A Zillion Ideas is my new blog. It is now on WordPress. .
4, June 2015 | Categories: Blogging, culture, local, news, politics, politics, The Black Country, Thrifty Thursday, writing | Tags: a zillion ideas, features, posts | 1 Comment

Retailers always have another way to get us to part with our money. The latest one seems to be ‘pay-day deals’. I wonder how they know when we’ve been paid. It all sounds very Orwellian to me. (more…)
28, February 2015 | Categories: Blogging, culture, Finance, Humour, Investments, photography, Ramblings, Reviews, Thrifty Thursday, writing | Tags: Orwellian, payday deals | 3 Comments

Focus keyword
Today I’m going to look at how to do a photo blog, because many of my readers are bloggers! I’ve started with an image from my media library. This saves uploading another one and saves server space too. There is no alt text yet, I want that to match my focus keyword for SEO (search engines). (more…)
13, January 2015 | Categories: Blogging, photography, social networking, writing | Tags: focus keyword, photography | 2 Comments

We are half way through Autumn and winter is fast approaching. I managed to go to one event this week and take photographs. The bonfire and fireworks event caused traffic chaos so I didn’t get there, but at least I kept writing! (more…)
8, November 2014 | Categories: culture, life, local, Money, philosophy, The Black Country, writing | Tags: Autumn, Events, Mindful gifts | Leave a comment

The reason for today’s picture is that I want to take the same picture this weekend to see the changes in autumn. I want to try different camera settings too. I don’t have grand ambitions, I write, take photos and see things differently. (more…)
18, October 2014 | Categories: culture, Finance, local, philosophy, photography, The Black Country, writing | Tags: aspirational brands, aspirations, reviews | 2 Comments

It’s the first day of summer here in the UK and we can now enjoy three months of mowing the lawn, washing the car and trying to get a bit of a tan. People will be getting their summer clothes out; the shorts and the tee shirts. There will be some sights out there to photograph in the coming weeks! (more…)
21, June 2014 | Categories: Blogging, culture, Finance, life, Money, photography, writing | Tags: Black Country Day, paparazzi, summer, telephoto lens | Leave a comment

Horse drawn carriages are a tradition in the Black Country and so when I saw a meeting on Sunday, I took some pictures. I had the camera (Nikon D3200) on the sports setting, because the light changes quickly and I was shooting in lots of different directions. You can see the shadows in this picture and it was still early. (more…)
20, May 2014 | Categories: Art, Blogging, photography, writing | Tags: Black Country, culture, tradition | 4 Comments

This image is quite artistic, but not very complicated to create. I have bought a new speedlight (flash) and so I tried it out to see if it would provide some fill in light on these leaves. It wasn’t quite as good as I had hoped for, but I made the image lighter and added a frame and it looks okay now. (more…)
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13, May 2014 | Categories: Art, culture, life, NeoDigital Art, photography, writing | Tags: art, Editing, Neodigital Art | 3 Comments

I’ve visited a few art galleries in the past year. This is our Victorian art gallery and museum here in Wednesbury. I’ve also visited Bilston Craft Gallery where I was impressed with an exhibition there. I was less impressed when I went to West Bromwich and went in the ‘Public’ with it’s pink neon lights. (more…)
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20, April 2014 | Categories: Art, Blogging, culture, history, life, photography, Ramblings, writing | Tags: art galleries, Bilston, Walsall, Wednesbury, West Bromwich | 3 Comments

Easter means different things to different people these days. To many the religious significance is still important, but to others religion is in disrepute. The Prime Minister claiming divine guidance hasn’t helped. (more…)
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19, April 2014 | Categories: Blogging, culture, Internet, life, Money, photography, Reviews, writing | Tags: Canals, Easter, Quintessentially English, Sandwell Country park, St George's Day | Leave a comment

My photo today is a good one of flying geese. I like the background colours too. The sun came out a little and although it was a cloudy sky, it gave quite good light. I like the Spring colours. Many photographers would wait for hours for a shot like this. I just pointed my camera and got lucky. There might have been a little skill… (more…)
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13, April 2014 | Categories: Art, Humour, philosophy, photography, Ramblings, writing | Tags: allegory, BBC crap, calculated risks, creativity, literary devices, metaphor, The Guess List | 1 Comment

Britain has a diverse heritage. We have culture, a industrial history, a history of commerce and of incredible architecture. This wealth is passed down from one generation to the next. Except that not everyone shared in that inherited wealth. (more…)
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12, April 2014 | Categories: culture, Finance, Humour, life, Ramblings, save money, writing | Tags: Easter bargains, review, supply and demand, Ukraine | Leave a comment

The Black Country isn’t the prettiest place to live or take photographs, but I manage and get a lot of interest in my photography. So if you’re blogging adding pictures to your words, can get the message to your readers across a lot more effectively and you don’t really need fancy equipment for online photographs. (more…)
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5, April 2014 | Categories: Blogging, life, photography, Reviews, social networking, writing | Tags: blogging, chief executive blogs, photography, reviews | Leave a comment

You are probably wondering why today’s photo is of a electronic fly catcher. I decided to photograph the things I see, with my phone; just one a day. The patterns in this photo are interesting and you also get a glimpse of my garden. (more…)
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29, March 2014 | Categories: life, philosophy, photography, Reviews, writing | Tags: Daylight Saving, full moon, photography, review | Leave a comment

I use Skype and social media a lot. I get to know people in exotic places and chat via Skype and we share snippets of our lives through the social media of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I think it gives me a broader outlook on life; a valuable diversity… (more…)
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23, March 2014 | Categories: Blogging, culture, history, Humour, life, local, philosophy, photography, social media, social networking, writing | Tags: blogging, Casualty, China, Crystal Yu, Faceboo, Lily Chou, LinkedIn, ripped jeans, Skype, the university of Wolverhampton, Twitter, Xiaogan University | 1 Comment

Spring is finally here and we have got the budget out of the way. What a damp squid that was. It seems our national debt as a percentage of GDP is higher than ever and still climbing. (more…)
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22, March 2014 | Categories: Blogging, Finance, Finance Friday, Humour, Money, NeoDigital Art, photography, psychology, save money, Thrifty, writing | Tags: getting published, middle class budget, nature or nurture, psychology, Thrifty | Leave a comment

It’s the Spring Equinox on Thursday; winter is finally ending. Some weather forecasters are saying we will have a heat wave again like last summer. The ones on the BBC have said Spring starts on the 1st of March; so we’ll ignore them… (more…)
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15, March 2014 | Categories: Art, culture, Finance, Investments, life, NeoDigital Art, photography, psychology, Ramblings, Reviews, writing | Tags: investments, nostaligia, photography, The Black Country, Wednesbury | Leave a comment

The photo today is one I took in Sandwell Valley last Sunday. The car park at Forge Mill Farm was quite full. Many of the visitors who visit the farm and lake aren’t British. Perhaps they appreciate the English Countryside more? (more…)
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8, February 2014 | Categories: Art, Blogging, Finance, NeoDigital Art, philosophy, photography, psychology, Ramblings, writing | Tags: English Countryside, review, Sandwell Valley, Sandwell Valley Countryside Park, Saturday review | Leave a comment

Today’s picture is the Birmingham canal at Tipton. I’m hoping this photo will win the waterways calendar competition. Tipton isn’t the prettiest place in the country. In fact the whole of the Black Country can’t be described as pretty. I do take some good photos though, I just wish the planners could see views like this. (more…)
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1, February 2014 | Categories: Blogging, culture, Finance, Finance Friday, news, photography, Ramblings, writing | Tags: bloggers, blogging, blogging subjects, blogging tips, review, weekend review | 2 Comments

Today’s photo was taken on the Walsall canal at Ocker Hill. I do try to show the Black Country in a good light; that’s when I get a good light to take the photo. This is one of the pictures I’ve entered for the waterways calendar competition.
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25, January 2014 | Categories: Art, Blogging, Finance, Finance Friday, local, NeoDigital Art, news, photography, politics, save money, Thrifty, writing | Tags: Black Country, calendar, Canals, competition, Darlaston Rotary Club, finance Friday, mindfulness | Leave a comment

It’s Sunday and so my thoughts today are with photography. I can see a blue sky and sunshine! I have to do some shopping though, I’m running out of food and essentials. I have a busy week planned too, so it would help if I could get the shopping out of the way. I tried yesterday but there was a queue of cars not only trying to get into the supermarket car park, but trying to get out too. (more…)
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19, January 2014 | Categories: culture, economics, education, history, Humour, life, Money, news, philosophy, politics, psychology, Ramblings, writing | Tags: 1984 Bluestar Operation, Ghandi and Cameron, Hitler, immigration, minimum wage, Osborne, psychopath, Thatcher | 1 Comment

I took today’s photo in bright sunshine, unfortunately I don’t have that picture any more. The original was wiped from my computer. I only have this smaller one now, which isn’t suitable for a calendar. I’m hoping the sun will come out this weekend so I can try to get the same shot again. We do have some nice places in the Black Country, it’s a shame they’re not always appreciated. (more…)
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18, January 2014 | Categories: Art, Blogging, culture, life, NeoDigital Art, news, photography, politics, psychology, writing | Tags: kidding themselves, Neodigital Art, photography competition, Thrifty Thursday, weekly review | 4 Comments

Another week ends as a New Year begins. We are still at the beginning of winter in Britain and some parts of the country are on severe weather warnings; there has already been flooding. We need a little luck with the weather now, less rain and we need the rest of the winter to be mild. No snow like last winter please! (more…)
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4, January 2014 | Categories: Blogging, Finance, Finance Friday, NeoDigital Art, photography, psychology, writing | Tags: Britain, luck | Leave a comment

Are you thinking about making New Year resolutions? Setting goals in life, whether it’s to lose weight and keep fit or something even more challenging can be useful. Try writing some things down and thinking about what is achievable and how you might achieve it. I have a few goals that include more photography. (more…)
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28, December 2013 | Categories: Astrology, culture, NeoDigital Art, philosophy, photography, psychology, Thrifty Thursday, writing | Tags: Black Country, Christmas, community, photography, psychology, review, treasure, Wednesbury | Leave a comment