How to brighten up November

November rain is back! The wind is blowing, leaves are falling furiously and trees are getting bearer. The sky is dark.
Pretty normal for this time of year.

Walking the streets of London EC1 I was desperately trying to brighten my day by finding a bit of colour.

What I found made me chuckle ... I hope it has the same effect on you!

Striding out

My throat still feels scratchy and my nose has been dripping all morning ... :) apart from that all is well!

Around 1pm the sun was making a real effort to push through a relatively thick layer of clouds. Was this my cue to grab my camera to make a move?

Bother, I didn't remember to put my battery on charge. The Canon 5D has no juice left. Luckily I had charged the battery pack of my Canon D1 mark II the other day. I wanted to familiarise myself with it again and now was my chance. The menu layout and positioning of buttons is slightly different and it's funny how I have to quickly reacquaint myself before feeling fully at ease again.

I was in two minds as to where I wanted to go. I didn't fancy going into town. Sitting on the tube when I am finding it difficult to breath didn't sound too appealing. So I decided to hop in the car and to drive to Wimbledon Common. I have never been there but a guy at the pool mentioned the other day how beautiful the Common was.

I'm always game to explore new areas, besides, bit of fresh air would do me good as well.

Shirley was up for it too. As we are driving along the clouds are getting darker and darker again ... never mind we're on our way and there is no way I'm not getting a shot for my blog!

We didn't quite know the way but followed our nose. Well, Shirley's nose actually! Past the All England Tennis Club and up a hill towards Southfields.

"Stop! I just saw a sign for Wimbledon Common."

I reverse and we take a left and another few turns passed some beautiful houses. Nice area! And we find ourselves bang opposite a path that leads into the Common. By now it's drizzling but it's beautiful at the same time. The Common turns out to be more woodland like. Huge. Not many people around - the rain must have kept them indoors.

I'm fascinated by the big old trees and the remaining long grass. I frame up my shot and as I'm about to take the shot I can see from the corner of my eye that two people will soon be making it into my frame. Impatient I take one shot and wait until the two are where I want them to be. As they reach the exact point, one of them decides to kick a stone. I'm happy with that because it adds a bit of humour to my shot.

The rain is getting heavier. I'm quite willing to carry on walking and see what else we encounter.

"No, not the way you are feeling!" I was told.

"Ok then, boss" :)

Here we go, the camera is out of the bag.

Oh my god.. it's my first day of "getting visual in london" and it's raining cats and dogs! which brings me straight back to my days as an Equestrian and country pursuit photographer where no matter what the weather did, it was all about reporting, capturing the atmosphere of a certain event,catching the winner and mastering the art of keeping you and your equipment dry! Does nothing ever change? :) Do I have to be subjected to this gruelling regime again? :) I thought that those days were long gone ... well, not quite as it seems!

A challenge will remain a challenge though. And, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, so the saying goes! To top it, this challenge is a self inflicted one! I must be mad! But I am one who aways rises to challenges. Actually, I thrive on them!

So Elizabeth, stop lamenting and get out there. Hey, wait a minute. I haven't actually got my equipment together ... it's been a while since I got my Canon babies out for a spin. Last time was this spring when I travelled to South Africa and went on my first ever Wildlife Safari! How awesome was that! But for today, let me see. Which one shall I get my hands on for this first day's shooting? I don't really need a fast motor drive so the Canon EOS 1D mark II would be overkill , specially as it is quite heavy. How about the Canon EOS 5D. Yes that'll do. The battery pack needs toping up though and as soon as that's done I'll be on my merry way.

While the battery pack is charging I'll quickly check whether anybody has actually been on my blog.

Hey, this is amazing! I got a comment and a follower! Wow - Thank you for your lovely comment Linda! and I got 3 thumbs up from friends I have on facebook. I'm not really very active on facebook ... but when I saw the link to facebook on blogger I thought why not let my facebook friends know... and bingo some of you gave me a sign. That's cool! and I'm thinking that it is good to keep my friends in the loop and that I want to check in with them more regularly to see what they are up to. Oh boy will I be busy! As I'm slowly discovering how demanding this social networking can be I'm asking: What have I let myself into? :)

Catch you later with the 1st image.

I wasn't kidding when I said it was raining cats and dogs! It was in fact pouring relentlessly and with the battery fully charged I simply had to go out, right?! I made it 2 minutes out the house and took shelter by Tooting Bec Tube station - I found out that living so close to an underground station is great for more than one reason :) and this is where I took this shot. I did however, brave the elements more and walked , I repeat, walked all the way down to Tooting Broadway :)

Yes, I took more photos, in fact one other one that I quite like ... cause it shows the ethnic diversity of London. But I felt the image wasn't "strong" enough and I know that I will capture that much better another time.

I'm soaked to the bone and in need of a piping hot cup of rooibus tea.

Oh, and the camera: none the worse for its outing!