It was a valiant effort though – and great footbal to watch.

Standing beneath the tree was a girl, her head hung as though she was looking at the ground beneath her feet. From this distance the man could sort of make out what she was wearing: some loose-fitting clothing, perhaps a nightgown or something similar. She was facing away from him, but her hair appeared long enough that even if she’d been turned toward the road her face would have been obscured. He watched her for some time, and though the night was cold she remained  still.

The branches hung low enough that the girl could easily reach up to touch them, and even as this thought crossed his mind he saw her stir and raise an arm toward a branch. She looked up, her hair falling back from her face, and he was able to make out her pale features in profile.

The tree was perfectly still; there was no wind to rustle its leaves. He watched her take a step toward the tree, reach up, and—he wasn’t absolutely sure—pass her hand clean through the branch of the tree without it moving in the slightest. She brought her hand back down and seemed to look at it for a moment before, perhaps realizing she was being watched, she turned her head toward him.

Her face was young, brown hair framing her features. Despite the distance he could clearly see her blue eyes, small nose, and thin lips. She made eye contact with him, and he realized he’d not blinked since she started to move. He closed his eyes for a moment and she vanished.

The man scanned the field, looking for any sign of her, but she failed to reappear. He shivered unconsciously, and sat in silence, listening to the rain on his roof as he waited for the tow truck.

From the lens of Kindra Nikole Photography: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kindra-Nikole-Photography/495800123770510

Tonight from 6pm, Xbox Live hosted a live broadcast of the launch of XboxOne, the latest incarnation of Microsoft’s gaming console and what have they done?

Well XboxOne will come packaged with the new Kinect which is a massive improvement. You’ll be able to use voice commands to turn the XboxOne on as well as automatically switching between games/TV/music/videos at the command of your own speech.

There’s also a lot of upgrades linked to watching NFL and fantasy football in America as well as a certain move forward in graphics.

And thrown in there was a mention that it will have a Blu-Ray drive which, for me is a huge step forward and one Microsoft needed to make after shying away for so long after previously lobbying for HD-DVD!

Microsoft didn’t stick a price tag on the console which is scheduled for a pre-Christmas release, but that could be a wise move with the PS4 not announcing their price yet…Microsoft won’t want Sony massively undercutting them.

Games look amazing, and a more intuitive and clever bit of kit is the pull here.

…and I will be keeping my eyes peeled for the Beta testing project

Watched episodes 3-5 of season 2 of Game Of Thrones tonight too.

Had a laugh at work today when Trevor mentioned the Watercress Eating World Record being broken and we ended up on what could be THE most boring website in the world… http://www.watercress.co.uk and reading about how Watercress can actively reduce wrinkles….and Trevor said only if you smeared it all over your face. The site goes on to explain how 9 out of 11 women actively said their wrinkles were better….Trevor said 11 out of 11 said they attracted more flies!!!

Looking forward to the weekend big time. Camping and BBQ Party. Might even fit some Geocaching in there somewhere…along with dreams of playing on an XboxOne!

And I must say, this one is my favorite rage-face. Not tha't it's realated or anything…

Wisdom begins in wonder. – Socrates

Another post, this one being prepared two days early, at least I’ve got a head start. For once I’m not procrastinating. Wow!

Today’s mystery “what is it?!?” picture is yet to be taken. I’ll plug that in once that’s done. (Okay, now I’m procrastinating, that didn’t last for long now, did it?)

What Is It?!?

What Was That?!?

I couldn’t have been more surprised than when I was in my garden and started looking at the bark on our Japanese Red Maple tree, I noticed this area of red raised dots with the most intriguing pattern. I’ve never seen this on any other bark, but will be looking for more hidden treasures in nature.

My town is a hipster’s paradise, and one of its crowning glories is its artesanal brewery, Harvey’s. Although I am no ale fan, I am very proud of my town and always force my boyfriend to bring back beer for his family and friends. Today was Eurovision, and we invited over friends to make European themed crowns, photos of which are totally unsuitable for internet publication – all I can say is that my boyfriend’s included a ‘flamenco frill’ and cellophane chorizo. We stuffed ourselves with tetilla cheese, swedish meatballs and cava and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with bingo cards courtesy of sosogay.com

As you may have noticed, I have a sweet tooth. Since I started Project 365, I have been taking pictures of some of my favourite desserts and that list wouldn’t be complete without my favourite Crème Brûlée. I have to admit, I only attempted making it once. It was a few years ago, I wasn’t the nicest I had ever tried but it wasn’t one of the worst either. The one below was bought and hubby kindly added some brown sugar and put it under the grill for me. It was very tasty.

Today I had a long walk on along a big lake here in Bucharest, called Lacul Morii (in translation would be something like “The mill lake”). I waited for the sunset, to have warm colours. I decided to try and capture the sunset, but something was not right. All the scenery was flat and dull. I spotted some interesting grass and decided to go with a close up in the foreground, and in the background to have the sunset and the water. I took several shots, and it really was hard to chose the best of them, bug here it is!

Cya!

That crate in the back has a small upside down sticker that says, ” ‘Orgies “

At what point do you decide that you’ve had enough?

Today I am grateful for those people who appear to be holding me up and keeping me going at the moment.
You know who you are and you are wonderful.

York Castle Prison… Whenever I come across an old prison in a town, I tend to wander off there for a few hours. I am fascinated by the methods and the philosophy behind them. But what really grabs my mind is the physical space – how the prison is set up physically to control the prison population.

I have long been interested in the idea of Bentham’s Panopticon, and the ways in which Foucault furthered the ideas of control that stem from such a structure. There are so many ways in which to apply the ideals of the Panopticon… and in some very modern ways. And it intrigues me to look at the old prisons and wonder about the less obvious methods of control – finding the ‘sweet spot’ of observation. There is always one of these – that one spot in the yard, or the corridor, where you can see in all directions. The ceilings that allow someone to walk down the corridor and as they step, the noise of their shoes can be heard at all points of the space equally – so that people in cells have no idea whether the person walking has already walked past them, or they are still to walk past. The off-setting of cells in a corridor, so that the inmates cannot quite see the person opposite them, and thus cannot form alliances.

A definite favourite prison is the one at York Castle. It is simply built, like most other prisons, but each time I go in there, it feels labyrinthine, claustrophobic… and that’s the point.