*avalonmoon13

I know there is alot of despondency and general malaise around the Uk for sure. With the summer not being quite what people are expecting. Well, in true Brit fashion here's a journal to brighten up anyone's day...

I reckon if you take a look at these photos it will strike a beat in your heart and lift the doom and gloom of the wet and windy weather we all seem to be having.

Yes there are opportunities to keep on with the photography, so rather than get out there in the wind and rain, get in instead!!




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Always having had a thing for rocks, I sincerely believe they have lives of their own. Have an energy and softness belying their hard and unforgiving textures. Respected for thousands of years by our ancestors, shown reverence but mystifying the learned scholars of todays society. No one will ever conclusively prove just what Stonehenge was really constructed for. Theories, ideas and outlandish beliefs pervade these mysterious places - honoured and revered by some, vandalised and persecuted by others.

The Japanese appreciation of stone stretches back into prehistory, unusual rocks were believed to be the abode of the kami, spirits who literally inhabited the rocks themselves and to this day are marked by placing a rope around them. Nitschke (1990) states that "the unique or extraordinary in nature is often venerated as go-shintai , the abode of a diety. Go-shintai may be an unusually shaped rock, a tree weathered over the centuries, a strikingly jagged rock or a waterfall of rare shape or size".

And to show some appreciation for our rock spirits, I have decided to put up a selection where no doubt they still reside.








And so as May comes to an end, the lazy days of summer are on our doorsteps.

Month of bluebells, daffodils and welcoming in the new. Trying to capture it has been both rewarding and most importantly, the best thing that's happened to me.



One moment you’re trekking in the midst of Devon, as the sun starts to dip over the horizon and the next you're lying down amongst the apple blossom together -

- laying there, laying there with you, forgetting the world, not knowing quite how to say how you feel. But all that I am, and all that I ever was is there in your perfect eyes amongst the blossom trees. Thankyou Snow Patrol.

And so, my very important rocks:

Courtesy of

Well, the 500 club membership was short-lived thankyou very much! And with it came new drive and new spontaneous moments of joy. And that is my word of the moment - spontaneity. What does it mean to you? When was the last time you made a spontaneous decision without thinking what the consequences could be, and just living life well......spontaneously? Why don't you make just one spontaneous act of kindness tomorrow and see what happens?

The following excerpt should give you just a little taste of what could and can happen...

The story goes that writer and peace activist Anne Herbert wrote the phrase "practise random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty" on a paper napkin while in a San Francisco restaurant in 1982.

Eleven years later, Chuck Wall, a professor at Bakersfield College, California, challenged his students to perform "a random act of senseless kindness" after hearing a radio report describing "another random act of senseless violence". Somewhere between these two events, the idea of practising a spontaneous act of kindness entered the popular culture.

Generally speaking, the spontaneously kind do not have a religious or political agenda. Their purported aim is to make other people happier. These people wilfully ignore the adage that no good deed goes unpunished.

Consider the case of Sydney's Juan Mann (pronounce one man and not his real name) who achieved international recognition after holding up a sign with the words "Free Hugs" in Pitt Street in 2004. Mann's efforts were noticed by the lead singer of the band Sick Puppies, Shimon Moore, who had a job wearing a sandwich board in Pitt Street and who began videotaping Mann. The result, backed by a Sick Puppies song All the Same, was posted on YouTube, inspiring free-hug copycats in places as diverse as Taipei, Chicago, Geneva and Shanghai. The clip is one of the most watched videos on YouTube and can also be seen on Video Hits.

In October, Mann told Oprah Winfrey what happened when he first held up his sign. "The first person who stopped, tapped me on the shoulder and told me how her dog had just died that morning. How that morning had been the one year anniversary of her only daughter dying in a car accident. How what she needed now, when she felt most alone in the world, was a hug. I got down on one knee, we put our arms around each other and when we parted, she was smiling."

The video clip also incorporates a satisfying tussle with bureaucracy. Free hugs are banned after Mann was asked to pay $25 million in public liability insurance for holding up his sign. He starts a petition and collects 10,000 signatures. Free hugs are reinstated. A policeman accepts a hug as the song and video ends. The success of the clip has inspired Mann, who is 24, to set up his own charity with Shimon Moore.

Yeehah I made the 500th page view last night! Thanks to all those people that made it happen, you know who you are! Still got a long long way to catch up with my fellow sunset chaser - you minx !!! Need to up my game now and capture life's moments each and every day.

One question though, and please feel free to help me out here....but how does one capture happiness in a photo, how do you show what really deep down inside makes you smile?

it's Easter, time for renewal, the daffs have been out, next the bluebells. Well, i'm feeling arty and about time too! Dare i say, may have a spring in my step?