Goats on the Roof , Fontburn, Rothbury

A couple of months ago the notion of a day out once a month was born, and given the rather grand title " the Elders Day Out " was subsequently attached .
Last month's outing was to Haworth in Yorkshire to visit the birthplace of the Brontes so this month a somewhat less grand but no less enjoyable day was planned - to see the Goats on the Roof at Fontburn .
As we guessed might be the case the goats were not indeed quite on the roof and in fact showed no signs of climbing the ladders to the roof during our visit to the coffee shop , so we took photos of them lurking in their downstairs quarters near the piggies who seemed keen to show off their large bottoms and even larger and quite disproportionate testicles ( possibly not visible on the photos - despite clearing off hundreds of old pictures my camera is still not performing well ) . There were also hens , a fancy cockerel , and some sheep.
We took the one and a half hour walk by the lake despite our misgivings about the map, and spotted all sorts of interesting flora and fauna , including some big red toadstools , a fisherman relaxing by his rod and a cormorant making a display on the water.
All the while catching up on news of the past month .... Elders Days Out are a great thing .
Then on to Rothbury where we parked up and had a wander round the town spotting local landmarks now made famous - or infamous - by Raoul Moat , and finally back to Kirkharle where we met this morning and abandoned one of the cars. Fnally home to a house full of Teens getting ready for a party ...... I must get ready with the camera again .....

Phoenix Arizona . Visit to the Heard Museum

As I said yesterday not knowing how to switch the flash off on my camera was a major stumbling block at the Heard museum .
Consequently I have only three pictures to show you , of writing which struck me particularly up in the section called " The Boarding School Experience". Having looked at some of the beautiful artefacts downstairs , I had a feeling that this wasnt going to be such a good hour we were going to be experiencing next , as nothing compared to the years of lives suffered by the young children who were torn from their homes and families often with armed soldiers standing by in case of protest or problem , whilst the children were taken and placed in alien boarding schools to "civilise and educate" them according to the (white) ways of the world . We saw a barber's chair where their long plaits were shorn off. Black and white photos depicting their clothes being removed and showing children later wearing uniforms. Poignant pictures of native Americans with faces so dignified when they arrived looking ...what is the word... less.....faraway ... lost and alone and like stolen beings after the "boarding school experience".
Many of the children didn't survive and succumbed to TB , a source of some interest to me due to my friend's recent experience with that disease and my visit to her in the " isolation" of the local hospital .
The pictures I took , not knowing whether any of them would come out , reflected those interests.
There were many more I could have taken but it seemed wrong to be furiously snapping rather than just walking around trying to imagine the things that happened in the world , and are still happening , in different guises.

Just back from Phoenix Arizona

 Its August since I last wrote my blog !!
I think it had more of an impact than I knew having to change the name and becoming Catminders rather than CatCalls and losing my old identity , daft though that may seem .
Ive been fiddling about on Twitter and enjoying that but Ive been missing the blog so here I am back again , fresh back from a dayjob conference in Phoenix which was quite stunning .
Hey , I wish I could say the same for my photos!
I know -theyre rubbish !
Not really the camera's fault either . It has been pointed out ( D) , that it doesnt help a digital camera to store over seven hundred ( or was it nine hundred ) images , on a camera meant to store two hundred max . After which quality starts to deteriorate. Well , as you can see , and I can confrm , having seen those red rocks at their best , and a truly amazing experience that was . To see the real thing , shot with real cameras , probably best to have a look at Sedona on an internet site .

On the first day of the trip we also visited the Heard museum . I didnt dare take any pictures there as you have to turn your flash off . Guess what ? I havent yet learned that particular skill , though I do intend to . I did though take a couple of shots on my phone which I will download in due course .
Our guide at the museum who was an amazingly exciteable woman who seemed to know everything , told us that Sedona was the place to go and that when she saw the red rocks she started to cry and it was even more spectacular than the Grand Canyon . I didn't cry , except some tears of laughter at the dynamics between my colleagues in the car we hired to make the trip . Suffice to say it was a long hot day and at the outset we predicted there would be tears before bedtime . There was wrestling over the map . There was  a degree of car sickness. Pedantic quibbling . Interior lights flicking on and off ad nauseum . The driver had the patience of a saint .


Anyway enough of that !
Ive erased a lot of photos so any future pictures should be better .
I hope to attract new followers , though I no longer know how this is done ? How did I have such an initial following way back when ? Presumably that was in the ways before I lost my marbles to medication?

Any ideas let me know !