Retro kitchen delights

For as long as I can remember I've had a real weakness for retro/vintage crockery. Left to my own devices and without thought or care for life essentials such as food, bills and rent, I could quite happily part with significant chunks of my budget on more vintage kitchen accessories than I could possibly ever hope to use in a lifetime.

I guess part of my love of pieces such as these is the sense of childhood nostalgia they evoke. The colours, patterns and images prevalent in pieces by Hornsea, Staffordshire,Denby, Turi Gramstad Oliver and the like are a tangible link to grandmothers china cabinets, fathers mugs, old storybooks. It is a style and form of artwork that must have imprinted on me at an early age, and that I still respond to with a feeling of lighthearted joy.
It is with no small measure on happiness that I can claim not to remember the last time I bought a 'new' item of crockery, and that my kitchen shelves are bursting with a mismatched assortment of flea market finds.
I plan to start experimenting with some of these design elements in a series of sketches/collages soon.

1. Ceramic pestle and mortar,2.Creamer,3.Pots,4.Owly tea,
5.Tea for 3,6.? 7. Hornsea mug collection, 8. Hornsea mugs ,9.?

Apologies for the couple I forgot to make note of....

Loads more amazing finds in this groups: http://www.flickr.com/groups/vintagehousewares/pool/
and this blog
http://hisforhomeblog.com/

Summer in Brighton

Vintage summer

In honour of the most gorgeous summer weather we've been having in the UK for the last week, here's a collection of images that give me good summer vibes. They're all examples of a vintage/ethereal type post-processing treatment that I really like, has a very nostalgic and soft summery feel about it. I've experimented a little to try and replicate the look of this with some of my own pictures, but haven't really been satisfied with many of the results so far - can't quite get the same soft pastel feel happening. Shooting in RAW on a 50mm with slight overexposure seems to be a good start

Added to my 'Vintage summer' gallery on flickr - check here for photo credits :)

owly

1. Hoot
2. You and Me
3. Owl on apples
4.Owl
5. Tulips
6. Blue pattern owl
7. Owl
8. Under my wing
9. Peagreen shop

Owls. I like them

Before and after

The vagaries of April...one day it's golden sunshine, a couple of days later you're ankle deep in the white stuff

Contemplating Winter

English, Scottish and Icelandic

Foolish in April

I'm a sucker for a cheap gimmick.
For anyone that doesn't speak a lick of French, it's a play on 'chateauneuf'
Cat On Egg

If you don't know anything about wine either, then there's nothing I can do for you really... ;)

Crazy eyes

Donkeys always make such easy photography subjects. Odds on they'll wander up to the fenceline, pull a stupid face and the rest is up to you...
One of the problems with photography in England is the extreme narrowness of a lot of the rural roads. While I'm driving around with one eye on the road and the other on potential photo ops, I need a third eye to spot any potential spot where I can pull up. The size of some of the roads here can make driving a very interesting gamble...

Land of Ice and Fire

Blue lagoon - Iceland.

New growing season

First signs of Spring in an English Woodland

Detail

Near the Tour de Hassan, Rabat Morocco

The cat in Rabat

Dr Suess, Arab style

Harmony

For the land where it's a great travesty
To harm a stork's nest in a pear tree,
For storks serve us all...
I am homesick, Lord!...

Cyprian Kamil Norwid

Behind bars - Rabat Zoo

I recently spent three days in Rabat, Morocco to field a proposal to create a tourism/species conservation centre for Barbary lions in the Atlas mountains. The Barbary, or Atlas Lion went extinct in the wild during the early 20th century. Later it was proposed that the Sultan of Morocco's private collection would likely have specimens of this subspecies within it. In the 1970's these lions were transferred to Rabat zoo, and some later came to our park. Without proper breeding management over the decades, none of the remaining captive lions housed in zoos around the world are likely to be 100% Barbary lions on a genetic level. But it's the closest thing we have left.

Unfortunately the Moroccan authorities ultimately decided not to go ahead with the idea.

Happy New Year!

Solstice Sun

Getting used to seasonal shifts in daylight hours has been one of the hardest things to adapt to since moving to Europe. Although I spent many years in New Zealand when I was young, I lived near the equator long enough to develop a preference for daylight hours of equal length all year round. Still, being dragged comatose around the countryside by the dog early every morning means I'm still guaranteed to get a small dose of sunshine every day.

It's always summer in Provence

Time to shed the heavy coats and get a welcome respite from the northern winter in southern France.



Vergeze, a small village in the South of France

The fungus among us

Autumn microcosm in a northern French wood
Learning to identify edible mushrooms has been one of those things that has floated about on my personal to-do list for many years.
Still, for starters I do know which one of these was the shamen's 'shroom of choice...

Carefree

According to a new government census India's tiger population has fallen drastically during the past five years, with poaching and urbanisation cited as the probable reasons for the decline.

Tigers are poached for their body parts - skins are prized for fashion and tiger bones are used for oriental medicines. India is home to 40% of the world's tigers, with 23 tiger reserves in 17 states.

Yanomama in motion

The Ocelot (Felis pardalis) is a small cat from Central and South America.
The name "ocelot" comes from the Mexican Aztec word "tlalocelot" meaning field tiger.