I haven’t spent a lot of time in the kitchen this past month – with both boys on holidays, we’ve been out and about quite a bit. Here are eight photos, all taken on my iPhone 4S in recent weeks. They didn’t really fit into any other posts, so I thought I’d give them one of their own.
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I snapped this shot as we were landing at Sydney airport. As we passed through the thick cloud bank the brilliant blue disappeared, to be replaced with rain and dark overcast skies…
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As I’ve mentioned before, we have a terrible time growing tomatoes in our backyard in summer. But for some reason, we always seem to have self-sown winter tomatoes to harvest. We think these are a roma-cherry cross…
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Contemporary artists start young in our neighbourhood.
While we were away, four year old Pinkabelle (as she now insists on being called) installed her newest creation on our garden steps. She’s been doing it for years (photos here and here), always keeping to the same materials, but routinely altering their layout. Like all good artists, she likes to keep things fresh…
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On our day out in Sydney, we stopped at King Comics on Pitt Street. I was quite chuffed with my slightly psychedelic photo of Ringo and George…
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Our lovely friend Linda gave me a jar of her (very addictive) tamarillo chilli sauce, and when I asked what a tamarillo was, she sent me a couple in the mail to try. They’re deliciously tart and quite tomato like…
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Thankfully, these hand-tooled Italian boots didn’t fit Pete, as we really couldn’t afford the $399 they were marked down to. They were absolutely stunning…
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By lunchtime each day, the early morning dew in our garden is nearly gone. These last droplets on a nasturtium leaf formed perfectly round magical fairy globes. Like tiny magnifying glasses, each focused a beam of sunlight onto the leaf’s surface…
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Finally, a little running water is considered good feng shui to the Chinese, and I was captivated by this small fountain near St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney. I liked the photo so much that it’s now my desktop wallpaper!
How’s life in your part of the world?
I hope things are calm and happy! x
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Hi Celia. Nice photos. I can’t believe it. You have tomatoes and I don’t:)
What?!? You’re out of tomatoes? Whatever will you take pictures of now? ;) Hopefully you’ve got some nice snaps from your holiday…
Kate, not out of tomatoes by any means. We still have a few hundred jars …just no fresh ones …
Only in winter, Glenda, and only just a few.. ;-)
Calm? Never… Happy? yes… I am very happy
lovely photos, Celia – not sure which one is my favorite, I love the tomatoes on the black background.
that boot is gorgeous indeed… pricey, but gorgeous…
Sally, weren’t they divine? They were the nicest pair I’ve seen in a long time, and you know I have a thing for boots.. ;-)
I adore Pinkabelle’s artistic endeavors. I wonder if there’s something with little girls & rock arranging since my daughter used to do something like that when she was very young. She would arrange her stones with such intensity that I wondered what she was thinking while doing it, but I’m sure it had great meaning to her.
Ah, that pool looks so refreshing to me. We are still in the midst of a very hot, humid spell that is just wearing everyone down. I understand that it will break this weekend & drop a good 30 degrees in one day. Alas, that usually means major thunderstorms which means that my 90 lb. dog will have an anxiety attack & no one will get any sleep.
Diane, there’s always a lot of thought that goes into the artwork, and she gets very cross if anyone touches it. I’m sorry it’s so hot – hope the weather eases up for you all soon!
Ah, she sounds like a true artist. I think we’ll be getting relief this Saturday when a cold front blows through but until then it’ll be 90-100. Of course anytime we get such a drastic change there will be major thunderstorms. Just a couple more days, we can handle it.
Great way to post the miscellaneous pictures, Celia! Once I’ve put up some of a series, the extras just go back into storage and I don’t usually do anything with them. I enjoyed the stone art work by Pinkabelle, the clouds and water drops, tomato and tamarillos- and the boots are exquisite.
Enjoy seeing the small moments of your life today!
Thanks Heidi, they made me happy and I didn’t want to lose them in the files. I’d love to see eight of your miscellaneous photos any day! :)
I wish Pinkabelle would come to my house. It definitely needs an artist’s touch.
Love the photos, Celia.
Thanks love! Pinkabelle demands chocolate as payment! :)
Love all your snapshots of recent life moments and could jump into that fountain right now! Most of the UK is the midst of a heat wave and we don’t really cater for this type of weather…managed to escape back to the V&A museum again yesterday and saw the David Bowie exhibition. It really was a treat, he’s such a creative, talented man.
P.S. Really love the little Ringo and George figurines :-)
Danielle, they were $175 each!! Which is why I just ended up taking the photos.. :) I hope it cools down for all of you, sounds like you’re sweltering over there! x
All calm and happy in Barcelona! Breathtaking photo of early morning dew … Well captured, Celia.
Hey, I wondered where you were! Were you in Spain in time to catch the running of the bulls? ;-)
Beautiful photography Celia.
Thanks Jean!
Please ask Pinkabelle if she does gallery installations. :) Love love love that second last photo Celia, it satisfies all my childhood dreams of where the Little People live.
Rose, I’ve never seen water like that – usually it’s a flattened splodge, but these droplets were perfectly round spheres. Quite astounding, although it took a few attempts to capture it with the little iPhone lens! :)
Beautiful collection of photos, Celia… I could just pick that tamarillo right off the page! I love water and cloud shots. Glad to hear all is well with you xo
Thanks darling. Hope all is well in your world too?
That photo of the water on the leaves is stunning Celia. You have such a knack for capturing such special photos.
Claire, thank you! They were sparkling like little jewels – as I was saying to Rose, I don’t often see water forming perfectly round spheres!
It’s all a bit chilly and windy in this part of the world Celia – but the fires are warm and the tea is hot.
We’ve had ludicrously warm winter weather, A! Apparently a cold change is coming though. Stay warm! x
I love Pinkabelle’s stone sculptures. I checked out the other 2 pics, and it’s evident that she’s developing her artistic talents. When Pinkabelle is famous we’ll be able to say we saw it here first :)
Isn’t she brilliant? Artistically demanding and bossy too! :D
A clear favourite in Pinkabelle’s photo: there is forthcoming talent there for sure! And, wonderful, I have some great feng shui in the house – I have a dripping tap I have been unable to attend to, does that count . . . :) ?
Eha, I’m sure it does! :D
I love that you always remind us to stop and smell the roses Celia. There are so many big, busy issues in life that sometimes the small, significant ones get overlooked xox
ps. love the boots!
Becca, for about half an hour a few days ago, the only significant thing was trying to get a photo of that nasturtium leaf! I must have taken dozens of shots! :) The boots were truly awesome.. xx
Good things Celia, I love the water shot too! So calming.
Thanks Jane! xx
Beautiful photos!!
Thanks Manuela! :)
Italian shoes are extremely expensive. We saw a pair of plain shoes for €129!
I’m sure they’re very good though, Tandy! :) And that was in Italy, you can just imagine the prices once they’ve been imported and shipping and duty added! :)
I’m fascinated by little Pinkerbelle’s rock art – if she could vocalise what she is creating it would be such an insight into a little person’s world, but then…art just ‘is’ isn’t it. I am completely mathsphobic but the more I know about people who ‘know about’ physics and the like, the more I understand it explains the world – and it would explain why those rain drops have remained such perfect little globules. I remember observing number-one-daughter once in full tantrum mode and watching the arc described by something she threw and thinking – as you do when all around you is chaos :) …if I was physics literate I could write an equation for how those things became airborne!. You sound comfortably ‘whelmed’ Celia…nice place to be…but – if Pete had bought those boots….wouldn’t there be a tussle going on in your house???
Jan, they were definitely boy’s boots, but oh, they were just so gorgeous. Not to be, sadly. Or maybe thankfully. :) The water globules had me completely entranced, I’ve never seen such round droplets – of course, last night we then had to have a dinner table discussion about how nasturtium leaves are hydrophobic.. ;-)
Hehe I just bought hubby a dozen tamarillos. He’s crazy about them-I’m less keen on them as is but I would imagine that they’re delicious with chilli in a sauce :)
They’re absolutely divine in a sauce! I didn’t like them enough raw to want to grow them though.. :)
These are beautiful images Celia! Thank you for sharing them. I think I like the second last with water droplets best, but it’s a hard choice :)
Kari, thank you, that one’s my favourite too! :)
I love the dewdrops image and the water image – both are very serene and peaceful. I love tamarillos. I grew up on them. Moved to Australia and really missed them. Have just started seeing them appearing in shops here but they’re not cheap! They’re lovely cut in half then sprinkled with raw sugar, then apply the blow torch! xx
Charlie, that sounds like a totally wicked way to eat tamarillos! You can plant a tamarillo tree – they’re a subtropical perennial – we saw one on sale at Enfield Produce last week!
I loved all your photographs dear Celia, Thank you, have a nice day, love, nia
Thanks Nia! xx
I can’t believe what terrific photos your phone takes…although part of it is the photographer, I’m sure. :)
Karen, thank you. The iPhone camera has been life-changing – I used to take a lot of photos when I was a teenager, and the phone has basically given me my old hobby back! I wrote about it here.. :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2012/07/18/cool-thing-13-hipstamatic-iphone-app/
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2012/09/08/iphone-photography/
I did my first yoga class this morning at 6am so I’m very calm! Beautiful photos, Celia, I like the randomness of the collection. How fortunate you are to have your own in house artist.
Oh yes, and she works for chocolate, Jo! :)
Such beautiful photos Celia! Thank you for sharing them!
Thanks love! xx
Here in southern Virginia, thanks to bad weather and blight, our tomato garden is a disaster. But we have volunteer cherry tomatoes popping up all over the farm and they look great. Go figure.
Hi Bill, thanks for dropping by! We’ve learnt to just eat whatever grows, and the volunteer plants seem to be healthier than the ones we plant! ;-)
Hi Celia!
Thanks for this lovely post! X I am just back from my Holiday & am blogging again! X