The above link will take you to the location of my every expanding photographic history.

This guy is kinda dorky! But I think the ladies are into that, he has dated Parker Posey and Winona Ryder.

View looking out from a platform in my yard

Most people know it rains a lot in Oregon.  It does.  I've lived in the Northwest for so long that it doesn't bother me much.   I do remember coming to Oregon in the spring as a child.  I was amazed at how green everything looked.  Spring in Oregon is very beautiful.  May is a great time to get out and take photos.  If you paint or do any kind of art using photographs, now is a great time to get your camera out.

We have a large personal garden and orchard.  We do have quite a few apple trees that are in bloom right now. 

When we remodeled our house, all the soil along with a lot of bulbs was scooped up and placed in a pile about 20 feet away.  We've never sorted through the pile and dug out the bulbs.  It's hard to mow or weed that area in the spring because something is always in bloom.  Right now we have hyacinth mixed with grass.

I don't know much about mushrooms, but I have noticed a few things about the fungus around here.  Mushrooms seem to have a season.  We do get some mushrooms in the grass later on.  I found a big clump of mushrooms this morning growing at the base of a Poplar tree.

 Our front yard is full of nursery stock.  We didn't plant them.  Nor do we maintain the trees.  In the spring, the company that owns the trees comes in to pull the ones they need.  Earlier this year they dug up a lot of the tall Deodora Cedar trees and few other cedars.  Many of trees are still pretty short.  The company's contract ends in December.  I keep wondering if they'll be able to pull all the trees by then.  I've been taking photos of them because it's a great opportunity to get photos of a variety of evergreens.

If you'd like to see more nature photographs from around my house, click here.  They are on flickr.

Fishing in the wading pool for whales and dolphins and sea monsters with his best bud-Little Miss K!

The hanger on the pinata broke so the teacher made up a game the kids called pinata baseball!

Bubba split open the back with that hit but the pinata held together until Mrs. H ripped it open after everyone had a chance to hit it!

Bubba really liked whirling the bucket to keep the water in but his favorite part was letting the water fall out on his head.

Thank you Mrs. H for the great fun day this year!

How many times do you walk by the same scene everyday? Do you realize that with every moment it changes?

As creative people we must learn to look at the same scene with different eyes as nothing truly stays the same. This is not only true with artist expression but with life, are you in a rut doing the same thing over and over again? It is time to break out of that rut by looking at that same scene with different eyes, look for the change, the shadow ,the light, the depth, something that makes you smile. Find the different and you will have new from the same old same old.

It is a challenge to make yourself look at things through different eyes, but you will reap great benefits in your creative expresssion and your life as well.

This song is so good, when you're revising. But put it on real soft.

Econs 1 is on tomorrow and my fifteen-year-old sister is teaching me Form Two Math. How ironic and irrelevant is that? And I learnt about Motion(Science) today and I'm loving engines. My tutor even went online to show me more complex details about engines and I asked so many questions up till how the SRS Airbag works which got me asking about sensors. Apparently only boys are interested in that very topic and girls only do it for academics' sake.

This just hit me : What if you were to die tomorrow? Or next week? Or even in the next hour? You wouldn't know it, and what would happen? What would happen to all the unsaid things you've always wanted to say? All the undone things you've always dreamt of doing? Your funeral might not be carried out the way you want it, your things might not be dealt with the way you would want them to, and all that much more. What would it really be like, if heaven or hell were to exist and life after death were real, when you stand up/down there looking down/up at things not going the way you'd want them to?

Even if they were to be carried out the exact way you'd always wanted it to, what would it really feel like? I bet it wouldn't be pleasant. There will still be all that unsaid words, all the undone things, how about everything you've never got to explain and tell your loved ones? And the curses you never got to cast on your enemies? Or things you've always been misunderstood about, your dreams, your wishes that you never got to reveal? Now that you're gone, you would want them to be known. But now that you're gone, there is no way they would. So what now?

Either way, there is no avoiding to such an unwanted situation. You don't know when you're gonna be packing up and leaving, sometimes leaving you no time for packing either.

But if my time were to come before I go, here's a few things you should know.
1. I've planned to get married with Arjun when I'm 24. Uhhh yeah. :)
2. I've always wanted to sing in front of a big crowd, dedicating "My Heart Will Go On", "Wind Beneath My Wings" and "Everytime I Look At You" to Arjun; and "Gemilang", "Nei Jiu" and "A Moment Like This" to my family; and "Beautiful" along with "Greatest Love of All" to everyone in the world. :D

3. After SPM, I had planned to work for six months to pay Mr. Chung tuition fees for another six months(I'm supposed to be done with him after SPM) so mom doesn't have to fork out so much money for me. Half of my salary would be gone to tuition and then the rest to my allowance I suppose, for him to teach me Math, Chemistry and Physics from scratch. Then, if Nottingham or Taylor's wouldn't accept me in, I'd go to a lower end college like HELP to do 'A' Levels or other foundation programmes and go on to do Engineering. Don't look down on me because I think I'm better than you.

4. I've always wanted an adult life where I have my own business(music equipment), a job as a freelance photographer and writer; with Arjun and I owning a restaurant together whom my mom and his mom would manage together, and two little gorgeous kids : Amerie Christiana and Arinho.

5. I always dreamt that in my adult life, I would be able to afford all the M.A.C. and Estee Lauder makeup in the world, all the expensive skincare products and laser off my bad skin, and of course able to afford ALL THE BODY SHOP PRODUCTS IN THE WORLD!

6. Ever since I was a really young kid, I've always wanted to fly. Literally, without wings.

7. I've always wanted a cool room by Ikea.

8. I would've fainted if a Nikon D300 were to be given to me as a present.

9. I've always wanted to be sang "This I Promise You" by N Sync to, and danced to.

10. I love slow, romantic dances. Even if it's just in my/his room with music coming from his computer. But I haven't gotten the chance to do it.

11. I've mentally banned myself from every wanting to go clubbing, smoking, drinking or any of that sort. It's dirty, barbaric and very uncivilised.

12. I hate cutting my nails but I hate long nails. Sometimes I wish he could cut them for me but I'll sure be screaming in pain if I were to ever allow that.

13. I went through few sessions of mild 'depression' throughout secondary school, the longest one lasting almost the entire year. That was 2007.

14. He pulled me out of everything. Cutting classes, social trouble, disciplinary trouble, all that. I now do not skip classes at all, have no disciplinary records(except coming late to school) and no social trouble. Of course, some teachers still dislike me but it sure has improved a lot. Thank you hubby. :)

15. He is napping now and I took time off to procrastinate. Back to Econs now.

'Till tomorrow. (Just can't seem to stop the urge to blog daily).

My new Fernandes guitar. Great battery-based pickup, beautiful piece. But nothing beats the bell-like sleek music from my old Fender, now passed on to dad as a rhythm guitar. This is for my lead. :D

Check the link out.

:)

So, take my word for it, its getting late here in the Tucker house.  Hubby Tucker is on shift and won't be home til late tomorrow afternoon, hopefully.

I've been putting together a photo book and have yet to fully conclude that it is the best option for me.  I almost miss buying albums and shoving photo prints in them just to take up time that I should be doing laundry or scrubbing toilets . . . something, the scrubbing bit, I should do more of.

I think, actually, its taking me more time to put these virtual photo albums together to pay someone else to print them, and mail them.  Hmmm.  Food for thought. Now if I went back, got together the prints I wanted and went in search of a pretty little photo album, it would be double the time! Aaack!

Who cares . . . time is something I have a tiny bit of right now anyway; in general.  Decisions decisions.

So, off to bed I go.  Up bright and early with the tots . . . and the neighbors, but mostly the tots. Oh, to clarify, sorry . . . I have upstairs neighbors in this apartment complex . . . yeah, thats all I'm gonna say about that.

Ok, nighty night!

God Bless!

My Tots are morning people . . . I don't smile like that until I've drained half the coffee pot.

Amazing Potential Facing Incredible Hardships (APFIH) and Me.
(He's a kid I seriously interceed for you and you should, too.)

APIFIH wrote me this letter:

Miss Overdramatic, Me and Miss Affectionate Tender Heart.

The girl on the left goes into demonic spasms every five minutes. The girl on the right has the sweetest spirit, although sometimes she pretends she's disabled/retarded.....like in this photo. She'll walk around with her foot and arm inverted, pretending to have cerebal palsy. I try not to laugh because it's not politically correct.

We went to see the annual display of azaleas in the Isabella Plantation. There are also drifts of bluebells and Lily of the Valley near the entrance, rhododendrons, and bog gardens among the ponds. Richmond Park was originally a deer hunting park used King Charles I.

The Plantation was created in the 1920's; streams running through the trees create a micro-climate for the flowers seen in profusion in early to mid May.

This is the Sweet Heart or Chocolate Box Pond at the heart of the Plantation. It is completely surrounded by banks of flowers and often used as backdrop for photo-shoots. I've painted it on occasion.

Mandarin ducks preening on one of the ponds. The plantation is threaded by streams and is a haven for wildlife.

Today is also my mum's birthday as well as that of my niece in Australia - Hi Chloe.

(c) Roger Overall 2008

1. What I was doing 10 years ago.
This one's easy – I wasn't born then. The cat before me had just about been born himself. He was a Grand Premier (though not 10 years ago!) I'm not sure I will bother, myself – maybe one day, but I'm not in a hurry.

2. 5 things on my to-do list for today.
Eat, sleep, roam around my territory, chase wasps, and toss the fake mouse a few times (if I can't get a live one).

3. Snacks I enjoy.
Just our usual meals, preferably meat rather than fish. Anything else isn't food. Delilah eats Stilton, salmon, and cheesy crisps, but I don't fancy any of that myself.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire.
Retire to my own private island with Delilah, Diddums and her mother. The island will have any number of fresh springs we can drink from.

5. Three of my bad habits.
Using the litter box just as Diddums sits down to rest with coffee or lunch; constantly demanding to have the tap turned on for me; getting my eye scratched during play (I'm recovering from my fourth scratch, or is it my fifth?)

6. Five places I’ve lived.
Small village where I was born. And then this room here – corner of the sofa, squeezed down as far as I could go. Then I moved behind the computer desk, sometimes switching to the book shelf, where I hunkered down behind the piles of books. Then there was the top of the tallest unit in the room. Now I live downstairs in the cat hammock beside the front door. It's a great address... catches lots of heat at night from the radiator, and a warm golden pool of sunlight in the morning.

7. Five jobs I’ve had.
Friend to Diddums; companion to my playmate Delilah; a little excitement in the life of Cheeky (who still likes to ambush us); park keeper; somebody for Diddums to blog about. That's five.

I tag.... your pet or animal companion! *Pow!* A big cream cat appears and thumps into your leg like a particularly heavy sack of sand.

I'm still trolling around, looking for freelance writing work, and also for art projects to glom onto. There's sort of a cool opportunity for some short video pieces in downtown Silver Spring, MD which I think I'm going to focus on making this week while the girls sleep. Good, ol' video. There is also a pen and marker on paper show for a Baltimore arts festival that I am going to submit a piece to. The deadline is this Friday. What I'm more interested in, tho, is trying to get some images together from CM (Camera Morte) and organize them into something larger. Not online, or maybe, but first in print, I think. Thank you, Damon Locks, for encouragement in this matter. More as it materializes. I need a personal assistant. But first I need to be rich. Rich enough to buy time to work on things, rich enough to buy gas to drive around.

Who the hell has time or money for anything anymore?

When was the last time you had a life moment that took your breath away? Did you take that moment of breath taking beauty away with you by creating an artistic expression of it?
As artist we should be capturing those breath taking moments in our medium as well as taking ordinary moments and creating breath taking moments with our creative expression.
Today when life takes your breath away, capture it, remember it and express it to share with all.

We have a large archive of photographs that can be ordered and details will be given on request.

We will cover any function like School and pre-School concerts, Matric Farewell, School Photos, certain Sports etc.
We are willing to travel within reason as long as it involves enough business to make it worth while. We cannot travel for a single or only a few photographs. If we are contacted well in advance, we may be able to arrange with a Creche, School or even a sports club to do some photographs by appointment if there is enough interest shown. This will normally only apply to photographs.

Can't wait to be able to go out and play. Not much of holiday left!! :( Sad...oh well, I guess I underestimated the amount of time for it to heal. Seriously, I though after 5 days I'll be fine....no wonder the receptionist at the dentist warned me that it may take up to 1-2 weeks to recover fully. Argh!

Got so bored, that I had a staring competition with the fishes. Unfortunately, they win hands down. Why? Because they have no eyelids! (yeah lame joke, i know) Actually, they were more interested in food, they were in "begging" mode, shaking their tails and bodies for food. Kind of like a dog wagging its tail and begging for food, I guess.

Most of our fishes and other previous pets (terrapins) usually have this "begging for food" syndrome, due to my brother's taming powers. Though, sometimes I think it would be nice to have a cat or dog as a pet for a change. Anyway, here is a photo of our adorable, food-begging Angel fishes.

We took the car so I could practice driving, so I thought I'd chuck both the baby quilt that needs to be finished in...8 unlikely days and my Hasselblad in the car. I have taken a bit of a photography break, it's apparently a quite common thing to do after a whole degrees worth of photo-ing. So I had forgotten all the nice things about big cameras, the fact that they go ca-thunk-cht when you press the shutter, the fact that everything looks like a painting through the viewfinder, and how the little slider button to override the aperture setting works. ...and yet, I still haven't managed to finish the half-started roll of film!

Enough chatting, here are (digi) photos..

Adorable goslings

..and cake and stained glass at Betty's

DC Weekend with Francois and Mandy

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers reading this blog, especially mine and Julian's - two very special, very wonderful women. We are so lucky to have you!! Lots of love to you both.