Black and White Wednesday

Last Wednesday I managed to drag myself out of the comatose state of exhaustion I have spent most of my recent days off in, for long enough to get out into the countryside for a walk. It has been too long. Too long without hearing birds, and feeling mud underneath my feet and TOO LONG WITHOUT TAKING PHOTOS!

So what that it was raining and cloudy and dark…that just gives an excuse to take some photos in black and white!

 

I’m thinking of entering this next photo into Wildlife Photographer of the year…

 

I mean, if this photo can win because it ‘captures the essence of the hare’ could you say that I was capturing the essence of the pheasant?! (image from here)

How to go for a walk…

…Will, Anna, Becky, Hannah, Josh and Rachel style!

 1. Peruse a map of your local area and notice that one of the nearby hills is called Welshie Law. Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter that the surrounding land could be a midge infested bog, this is an adventure! And it’s called Welshie, you have to climb it!

2. Arrive at the tiny village of Yarrow to begin your walk, only to find that there is a huge funeral being held there and that every sensible parking space is taken.

3. Drive out of village. Do perilous three point turn in farm gate. Lose hub cap.

4. Park inappropriately at the side of the road and awkwardly walk out of the village avoiding eye contact with the steady stream of mourners walking the other way.

 

5. Find hub cap at the side of the road. Decide it would be too embarrassing to run back to the car past the mourners so carry it on the walk instead.

6. Find path.

 

7. Act out the Christmas story to keep yourself amused (only advisable if you’re walking with children’s workers)

 

8. Remember half way up the hill that you’re ridiculously unfit. Feel like legs will fall off. Dump all bags on the ‘fit one’ (read: Josh)

 9. Remember that the big bottle of insect spray you bought especially for the trip is still back at the cottage. Proceed to be attacked by flies.

10. Admire the amazing view from the top of the hill. Feel like it was well worth the toil after all. Eat lunch, take photos, play Frisbee.

 

11. Walk down other side of hill and realise you have lost the path. Consult map. Trespass on farm property and worry you are about to be shot by farmers.

 

12. Finally make it back to the inappropriately parked cars and head home, happy.

 13. Eat cake

Snaps

I know that some of you are eager for me to post about my holiday…but well, I’m very sorry but I think you should resign yourself to the fact that it’s not happening soon.

I have a friend staying this week, a big pile of work to catch up on, a birthday party to host, presents to open and a litre of Baileys to drink.

I will try to fill you all in soon, but in the mean time if you want to see some of my holiday snaps click here

Birthday Fun at Blwch Nant yr Arian

Introducing Chloe

A big welcome to my second guest blogger this week – Chloe from My Happy Ending. I’ll let her introduce herself properly, but just to say that Chole and I have been ‘blogging buddies’ for a while now, and she’s great! You should go and check out her blog NOW! (Well after reading this post of course).

Hello! This is not Rachel… My name (or at least my blog pseudonym) is Chloe. Rachel asked me to write a guest post for Dreaming of the Country, so here I am. When she e-mailed me and asked to write for her blog, at first I was excited and answered YES. Of course! I love her blog and love writing… so why not?

But then I realized it wasn’t as easy as I thought… At least not for me. Questions started to come up. Questions like: What’s the topic? What do I write about? What if I write about this? No, too boring. And about this? No, this is lethal… Hum. What if I made mistakes? What if people don’t like my guest post? What would she like I write about? No idea.

Ooh, stress, stress, stress. Questions, questions, questions.

Anyway. The day has come and I don’t have any good post. Sorry!

But I’ll try to write one. I promise.

So, first I think I should introduce myself properly, don’t you think?

*Cough, cough* Hi everyone!! I’m Chloe, from… (Surprise!!!) SPAIN. Everyone thinks Spain is a beautiful country: sun, beach, holidays… But the truth is: IT IS!! Except for holidays… I’ve not been on holidays for two years! This is my first summer holiday in two years… (sob, sniff, hiccup, sob, sniff, hiccup…) Too sad.

Okay, I said I’m from Spain. Why am I writing in English? My mother tongue is Spanish, but I love English, so I try to write in English whenever possible. So you may find some mistakes… Sorry!! I do my best!

I found Rachel’s blog some months ago, and I’ve been reading it ever since. Humm… I don’t remember how I found it… (maybe I’m a terrible gossip and enjoy running from one blog to another in order to know a little bit about other people’s lives… or maybe I was bored and started to look for something good to read on the internet and wanted to know A LITTLE BIT ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE’S LIVES…) In conclusion: Maybe (but just MAYBE) I’m a terrible gossip.

Want to know more about me? Okay…I write for my own blog, My Happy Ending. I write about Jimmy (my boyfriend), our relationship, my ups and downs, life in general, and my cute pet, Stitch… Oh Stitch. He is a super pet! Do you want to know what kind of animal he is? Well… he is… (Surprise!!!) a FERRET! Yep, a ferret. Not a dog, nor a cat, nor a hamster. A ferret. Why? Don’t know. I like ferrets. As simple as that (No, he doesn’t stink!! He’s not a skunk!)

As I said before, I don’t remember how I found Rachel’s blog, but it was probably while I was reading Confessions of a Young Married Couple (I say “probably” because I was reading that blog all the time, and thanks to all the comments I found there, I could meet great blogs like this and great people like Rachel). And once I found it, I was hooked! I loved her honesty and sincerity. AND HER PICTURES! I think Rachel is a great photographer. Love Love LOVE them!

I mean, look at them!

 

I love how natural she is about anything.

And really LOVE her (*cough*love*cough*) story. Yes I confess: I’m an incurable romantic!!! She’s living my dream!!

(My dream is to get a job, buy a house and marry the love of my life, Jimmy.Right now, I’m unemployed, don’t own a house, and am not married to Jimmy… Unfortunately. Not yet. Great!! I’m a disaster. The only goal I’ve reached is a college degree in Translation and Interpreting. That’s all. Meanwhile, I’m earning some money working as a private English, French or Spanish teacher at home.)

So when I found her blog, I had to write a comment and introduce myself! And then she found my blog, and that’s how we met! (not in person… obviously!! She lives in UK and I live in Spain… And fortunately, we haven’t met in person… because then she would realize how uncool I am…)

So if you see some comments written by someone called Chloe, you already know who Chloe is. That strange Spanish girl who writes in English, has a ferret and is waiting to share her life with her boyfriend. And with her readers!!

Introducing Jerry

Welcome to my first guest bloggers of the week! I would like to introduce my good friend Jerry (from jerryhcooke fame), and his girlfriend Fawn.

Jerry is one of the reasons that all of you have to put up with me happy snapping almost everything. We went through school together and I spent many happy hours stealing his camera equipment and going and taking photos of nature, before actually deciding to buy my own. Pretty much all the equipment I have bought has been vetted by Jerry first!

Anyway, Jerry is a vlogger rather than a blogger and has a great youtube channel here. He also took some AMAZING pictures of our wedding which you can view on his flickr page here.

He lives in St Ives, which is probably in one of the most beautiful places on earth (although don’t let Josh hear me say Cornwall is beautiful!).

Enough of my waffling…enjoy!

Top 5 Photographic Memories – Wildlife

You have probably noticed that I love wildlife photography. I love the challenge it poses because it’s often so unexpected and you only get a few seconds in which to catch something special. Josh and I try and get out into the countryside as much as possible and as a result so many of our wonderful memories hinge on wild places and wildlife. It’s wonderful to have some photos to help us treasure those memories.

1. Dolphins in Pembrokeshire. June 2008

 

This isn’t a particularly good photo but it just reminds me of fulfilling one of my ‘do before you die’ wishes. While camping in Pembrokeshire we took a boat out about 23 miles into the Irish sea and eventually came across a pod of dolphins which swam and jumped around the boat for about forty minutes. It will be something that I remember for the rest of my life.

2. Starlings in Aberystwyth. February 2005

 

During the Autumn and Winter months thousands of starlings roost underneath the pier in Aberystwyth. If it’s raining the starlings will quickly swoop underneath the supports, but if the weather is fine they will mass together in their thousands and perform amazing acrobatic air displays. This photo reminds me of eating fish and chips while watching one of these displays with Josh when he came up to visit me when I was at University. We have only been going out for 8 months and hated being apart. That week we spent together was very special.

3. Ynys Hir Lizard. June 2008

 

This was taken on one of the first proper trips I had out with my new canon SLR last year. I had to crawl so slowly to try not to scare the lizard and managed to snap two frames before it darted away. I doubted whether either would be any good as I had been balancing on one leg, but amazingly this one was great and sent me into a bookeh induced euphoria for the rest of the day. I will always remember that day as we saw so much good wildlife without even looking for it.

4. Woodmouse in Wiltshire. November 2008

 

I know, a woodmouse can’t exactly be described as a top wildlife spot, but what is special about this one is that I managed to share the experience with my young Nephew. We were lagging behind the rest of the group on a walk when I heard a scuffling in a nearby hedge. We carefully moved closer and saw this little chap just sitting there. We managed to get very close and then just crouched there watching. I could tell my Nephew was holding his breath and was spell bound. Very special.

5. Butterfly. Aberystwyth

 

I just like this photo, and it reminds me of all the hot summer days that I have spent lying in fields of long grass and wild flowers, staring up at the sky while butterflies flit around me.

Mrs M’s Marriage Tips

Now that Josh and I have been married for two years I don’t think that the term ‘newlyweds’ really refers to us anymore.

Perhaps now we have been married for 104 weeks, people will stop giving up that ‘oh aren’t they cute and young’ look and saying “soooo….how’s married life then?!”

Now that I have been a Mrs for over 731 days I thought that maybe I now qualify to crinkle my nose in a companionable way and to give some unsolicited advice of my own.

So, here we have it. For all my just married, or soon to be married friends here’s Mrs M’s top 5 marriage tips;

1. Girls, guard your socks. Might sound weird but it just needs a man to mistake your sock for theirs one time and their great oaf feet will stretch it out of all proportion. Or you could only buy pink sparkly socks, that could work.

2. It might take you a while [read: a year] to get used to the fact that there is MAN sleeping in your bed at night, but don’t worry – one day you’ll come to appreciate exchanging foot fives before you go to sleep.

3. Unfortunately saying “FINE, we’re made up” doesn’t really count as an argument ender (or an apology).

4. It’s always better to laugh than cry. Washing machine just exploded? Car broken down in the middle of a roundabout? If something stressful is going down or you’re just getting worked up try and put it into perspective. Is it really worth having an argument over? Could this be turned into a happy memory just by laughing?

5. Always remember that marriage is made up of Fish and Chips* Feelings and Choices. When Josh and I were dating I knew I wanted to be with him forever because even when I imagined a future without him I would suddenly stop short and think ‘Oh, if Josh wasn’t around I couldn’t tell him that’. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to kill him sometimes, but I’ve made that choice to share my future with him and that means whatever our problems are, we face them together instead of letting them get between us. Once you have decided that, nothing seems so hard.

Well, that’s all from Mrs M today…I guess now that I have been married for about 17544 hours I just get to look forward to the “so when are you going to have kids?” comments!

*It’s from our wedding sermon. A post for another day perhaps?