WHERE I WORK

Well, I work indoors - don't we all, but you don't want to see a boring photograph of my kitchen!    So as its supposed to be summer over here in the north west of the UK, I thought I'd show you photos of our garden.

I do most of the showy bits of the garden.   Mr. G mows the lawn, cuts bits off bushes (unless I can stop him!) and useful and essential bits like that.  The hedges are too much for him now, so we get A Man in to do them!

To see where others work, go over to HERE - and maybe post a shot of where you work!

                  

I have a lot of pots on the patio.   In the Spring, I have bulbs, polyanthus and daffodils, which brighten it up!

But in the summer, I have bedding plants.   I also have two big pots of gaillardias which attract loads of bees.   I also had this year some antirrhinums, which were a huge success.

We also have a lot of shrubs!

And beneath the patio we have what I laughingly call our herbaceous border!

All this takes a fair amount of time, particularly watering the pots in the evenings!   But I love it, and hopefully Mr.G and I enjoy it!

RETRO

Its all things Retro in Thematic Photography this week.   When Carmi, over at writteninc suggested Retro for this weeks theme I looked round and thought "Oh, you mean all the stuff we've had for years and never got rid of!"    Not quite as silly as it sounds, as we've been married for nearly 55 years, and I've noticed that "The 60's" now count as retro!!

As they say, what goes round, comes round!   (Have I got that right?)

Anyway, I found some nice retro bits:-

This jug comes from my Aunt's house.   She was my favourite Aunt and I wanted something to remember her by.   The jug had stood on the front room window sill for as long as I can remember, and is probably older than me!   Its marked on the bottom "Trentham Art Ware"

The origin on this deer is obscure!   He was on the premises of the Consulting Opticians that my father took over in 1939, and stayed there until my father retired, when following the protests of my sister and I he was brought into the family home, and I collared him when both my parents died!   He is marked on the side "Skeaping Wedgwood" which dates him firmly into the early 1930's

And my own little bit of retro is "The Good Housekeeping Picture Cookery" which was first published in 1950, and which was given to me as a wedding present.   The cookery is as sound now as it was ever, but the presentation is delightfully 1950's!   The picture top left of the collage shows a lovely photograph of the 1930's Institute ladies hard at work!

Do go to the link above to see what other retro items others have come up with!  And thank you Carmi, for a great time I had going through the cookery book again!

SPONTANEOUS

Spontaneity is not always easy for photographers, especially if you have been trained by your Dad to wait, compose, think, before you press the shutter!

However, over at writteninc.  it's spontaneous photographs that Carmi is asking for!   Go over to the link to see how others have managed to be spontaneous!

As far as I am concerned, it is the natural world where I have managed to get spontaneous photographs.    I always feel awkward using a camera where there are people around!

I was in a coach travelling from Le Havre to Rouen when I spotted this bridge coming up.   Its taken through the coach window, and I have no idea where exactly it is!

We get Jays in our garden, but they don't often pose conveniently like this!

Nor do Herons usually sit on the railings by the lake in the park!   But I imagine he got a splendid view from up there! 

I had several 'spontaneous' shots of this bee before he posed in a more bee-like manner!

Enjoy more spontaneity at the link above!

FAR FROM HOME

How far have you been from home?   Much further than I have, I imagine!   But still, we've done some fairly far flung holidays in our time!

We live on the edge of the Peak District National Park.   This was the first National Park to be created in 1951.   It is mainly in Derbyshire, but we live in the East of Cheshire, and it is literally just down the road!

For those of you geographically minded, the co-ordinates of our town are 
53.25 N and 2.13 W

There are some lovely walks, right on our doorstep, with trails starting here, and the Pennine Way not too far away.

The furthest north we have ever been is Longyearbyen, Svalbard, 

78.2 N and 15.6 E, well beyond the Arctic Circle,   It was absolutely beautiful up there, but I imagine rather a different place in the winter!

The further east we have been is to the Greek Island of Kalymnos,

36.9 N and 26.0 E.   This wasn't the most successful of our many Greek holidays, as the island was very bare and bleak away from the town.   This is not my photograph, as I wasn't digital then.

And the furthest south?   Well, that was when we went to the Canary Islands.   Gran Canaria is not the furthers south, but we didn't go any further on our cruise.   Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the main town, was a fascinating place, and the view from the Cathedral towers was fantastic.   And yes, I was digital then!

And my daughter and I went west a very long time ago, in 1979, to stay with some pen friends.   They lived near St. Louis and took us all over the place, including Chicago, but also a trip to the Ozarks, 35 N and 93 W, where we found chipmunks, to our delight.   And I don't think digital had been invented then!

To see where others have been, far from home, go to Carmi's Blog - and if you visit here, so leave a comment, I love hearing from you!   (I don't get out much!!)

SKY

I took my camera out as Carmi suggested - and found this:-

Lovely day at the back of the house, which faces east -

but clouds threatening at the front, which faces west.

But we do get lovely sunrises sometimes.   These are all different days.

Go to the link above to see lots of other lovely skies from across the world.

THE CAMERA (or in this case, cameras)

Now this one was a bit tricky!     The usual weekly Thematic challenge was to take photos of our cameras.

Now, I have one camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ8.   If pushed, my phone, which I've had a long time, will take a photo, but to get it onto my computer and so into my photographic files, I have to send it as an email to myself.   And that costs, and its not a brilliant photo anyway.

So I thought I would show you some of Mr.G's collection of old cameras.   He has actually stopped (well, more or less) collecting them now, but doesn't really want to get rid of them.

The shots are not great, its a difficult spot to take them from. 

The oldest cameras are on the lower shelves, and the real oldies at ground level.   I'm afraid I cannot get down there - or if I did I'd never get up again!

The oldest camera is probably this Voigtlander.    It will do a lot, if you can fiddle with the controls!

 My first camera was a little Box Brownie, 127 film, 8 exposures, fixed focus.   My Father taught me - in those days forget taking multiple shots, you carefully composed your shot, steadied your camera and squeeeezed the shutter very carefully.   then you wound on ready for the next shot.

Then I moved on to the bigger box Brownies, similar to that lovely blue one.   120 film, 8 bigger pictures.   Same principles.   My father stuck to his Rolleiflex camera all his life, and took some fantastic stuff with it, winning prizes, exhibiting - he really was a talented photographer.

I moved through various better versions of box cameras, and when I got married, Mr.G gave me his Agfa Isolette, as he was getting himself a newer camera.   This is actually the story of my camera ownership.   He gets a new one and passes on to me what he doesn't want!!   The Agfa was a great camera, still the same principles, but I was pretty nifty at composition, and did quite a bit of press work, as I illustrated my own local reportage!

Now of course, it is all digital, lots of angles, multiple shots, move in, move out.   I often wonder what my Dad would have made of it all.   And as for PhotoShop!   He did all his own developing, printing, enlarging, mounting etc. etc.   I used to help him; like I said, he taught me a lot!

Go to the link above, I'm sure there will be more interesting cameras on show!

LIQUIDITY

This week's prompt for Thematic Photography is LIQUIDITY.   Most of my liquids seem to be water in some shape or form, though there is one refreshing other!

Go over to Carmi to see what other liquid thoughts others have had and photographed!

Wake following our ship - you can stand there watching it for ages!

These are condensation bubbles of steam under the saucepan lid reflecting the tomato soup inside!   Yes, I know they look like knobs, but they aren't!

Refreshing liquid in iced glasses on a very hot day in Spain!

Raindrops on  long thin tulip leaf

There is a lot of liquid hanging in these clouds

!

Violent waves in Spain in March this year

Nice peaceful liquid water and reflections, plus geese in our park earlier this year.

Hope you enjoyed these - please let me know, and go over to the link to see what others have liquefied!