FAVOURITE PHOTOS

To celebrate the 300th Thematic Challenge, Carmi has asked us to post our Favourite Photographs!   Quite a challenge.   I started making a list and when it got to over 20, thought I had better stop, and get down to it and make a choice!

So here they are!   Go and have a look and see what others have posted.   I can guarantee there will be a lot of great photos!

The above are both from 2013 and speak for themselves!

Now from 2012 - honey fungus on a tree in the park

View of islands (in the Med) from our cruise ship

Frosted ivy leaves

A swan's wing

Parallel marks in the snow

Lastly, the answer is, of course, a lemon!

CRITTERS

Critters, bless their little hearts (or whatever they have for their circulatory systems) can enchant us or drive us mad!

Carmi challenges us to photograph Critters, large and small, this week.   So here are my take on critters I have found in the UK.

Sorry, I don't know what this one is - it might be a hover fly, or possibly a bee.   This was taken a couple of years ago - this year it is very worrying as there are NO BEES.   Not even a hover fly, and I have deliberately planted bee- and butterfly-friendly flowers.   Where are they all?

We get a lot of squirrels in our garden, after the bird food.   Most of them are very bold and sit on the water butt outside the kitchen window.   This one was doing a runner after I shooed him off!

 A heron on the lake in our Park.    It was very early, and the light made everything green!

A tortoiseshell butterfly on Sedum.   See above on Bees - we have no butterflies either.

Dogs are critters, yes?   this is Max, our greedy cocker spaniel.

A forest bug that made its way indoors, and was very reluctant to make its way out again!

SUMMER

Rushing to get this in before the end of the week!   Carmi's challenge this week is SUMMER so I thought I'd stick to the traditional English Summer!   

This is actually Cork, in the Irish Republic.   It was wet the day we went.   Very wet.   But it is a beautiful city, and I would like to go back one day.   In the dry.

 But the gentle showers of English rain leave everything refreshed, green and growing.

But also leave lovely drops on foliage.

And enable us to enjoy the fruits from the orchards and gardens of this beautiful land!

CLOUDSPOTTING

Our heads are in the clouds today, as Carmi has challenged us to look above us, and see the clouds.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a terribly great day here, but I took some cloudy pictures.   Not lying on my back, as Carmi was, I'm too old for that!

It looks as though rain is threatened.   Should I be hanging out my washing?

Hmm, is that a clearance coming?

Yes, the sun is coming out!

Follow the link above to see more cloudy pictures!

TREES AND BRANCHES

Trees are so important to our landscapes, but sometimes we only notice they are there when they are gone, so to speak.   But trees age, and eventually will die, and if they are left to lie where they fell, will provide food and homes for countless insects and other animals.

So when we fell trees, and only when we must, then we should plant a tree to replace it.   Perhaps not right where the old one was, but somewhere beneficial!

Trees and Branches are Carmi's challenge to us this week, so here are mine.   I had a hard time choosing, as I love photographing trees, but decided these made the grade!

This tree, which I suspect is actually from one trunk, having been coppiced hard in its youth, is one of the many willow species.   I love the way the branches spray out like a wooden fountain!

The roots of an old beech tree in our Park.   Unfortunately the Council, in its wisdom decided it was diseased and cut it off at about 20ft from the ground!   But the roots still remain, as interesting as ever, and typical of beech roots.

A larch tree, just along from our back gate, in its autumnal glory.   Spring is nearly as glorious, with the little tufts of green first coming out.

A weeping willow, in all its spring glory.   One of the first trees to come into leaf here, it always makes me feel Spring is really on its way, even if the wind is still freezing cold!

LANDSCAPE

I'm very late this week, so will slip in a couple of landscapes, as Carmi has challenged us.   Go to the link to find some super landscapes.

Looking at land across water, down in the Mediterranean

Tortuous road in Tenerife

Closer to Home - view to landscape across townscape

PETS

As a family, I have always been in a pet-loving household.   When children, we had two cats, one of which survived being bombed with us, appearing in the morning after with his tail held high!

But strangely enough, when married, I turned into a dog person.   Though that might have had something to do with our daughter's insistent pleas for a dog!   So we got a Springer Spaniel/Border Collie Cross puppy.   (Mum, a pedigree Springer Spaniel had Got Out at the wrong time!)    Our daughter named her Wags.

Wags immediately decided she was my dog, and I know she would have defended me to the death when we went for our very early morning walks in the woods

Shed stayed with us for 13 years, until she suffered a tumour and was gently put to sleep as I stroked her head.   I broke my heart over her death, she had been a huge comfort to me at a very difficult time, and even now I find I catch my throat when I think of her.

A couple of months later we got Ben, from the local Rescue Centre.   He decided he was a Man's Dog, and really liked being with my husband best!   He adored car rides, and we think he must have been used to riding in the front passenger seat as he immediately got up there!   We managed to look under the Tippex on his medical card and found he had belonged to someone on the nearby RAF station.    He was a healthy, tough and adventurous dog whose ambition was to dig down to Australia.   We had him for 15 years, when again, old age made his life difficult, and I stroked his head once more at the last.   (Mr.G can't cope with all that!)

We had four or five dog-free years, when our arms were gently twisted emotionally to take on Max, who belonged to ex-son-in-law who was going to the USA, and wanted his two dogs to be rehomed.   Grandsons said how good it would be if Granny and Grandad would have him.

So Max came into our lives and is still with us.   I must admit to looking back on those dog-free years with longing, as Max is a very demanding dog.   Demanding, that is for food.   His life revolves around Food, Food and more Food.   As soon as I start cooking, he is there, hopeful ears up, in case something should fall on the floor.   Not only that, he has an excellent internal clock, and comes and tells me when its coffee/tea/lunch or dinner time, and GET Cooking with Food!!

Pets, who'd have 'em!   For other pet tales and photographs, go to Carmi's Thematic Photographs to see lots of other adorable pets!