Two in a million

I was so lucky to get this shot, you almost never see these in the wild any more...

Spuggle and Jin

So it's over for another year; the British Juggling Convention 2011 has come to an end.  Oh but it was glorious.  There was dressing up, an awful lot of undressing too, sunburnt noses, fresh waffles, dream catchers, barefoot frisbee, wild tales, regular defiance of gravity and several other laws of physics, folk instruments, spontaneous dancing, twister, bed hair, cardboard box robots, sleeping on the floor, food cooked using minimal amounts of cutlery, feet so dirty they looked like their own shoes, showers with no doors, dreadlocks and weed, baggy trousers, singing, drinking, spinning into the wee hours.  And of course juggling, which is a topic all it's own.

The weather was gorgeous -it really is April now and I spent my entire time there in shorts.  It feels great to get my legs out again after months cooping them up in the warm.  For some of our group it was thier first ever BJC - or even their first convention so it was great to see how much everyone enjoyed themselves.  The older ones among us tend to be a bit more sedate but no less enthusiastic.  I've started drawing down all the tricks I can do or need to work on with a hula hoop just so I dont forget any of them!  They are tiny drawings but already they cover 3 A4 sides and I'm still only counting single-hoop tricks.

Of course, being me, there's always time to take a few pictures of a passing tree.

As usual the rest of my photos (the good ones anyway) are on Flickr.  And now, thanks to the Easter holiday, I have 4 whole days to sit and draw, and watch all my camping laundry dry.

Spring walk!

Once again I've been out in the woods. Although technically March does count as spring, the weather won't get to what most people think of as warm until mid-April. But despite this there's already lots to see.  I've put all the photos on my Flickr page, but here are some of my favourites:

My first discovery of the day! These otherworldly little creatures are baby ferns. Aren't they brilliant!  They are born from their seeds like this, all curled up small, and then as they grow taller they slowly unroll themselves and spread out their fronds like little alien invaders.

At first glance everything still appears dry and brown, but look down, and you'll see hundreds of green shoots breaking out through last year's leaf litter. There are whole new plants down there; brambles, tree shoots, grasses, flowers and ferns.  Jubilee Wood is a bluebell wood so under the shadow of the oak trees I found the first of this years bluebells scattered in the new grass. The little white ones beneath are wood anenomes, very pretty to look at but poisonous to eat.

And these tiny blue pin-pricks in the forest floor turned out to be violets!  I think they are Early Dog-Violets but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Now look up! Buds are forming on twig-ends, catkins dangling down and blossoms of blackthorn twisting up, new green branches growing out of the junctions of old trees, reaching for the summer sunlight that is just around the corner.

There are also animals and birds up there. I managed to sneak up on a squirrel until I was only a few metres away, before it saw me and shot up the tree like lightening. I also bumped into a robin as I rounded a corner, in the perfect spot for a photograph. Slowly I lifted the camera, got it in my sights, moved my finger onto the button... and the battery died. Nooo!!

Mosses and lichens are everywhere, and in so many different colours! During my route I found everything from thick grassy green through to lime green, turquoise and even orange. I love the sculptures of the woods, the bleached bones of last years fallen trees and upturned roots that become the basis for the green growing things of this year.

Anti-Lent?

 That's right, it's update time again! Busy times, busy times. I have a job now, which I am enjoying very much, but amidst re-balancing my life I have had some time for a few other adventures:

Luxuries for Life

It's a little rough around the edges, since it was made for a friends weblog in rather a hurry.  But hey, now you know what I look like!

I'd also like to direct you to PostSecret Blog this week.  For those that don't know, PostSecret started as a way to anonymously get your burning secrets off your chest -whether trivial or serious, deeply personal or universal, by writing and decorating a postcard with your secret on it and posting it to a guy called Frank, who turns them into books and also updates this blog with the weekly arrivals. 

Some are heart-warming, some are heart-breaking.  There are happy secrets, sad ones, angry ones, funny ones and downright weird ones.  I love the idea of humans connecting with each other over the sharing of their most hidden thoughts -the things you've always wanted to say out loud but didn't know how to or didn't feel you could.

So, to mark a pretty significant date for me I decideed that I would mark it by sending in my own PostSecret.  Due to the time it takes to post anything to America it's only just appeared this week.  Yes, my secret is live on the internet, for one week only!  I hope it will encourage someone else with the knowledge that really we are all just as pecualiar as each other... but I'm not telling you which one is mine  :)