#SilentSunday 5th June 2011

#TheGallery: "I'm Grateful For"

Tara explains the reasons for this week's theme so well I'm going to use her own words:

Today my lovely friend Chris is on the verge of a huge adventure.

In her own words in an email to be this week, she is "trying to pack, blog and be a mum and wife" in the midst of tearing her hair out. Because on Monday Chris is going on an amazing journey to Mozambique with Save the Children.

She has been invited along as part of their campaign to make a lot of noise ahead of the Global Vaccination Summit on June 13. The aim is to encourage the world's leaders plug the vaccination funding gap.

They want a fair deal for children the world over.

All YOU have to do is sign their petition.

At the moment 1 in 5 children don't receive any vaccinations whatsoever and millions are dying of preventable diseases as a result. 

Chris's journey is about trying to raise awareness of that.

On her travels, she will also be meeting mothers whose children have died of pneumonia, and as she has an asthmatic child who has had the pneumonia vaccine herself, this will be a very personal journey for her.

So, this week's theme is: I'm Grateful For . . .

I am grateful for being blessed with two happy and healthy children and not have the worries of parents in the Third World who don't have the protection of vaccines for their children against common childhood diseases that can maim or kill. So here are my children and I will be signing the petition to help parents in less well off countries have less fears about their children's health:

A few years ago on the Isle of Wight

Pedalling away

So please 1) sign the petition 2) go and see the other entries this week

Secret Post Club: May 2011

Its been a while since this has run but it was a pleasure to both send and receive a mystery parcel this month as part of the secret post club which is run by the lovely Heather. This month I received goodies from a lady I'd never come across on Twitter before Erin aka @silentbeauty. She sent me the perfect package:

Coffee beans, chocolate and some pampering face packs! Needless to say the chocolate didn't last long ;-) I am looking forward to some time to enjoy the lovely coffee and a relaxing face pack. You can go see what other people got over at Heather's place.

#SilentSunday: 29th May 2011

A British Icon

A few weeks ago I started capturing photographs of Royal Mail post boxes for my blipfoto daily challenge. It has amazed both myself and others just what a variety of post boxes there are in existence. I haven't yet had a chance to photograph a Victorian one I've been told about but all of the ones above have been captured in and around Kendal and range from George V to George VI and Elizabeth II. They come in a variety of shapes and these days materials. Sometimes its the setting that they are in that makes them so photogenic.

What other things scream out their Britishness to you? For other countries what are the iconic bits of street furniture.