I'm moving...

I've decided to have my own web page (www.bevaston.com) and I am also moving my blog over to it. My site is only just up and is in it's early stages of development but the links are all there.

I've enjoyed being here and showing everyone my photo's and what's been happening in my life but I hope you will still come and visit me on my new site which you will find here:

Bev's New Site

The links to my photo album and blog will be there but please don't worry if for some reason when you visit and can't get into the site as I've said it all in the early stages just keep checking back and you'll find it up and running again.

See you on the 'other side'

Bev

A quick post...

to say 'hello' and show you a few photo's. We had a really busy weekend with so much to do and although we seemed to be on the go all the time I'm not sure that at the end of the weekend how much we have actually accomplished..

Anyway I did manage to have the camera with me most of the time and on Friday we went to visit our friends who have moved to Suffolk to live. On the Saturday we went out for lunch to Hall Farm Shop restaurant where we enjoyed a superb meal of lovely fresh produce including finishing the meal with home made delicious ice cream...anyway at the back of the car park was this lovely church which is in the village of Mary St Stratford and if you would like to know the history check out the link Stratford St Mary Church


Also as it's a working farm they have a lot of animals around and I couldn't resist taking a photo of this little family...I just love how they all group together for their afternoon sleep...


So I think we can say that Spring really has arrived at last and here's some photo's to prove it..










Thats all this time round but I also wanted to let you know that I'm working (slowly!!) on a new web page and I will eventually transfer the blog to my site but I will of course let you know and give you the link!

In the meantime many thanks for your visit and for leaving me your comments which I appreciate and enjoy reading..

Stay safe..

Bev

It was a good weekend...

this weekend just past, busy but very enjoyable. On Saturday we went into Chelmsford to do our weekly shop and afterwards met up with our friends Richard nad Ann for lunch at Pinchos Restaurant. It's a favourite eating place of ours as the Tapas is so good coupled with friendly, helpful staff and a great ambiance.

Then on Sunday I was collected by a friend (Terry) from the Photography forum I belong to and taken down to Sissinghurst Gardens
where we met up with another friend (Paul) to spend a most enjoyable day in glorious sunshine taking photo's of the gardens etc. I have put a lot of the photo's into my Photo Album which if you click on the link 'Places of Interest' shown on the left side of the page and it will take you straight there.

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did in taking them. I still have many more photo's to upload from our South African and Australia trips. Also I have lots of general photo's I would like to share with you and these will be loaded to the Photo Album as and when time permits..so please keep popping back to see the latest I've uploaded.

As ever many thanks for visiting and leaving your kind comments..

See you again soon.

Bev

Moving forwards..

yes that is what has happened with my photography...well ok it's really only a very tiny step forward but yesterday I went and took some photo's using manual mode only!!

I had decided that I would buy a lens from eBay -it's not brand new - a Sigma 17-70 F2.8-4.5 lens. but I was thrilled when it arrived as it was in pristine condition complete with a lens hood and a couple of filters. Fortunately the sun was shinning yesterday and although very cold off I went to Hylands House
to try it out. However before going I had the good fortune to be speaking with a 'cyber friend' on skpe who lives in Australia and incidentally takes some brilliant photos, and she gave me a very good tip for taking pics in manual mode.



So this is what I did and other than a little cropping, a slight sharpening on a couple they are as taken......hope you enjoy them:























Oh I've just remembered a couple of my friends have said they couldn't find where my photo's from Cape Town were posted ..well to do so you must click on South Africa under the words Photo Album which you will find in the margin on the left hand side of this page...

As always thanks everyone for your lovely comments..

Till next time

Bev

Doesn't time fly...

when you have a busy life and yes that is what I seem to have hence the reason for not updating my blog for such a while.

So what's been going on. Well I suppose the main thing has been our return visit to South Africa. This time we decided that what we needed was a relaxing time in a sunny climate and with Cape Town only just under 12hrs flying time that's where we took ourselves off to. We stayed in the same Hotel as last time The Table Bay because it really is so convenient for just everything we want to do such as visiting the shops, restaurants in the evening or maybe getting a little exercise by strolling along the front to the next bay.

We are so lucky to have some great friends in Cape Town and Fiona and her family really took us under their wings for the first week and appeared at the Hotel with plans for taking us out and about to see some super places in the area. Mitzie and Fuzzy were also there to share our time and make the holiday so enjoyable.

Needless to say the camera travelled with me and of course I have many photo's to share. So what I have decided to do is to create a Photo Album (with the guidence of a friend Paul who has pointed me in the right direction)so that I can share more of them with you. At this point in time I have lots more to add to the albums so please just check back on a regular basis and hopefully you will find more photo's to view..To view the photo's just follow the link on the left hand side of the page under Photo Album.

So we've been back to South Africa twice now and in a short space of time...what do we think of the country. Well of course we haven't travelled around that much out there but I think, no I correct that to read I know we will go back again and the next time we will most likely stay for maybe 6/8 weeks. We love the friendliness of the people, the climate suits us, the food and wine is just great and there are so many super places to visit.

I also have been reading and discovering more of the history of South Africa and the more I find out the more it makes me want to go back again and again. However there are of course many other countries of the world that I would like to see and we do have very fond memories of our visits to Australia and would hope to go back there again one of these days..

So much to see and do..

Thanks everyone for your visits and leaving me your kind comments...I do so much appreciate reading them.

A Pleasant Sunday morning...

in February with the sun shinning and a lovely blue sky but it was quite chilly. However instead of doing some useful jobs around the house we decided to go off to one of our favourite places for coffee link...it's not far from us about a 5/6 mile journey and it has a lovely little tea room with a garden centre as well. Of course anything with flowers will always be an attraction for me. However this time of the year it was just for the coffee or in DH case a pot of tea and a toasted tea cake!!

After finishing our visit to the tea rooms we then decided to have a stroll around the lovely village of Writtle and I must say with the blue sky, sun shinning and a peaceful Sunday morning it was all looking very lovely.

And of course as I'm sure you know by now I wouldn't visit anywhere unless I had my camera with me. On this occasion I only my 50mm lens with me and no tripod so that restricted me a little but here are a few shots of our enjoyable morning outing..

Something different..

Ok I know this is going to surprise a few of you but I wanted to get away from animals and flowers..but I just might add in the odd flower or two and of course I couldn't resist this Pampas Grass but you know what they do so brighten up our lives..

So what is the story behind todays photo's. Well as some of you might already know I live in a town.. well on the edge of the town and we have a main road at the front of the house which means a continual flow of traffic throughout the day.

Ok after living here for some 32 years we're used to it and of course it is a convenient place to live if we wish to get to London, airports, down to the Ferries for popping across to Europe or to pick up one of the major roads to take us to other parts of the UK. However used we are to living here it is a 'Rat-Race'..in other words we're living in a big commuters area because of London being so near and everyone feels they must go at the 'fastest pace' possible!!

Can I escape from here...well yes I can for believe it or not I have a friend that lives just a 2 minute drive down the main road take a right turn along a private road for another minute and then I arrive in what can only be described as another world!!

Yesterday the sky was blue, sun shinning and if you stayed in the sunshine it was quite warm. So off I went to see my friend along with my other friend my Canon 400D and after putting the world to right over a cup of coffee I then wondered off to take some photo's..

And this is the surprise I could have taken some photo's of cows, sheep even the cat but no I thought I would be different for once and so here you have some photo's of farm machinery!!

The first photo is of the tractors (I call them tractors but they could be 'other' things all lined up in their 'home' and I just love the colours..







and here we have view of track leading up to the tractors home...














Now what about the super colour yellow of this and just look at the colour of the rope ..don't really know what either the machine or the rope is used for but such vibrant colous again..









I think this area does need some TLC but you know it's not important it's beautiful as it is..




And of course if I looked towards the fields there was more machinery!!








And just to prove there were some flowers around here is one of a Helleborus..and there were wonderful patches of snowdrops under the trees...



















Thank you for coming with me on my lovely Sunday morning out to the peace and quiet that can still be found even on our own doorstep!!




Also a big thank you to all that left kind comments on my last posting..much appreciated.






Please note any actions used on any of my photo's are credited to Natasha Whiteley..