approach means we are in for the long haul of

POTTY. TRAINING. NIGHTMARE