My Garden Stalker

Although not native, pheasants are '10 a penny' in the UK and a quintessential part of the British countryside. I don't , however, live in the country, so you can imagine my surprise at seeing this beauty in my back garden. Ok, I've only got to go a few miles down the road to find some and It's true I do back onto farmland, but it's arable so at this time of year especially there is no ground cover. Being on the edge of a town means these fields are regularly patrolled by endless dog walkers and there is a clay pigeon shoot the next field over. All this generally keeps these birds well away so maybe this one had got lost and thought my garden a place of safety? He clearly hadn't spotted Brac watching from the French doors. He's gone now but not until he had spent a good few hours searching between every blade of grass in a general leisurely way for some morsel to eat. I wonder if I'll see him again?

Happy Birthday To Us

Today is OUR birthday. Mine, Paul's and Brac's. Well OK, officially it was Brac's yesterday but he's not going to know. In effect today is like a second mini Christmas as we all open our presis together, which means waiting until Paul comes home from work :-( You can tell which are Brac's. They are the ones wrapped in Christmas paper. He's not fussy.

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

So what have I been up to recently? Well I guess it's all a bit sad really because it's not been anything wildly exciting that has kept me away from blogging like a wonderful holiday or moving house. No I've been here all along but I've been working on my web site in my spare time and by the time I'm finished I've just had enough of typing. Why, well I'm adding a series of tutorials to my web site on Adobe Photoshop. I use it as the main tool after my camera, for creating my pet portraits and as such I've built up quite a lot of working knowledge about it. Many people keep asking me how I do this or how I do that when they see my work so instead of simply repeating myself over and over I've started to write it all down. It will take me years to finish, if I ever do, but that's OK, I'll just keep adding more tutorials as I get around to it. If you are interested in knowing how to use the most comprehensive images editing software available then do check out my web site. If you don't find what you are looking for today, try again in a few days time, or, alternatively, ask me what it is you would like to know and I'll add it to my list and discuss it in a tutorial as soon as I can.
Similarly, if you have any trouble using the site do let me know so I can fix it.

The First Emperor

Sorry for not Blogging for a while. Been a bit busy on other things but more about that later.
I went to see the First Emperor exhibition with Paul last night at the British Museum. There were about a couple of dozen or so statues from China's Terracotta Army including horses and chariots. Although there were only a few statues at the exhibition you were able to get right up close to them which apparently you can't do in china. It was all pretty amazing but even more so when you consider that there are over 4,000 of these in place around the Emperor's tomb. Each one is different. It wasn't just men and horses either. He had bronzes made of all the bird life too. It really is an exhibition worth seeing if you get the chance but we were extra lucky because Paul is currently working for the sponsors of the Exhibition and so we were able to go to a special members viewing for free and without the queue.