practice

This week I am practicising my photography on my kids... I am not asking them to pose or directing them, just waiting until they are engrossed in play and using a zoom. Boo and Yum Yum spend half their day in dress ups. In fact they were out there doing the same thing again in the garden only it was overcast and cold. That would be why I have to take 500 photos to get a handful that I am ok with. Later this week I will try a posed session with Bear...hopefully it won't take so many attempts.

Old Dogs

I am a kind of an old dog in the scheme of things. I am finally learning something that I always wanted to. I now have the equipment and the motivation. It's the brain power, eyesight and the quiet that are lacking.

I'm going to learn a new trick. It's called taking a photo when the camera is set on manual. No post editing. Natural light. Real fruit and flowers.

Do you see my dinnerbell? My kids cannot hear me in the next room scream "Dinner is ready!". They have inherited selective hearing from their Daddy. They sure can hear my dinnerbell tho'. Amazing isn't it!

trees, big big trees!

Whilst the blooms were stunning today, the trees stood by, quietly preparing to unfurl their leaves. I felt that the textures and structures were best portrayed in black and white.

Bear took over my camera a few times. I wish I had another camera to catch her in action. She took some wonderful shots of the cherry trees, stalked some bumble bees with the zoom, took way too many of me from behind (which will never see light of day) and with the setting in sport mode, ratcheted up a humoungous number of photographs of quite still trees.

Some days are too beautiful!

I find days as beautiful as this Easter Sunday a little difficult to grasp as reality. Too pretty.Can you see what I mean?

After our Easter lunch of salad nicoise (we like to eat our eggs with this) we went to the Freylinghuysen Aboretum. It was glorious . It reminded me of a spring 4 years ago, when we came with my mother and our tiny little baby girls. I think it may have been one of their first outings. We sat in the shade of a tree and fed our babies. Our wee girls are "big kids"now, running and enjoying their world.

There were trees to be climbed, grassy slopes to roll down, a ball to chase, nooks to explore and nature to admire and photograph. Oh, and a daddy to sit on.

At home we had an Easter egg hunt in the last of the day's warmth. Mummy is pretty proud of her egg hiding skills. The girls are now bathed and waiting to feast on Daddy's roast lamb dinner... the traditional Easter meal of the Greek Orthodox family. A day like today is such a blessing. I hope everyone enjoyed this day.

Birthday...

April Fool!

yeh, me....it is my birthday. But thank goodness I didn't have parents as cruel (or imaginative ) as this poor woman's. Now saying this out loud might just jinx me...but no one has ever played a joke on me on my birthday. Our family has a lot of March/April birthdays.

I'm gonna be nice to myself today, it's sunny. We'll go to the playground and enjoy it.

.... and the Breadwinner is running himself around in circles once again..as if I sprung this birthday on him at the last minute. It's been 15 years...and my birthday is always on the same day, honestly hunny. Last night he' was online trying to convince me I wanted another heart pendant necklace, a bracelet, a glass hummingbird feeder!!! silly man..

But in all seriousness...it's fine with me, I am being spoilt in far more important ways than a hummingbird feeder.

Spring time, Bunny time, Good times!

posted 3rd April 2010

Shhhhh....The bunny has been! There will be chocolate and little treats for our girlies. I can't wait to hear their excited little voices in the morning. Bear will also be going to church with her daddy. I hope she and the Breadwinner find this experience a positive one, and that it will be the start of something good for all of us.

In the meantime I have taken care of the magic to celebrate the arrival of spring that is so joyous after a long winter. As the twins get a little older we will hopefuly be able to introduce them to the community and beliefs of the church. Experiencing the Easter traditions in the Northern hemisphere where they originated is a treat. Like a hot summer Christmas, our Australian Easter is in autumn. Instead of the promise of new life, flowers and baby animals, we are instead welcoming the cooler months. In many ways I wish we could separate out the the seasonal traditions from the religious observances, so that they could all be made more relevant and their messages less confused. That would mean our Bunny would come in September and in July we could observe the Winter Solstice and sing songs about snowmen.

Earlier this week I whipped up some Easter Chicks, lemon butter cookies for the Pre school teachers. They tolerate my

tardiness with such good humour and understanding, they certainly need their Spring Break.

Yum Yum was caught doing a naughty thing, but at least now the girls can use their imagination whilst paying outside.

Going outside to play ...HOORAY.

Getting on our bikes and peddling like mad. Boo is a speedster, Yum Yum is not.

Boo likes to help Yum Yum by giving her a push...I just fear it might end in a disaster requiring many band aids!

It should be pretty obvious by now that I am still none the wiser as to how to fix the layout of each post. The preview doesn't actually look like the final post. sorry.