MissLeonie.com

These are butterfly bushes slowly conquering the wasteland next to my local convenience store. There are no words to describe how good it feels to get off the bus (just out of frame) after a long day and walk home past this wilderness. The building in the background is a library that, for reasons unknown although I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that it’s something to do with the level of literacy or interest in this neighbourhood, is never open. Initially, I wanted to upload this photo to Flickr in colour, but it didn’t work. There was too much colour. A rare, bright blue sky. Deep red brick. Purple flowers. Intensely green foliage. Somehow it obscured the structural chaos.

In the end, I realised the shapes were much more interesting. The industrial image of the library. The sprawling butterfly bushes. The sloping fence. The colour wasn’t adding to the picture, it was distracting. Now, I’m no expert in black and white, not at all, but I kind of like the look of this. There is something contradictory about displaying the chaos in easy-on-the-eyes shades of gray. And a bright pink butterfly, because I was secretly heartbroken to have to zap the purple out of the butterfly bushes.

The full version can be found on my Flickr page, or by clicking here.

I’ve always believed that autumn - those golden days that seem like a gift, brightly-coloured leaves and berries and powerful storms - is my absolute favourite season. I have to say, when summer is like autumn, including the storms, but with green leaves and grey skies, there really isn’t much to it.

Yes, it is still raining. That’s why I decided to upload some more photos from my holiday, to remind me of the sunny break I got not long ago. There are eight more images on my Flickr page. You can find them in the Italy folder. Hopefully they’ll cheer you up a bit too!

I couldn’t believe the speed with which these grew! When I got there, they were tiny little pin pricks. Every gust of wind would create a shower of little olivettes. After just a couple of days, when the hot weather kicked in after weeks of ample rainfall, they’d grown visibly.

I love (and am lucky) that this picture captures that warm golden light at the end of a hot afternoon. I have a thing for olive trees anyway. Their twisted shape, the sage-coloured leaves and the fact that they look age-old and indestructable. I love the taste of olives, too, and I was most excited that the campsite doubled as an olive tree orchard. You could even buy the olive oil at the campsite’s little shop, but I felt €7.50 as a “special price” was a bit much. In the end, I took home (or rather, let my parents take home - damn 100ml limits on carry on luggage) a local olive oil for about half that. Mmm.

(Click to be taken to the Flickr photo page where a larger version is available.)

I realise I’m being a little slow as far as showing and telling is concerned. I’ve been dropped back into my English life, with dissertation pressure always on the look out to hook me on anxiety. I’m going to keep uploading though, so bear with me. I’m constantly tired (and there is no one more annoyed about that than me), but I’m trying to soldier on.

The above photo was taken after I ran back to the caravan to grab my tripod. It was taken on the same day as the last picture I posted - night fell quickly. I love all the little lights and the way their colours bounce off the little waves in Lake Garda. I especially love that dark blue sky; I spent many a night falling asleep in the hammock looking at all the stars. There isn’t much light pollution there to obscure them, unlike in Nottingham, where the sky is permanently orange. It’s just a great reminder of how tiny we actually are.

In the week I spent in Italy, I ended walking all the way down to the first white light (the one furthest to the right) to make use of their Internet. I had to check in online and find a way to print my boarding pass for the return flight. That’s a story for another time, though. Stay tuned!

I’ve been thinking about how to share some snippets of my holiday without it becoming too tedious (to write and to read), and I’ve decided the way to go is to involve pictures. I’m going to pick a few goodies and tell their story, and hopefully that’ll give you some idea without boring the pants off you.

(click the image for a bigger version on Flickr)

I’m going to try to be somewhat chronological about the whole process (no guarantees though).

This first one was taken on my first day, at the beach bordering on the campsite. The mistiness is due to weeks of rain and my day of arrival being the first sunny day in ages. It brings a nice depth to the image, I think. I even dared to swim that day! It was a bit chilly, but well worth it.

I decided to post two pictures in Karen Cheng’s Facebook group Doing the Karen Cheng. Doing the Karen Cheng means you take a photo of yourself - dressed a little fancier than normal - in a mirror, while looking at the viewfinder. Karen Cheng has absolutely perfected this technique to the point where she deserves a trademark. Plus, she just wears cool clothes, full stop.

She explains the process and the resulting Facebook group in much more detail here. So many people have posted wonderful photos - there are some well-dressed Karen Cheng readers around the globe, and they’ve got the posing down to a tee too!

Anyway, I logged into WordPress earlier to look at my stats and… 116 people have visited my website. Today. So far. Holy shit! Shall we call this the Karen Cheng Effect then? Has anyone else observed the Karen Cheng Effect as a result of posting in the Facebook group? It sure makes me wonder what sparked your interest ;)

And before I forget: Hello everyone!

(Picture is me, dressed up to go to a party, looking really serious trying to hold the camera still enough to do a successful Karen Cheng.)

I finally bit the bullet and bought Flickr Pro. I’d made up my mind a while ago, but since I haven’t really been taking any photos lately anyway, I thought I might as well wait until I had a good batch to make it worthwhile. I went to Nottingham Castle today and shot almost 200 pictures, so once I’ve weeded out the disappointing ones, I should have a few to upload. Whenever that is. If that’s not worthwhile, I don’t know what is.

It was such a glorious day that I simply had to stop planning to go and instead put on my shoes and just do it. The blister on my heel (new shoes, how I hate thee) had finally healed to the point where I could wear shoes without crying, the weather had fined up, the grocery shopping was done - no more excuses.

I couldn’t have made a better decision. I started things off with a small take out coffee at Gloria Jean’s, then walked to the castle. I wasn’t sure if it’d be free or not, because I didn’t know if a University of Nottingham student card would be sufficient evidence of my being a Nottingham resident. It was, and the lovely old gentleman at the entrance would have even let me in in exchange for my postcode (I was digging around my bag for my student card - turns out it was in my pocket). I found myself a nice sunny spot on the freshly mown grass and proceeded to enjoy my coffee. I kept snapping photos all around me, too. After I finished my coffee, I walked around the castle grounds a bit, browsed the souvenir shop and bought two postcards. The views off the top cliff of the castle were amazing - I could even see fields of green in the distance!

The colours. The structures. The views. The smells. The warmth. The wind in my hair. It was all so perfect.

PS. Posting has been a little scarce these past few days. This getting up early every morning thing is hard! I hope it’ll be worth it in the long run, though. I really do enjoy my mornings, it’s just that I crash by 2pm.

Remember that I wrote about being on the shortlist for a Schmap.com guide? Guess what? I’m in!

If you click this link and let it load fully, it should take you straight to my photo. It will look like it’s finished loading before it actually is a few times, so be patient and be sure not have the mouse hover over anything else on the page, or it will blink away. Alternatively, select Parliament House in the middle list of attractions, and hit the red arrow pointing to the right next to the little photos in the top right corner until you get to me ;)

I’m all flattered and excited, but there is one small problem: the featured photo is the penultimate one on my free Flickr account, which only allows for my last 200 photos to be visible. This means that it will disappear if I upload two more photos, unless I purchase a pro account. Food for thought :)

A photo I took the other day - I was amazed by the contrast between the sunlit foreground (it’s a row of houses behind mine) and the ominous sky behind it. We got some proper thunder and lightning out of it, too. I like the cosy, cluttered look of the foreground paired with the cold, eerily calm background, too.

I’ve been stupidly busy just being busy, these past few days. I don’t know exactly how it happens, but suddenly I found myself talking like a diplomat to ensure that my house would keep its Internet, for example. More about that in a few days’ time. It will all be clear soon.

I’ve also been googling my arse off looking for a certain interpretation of Wordsworth’s Daffodils (or I wandered lonely as a cloud) for my 5000 word paper. I need a reading that ties the poem to the French Revolution, and although this interpretation is supposedly omnipresent, I can’t find it anywhere. *grumble* I’ve looked at the Internet, books about Wordsworth… hell, I even looked at what must be the single most useless journal in the world, the Wordsworth Circle journal. No luck.

I did manage to get out and go to the park on Sunday, though. The weather was gloriously warm, and the memorial gardens just stunning. I first walked around the whole park taking photos, and when I had done the rounds, I found myself a nice bench and read a book for a while. It’s such a good way to recharge the batteries and get ready for the week ahead that I think might have to make it a regular thing, weather permitting. The park is overrun by spring flowers at the moment, but I think I spotted a score of rose bushes too, which should give the gardens a whole new look come summer. I’ve uploaded a lot of photos from Sunday to my Flickr page, here. You could be seeing a lot more from these gardens in the future.