WOYWW 236

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In answer to the question “What’s on your workdesk [this] Wednesday?” the answer is, “Not a lot.”

I have decided that at the first opportunity I am going to start work again on the album about Dad’s life. I haven’t done anything on it since well before we moved house, and I have a special reason now for wanting to do it. To the right of the album page is a small background I was working on last week, with mopped-up Distress Ink and some stamping and further distressing. I shall be uploading a blog post about this in due course,but I have managed to make the video.

On Friday, my beloved Dad passed away quietly just before midnight. He had been in hospital for a couple of weeks with an infection, and developed pneumonia, which, on top of his congestive heart failure, was causing him great difficulty breathing, despite the oxygen he was on. He seemed to be rallying during the week but on Friday afternoon he took a turn for the worse, and my hubby and I were privileged to be able to spend his final evening with him, holding his hand and speaking words of love as he moved on his final journey.

This is how I shall always remember him – the photo was taken in 1997 at their Golden Wedding party.

I have written two blog posts about him, here, and here – the second one being a long post really for my own benefit, to organise my thoughts into words. I am hoping to make a distillation of this to share at his funeral on Thursday 19th.

The week has obviously been a busy and emotionally charged time, and again I am so grateful to my wonderful hubby who has yet again risen to the occasion and taken on the burden of organising everything for us all.

Whatever is going on in our lives, I believe it is important to keep our eyes open for the beauty surrounding us, whether it be God’s creation in the countryside around us, or man-made beauty, or strange juxtapositions of familiar objects etc. Dad always taught me to observe the small detail of things, and we shared a lot of enjoyment together in seeing things that other people often ignore.

Remember this?

Last night I discovered more beauty from a humble object in the kitchen! I was cooking supper and had the halogen lamps on under the extractor hood, and I looked down to see the most amazing play of light and shade and reflection around one of my Dartington Glass daisy bowls sitting on the kitchen counter. I just had to grab my camera and photograph it! I enhanced the photos only slightly, using Serif PhotoPlus, to remove the slightly yellow cast and to bring up the contrast somewhat.

I am always amazed at how many beautiful and interesting things there are in our world, even in the most mundane of settings, if we just train ourselves to be observant!

Wishing you all a happy WOYWW and a creative and fulfilling week ahead.