'LOVE YOUR PICTURES, LOVE YOUR PAGES'

Much excitement here today as Shimelle Laine's 'LOVE YOUR PICTURES, LOVE YOUR PAGES''

e-course kicks off for 4 weeks.

Having just completed my first e-course, Kelly Rae Robert's 'Taking Flight', I can't wait to get started!

I have always loved Shimelle's photos and creative work, so today I am jumping in with both feet, especially as I am home this week! This e-course focuses on photography and using photos to create scrap book pages or mini albums. I hope to to finally start doing something with all my photos & paraphernalia collected during my West Coast of US holiday. But I'll see what other ideas Shimelle comes up with before committing myself!

The course begins this evening with the first download, but meanwhile Shimelle has tempted us with taster 2 challenges. The first was posting a 'photo that makes me smile'. One that I took at the weekend immediately came to mind, as it's location has happy memories of the past and the present. The second challenge was 'a photo taken in the past 5 minutes'. What fun!! I took a photo of the tomatoes growing on my new plants. (Yesterday's blog tells more about these).

There are 6 downloads each of the 4 weeks, the first 3 days focus on photography and the second 3 challenges is about using photos to complete a page and share it. From forum postings I learned that not everyone can complete the challenges on time and I realise this would be a a challenge all in itself. Especially once I am back at work. So I shall be doing what I can, and enjoying the experience. Let the fun begin!!

For more information about taking part in 'LOVE YOUR PICTURES, LOVE YOUR PAGES', go to http://www.shimelle.com

SUFFOLK

Today we returned from a wonderful weekend in Suffolk. We stayed in a medieval hall, parts of which date back to 1380. The front of the house is lined with enormous tomato plants, and here by hangs a story:

When the owner lived in France her neighbour grew tomatoes. Seeds had been passed through his family for generations and he gave some to Sarenka. She has since moved back to England and every year she continues to grow these same tomatoes from seed, she also passes on seeds and tomato plants and donations are given to her favourite charity. Amusingly, the man who originally gave the seeds to Sarenka has a name that translates in English as Mr Nobody! When booking the weekend some time ago I asked for two plants to be put aside for me. Sarenka has kindly nurtured these and today I finally bought them home. Like Hill House Hall, my plants stand at the front where they will be sheltered and protected from any wind. I will make occasional posting about their progress, and as I write I look through the window and can see my Mr Nobody tomatoes, a reminder of a very happy weekend and a promise of good things to come.

I will be putting photos of the weekend on my Flickr photostream so do pop in and see what a wonderful place Hill House Hall is.