Postcard Sales

I spent yesterday evening delivering another batch of framed photos. Very satisfying. Our architect has bought three for his incredibly minimalist house - quite an honour, the only other things hanging on their walls are three prints by architect John Pawson http://observer.guardian.co.uk/life/story/0,,675491,00.html .

At the weekend I also sold postcards of the photos. I have worked out, how many I sold at the weekend. 113 all told, with Sand being the biggest seller. In second place came Lough Cuillin
- here it is

After the show

I have started to deliver the photos that people ordered at the exhibition. Last night it was a meeting of all the York Open Studios artists in a pub in town. Everyone seemed to have done pretty well - a good vibe. I am already planning for next year's event.
I was very pleased that this photo got a lot of attention. It has about six layers in it [the reflections etc] which I like a lot. Half way through the weekend I noticed that cafe is spelt with the accent on the e going the wrong way - so it is definitely Sheffield and not Berlin,

Cycling In London

I was working in London yesterday, and cycled around my meetings. This involved some good long rides to Redbridge, Ilford and Muswell Hill. It was a beautiful day and great to be moving through London in the sunshine.

There are three reasons that make cycling in London difficult and stressful
1 The facilities are not maintained, or abused. Lanes are parked in and so on, signs not pointing the right way
2 People are ignorant of how to treat cyclists and cycle lanes etc
3 There are definitely more aggressive drivers per capita in the capital, and it wears you down.

The photo is of the extension as it stands.

Pond Ice

This was another popular photo at the exhibition - Pond Ice. It was taken early in the morning. I have no idea why the ice formed as it did, but that together with the reflection of the trees that looks likes a pair of legs, add to the image.

Last night I stayed at Rob and Cath's in Muswell Hill. Great to see them and catch up. Rob has been off drink since last year, so we shared some ginger ale.

Open Studios

It is all over now - it went really well, with plenty of sales [far more than I hoped for]. The photo shows the exhibition set up in the new extension

Open Studios are Open

Yesterday was spent preparing for York Open Studios. The builders did us proud and got the stairs and windows in place. The Friday and Saturday sessions have been exhausting but they are going well, sales steady and comments very encouraging. The biggest seller so far is Sand which I reproduce here. Just time for an evening with cousin Sarah and her boyfren Markus then back to work tomorrow.

Fairburn

Sunday we went to the RSPB reserve at Fairburn. Very cold and blowy, there was a Long-Eared Owl there [which we did not see] and a Reed Bunting which we saw very close up -

http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/r/reedbunting/index.asp

The photo is another from Rowan's Brownie ritual

Brownies

Danielle and I both went to watch Rowan being sworn in to Brownies. A somewhat bizarre ritual involving a toad-stool and some funny clapping, but we were well looked after by Brownie's getting their hospitality badge. Rowan really enjoys going at the moment. This photo is of Rowan and her friend dancing around the circle before being the ceremony.

Baxter

Rowan's carries on seeing the "dog-man" Jamie, and the hand picked people-friendly dogs, about her dog-phobia. It is going very well, she has been happy with a slightly larger dog [Baxter, in the photo] and has fed him treats. This is a great step forward. The next trick will be for her to feel OK around dogs that she does not know - but we all feel we are on the right track

Word of Mouth

This is one of the photos I delivered on Saturday to a client who had seen some of my Finding A Voice work. It is good to get work through word of mouth like that - marketing is not something I relish for either my management consultancy or photography.

Sleep-over

Here is how the cedar cladding looks on the outside of the extension - I love it.

Last night Rowan had three friends round for a sleepover. This involved lots of screaming, crumbs and excitement. We are glad it is all over.

Bones

After Danielle's broken leg, my mother very sadly broke her left wrist last week: really bad news, but she seems OK about it all things considered. Then on Thursday night I whacked my toe against a picture frame [stored all over the house for Open Studios purposes] and think I broke my toe. This is very minor stuff compared to the other two, but it didn't help.

On the good side of things, the glass is all in position at the front of the extension: it is going to be great.

Snickets

York has many fantastic snickets, often with amazing names. Mad Alice Lane is one, but my favorite is this one "Nether Hornpot Lane". It just makes me smile - not sure why.

The Red Tower

Book group last week we discussed American Pastoral by Philip Roth. Usually each book has someone who didn't finish it, this week it was me: I barely started it. I just couldn't stomach another Great American Novel about the 60s. Anyway, the rest of the group were split between the ayes and the nays.

I have been reading Stuart Maconie's Pies and Prejudice about the North of England. As he is from Wigan and I am from Preston there are plenty of chords to be struck. A good read, but a bit sloppy at times.

The photo is of The Red Tower: part of the York City Walls. Built in the 1400's it is made of red brick - this caused consternation [and murder of a brick-layer by a stone mason] when it was built in brick instead of stone.

Stairs

The stairs are now in place, with window frames going in today.
Rowan went to a junior Triathlon club on Saturday

http://www.whiterosetri.co.uk/

for the first time. She is keen now, after being very reluctant at the start, we'll see...

Merchants Adventurers

On Friday our York Homeworkers group [a loose, very loose, group of people who work from home] went on a walk by the river. It is always good to catch up with other people who experience the issues attached to working from home. One of our number had been asked to become a Merchant Adventurer

http://www.holycross.edu/departments/visarts/projects/kempe/town/york_merchant_advisors_hall/yk_merchant_adventurers_hall.htm

We all agreed it sounded impressive, but at £350 a year, we were not so sure. The Merchant Adventurers Hall is known to most in York as a venue for weddings and various events. That's it in the photo. The last time we were there was for a Scottish wedding: Japanese tourists were busy photographing the quaint custom of men wearing skirts.

Cross Again

Rowan ran in another cross country race last week. As you can see there were a lot of kids. She came second; first girl and enjoyed it.
She was at a sleepover last night, so Danielle and I had a meal out at Akash - a great restaurant.

Clad Tidings

The cedar cladding has started to go onto the outside of the extension. It looks great, and they are doing a really good job of it.

Castaway

A good day. First off, Danielle is now free of her cast. She had it sawed off at the hospital this morning. Walking is strange to get used to again, but the consultant seemed pleased enough with the healing process.
Then we got home to find the stairs and front window screen in place on the extension, things are really moving on.
The photo is another from Cawood and the River Ouse.

Stonewalling

Driving back from work today I was trundling through residential streets of Huddersfield: when a car shot out backwards from a side street, right in front of the woman in front of me. She braked hard, so did I, We were OK. The car carried on backwards and smashed into the stone wall on the other side of the street. We pulled in, and waited for the [presumably drunk, or 10 years old, or both] driver to get out. No driver emerged. We then realised that it had just rolled down on its own free will. It was a pretty unlikely occurrence, but not as unlikely as what happened next.
The next car to arrive was a Police car. We waved her down, she took over, and off we went.

Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate

The shortest street in York, with the longest name. It allegedly means "My what a street!" but my feeling is it has to be ruder than that.

Foss

The River Foss was historically very important to York. The city is built where the Foss meets the Ouse. But today, whereas the Ouse still looks like a real river, the Foss is for the most part a bit of a ditch. Except for here, where the Rowntree Wharf stands. It was here that boats that had come up the Ouse and onto the Foss unloaded their cocoa cargo. Nowadays it has been converted to flats [a friend lives at the top of the tower].

Cawood

I took a quick cycle ride south of York this week. A beautiful day. The whole area is defined by the rivers. The Ouse and the Wharfe carve up the land so that getting from A to B can be a drawn out affair. The one crossing of the Ouse is at Cawood where this swing bridge is a manned reminder of the importance of the river.

Extension

The extension creeps forward ... This photo shows the windows are in on the west side, with the radiator in place and the lighting track on the ceiling.

We watched Syriana last night

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriana

and found it a good film - not great, but good.

Eugene Onegin

The photo is of the start of the cross country race.

On Saturday Rowan and I went to see the opera Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky on the live link up at the City Screen with the Met in New York.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Onegin_(opera)

It was fantastic, and Rowan like d it too [although we did vacate the cinemea when the killing was taking place] A big success.

Rowan Wins!

Sorry about the quality of the photo and the gushing-parent-speak.

This is Rowan winning her cross country race, it was against other schools, boys and girls, and she smoked them all! On a horrible cold rainy afternoon as well.