Someone gave me an orchid. I’ve never been quite sure whether I really like orchids or not. To one who loves the beautiful simplicity of daisies, they seem worryingly exotic, fleshy and organic, almost alien things. It seems they have many symbolic connotations – strength, loyalty, luxury, virilty ( the name itself derives from the…
Tag: still life photography
Winter # 3 – The Quietly Beating Heart
Here and there amidst the silver bare winter’s landscape are vibrant reminders that the pulse of life continues through even the darkest days and the longest nights. The berries in the hedgerows and the hips of the roses are rich and blood red with the promise of Spring…….. ALL PHOTOS © JANE MORLEY
Vintage Childhood #3 – Teddy Bears and Storybooks
I can remember as a very small child, long before my schooldays, sitting curled up on my mother’s knee as she read to me. “Read some more, read some more!” I would say as the final page was turned and she would smile and open another book and continue reading until it really was time…
Winter # 2 – Life is Sleeping
The hillside is really in the grip of Winter now. The trees are shivering in the winds from the north and the warmth of the autumn colours has been chilled to a palette of brittle greys. Only the laburnams and the lime trees are still clinging to their delicate copper- coloured seed pods as if…
Winter – Ghost Leaves
The colours on the hillside are changing now from their glowing autumn shades to the darker hues of winter. Nature’s astonishing architecture is becoming visible everywhere, in the bare branches of the trees, the hips on the rose bushes, the cones in the evergreens and in the fallen leaves which carpet the garden. On our…
Glass, Glamour and a Vintage Dressing Table
My mother has a beautiful old dressing table. Since I was a small child I have been fascinated by it and all the shiny, glittery items that sit on top of it. A wealth of 1950’s glamour is captured in this piece of feminine furniture. A glass top to reflect the cut glass trays, jars,…
Man Stuff #1 – Leather Jackets and Aviators
Some while ago in our previous life, we had a project to build a large shed at the bottom of our very tiny garden, to house Mr H’s tools, Mr H’s motorbike, Mr H’s racing bike and assorted items of Mr H’s abandoned gym equipment. The day before we pooled our joint resources to purchase…
Double Vision # 1 – Mystery
Purely for the fun and the prospect of a little photographic adventure, one of my favourite blogger friends – west517 – and I have decided to start a new joint Friday feature which we are calling ‘Double Vision’. With the simple format of a photographic dialogue across the Atlantic ocean – she being in the…
French Essence #2 – Wine
A few years ago we worked for a while with a French estate agent helping to select properties we thought might appeal to potential English buyers. Given most people’s romantic notion of the perfect French dreamhouse, it was not difficult to dismiss the ranks of ugly concrete shoe boxes and Spanish style haciendas which sadly…
Kings, Queens, Knaves and Aces High
There is something exceedingly mystical about a pack of playing cards. The notion of kings and queens, jokers and knaves, aces and hearts, spades and diamonds, even the language of cards is exotic and enticing, hinting at the medieval world of courtly love and ancient fairytales. Somehow all of life is here in symbolic form…
Gold, Copper, Chestnut, Conkers – Hello Autumn!
I had a very different idea in mind for today’s post but as I strolled along the path through the wood after lunch with Freddie the labrador, we stumbled across some exciting treasures which simply demanded to be photographed. Freddie was delighted to have found a fox poo and a badger burrow plus a few…
Vintage Childhood #2 – Dinkys, Corgis & Lesneys
A small homage to the vintage childhood when imagination was more valued than the microchip. Once long ago , before the invention of iPods and iPads and SuperMario Game Boys and Nintendos, my younger brother received for his birthday a very fine model garage. It’s most distinguished attribute was a state of the art toy…
Vintage Childhood #1 – Monopoly
PLAYING Games My family ancestors have always been a rather competitive bunch even when at play. My mother relates wonderful stories of Friday evenings spent with my father’s family in the 1950’s surrounded by the numerous aunts and uncles (all 13 of them plus assorted spouses) engaged in the serious business of a game of…
Silks, Bobbins and Bodkins
Beauty in everyday things Yet another button fell off a shirt today and in searching through my mother’s sewing basket for a needle and some suitable thread, I realised how many lovely old wooden bobbins she has collected over the years. Some of her sewing treasures have been hoarded, others inherited from her own mother…
View from a French Hillside 