Scottish

'Scottish' was a prompt earlier in the week on HSMSHS and I'd looked everywhere for a suitable subject. Eventually an idea came together when I noticed that St Andrew's day was just around the corner - what could be more Scottish than that?

English

Following yesterday's posting my patriotic and cultural enthusiasm has been further stimulated today after seeing today's word on HSMSHS - English. So much so that it's pursuaded me to dip my toe so to speak in the pond of HSMSHS for the very first time and give it a wiggle.

Picking out the word from a book might be considered a cop-out, but at least I've picked it from the English dictionary, the idea of a dictionary itself being a peculiarly English creation.

The dictionary was old and the pages are yellowing, but this adds a little character to the shot for me. Hope you like it!

Lancashire Day

"Know ye that this day, November 27th in the year of our Lord 2008, the 57th year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Duke of Lancaster, is Lancashire Day.

Know ye also, and rejoice that, by virtue of Her Majesty's County Palatine of Lancaster, the citizens of the Hundreds of Lonsdale, North and South of the Sands, Amounderness, Leyland, Blackburn, Salford and West Derby are forever entitled to style themselves Lancastrians.

Throughout the County Palatine, from the Furness Fells to the River Mersey, from the Irish Sea to the Pennines, this day shall ever mark the people's pleasure in that excellent distinction – true Lancastrians, proud of the Red Rose and loyal to our Sovereign Duke.

God Bless Lancashire and God save the Queen, Duke of Lancaster."
Lancashire Day proclamation

The proclamation above is read out by town criers across the county palatine each year on 27th November to celebrate Lancashire Day. On this day in 1295 King Edward I summoned representatives from Lancashire to attend what became known as 'the model parliament' in Westminster.

The Queen, through the Duchy of Lancaster, still exercises the rights of the Crown across the county palatine, which means property of anyone dying intestate within the boundaries of the traditional county utimately becomes Crown property if no other legal ownership can be established. So isn't it daft to see 'Welcome to Lancashire' signs when travelling across the middle of the county?

The Friends of Real Lancashire are a well supported group who promotes the true identity of the county and publicises and promotes the use of the true county boundaries, especially in the media and public bodies. If you consider yourself a proud Lancastrian then why not lend them your support?

Rest & Recuperation

Twelve months ago I had to visit the hospital on dentist's orders to let them look at a tooth which was crooked and impacting against others. My dentist didn't fancy the job of taking it out but as it turned out neither were the hospital, who didn't seem to be all that interested one way or the other.

Fast forward twelve months to another appointment at the hospital to have it checked again. This time, not so lucky - the consensus was that it had to be removed, and after checking the x-ray, there was a wisdom tooth which needed to come out too. Great.

Then things started to happen quickly - I was booked in for a pre-op check the following weeek and the operation would happen as early as the week after. The days flew by and before I knew it I was sat in the waiting room at the day surgery.

Sparing the detail, it wasn't long before I was coming round after the op, lighter by two teeth. Since then it's been a diet of soup, soup and more soup coupled with sleep-inducing anti-inflammatories and painkillers. Hopefully the numb jaw will mend in a couple of days so that things can get back to normal.

In the meantime, I'm still waiting for the tooth fairy (who must have been affected by the credit crunch), but at least I have some company during the day as the picture shows.

Happy Birthday Jean

Jean celebrated her 65th on Friday having received a special message and kiss earlier in the week from Michael Ball, her biggest fan. Kevan had emailed Radio 2 and had arranged for Michael to make a special mention of Jean during his Sunday morning show. Honestly, it's like having a teenager in the family!

I've no pictures of Michael Ball (and aren't looking for any either), so instead here's a snap of Jean and daughter taken whilst out for Sunday lunch earlier today.

Happy birthday Jean!

Jam & Jerusalem - the result of the photo competition

The other big event of the weekend was the announcement of the result of the famous (or should that be infamous) photograph competition themed on 'Jam and Jerusalem'.

The competition was fierce, especially between Wibs and I, who each submitted something like twenty pictures that gradually became more tenuous as the deadline approached. As the ideas kept on coming, each one more abstract than the last, the big question was who would get the upper hand?

I tried to gain a late advantage by submitting a couple after the deadline (I did get permission!) and the 'no stock photos' rule was pushed to the limit. The tension rose as the results day, the eve of the wedding, loomed. But then Ruth and Ken, who had worked tirelessly on a 'Take Hart' style gallery for all the entries, suddenly found themselves in a jam of their own and the big announcement was postponed. All the main protaganists could do was finish the evening off in the billiard room where the beery eyes and wobbly cues proved a great leveller (you'll guess that I didn't win, which caused much mirth).

So we waited until breakfast on the morning after the wedding to find out who would walk away with the prize. Who would it be? Wibs, who'd initially taken some decent, if strangely abstract pictures of some strawberrys attacked in a frenzy of pins, but then in desperation had plumbed the depths of dressing his pet dog in jewish garb? Or me, with a number of intelligently considered, quality efforts as highlighted recently on this blog??

In the event, despite us both making the final shortlist of four, we were both upstaged by the distinctly non-photographic Steve, who in typical style waited until near the deadline, then submitted just the one photo, sat back and claimed the glory. The 'Calendar Girl' theme, where Claire was in all her glory too helped of course...

Being such a risque picture, I thought I'd better check first with the model before showing it here, so watch this space!

Update 2/12: Claire's obviously unaware of the vast readership of this blog and has consented, so here is the winning picture:

Fabulous fascinator

The theme for the wedding was dinner suits and fabulous fascinators (though not worn together at the same time by the same person).

In between snapping the guests, there was time for us to be snapped too - doesn't Carole look great?

Julie and Stewart

What a fantastic weekend at Armathwaite Hall! Congratulations to Julie and Stewart, who tied the knot in style!


I was honoured to be asked to take some 'semi-official' photos of the guests - hopefully I've done you both proud, it'll just take a while to go through all 300 of them.

In between snaps of the guests, I did find the time to take some shots of the bride and groom too...