The Stork Has Arrived!

At just after 11pm last night, Kira went into labour and over the next 3hours, gave birth to 4 beautiful little kittens.

We were all sat on the bed watching television, and as I was tickling her neck I noticed she was having what looked like contractions. After some heavy breathing and a few pushes, we had first sight of the first amniotic sack - "oh great, she's going to give birth on the bed!" we exclaimed, and tried to shimmy a towel underneath her to contain the mess. After about 35mins of pushing and no sign of a kitten we started to get a bit concerned, Kira seemed very distressed and unsure of what was happening and the kitten didn't seem to be any further out. Having spent too much time reading forums about horror stories of cat birth had made me very nervous and Nathan and I were both worried about Kira and her baby's safety. Eventually, she got up and walked over to one of our pre-prepared nests for her, and we sighed with relief that she was settling somewhere. But she didn't stay there long, after a few more contractions she moved onto my fluffy rug, where she squeezed some more! Again, she got up and moved - only this time we could see a leg hanging out of her! She was walking round the room with the kitten half hanging out! That's an image that will stay with me forever, it was pretty screwed up. She then headed straight for the back of the closet (where we had a towel set up) and squeezed all the kittens out safely. It was a pretty scary experience, but a magical one that I'll remember forever.

I'll spare you the videos of her labour and eating of the placentas.....but here is a little one when all four had been delivered and starting to feed.

Meet our little babies:

And here are a couple of photos I took today, just over 12hours old. I was trying to refrain from using flash too much, as I didn't want to piss off mum, but it's really dark at the back of the wardrobe so I couldn't get any decent images without it, she didn't really mind.

I just can't stop watching them, they are so beautiful. I've never seen anything so cute with my own eyes before! I could stare at them all day, I really could - and pretty much have today!

As you can see we have two tabbies - one more silvery, like mum, and one darker and more brownish. Then there is one completely black one, and one black with a little white nose and white underbelly. It's lovely that they are all different, and all adorable. We are yet to figure out their sexes, but from what I've seen I think we have 3 girls and 1 little boy.

I can't wait to keep this updated as they grow up and develop their own personalities. I'm also looking forward to taking some better photographs with my D70 once they emerge from the dark closet.

So......please feel free to suggest any names! I don't want to get too attached but it would be nice to name them all as a way of identifying them and remembering them once they've found new homes.

Stay tuned for updates of mum and her new arrivals over the following weeks!

Bob Dylan @ The Roundhouse - The Verdict

Last night became the second time I have seen Bob Dylan live and what an awesome gig it was! I'm sitting here in my unofficial tour T-shirt (yes I couldn't resist the £5 offer from a tout as I left the show - it's a nice souvenir!) ready to write a long post about my experience.....

After arriving (what I thought was) early, we collected our wristbands and tickets and hung out around the front of the Roundhouse munching our Subways thinking that there weren't many people there yet. After a while, an usher urged all people who had tickets to queue round the corner. So we packed up and followed the queue round the corner.......and round another corner.......and all the way up a hill! So much for being early! I was so surprised at how long it was - apparently people had been queuing for up to 10hours in order to get to the front - I mean, I'm a big fan but that's completely nuts! So we got in line, feeling quite gutted that there were so many people in front of us, but the sun was out and in general the crowd seemed in high spirits. I got talking to a woman in front of me who had some incredible stories from working at the Roundhouse in the 70s and her numerous times seeing Dylan (and other awesome bands) live. She even met him back in 1987, after chatting up a bouncer who took her backstage and introduced her to his tour manager. She was invited into Bob's dressing room and George Harrison and Tom Petty were there just hanging out with Dylan prior to the show! Talk about jealous! I would have been totally starstruck but apparently they were all really friendly. Anyway, having a fellow fan to chat with and some nutter on a guitar dancing up and down the hill to entertain us - the next hour and a half until the doors opened went by reasonably quick.

Well, before I go on to talk about the show itself - it must be said that I've never seen so many tall people in one room before! Who knew that most of Bob Dylan's fans are gigantic! Now, I'm not short - around 5ft 9 or 10.....and my boyfriend at 6ft 4 was about average height last night. So....knowing my luck I found myself surrounded by enormous men - and this is no exaggeration - I counted 9 huge men, all Nathan's height or above, in close proximity, towering around me in all directions! Needless to say I was intimidated into not pushing past them (as I would usually have done), but also frustrated at the unlikeliness of me seeing Dylan at all despite being pretty close to the stage. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was getting very irritated. The worst part was, I was directly behind two of the tallest (one of them literally must have been about 6ft 7 or 8 and built like a wall!) and my nose happened to line up nicely with his armpit. Which, for the record was unbearably sweaty and smelt awful!! Eurgh! To my delight though, with people pushing around, eventually I found a gap where if I stood on my tip-toes (which I did for the entire gig) I could see pretty well, and a little while in these two men went to get drinks or something allowing me to squeeze forward and improving my view.

I had been hoping to get more photographs, but unfortunately cameras were strictly prohibited and I had to sneak mine in under my coat (norty!). I risked a few sneaky shots on the sly, but this photo was the best I could get without being caught by the security guard! Oh well, at least you can kinda see it's him, and see how close I got! It was so nice being able to actually see him on stage - it absolutely kicked the arse of the Birmingham arena gig we saw back in 2007.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the set, he played some favourites and his blues-rock band were incredible. It absolutely rocked! I was so excited at times, including when he got up and ended on a harmonica solo for Blowin' in the Wind, that my heart almost burst out of my chest - I had an awesome time. Also, I don't usually bite my nails - but I noticed on the way home that I had nibbled my nails right down! Shows how excited and anxious I was!

The Set List:

Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat
Don't Think Twice (It's Alright)
Tangled Up In Blue
Million Miles
Rollin' & Tumblin'
Trying To Get To Heaven
Tweedledee & Tweedledum
Sugar Baby
High Water (For Charlie Patton)
I Don't Believe You
Po' Boy
Highway 61 Revisited
Ain't Talkin'
Summer Days
Like A Rolling Stone

Encore:
All Along The Watchtower
Spirit On The Water
Blowin' In The Wind

I've read some reviews this morning and quite a few people have criticised the show and there have been a lot of negative comments to do with his performance and the way he alters and rearranges his songs for live performances, but that's what I love about Bob Dylan - he always stirs up such debates amongst people! And I personally enjoy the anticipation of each song and the seeing how quickly I can recognise them. A lot of people don't appreciate his improvisation and unpredictability, he never plays a song the same way twice. Or they are old grumps who can't appreciate that he's aged and changed personally and musically since "the good old days". But I believe you don't go to a Dylan show to have a sing-a-long, you go to see a poet, a legend, an improviser, a chameleon.....and for me he didn't disappoint. Bob is who he is, like it or not, but I think he fuffin' rocks and last night blew me away.

Was anyone else there last night?

Bob Dylan Live

I just have to share my excitement as I'm bouncing off the walls......in a few hours I'll be seeing the legend that is Bob Dylan, live at the Roundhouse in Camden. For those who don't know, I pretty much worship the guy in a god-like way, so I'm beyond excited to be seeing him at such an awesome intimate venue (I've seen him once before at the Birmingham Arena). Unfortunately I can't take my camera in (I would have LOVED to have taken some decent photos of him), but there will be little digisnaps and badly recorded video clips to make up for it! Also, the new album is out tomorrow so I'm looking forward to a preview of his new material. Anyone else a big fan?

Listening to: The Yardbirds
Munching: Coco Pops
Reading: Deviant Art journal entries/Train Timetables!

Eva

Yesterday I went to visit my friend Kizzy and her beautiful 3month old daughter Eva. I couldn't help but take my camera with me and I shot a few casual portraits of her throughout the afternoon. Portraits are definitely my favourite thing to photograph, I just love faces. It was the first time I've ever shot a baby, but she was a wonderful model and I'm quite happy with how these turned out despite a bit of grain. What a cutie!

Kicking!

So.....just a quick note as I'm so excited - today for the first time I saw and felt Kira's kittens kicking! You can see them moving around in her belly and I just can't wait to meet them. I tried to video it, but the light was too bad and the movement is only subtle. I'll try again another time. Poor mama is getting pretty fed up being fat and lugging babies around now so hopefully for her it's not too long to go.

In other news, I've had a potential job offer this week. It was the first time a company has ever approached ME!! - will find out more about it next week, it sounds awesome but I'm trying not to get my hopes up until the offer is official!

Listening to: Bon Iver
Drinking: Tea
Munching: Peanut Butter on toast
Watching: Kira's baby bump

Big Momma Cat

This is our gorgeous little cat Kira, and the exciting news is that she's pregnant! We think she's about 5 weeks into her pregnancy and I'm beyond excited to have weenie little kittens joining us in a few weeks time! This is the best snapshot I could find of her belly, but I'm looking forward to documenting her, and her babies' progress on here over the next couple of months. We don't know who daddy is yet, she was certainly the centre of attention of the neighbourhood a couple of weeks ago, and we believe she's quite the little hussy! - time will tell. I can't wait, it's going to be toooooo cute!

Well, being such a beautiful cat - she makes a wonderful model (when she's not showing me her ass), and since the weather has been so good here, I've just been jipping about in the garden with my D70. Although I don't practise as often as I'd like, or should, when I do pick my camera up I get pretty snappy happy so I've narrowed it down to just a few photos to post here. Since being digital, I always shoot in colour, and don't usually do much post-production on my images but I often have the dilemma of whether some look better B+W, I've also recently been introduced to Photoshop actions and so I've been playing a bit with those on the desaturated images below.


Isn't she stunning, I can't wait to see how beautiful her little kittens are going to be!

Here I Go......

Well, after a long time actively Facebooking and a recent foray into Twitter, I've finally made it to blog-land and I'd never have guessed it would be so difficult to name the damn thing! After debating what my blog should focus on, I've decided just to fill it with my general musings, anecdotes, experiences and projects, to see if a) I can actually keep it updated, and b) whether anyone actually gives a crap about my ramblings. Either way, I know the last year has gone by in a shot and figured a blog would be a good place to document the future ones. Here's to a good year of blogging, and hopefully some good experiences worth blogging about!

L xxx