Exhibition: MK Art

I went to see New Art MK at the MK Gallery.  It was great to see the work of local Milton Keynes artists, in particular I liked the cross stitch work of Jamie Chalmers aka Mr X (1), the beautiful photographs of Kamil Szkopik (2), Laura Keeley's beautiful paintings evoking dreams or half remembered memories (3) and Emma Wilde's delicate pencil drawings (4)  Pics taken from the MK Gallery website, which you can visit for information on the exhibition.

Seeing the cross stitch stuff made me remember that I really want to have a go at making Emily Peacock's 'Kiss' cushion, its so lively with lovely colours, originally seen on Kirsty's Homemade Homes.  I found Ruffles and Ribbons blog very informative with good tips for making it.

More pics

I couldn't resist adding this, the crow in his tree surveying the sunset and his territory (unfortunately that tree is now long gone).

And a cool snail I found while tidying up the garden at the weekend.  How do I know he's cool, well with a shell like that how could you not be : )

Southwold in May

Ahh the trouble with camping in the UK is you never quite know whether you need your sou'wester or your factor 50 (usually the former...).  

The famous beach huts, sorry the pics are a bit blue, while doing my OU digital photography course assignment I fiddled about with the cameras ISO settings, I changed something and managed to make everything very blue.  I'm yet to discover the remedy, the joys of learning!

I love seeing people's creative endeavours on the beach.  I think this sandcastle is particularly architectural but also has a slightly wonky charm.  If you really peer into the distance you can just about see Southwold Pier.

 

Southwold light house with a blue tint...

More beach huts...

This is one of my favourite pictures, we got up at 5.30am to go and take pictures of the beach huts.  Because the sun rises from the East it only lights them from the front in the morning...  The campsite and surrounding fields were shrouded in mist and I managed to capture this bejewelled spiders web in the reeds.  I was very proud!

And of course a trip to the seaside wouldn't be complete without a picture of the sea.

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This is my favourite picture, check out the cheeky seaguls at Southwold Harbour.  They had settled beside the very qaint and tasty fish and chip shop housed in one of the musty old sheds.  As guls go they were small, quite pretty and not too cheeky, no stealing out of people's hands, they'd wait until people shared their leftovers.

Photos from Kenya

I was very lucky to be able to visit Kenya for work.  It was really busy but great, I didn't get too much opportunity to play with my camera I did manage to squeeze in a few pics!

The number 1 secretarial agency in Nyeri, I fell over spectacularly before taking this photo, I blame it on the storm drain...

We came across these plants while taking a walk in the woods outside Nairobi the first day I arrived.  They were at least 7 foot and spectactular.

above: A hibiscus flower as big as my head, taken in the hotel's wonderful garden.

below: the wonderful Kitingela glass shop in Nairobi.  The outside is just as spectacular

below: The view from my balcony window, the hotel in Nairobi was a peacful santuary compared to the craziness of Nairobi.  

Towards the end of the trip we visited a community peace museum in Nyeri, which is about 2 hours drive from Nairobi.  I created a photobook of my pictures, which can be viewed here (pls ignore the sales hype, I can't get it to allow viewing without it).

You can also ready an article about my photography course, recent trip to Kenya and the Open University student experience.

Heather takes a creative break from Social Sciences

Some pictures from the Kentish coast

Some more snow pictures...

...because they're so lovely. For full size images please go to my flickr page.

Snow pictures