Thursday, June 28, 2012

#26 Eating

Oh my goodness!  Here we are at week 26 - half way through 2012...  Where is the time going?

Sorry I'm late this week but have had a nice break in Toronto with my big sister, to watch her in a hula recital.  Yes, she's taking hula lessons, well actually re-taking them.  She and I, along with the rest of our family, lived in Hawaii from 1951 to 1957 and took hula lessons practically from the day we arrived until we left.  Our grand finale was performing at Kapiolani Park and we loved it. 

Last year, as a birthday present to her, I took us back - she for the first time in 54 years - for a sentimental journey to our past.  We did everything in as big a way as we could afford and the biggest splurge was getting Super Ambassador tickets to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We were given our own personal guide for the whole day, front row seats at all performances as well as at the luau and the spectacular "Ha - Breath of Life" evening show.  A real treat and well worth paying extra.

At the luau, we tasted our first taro bread rolls.  Poi (pronounced as "boy") is made from the taro root and was a staple of the Hawaiian people for centuries - a starchy root that looks like a sweet potato but is slightly purple in colour.  You can see what happens when taro is baked into something like a roll.

Sitting immediately alongside the stage for the hula show that accompanied the luau, here I am about to sample my first (and last of the trip) taro roll - very much like a regular bread roll.  (Not my best side, I'll be the first to admit!!)

Oh, and BTW, the "tattoo" is a henna one (temporary) that we had done in the Fijian village.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

#25 Inviting

This picture was taken some years ago, when we were living in England, in a park near where we lived.  The couple in it seem to be having the most restful afternoon and it just made me think how "inviting" a mood it invoked. 

I've just found several CDs of slides from our time in England so thought I could put one or two of them to good use here.  The only thing I did to it was to crop a tiny bit.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

#24 - Outdoors

While in the Maritime provinces of Canada on holiday, a year or so ago, we decided that our favourite province was Prince Edward Island.  An island of contrasts, with beaches and lovely towns, farmland and wonderful provincial parks.  This shot was taken at Greenwich, Prince Edward Island Provincial Park, a finger of land between the Gulf of St Lawrence and St Peter's Bay, on the north coast of the island.  It was a drizzly day with very few other visitors and I liked this view of the beach as we crested dunes running the length of the shoreline.  In PSE 10, I added an Orton effect after using a Detail filter in Topaz Adjust 5.

How much more outdoors than this can you get?!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

23 Excitement

Would you look at me - my last four posts have had people in them!  I'm very hesitant to shoot people (with a camera!) and especially when they see me aiming at them, then stop and pose...  In 99% of cases, that's not what I wanted.

Anyway, this week I was in town and lo and behold our main street was closed off with fire trucks, ambulances and all the peripheral vehicles that accompany them.  The firemen were gearing up in their smoke-prevention suits and then entered an apartment over one of the stores.  (There was never any smoke in evidence so I'm hoping it was just a false alarm.)  However, it did cause a bit of excitement in our sleepy little town and I think the collage of shots I got convey that feeling.  I added a "fiery" background just for added punch but as I say there was no fire, nor smoke, anywhere - thankfully!