Oh my goodness I completely skipped August on my blog but it was full of total and utter happiness and bliss as my first grandchild Leo was born! He was born on the day of the solar eclipse, in the year of the horse and a complete blessing after years of heartache and yearning for his parents. He is absolutely beautiful and I have turned into one of those grandmothers who will bore you to death with photographs and anecdotes but it is truly wonderful. We left Sydney three years ago this week so that we could be around to be grandparents and it has been so worth the wait.
In other news life carries on, our summer has been spent in London and I have had holiday envy and wished I could dab my feet in a sea somewhere but it just hasn't happened. I have put a jumper on today as it was 11 degrees when I got up to walk Max and the mornings are darker but they do say that the days will be warmer than normal and the autumn colours on the trees will be spectacular so I will look forward to photographing that.
On a photography note I have just started an online instagram course with Sophie from Orange in Sydney. had her cookbooks in Sydney and still get her 5 things newsletter on a Monday so it's worth signing up for the newsletter as it's full of ideas. The first class today was all about getting your camera settings right and I don't know about you, but I have got so lazy and hate instagram but she says we have to fall in love with it again and make an effort so I am going to do that.
I have been to a few exhibitions lately, my favourite one was Marilyn Monroe at the national portrait gallery. She was so beautiful and talented, they had a reel of the best bits of her films and I had forgotten how we used to watch them over and over as children. She couldn't cope with the fame and when I read about stars now who also can't cope, you realise that nothing has changed. The photographs of her are so beautiful and natural and she was so perfect infront of the camera.
I also went to see Barbara Hepworth at the Courtauld. This was an exhibition of her sculptures and her use of colour, so wonderful and made me want to go and live in Cornwall to see everything through her eyes. Finally I went to see Japanese women photographers at the photography gallery. A fascinating exhibition from the 50's to present day. I particularly liked the work of Ushioda Tokuko who began photographing people's fridges as she saw them as a reflection of private lives. It made me realise that no one has all that "mess" and "stuff" on their fridges anymore, they are all built in and covered. I remember how you could tell so much about families by looking at the front of their fridges and what was on the door. I loved her snippets at life, including those of her husband and son.
On the reading front not much has grabbed me although I am currently half way through Richard Yates young hearts crying. I have raved about his writing before, I am not a fan of current American literature but I love his post war writing and the loneliness within relationships and his take on life, so worth reading. I am considering reading all his books as my next project although I still need to finish my a-z of books from N onwards. I also read family friends by Chloe Ashby, a distracting holiday read, not a great book but good for a plane or a holiday. One book that I did enjoy was Lawrence Osborne - children of wolves. A man is hired to find someone's daughter but ends up being used in a plot to assassinate the American ambassador, an interesting tale. On the television front we are absolutely loving Reacher on amazon, he is so unbelievable and I think that's what makes it so watchable, pure escapism rather than all the gore and grimness of the endless UK detective shows where only women are murdering etc etc, yawn,.. Oh and I'm sad to say we gave up on Ted lasso after episode 2 in the new series, anyone else watching it and enjoying it?
Otherwise I'm still doing a photo a day, I have been doing some thirty day projects over on substack with my sister, we have done 30 days of home, black and white, and now we are doing green. It makes you go out and take pictures to get a photo but I'm still not sure I'm really getting the hang of substack even after 6 months or so. I do recommend doing 30 day projects though, they really are good and I was watching someone on instagram who just takes a 30 second video a day for the month and puts it all together at the end of the month and that all looked a good idea. Here are some photographs I've taken lately, lots of flowers as always. Until next month.....
