FAVOURITE SHOTS OF THE YEAR

Yes, its that time again - 2014 is passing away and 2015 shoving at the door, waiting to come in!   So Carmi over at writteninc. is asking us for our best shots of 2014.

Not being a very good photographer, I don't think any of my shots could be called "best", unless its "best of a mediocre lot"!!   However, I'll have a go, and save my favourite one until last!

Duck in the park

Buttermilk bread in Cobh Market, Ireland, where we went on our cruise.   That market made me really hungry, pity we weren't doing self-catering!

Berries ripening on our Chinese Rowan tree in the garden.   Definitely a good thing for colour.   Pink leaves as they open in the Spring, followed by white flowers, followed by these red berries, and then the leaves turn brilliant scarlet before they fall off, leaving the berries to be stripped by the birds.

My family, at my 80th birthday party.   My daughter, two grandsons and great- grandaughter.   We all had a wonderful time.  GGD's father is the one between my daughter and his daughter.   Other grandson is fancy free! 

2014 seems to be going out in an icy manner here, looking forward to seeing what 2015 will being!

Happy New Year to you all!

WHERE YOU WORK

Having been retired for 25 years now I can't post anything mildly interesting for Carmi, over at writteninc. who is, like most of us, finding Christmas just adds to the stress, and wants pics of our workplace.

So where I work is my boring kitchen!

This is the "work" part of it.   We are tired of the green doors and drawers and are thinking of changing them.   Depends how expensive that turns out to be!

And this is what I produced yesterday - salmon fillets, spinach, leeks and potatoes.   Nothing left on plates!

I hope, Carmi, you have a great Christmas, and that everyone who posts on Carmi's thread has too.

HOME MADE

Like Carmi, over at writteninc. I am a fan of bread making machines.   Carmi has challenged us to photograph our delicious home made goodies, so like him, I have come up with bread! 

Go to the link above to see what other mouth-watering dishes have been photographed!

I make a half and half white/Wholemeal loaf, with added linseed.   Doesn't seem to last long!

I also do a nice line in Olive bread!

My daughter made this gorgeous chocolate cake for my 80th birthday - well worth reaching that grand old age for that cake!

ANIMAL PLANET

Lots and lots of different animals showing over at Carmi's challenge this week!   Makes me wish I lived where you can see wild bears!   Or at least, on the coast here!   However,  I've dug around for our four-footed (and one- and two-fotted ones!)

Max, our current dog - now getting on a bit

Wags,  my much loved and missed, first dog we had.

A very stretched squirrel feed in fat put out for the birds!

Mallards, doing what dabbling ducks do!

A very large snail which visited us once.   Hope he counts as an animal!

Go to the link above to see what others have posted -and do leave a comment - I read them all!

COLUMNS AND ROWS

Today, we are columnar and linear - that is Carmi's challenge over at writteninc.com this week.   There should be plenty of scope for imagination there!   Do check the link above and see what others have found.

Patterns always appeal to me, so I dug around in my archives (it being too wet to go out today with a camera, and far too dull and dismal) and found the following:-

Nice neat rows of knitting wool stacked ready for those with nimble fingers!

Christmas tree decorations ready for the crowds

Empty fish boxes stacked on the pier at Cobh, Eire.

Not sure if the next two would qualify - a disused and rather sad pier at Dunoon, Scotland

And gantries (is that the word?) at Vigo, Spain, with our cruise liner behind, making another set of lines!

Do leave a comment - good or bad - if you visit, I love hearing from you!

VEHICULAR - ETC.

I am not a great one for photographing cars.    To Mr.G's disgust I can't really tell one car from another.   I drive ours, not to make myself look big, desirable or anything I'm not, but to get from A to B.

see, told you I was boring.   And I have probably now enraged all red-blooded males who post on this site!

So, as Carmi, over at written inc. has challenged us to photograph anything vehicular, I've had to dig around in my archives for anything vehicular, and this is the best I can come up with!

This was taken from a coach window (hence the reflections) as we drove past this strange town, having been on a tour of the Carmargue.  The architecture was something else, but the French cars lined up along the road looked perfectly normal.   Sorry, don't know what make they are!

This was taken from the Castle in Lisbon, Portugal, looking down on one of the squares in that City.  One of those coaches there is the shuttle bus which will take us back to our ship.   There were also trams, but don't know if any are visible.

Out in the Derbyshire countryside, along one of the very narrow lanes, with gates that have to open and shut.   (They stop the sheep from escaping!)   We are stopped to admire the view, and the driver of the red car gallantly both opened the gate for us and shut it after his car had driven through.

Having checked that "vehicular" meant anything  that carried goods or people I've included this one of the "stop me and buy one" man with his tricycle and ice creams.   My father took this in about 1935 or 6 when I was a very tiny little girl, somewhere along our road, or one like it, in Harrow, part of the new building sprawl that was stretching out from London westward along the route of the new Metropolitan Railway .

FOOD FROM THE EARTH

An edible challenge from Carmi this week!   Food from the earth - sounds delicious to me, and I had a hard job choosing some photographs, as I always like taking shots of vegetables and fruits whenever I go to a market, either here in the UK or on holiday.

So I came up with these four - lovely familiar vegetables I can find any day, in season, of course.

Cauliflower

  

Sprouts ready for Christmas, sold on the stem.

Radishes - these were in Norway, but look just the same as ours!

And carrots - how could we manage without them in the winter?

Go to the link above to see what others have found ready for a fine dinner, and please leave a comment if you visit me - I do love to get them!

METALLICA

Its all things metallic this week.   Carmi, over at writteninc has posted a superb shot of a shiny train at night, and has challenged us to take anything metallic this week.   

Go over to the link, and see what others have come up with!

I don't have shiny trains round here, but have come up with these:

Mr. G used to collect Old Hall stainless steel ware, which has been going from the 1930's, until about the later years of last century (my, doesn't that sound a long time ago!)   We still have quite a lot on display, including this coffee jug and hot water pot.

Old Hall also did goblets and mugs.   Not very practical for hot liquids and maybe more for presentation purposes, but even so, Cheers!

Away from domestic items, I decided to play around with this!

Do let me know if you visit, I love getting comments - and go and see what others have taken!

ROUND AND ROUND

I sometimes feel as though all I am doing is going round and round!    But no, Carmi, over at writteninc.   wants us to find great photographs under the title of "Round and Round".   Go to the link to see what others have come up with in this circular challenge!

Firstly, I found this one in my archives:

Sliced courgettes (zucchini to you Canadians!)

And more food - tomatoes on the vine

Then I had to go down to our Garden Centre (who sell a great many more things than just garden items!) and found two lots of pots.

This little fellow, who I think is supposed to have plants growing out of those rather small holes.   He looked a bit sad and was languishing under a "50% off" card but I still didn't buy him and ............

  

............these rather cute little owls.   I made sure they were all facing the same way before I took their portrait!

Do leave a comment if you visit - I love knowing who has been here!

WHEN NIGHT FALLS

Now I am not a great one for going out at night!   For one thing, I don't see very well in the dark, and for another, being a Pensioner, I like my home comforts in the evenings!

So Carmi, over at writteninc. who has challenged us to take photos of When Night Falls has set me a bit of a poser!

I have come up with only two (though I am  making sure my camera is at hand now the days are drawing in)

The theatre on board the "Grand Princess" cruise liner, waiting for the evening show to begin later on.

Midnight on the same ship near North Cape, the northenmost point of Europe, waiting  for the midnight sun to come out from behind the clouds.   Yes, that is as dark as it got!

Go to the link above to see what other people have been up to as it gets dark!   And please leave comments, we all like to know you've visited!

PATTERNS

Over at writteninc. Carmi has got a Patterned mind, and asked us to find patterns and photograph them.  Either from the natural world, or from elsewhere.

I love looking for patterns, and found these.   Do leave a comment if you visit this site, I love to know you've been!

The pattern the wake of our cruise liner made as the evening sun caught it.

Fungus on the side of an old tree, which I made in Black and White to bring out the contrasts.

More fungus (I rather like fungus!) but this time such a gorgeous colour and layered up the tree.

A pineapple - the prickly bits, not the eating part!

Labels at a Garden Centre

And finally, not really natural, the pattern made by the pier at Greenock, Scotland.

Go to the link above to see other patterns - and leave a comment !

RUN DOWN

Run down, unloved, needing repair - so many things today seem like that.   Carmi has set us the challenge this week to find these unloved spots or items.   Go to the link above to see what other photographers have found in their countries.

Definitely unloved, though with that left hand window open I do wonder if the company next door is using the rooms?    Hope its not another cannabis factory!

Not recommended for using as a pier now, but we were told that it was the original boarding pier for liners carrying the hundreds of Irish people wanting to emigrate to the USA because of the potato famine.   It would also, in that case, have been used by the Titanic, but it doesn't look big enough to me!   Irish folk stories I think!

These apartments in Lisbon, Portugal looked very run down, with grass and even bushes growing in the gutters, and the fascia sadly in need of some paint.   But they were occupied, so maybe it was the landlords who were responsible.   Same the world over!

And this poor little specimen on the right was what was sent to me from a plant firm when  I ordered two Astrantia plants.   I complained and got my money back, but won't be using that firm again!

IN THE PINK!

Carmi's great capture of a pink van under street lights will inspire us all to take part in his "In The Pink challenge this week.

I had not planned to go anywhere today, the sun, and my garden being quite delightful enough, for once.   So I took my camera out and came up with these!

My small-flowered begonias never stop flowering.   Great little plants!

We do our best for bees and butterflies.   This one is on a very big sedum plant.

As is this Red Admiral butterfly.   Same sedum, though it grows like weeds with us.

Whereas this bee fancied the last of the astrantia flowers.

Speaking of "lasts"  this and the next are the last roses of summer....

....growing over an arch and very high to reach to photograph.   Help was needed with a tall male hand!

Do go to the link above to see other interpretations of "in the Pink" - there will be things there you would never have thought of!

And if you visit here, do leave a comment - I love reading them.