30. spherically super

toni: my dear geometric-yet-curvy you!
thank you for all bloggage... and so glad you liked pics. when they finally arrived. the boy and his father were at the table ne t to us in the turner contemporary gallery cafe in margate - keith and i dived in there before our Long Walk from broadstairs; just so we could say we had been, really.
was v cool - all salad + veg provided by local allotments and an ama ing view of the bay, plus, of course That Light. the focus of concentration in the photo was the boy being allowed to choose to chomp on one sugar-lump from the bowl on the table - and him struggling to choose between the white or the brown... whilst his grandmother, thinking rather futilely of his teeth, insisted he 'really wouldn't like' either...
in terms of ne t shots - still don't have round pebble, but have a nice pic of daisies [the centre of which is round - could forward this?] also, am going to coast on thursday [providing no gales!] so could do seaside te tures then... would def have time to send this over friday..
hope work not too arduous today - all my seedlings have been blown around garden in wind whilst i was away, so am going to attempt to reunite their bruised souls with their pots now!
T mwah

jenny: this was the round pic I tried - and failed - to send all those days
(weeks?) ago...

not sure if I still like it - rather lost its 'peering down a concrete
pipe' feel somehow – so am off to hunt out some other roundness...

toni: Oh! But it's wonderful....spherically super! Don't change! X PS the daisies are in dropbox - the fuzzy ones at the back are round. ish.

jenny: off to take a peek! 

ah - perfectly round - perfectly lovely!  and such heavenly (literally maybe?) blue tones; did you get a stiff neck, all that looking up?  I tried the same thing in Germany and got muddy knees and elbows - mine were rather inconveniently growing on the ground!

toni: Sadly, was also ON ramparts, <alongside> daisies... and hence v familiar with muddy knee (and cheek!) concept you describe. (my phone won't open attached pic, will take proper look, later). X x  meanwhile have just stabbed grubby little finger into iporn book and came up with [after rejecting five others...] 'find something that disrupts a pattern'. which i know you did last week... so might be in the groove to do so again...

29. on lines - and curves …

The conversation began on the 17th May – yeah, I know …

toni: do we have an ongoing/new challenge? I appear to have lost plot re this [ps, hen lulu (who no longer resides chez nous) has had a chick! Aw.]

jenny: we are in the Black Forest until Sunday - but I have my camera and am up for any challenge you care to pick.....well, most - it's all very rural - certainly not much in the way of graffiti!  just about to have pre dins glass of something fizzy [PS talking of hens - have colleague who just hatched 5 chicks in her classroom.....v cute (and even at their very young ages, they make one heck of a racket!)]

toni: Just off on organised nine mile walk. Grabbed iporn book and found 'shoot something round'. Think is poss? Happy weekend. X x

jenny: yes - let's go for it!  your 9 miles makes our few km this morning seem a bit lame....just recuperating in the bar.....

toni: I have a few pictures... but not one is round. The 'round' pebble I found is now on its way to belgie, as forgot to retrieve it from BF's car, post-walk. Linear, however, I can do... ie, have not met brief at all, but have pic I'd quite like to share... x x x hope the schwarzwald = gut. I studied there, y'know... did you come across nussknacker torte...? Was always a fave... x x x

jenny: have hunted fruitlessly for your linear pic.....was even thinking that we could so very easily adapt brief to fit (or indeed make a new one for this week and do round the following - we'll be away again, back in Barcelona yippeedoo) 

had modicum of success; some cheats (snap of flowers taken through concrete pipe, and which gmail won't seem to let me attach - so perhaps that's my answer!) that I just happened to take before I opened your email, some neatly piled logs (v German) some of which were round…

plus a (rather grainy - was gloomy in restaurant) photo of our starter the last evening …

but v disappointed because husband flinched when I suggested that I put my plate on the floor for a better view - so you have to make do with a half-circle.....

had v gut time in der (die? das? was never much cop at Deutsch) Schwarzwald - but husband v disappointed not to have had any tortes at all; he was SO looking forward to some (preferably hausgemachte) schwarzenwaldenkirschentorten (our son's hausgemachte way of saying it that kind of stuck!)

where did you study?  husband is halb deutsch - did I tell you that?  mother born in Regensburg and uncle lived in Munich and then Garmisch - so not all that far away from where we were (near Freiburg)

toni: ...sorry, linear pic still in camera... will send this eve... phone also won't let me open your pics... so have these to look forward to, tonight too. X x x have to do school dash now... more 'laters' as they say. Have a lovely day x x x

toni: have had looooong working day + a] no chance to upload pic + b] work computer also not letting me see yours - apart from on mahooooooosive scale... am thinking square logs could be geometric/linear too... PERHAPS we could turn whole idea on head, and both take a pic a week + then one of us retrospectively generates a challenge which neatly links both. ha!
i studied europaische betriebswirtschaft [if that's how you spell it - can no longer recall!!!] at the fachhochschule reutlingen. just outside the forest, but close enough for the cake.
mwah.

And suddenly it was the 6th of June …

jenny: dropbox still disappointingly empty of new pix - and I have forgotten the brief we agreed on all those days (weeks?) ago - are. you. OK? ps - I have 9 more days in the classroom after today ...

toni: Yes. Sorry. I. Am. Here... serendipitously uploaded pix to laptop last night... more later. (school holidays = endless chauffeuring). X x x x

toni: hello JD - apols for being crap blogging chum. seem to be struggling with logistics of single parenting/overseas dating currently... my two v [non round, decidedly linear] pix are about to be in dropbox. i think 'round' was our last challenge... as in 'when is she going to get a-ROUND to sending her bloody pix..?' off oop north to visit parents tomoz... hope NINE days not feeling too dastardly! T xxx

jenny: hey - don't worry; the Blog can just sit there; our roolz remember!

toni: Am at my mum's, but put pix in dropbox before leaving - in a folder though, so maybe it didn't work? X PS Driving home tomoz, and stopping at wildlife artist's open studio near rutland water on way home. I love her work - all retro screen-prints/lino-cuts of birds and seed-heads. My purse will be itching! X x x

jenny: no sign of pic - I do keep looking (esp as the icon has a little tick on it which I had thought meant something new had been put in - yeah - but where?) although I haven't opened up all the folders (yet?)  PS rather envious of your planned stopping place on your way home.....enjoy!

toni: just hijacked my sis's pc to try and resend pix - hope they've arrived...

jenny: I found them [by special invitation] the 'by-the-sea' one is very you - all velvet-soft greys, with a touch of gold …

but those stripes … the (I assume) father with the (not-quite) reverse of his (I assume) son's … the inspired crop showing concentration though not what their focus is on … is brilliant ! ! ! was it just a happy accident them being there?

ps am writing post now - as well as desperately trying to remember which linear pics I had decided on … all those weeks ago!

OK gotcha

(PS was ‘snap’ decision (as still NO clue what I had decided on before) and auch in deutschland gemacht; somehow felt it complemented both yours with the greys and the pink …)

28. the writing’s on the wall

t : have spent last week 'cohabiting' with the BF, who has been working from my home - hence under strain of pretending i cook interesting, man-relevant food on a daily basis, and don't, as a rule throw a microwave meal in the direction of my daughter before popping off to yoga etc... has been lovely having him here - although am now on alcohol purge + trading cash normally spent on vino for purchase of skin-de-ageing vitamin supplements. we'll see.
so. the upshot of all is, have completely lost plot re blog - was away in france this weekend and took picture of writing on wall there - is this any help for anything? thank you so much for uploading of all - your 'meaningful word' pi'' v e''quisite - and definitely unleashed more of a wow from the BF than belgian graffiti.
hope all ok your end
T mwah

j : v quick response - good to hear from you; hope BF all recovered from heroic rescue of small child.  send me what you have - will conjure up something.....talk later  J xXxXxX (showing off!)  PS just had letter confirming acceptance of resignation - GULP

t : Am at work tomoz, but assuming eve client is not attending, so will upload pic from camera then. BF recovered from lifesaving antics - wallet, passport and phone less so! X hope confirmation letter not too GULP...  sent from phone, hence x X x X x back at ya!

j : re: GULP = just rather final.....

t : there's a pic in dropbox for you! this week am mostly trading wine for vitamin supplements. feel virtuous... but after 36 hours no visible signs of improvement to my skin or hair. bah.  PS hope final 'gulp' now dispersed to manageable portions.

j : gulp currently relatively small but it is still apt to grow especially when I count up actual working days left between now and The End.....is 18!  had only just remembered that you'd said you'd dropped a pic in the box; just peeked - and I am still smiling!  tomorrow I shall attempt a post (and to choose a pic myself!) - am thinking of 6 = pay attention to words and phrases painted on buildings?)  today we cleaned windows - I keep going to a sparkly one and grinning!  gave up a LONG time ago on both skin and hair.....wine far too important!  PS have now used week's quota of !

t : Feel ill. Think is wine withdrawal. OMG = omigulp! X x congrats on clear windows. Am sure there is some philosophical nugget to do with photography and seeing within this

j : re: philosophy.....what does that say about the long months (at least twelve of them!) when my vision has been totally obscured by squashed flies, dust, rain streaks and fingerprints?  withdrawal totally overrated – hic.  have son arriving ce soir (avec sa femme); looking forward to un très agréable weekend of wine tasting - that's the opposite of wine withdrawal?  off now to vacuum dead spiders from long-unused shower in spare bedroom

(as for my pic – I think this says everything about the state of my head)

27. words that speak volumes

still playing catch-up, we are…..and we have agreed to ‘do’graffiti for this post; trouble (as will become apparent) is that there is more than one challenge with a graffiti connection…..

toni: found 'em -  not as buried as i thought... not sure if graffiti too flat + should convert to black and white...? though, it was a rainy, drizzly brussels morn, so, corrugated iron aside, it was flat...T xxx

jenny: it would be nice to see them.....

toni: ah! yes! i didn't write the word 'attach'... so google mail didn't tell me [as it usually does!] that i'd mentioned the word 'attach' but failed to do just that... x x x

jenny: fab – I love the inclusion of that rail in the graffiti pic.....I will make sure I send you my (soon-to-be) chosen pics pronto (have to narrow it down a tad; you are so much better at that than I am!)…..

toni: ah! no! not at all better at choosing just v v limited choice! 2 x eiffel towers 4 x grafittis... if i had NINE HUNDRED it might be a slightly different story...! x

toni: other 25% of graffiti choice. was drawn by the minimalist font and philosophical bent... x

 

jenny: the philosophical bent?  that would be the hand rail…

jenny: we have two graffiti-type challenges to choose from, namely 6 = pay attention to words and phrases painted on buildings and 8 = put yourself in an urban setting and follow the flow of graffiti or other forms of public expression - and crop phrases or words that stir you - good grief! - are you ‘stirred’ by these words or just ‘paying attention’ to them? oh god - there's another one; 42 = record words and phrases that speak to you in public places - sigh - and 69 = notice the impact of advertisements in a landscape or cityscape (I could probably nail all of those with my Barcelona haul.....what about you?) will attempt to get head (and typing fingers) round a graffiti post tomorrow - can you let me know which of the 4 (5? 6?) challenges we are going with?  am feeling we are maybe on a roll.....you have perhaps more goodies lurking on your hard drive? you know I have a zillion (though not necessarily all goodies of course!)  May 1st tomorrow - a holiday in France of course but not in Switzerland; according to my mother I should get up at dawn and wash my face in dew.....would probably drown in the attempt if this evening's rain is anything to go by xx

toni: re graffiti, for me i guess was 42 - words that spoke... i loved the slightly anti-graffiti/contemporary-illustrative font used by the... aherm...artiste. and that they chose to let the phrase run and run in a linear - and yet also curvingly philosophical - manner. ifyouknowwhatimean.
sorry for delay in reply. BF here on a week's break; which is lovely, only i'm on 'business as usual duty' so there is a slight inequilibrium to our way of being. and also, he dived into a flooded river yesterday, to truly save a neighbour's child and dog from i dread to think what... so that was a bit of a shake up. [me, once panic over, getting all swoony at heroics, yet parents not able to say thanks, despite us taking both child and dog home safely + BF's clothes, phone, passport, wallet, etc, etc all having dissolved to within an inch of life. so strange].
see you on the lawn in spirit tomorrow, washing my face in dew...[ oh! that's what i did yesterday, pulling dog out of river - does beauty combined with act of grace carry more points, to do you think?].
re; being on a roll - may i contemplate this again tomorrow, as need to roll into bed right now...? T mwah.

jenny: ah - as it is 42 I have had to do a bit of a rethink as none of my graffiti pics exactly speaks to me....however, glimmer of hope in precise wording ("record words and phrases that speak to you in public places") of challenge, which led me unhesitatingly to the attached ;-)

with this as a second choice.....(a drinks tarrif list in restaurant window one very cold wintry lunchtime)…..

after lunch of course!

26. where’s the top of the tower?

For challenge number 26 (in view of our recent slide into photographic inertia) we have agreed to offer our viewers (that’s you!) a fresh view of a familiar statue or monument, using photos taken at any time during the course of this 100-challenge marathon.

toni’s offering was actually achieved last November during a trip to a grey and foggy Paris; the trip elicited this email:

hello my chum!  well paris did not deliver at all on horizon front - though did manage to shoot 'known landmark in interesting way', in that top two thirds of eiffeltower non-existent due to lack of visibility in blasted fog! had just the loveliest break…

jenny: love the blurry leaves in your mysteriously foggy Eiff** ***** photo; it has a picture postcard feel to it and could almost have been taken 50 years ago

jenny’s offering comes from a recent stopover in Barcelona; it hasn’t yet elicited anything by way of comment (largely because as I type I am still mulling over which alternative view of which particular ‘familia’ landmark to go with)

later…..(still mulling)

even later…..and I have rejected the (newly) familiar Sagrada Familia- in spite of its being swathed in translucent plastic and shored up with cranes and scaffolding - in favour of this…..

reflection of Barcelona’s quite splendid cathedral

toni: ahhhhh! love ju*taposition of organic bobbliness of ‘cathedral unfamilia’ contained by sleek upright verticals of window... swoon.

jenny: back to using your failing keyboard I see xxx

25. abstracted

abstracted [æbˈstræktɪd] adj 

1. lost in thought; preoccupied; 2. taken out or separated; extracted

which pretty much sums things up really; has it really been all that amount of time since post numéro 24?  that week (all those weeks ago) started off rather badly…..

toni: I have neither photo…..Nor inspiration. Am I a failure? Baaaaaaaaaah!!!

jenny: worry not dear lady - I too am failure - have teeny excuse in that I have had flu (and on my birthday too.....) but blah anyway to advertising and landscapes (whatever!)  am still off today but feeling much better (can't get to end of sentence without coughing though - again that cough - AND I had a flu jab!) - and I don't want to run the risk of wrecking my voice again…..maybe we can put joint failure down to a crap assignment rather than crap assignmentees?  what say we choose something lovely - gasp - something not even in book?  DPS does a weekly challenge - could we maybe hijack one of theirs?

toni: poor you! cough. sniff. bleurgh. xx and on your birthday?!!! SIGH!
SO relieved we are not crap assignees... the only advertising i could find in local landscape was pub sign, when went for lunch last weekend... and yes! let's do DPS abstract thang. just dashing to work now, and computer too slow to scan through other article. will read at leisure later.
take care in your convalescence... at least you can be abstract round the house...

jenny: yoohoo - it's a glorious sunny morning (if a little frosty right now) I just had an espresso and it tasted GOOD, and we have a table booked for lunch in Aix-les-Bains.....I have a new (and quite ludicrously bright, which makes it all the more fun) frock (when did I last use that word?) the car is sparkly clean (not me, the old man) and in a little while we will fling back the roof and sail off together leaving our cares behind us for the day - and for the first time since (heavens, when was it?) I feel (if not completely well, then at least rather) better

toni: Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! And yaaaaaaaaaay! You are Audrey hepburn in Roman holiday. Nearly. And! despite the fog here, I have just bought blue polka dot shoes with pink patent flowers on toes ... in which I plan to tip-tap-tip way through rest of week... x x x our sap is rising!  x x have a wunnerful day! X x

jenny: you too, you too!  PS - sigh - pretty shoes!  when all I have are UGG(ly) boots.....

toni: I have abstract pic…Just not uploaded... hope your this Monday better than your last Monday...

jenny: that's a difficult call.....can I think in the abstract tomorrow?  have long day today – sigh - have lots of pics to choose from though - just no time to choose right now

toni: No hurry AT ALL... whenever is fine... just didn't want you to think I'd bailed out... hope loooong day over deceptively quickly.

jenny: am up for posting.....although I have not quite chosen my abstract offering, and what shall we try for next week?  maybe a colour?  finding blue was fun.....

well, that took care of March; then it was April…..

toni: Just checking all ok...? feel like we've sort of petered off. I still have my abstract eggs in my camera. Have not picked it up since. Hope things ok with you...?

jenny: good (v good!) to hear from you.....did you get my earlier email?  we are in spain this week and next - Internet a bit hit and miss - but we are fine

toni: No... no emails from you of late, but SO pleased to hear you are well... any chance you could resend missing correspondence? Twenty-something degrees here today; sleet forecast for weds... sigh. Am joyful though, as have picked up lawn mower for eight pounds from our village ebay site. Boy! Is my stripy turf gonna git respeck.

jenny: have couple of hastily chosen abstract pics for your perusal.....may change mind of course (will send via the all-new fancy-pants picasa 3.somethingorother) but that's par for the course

toni: so much to say, but keyboard and browser now both museum pieces, it seems... is like computer has had partial stroke and lower left side of keyboard no longer functioning [so no 'kisses' or sleep symblols for you...] - at work tomorrow, but will fire up laptop tomorrow night..

jenny: back in the land of the living .....which means a fridge full of Spanish veggies, and an end to radio silence!  (actually have been there - the land of the living - for a few days now - but am working all week [talk about a shock to the system!] and have been a tad stressed one way and another)  am awaiting your abstract eggs.....typing fingers itching

toni: ooooh jenny d! for some reason your abstract pics didn't arrive here, so i thought you were taking an unspoken break from blogging, whilst contemplating The Big Issue. abstract eggs remain abstractly in my camera... will send over tomorrow.
hope you're ok and enjoying veg... T [now no ' ' or ' ' keys working on my keyboard, and writing 'kiss' to a girl feels a little wrong...]

jenny: I looked back at all my sent mail and found NO trace of any sent abstracts.....who knows what happened to them!  I don't think I dreamt it!  But have (re?)sent one and sent for the first time a second.  Taken at my 'shortly-after-birthday' lunch.  SO long ago!

(heavens - I took this on the 15th March!!! and the one that (hopefully) follows – which it should - we are now hooked up (or whatever the term is)
with (by?) fibre optics.....(you should gasp at this point!)

[But I can back-date the post - so it needn't look too bad.  Then perhaps we can choose a few of our 'delayed' challenges (I now have numbers 8 and 42 [graffiti/words] 10 [city at night] 29 [station] 52 [bug] 79 [beach textures] 69 [adverts] 63 [monument] and possibly quite a few more - Barcelona was a photographer's dream (but an editor's NIGHTMARE; 900+ pics to wade through).....]

I managed to wait until 9 minutes past 5 before I poured this evening's (first) glass of vino tinto and re: veg – husband very thoughtfully (!) got a (quite possibly illegally imported) Waitrose curry out of the freezer for supper this evening.  Trouble is we have Spanish asparagus that needs eating.  Not quite sure they go with one another

PS While I absolutely agree with you about 'kiss' - maybe a dainty 'mwah' would do in the absence of an x.  OK on reflection I think that's a no too!  Which reminds me.  I finally have a U.  Trouble is, unlike the other letters, it does not allow light through (my backlit keyboard).  But at least in the dark I know it is the one I can't see.  And yes, I do use it in the dark! 

toni: goy-jus!!!! specially the droppy bit... fibre optics, eh ? i think there's just a plastic straw filled with hope which wires life here at bayham  to the worldly wisely web... xxxx [diff computer! ha! mwah!] x 

toni: eggs…is eggs... no matter how abstractly one tries to shoot them. in a dropbox near you, now..!

jenny: those soft speckles.....the tiny little tufts of feather.....Dave & Betty laid them perchance? and are they now a chocolate cake???

toni: Ah... Dave and betty did lay them. But. Sniff. D and B  have moved on to Pyjama Farm. Because they were ANNOUNCING the laying of their eggs at sunrise (ie earlier and earlier each day). And our neighbour's son had to move bedrooms on account of the racket!  Was a big wrench (surprisingly so) to say goodbye. So this photo was taken on their last day chez nous. I hid them in my room for about two weeks, so that my son couldn't use six in one hit to make an omelette.
I miss the girls massively... but not the blundering, early morning wake-ups... x x  PS so glad you noticed incy [is that a word?] feather on egg...

24. les bleus

jenny: have a fabuloso w/e à Bruxelles avec le BF - and not too bowed down with weighty rucksack; click away ces bleus.....

meanwhile.....I walked round our watery nature reserve yesterday morning, camera in (very cold) hand, in the vain hope of some early frosty sunshine.....with a slight stretch of the imagination I do have a couple of reflections that may have the faintest hint of (albeit greyish) blue about them; today appears to be a little more promising (I see gold on branches!) so I may just leap into the shower and hoof it down the hill.....

my walk turned out to be quite fruitful!

hope your w/e ditto

toni: stop it already!!!! true, beautiful BLUE... i have a teeny tiny speck of cobalt [on this grey grim day...] on a café sugar packet. sigh. to be uploaded soonest!

jenny: it was a long walk.....

got a few more today (an even longer walk, but much greyer, this one) so I might even edit my collage; I am enjoying heading out with my camera, sniffing out something in particular - I feel it's making me look at things differently.  I found some false teeth pinned to the top of a fence post on today's walk; sadly though, not even a hint of blue about them

what do you fancy doing for next week?  god, is it too early to pour a glass of wine?  late lunch perhaps?

toni: d'you want to choose - with intent or without volition? [sugar wrapper = pathetic, but got some decent 'writing on a building' - [was this one of our 'on standbys?' - thought so, but not sure?!]...

am still in [grey] belgium + agree about 'viewing the world with more care' via challenges. meanwhile, went to brussels flea market this morning + got beautiful heavy swirling glass lamp-base + super-girly metal chandelier featuring many hand-painted flowers..BF commented he 'knew where i was going with it' - but this was clearly <not> in his direction! 

and no, abs not TOO EARLY for wine - have already partaken in my afternoonly pastis...

jenny: it's perfect - mine seem all brash now.....

as for next week, had earlier thought of number 68 (which it turns out we've done) and as a back-up 69 - and that just happens to be 'notice the impact of advertisements in a landscape or cityscape.....that sound OK to you?

PS time, I think, for my second glass of wine!

toni: ... only your second glass?