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.

VEGETATION

This week we are knee deep in various forms of vegetation for  Carmi's Photogrpahic Challenge.   Follow the link to see what sort of vegetation others have found for their Cameras.

Down in deepest Cheshire, providing drought doesn't cover the land, we tend to get very lush vegetation!   Its the rain, you know!

Down the end of our garden it is very lush - I call it the Fernery

But there is a rather nice little Cotonoeaster which seeded itself there two or three years back.

I did mention the rain, didn't I?

However, it makes my Echinacea flower!

Not sure if fungus counts as vegetation, but this is a rather splendid specimen on an old willow tree.

Do let me know if you enjoyed these - I love comments , good or bad!

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Birds and/or feathers is the subject of Carmi's challenge this week.   Being bird-watchers and even more scientific ornithologists in earlier years, I had a hard job choosing shots from my archives!   Some of these you will have seen before, but others I hope not!   Most of them have been taken in our back garden, or in the park behind us.

That beady eye is firmly fixed on the water, and that wicked bill will catch any unwary fish that comes along!

A male (R) and female Bullfinch on our nyjer feeder

A beautiful Jay, but I do wish they wouldn't dig holes in our lawn!

Our Robin is totally fearless when we are digging in the garden, nipping in and grabbing odd worms, grubs etc.   One year they built a nest in one of the holes in our garden wall and raised two fledglings.

A Swan's wing.   At one time the pair of swans raised five cygnets, which they chased away, but the other week we heard that the male swan had died.   That leaves the lonely female, who looks rather sad, not surprising as swans mate for life, but maybe another male swan will find her.   The swan that died was incredibly aggressive and kept all other large birds, including Canada Geese away.   Maybe the geese will come back this coming winter - who knows?

An odd moulted swan's feather

Crows gather in the evening before roosting wherever it is they roost.

These two crows were sitting in a silver birch tree at the end of our garden, watching, just watching......