K

is for kaleidoscope. It turns out K is a surprisingly difficult letter to crack. I know I've taken a while to get there but just have a think about how many objects/concepts you can think of beginning with K. No doubt I'll be inundated with suggestions now but it's too late and you have missed your chance. A kaleidoscope of colour.

J

..... is for jumping! Once on Arthur's Pass on the way over the top from Christchurch to Franz Josef and the second on a beach on the way up after the glacier trip to Wanaka.

I !

....is for ice. I know I've broken my rules slightly and got out of order in terms of taking the photo to match the letter but some of these have been too good to miss! This is looking up through a crevice on the Franz Josef glacier.

H w

....... is for haka. Last night I was in New Plymouth with Si, Gemma and James to watch the All Blacks thrash Ireland 66-28. The haka was awesome - definite goose bump moment! Ireland unfortunately were not - ten minutes in and already ten nil down a player got himself sent off and they were doomed. O'Gara was sin binned a few minutes later and the first half was a rout. Luckily All Blacks were attacking our end. We though that meant we were in for a boring second half but the Irish showed some spirit to put 28 points on the board. Excellent entertainment and it didn't rain during the match. Bearing in mind it rained while we put up the tent, lashed it down for most of the day and there was thunder and lightning for all of the 5hours we spent in the tents - we got up at 6:15am to be loyal England fans. We all know how that one played out......

G

is for growth.

These are some rocket seeds planted a good while ago now. By now I think Matt may have been able to eat the fully fledged plant but there may be a little left I guess! If there is you'll get an extra picture here in a week or so.

F

is for two things.

It's for focus to start with. What is Mrs Williams fixing her beady eyes on? (I'm not meaning beady as an offensive term there incidentally Vik before I get criticism!). Just seemed an ideal opportunity to take a pic!

The next one was going to be for 'fester'. Suggested by Matt and would have been great however the compost bin isn't in the right state at the moment to demonstrate the fullness of the word!

So instead, to popular acclaim, here is the 'fantastically' sparkly thing that has entered my life! I can't quite stop looking at it yet, though the photos don't really do it sufficient justice.

E

Thought a pair of Esther's was a particularly could suggestion so here goes - plus one of them's engaged. :-)

D

D is for......

Daisy. It could so easily have been darts but I thought that was too straightforward an option. Instead, sitting in the park yesterday in between beers, rounders, cricket and gabbing, I took a few snaps of the daisies I happened to be sitting next to.

C

C is for.....

Cloud - a little bit spooky this I think and I don't know why it took me so long to come up with it as an idea. Taken from the window of the car on the way home from work I will title this 'Cloud over Liverpool'.

Chaos - I had this idea ages ago and have been looking out for some for a while. A night watching darts was the perfect solution.....Echo arena virtually full of a lot of crazy folk (we weren't in this category needless to say) watching men throw three tiny darts repetitively at a target. When they hit 180, boy did we know about it!!!!

B

B is for... the great British institute that is the BBC.

I'd wanted to be in the audience for Fighting Talk but missed the cut (the Masters is on so thought I'd get a few references in...), instead got 'Kicking Off' with Colin Murray in the saddle. One of the JMU lecture halls was transformed into a live radio show with 14 times unlucky national winner Tony McCoy amongst others. Happily, Matt followed Cornelius Lysaght's advice thinking that the new phrase might be 'fifteenth time lucky' and bagged himself a winning bet. Hilarious evening, not least because of the 'in the hole' shout that went up from us every time Tiger Woods was mentioned. When outside commentators stumble over their words in reaction to the shout you know it's making a mark, let alone it being live on national radio!

A

After great debate and discussion and realising I missed taking a daily photo, I've decided to pinch someone's idea and do an a-z blog.

It's taken a while to think of an 'a' and in the end it wasn't very inspired, though it's highly relevant to me at the moment. This 'a' is the anti-viral medication I'm taking to knock the shingles on the head. They're certainly not helping with the itch so I hope they're working their magic in other ways!

This time I want to create a more participatory blog. I'm going to take the pictures in order and it might take 26days or 26 wks to do but I need a topic for every letter. I'm looking for suggestions and though my first one is a bit mundane - the wilder the better. Objects/concepts/ideas/places/I'll leave it to you.....

This might mean I end up with more pictures per letter than just one - depends how good your idea is!!!!