Cow Parade

Heather pointed out that the scary cow I photographed in Edinburgh last month was actually originally in the 2006 Cow Parade. That might be why it's so pissed-off looking - all the other cows got to go home and it's stuck in Edinburgh being clambered on by terrifying schoolkids. Also, it's actually a bull apparently. And here was me considering taking up a career as a vet...

Anyway, Heather has a whole set of photos of the parade, complete with captions, over here...

Northern Lights

I may have cheated a wee bit with this one. Can you tell?

Cat Fit

Wimsey worries about the effects of too many Whiskas pouches... Actually, she really doesn't.

Chamma Chamma

I found this clip on YouTube of the dance we're trying to learn at the Bollywood classes just now. Except our version is vastly simplified, we don't have the fancy outfits, and if the teacher stops dancing at any point we stand around looking lost. We also don't have a bunch of over-enthusiastic old men milling about and joining in. Yet...

Lowdown

It's quite hard to do this since I can't actually see through the viewfinder from this angle. I'm hoping to train up a crack team of photographic snails to operate the camera in future.

Under the rain

Galaxies

Another shot at the light painting. Same technique, different dress. This one was a bit harder than the last lot; I might get someone else to wear the dress next time. Maybe the cat. I've also learned that it's not a good idea to keep your good clothes in a cardboard box in the garage for a year, even if you only tend to wear them when taking strange photos in the dark...

Wildfire at Midnight

Fall to your knees

I've been going to Bollywood Dancing classes for a few weeks now. I'm not sure 7 years of ballet lessons as a wee girl, plus inheriting many stiff-from-the-knees-up-when-dancing Irish genes ideally suit me for such a "wavy" form of dance, but I'm enjoying it all the same.

One thing I've realised over the last couple of weeks though, is that the women in Bollywood films aren't really wearing long skirts for the sake of modesty, or so that they can look ten times more glamourous than everyone else. No, it's actually to hide the knee pads they're wearing to save them from the huge bruises that result from the occasional 'hurl yourself to the floor' moves.

Interestingly, many of the dances include a lot of 'sign language' type gestures, which illustrate the lyrics of the songs. So if I ever go to India I'll be able to communicate with people in a variety of useful phrases like: "The drawstring of my blouse got caught on a stalk in the cornfield", "my skirt is very expensive, don't touch it", or "there was a bad man in the field who tried to grab my finger".

This is nearly as good as my grasp of British Sign Language (picked up from late night repeats of David Attenborough programmes) which runs to "Walrus", "Wildebeest" and "Flamingo". I had a dream once where I was standing at a bus stop and a Deaf woman turned up wanting directions into town. I was really pleased at the though of being able to help her, until I remembered that all I could say was "Walrus, Wildebeest, Flamingo".

Tangled

We didn't get a lot of use out of the deckchairs this summer...

Scaring the spider

I seem to have spent all weekend either evicting beasties from various people's houses (1 fast-moving caterpillar, 2 large spiders) or trying to get them back in for the night (the cat). Anyway, here's a photo of a spider about to be rudely interrupted while taking a bath and put out in the garden...

Glasgow and Edinburgh