All the leaves are brown

Well the leaves are nearly all brown except for the orange ones, yellow ones and red ones but there is still green out there.  I love this time of year (along with Spring) when everything changes.

My photos for October are all nature based, Birds have arrived back in the garden - we'll ignore the pigeons and magpies but we've got Mr Robin, Mr Blackbird, Bluetits, Starlings and a squirrel who seems to think he's a bird by his antics on the birdfeeder!!

   

My Blackbird tale - over the years a blackbird has arrived in my garden then a month or so later, it goes really cold and snows.  I was telling someone this tale and they said they have blackbirds all year.  There was I thinking they migrate from Africa or some such place  to my garden when it's getting cold.  No, they've been hiding half a mile away all summer.   I'm most disappointed but we'll see, when it snows!!

Now my Oak Tree tale.  About 20yrs ago we picked up an acorn at Wakehurst Place and planted it in a pot to see if it would grow.  Well, it's grown as you can see, it's about 6ft tall, the wind blows it over occasionally and it loses a branch but we keep picking it up, potting in larger pots and this year it had 2 acorns!!   In the set of photos above there is a set of oak leaf pictures - over 2 weeks they've got from green to brown and today they have blown off totally.  That's nature for you!!

Thanks for looking and see you next month..... still thinking of a theme.....

Elaine xx

Seasons change

 Another month has gone by and it's now October - 9 months of photos down, only 3 to go before I complete the year.   I think I started enthusiastically - the photos are getting a bit samey but then maybe that is what I am interested in - sky, clouds, plants, nature etc

The month started off sunny and nice but these last few days have seen  Autumn arriving - it's been windy, wet, foggy with dew on the spider's webs.   I know we talk about the weather too much but it's everchanging and you're never quite sure what you are going to get.  Just a case of open the curtains and see.  Wednesday was lovely with white fluffy clouds, but yesterday, not so much so it's a photo of berries on the pyracanthus!!

Unless anything major happens in October then I think it will be focused on nature - trees, leaves, bark.  Watch this space!

Elaine xx

August was Cloudy!

Well here are my photos for the month of August.  The garden is very flowery but nothing different so I seem to have ended up with a set of Clouds.

This is the view from my kitchen window in the evening - I wandered in there to make coffee one night and thought, those clouds are interesting so got my camera.   The same happened the next night so I decided to do a series of clouds from my kitchen - it's amazing how different they are from one evening to the next.  Sadly after 5 nights it's just been grey!!   The weather did brighten up again but then finished on a solid grey note!!

The month started off with fireworks in the local park, watching the Vuelta, the Olympics and the Hundred cricket and finished with the Edinburgh Tattoo.  I've been a few times and having watched the review on TV, I definitely need to go again. Other than that a few flowers, some cooking and a new book - my friend Lynnda has published a book so if you like romances then try Batting for Charlie by Belinda E. Edwards.  It involves cricket but really its a romance.

Well thats me for August -  thanks for reading.   I now have to think of a new theme for September unless I do 30 photos of clouds from my kitchen.  We shall see 😀

Elaine xx

It's August

Another month of photos for the Photo365 Challenge.  I didn't think in January that I would still be doing this - I thought I would have lost interest but I'm still photographing something everyday.   I've tried to vary the subject matter, use different techniques and make it colourful!!

July has been a month of sport mainly - watching the Tour de France and now the Olympics which is always an opportunity to watch a great selection of sports.  It's amazing how you can become an expert on so many sports just from the comfort of your sofa.   I've also been watching The Hundred Cricket - really I find cricket a bit boring but these matches are only about 4hrs long (so one evening) and have been very close at the end so you get involved in the will they/won't they/can he hit that last ball for 6. Very entertaining!!

Not sure what I am going to do when the Olympics finish so my August photos could just be the garden......again!   Watch this space.......    Anyway thanks for looking and see you all in September.

Elaine xx

 

Mid Summer already

I can't believe how quickly this year is going - mid Summer and July already.   June was a nice easy month with 30 days so I needed only 2 wide photos and 7 seem to fit on a line so they all fit an A4 sheet - I think I will print them off at the end of the year and make an album. 

I've been busy doing exams so the photos are a little samey although a lot happens in the garden at this time of year.  The rose has flowered and as you can see from the last photo, the white petals are falling like confetti. We have lots of beneficial wild flowers in the lawn (thats my OH's excuse for not mowing it) and we've been watching all the tennis starting at Roland Garros, Queens, Eastbourne and now Wimbledon.  

We did have a day out to The Big Cat Sanctuary which was great but a bit of a hot day and the cats did what cats do and lazed.  The place is only open one week a year and we'd booked it in November 2019 but of course last July it was cancelled. It was definitely worth the wait.

I can't believe I've managed to keep this going for 6 months - I wonder what the next 6 months have in store!!  Thanks for visiting and take care.

Elaine xx

Jolly June

Well May seems to have flown past and now we are into June.  The weather has been weird - cold and windy, downpours and now this week it's over 20 degrees.  Usually we go away with friends at the Bank Holiday and it's cold and wet and not nice.  This year it's lovely and we are at home!!  I have at least had chance to do some gardening, planting up new pots and tidying up the shrubs etc.   

To summarise May, well I've been doing exams for 3 solid weeks, testing for covid etc - the only thing I managed to catch was a cold and I have absolutely no idea where that came from.  Nobody else had one and I gave it no-one.  The students were great - out of the 230 I looked after very few were absent and those that were missing had either broken their writing hand, on crutches or dropped the subject.  We Invigilators even managed a trip to the pub - first time in 14months!     

Other than that, more photos of the garden, birds and the sky - a hedgehog one night and a pigeon that seems to have made his nest over our front door.  I also took a photo of my rocks in the downstairs toilet - I pick up quirky stones when I go to a beach and that's where they live!!   It made a nice long narrow photo as May has 31 days and it's a bit tight on an A4 sheet of paper.

Anyway that's my photo diary for May.   One more month and I'm halfway through the Photo365 Challenge and some days I can assure you it is a challenge. Fun to look back on though!!

Thanks for reading and see you in a month

Elaine  xx

 

Merry Month of May

 Hello Readers

Here's another montage of photos for the month of April.   It's lots of flowers but then I think a lot happens in April in quick succession - the bulbs flower,  trees start to bud up, leaves come out and the sun has been out which always makes you feel cheerful.  

The lowlight was the calendar where the only thing I had written on there was cancelled.  The highlights, well there were a few - an orange supermoon,  an exam,  meeting friends in the park etc.  

I've been researching a Pape family who moved to York, Ontario (now Toronto) in 1844.  My Papes are from East Yorks, UK but there is a Pape Avenue, Cemetery, Subway Station in East York, Ontario and it's taken me years to pin the family down.  Apparently 3 generations of Papes (Joseph James and his 3 sons John Joseph, Joseph James and James Joseph) were market gardeners and florists in the area of Leslieville and were so well liked they named Pape Avenue after them.  I found an old photo in the Florists Magazine so have included it.  Sadly I don't think they are relatives of mine but still interesting!

So what will May bring?   I have 3 weeks of exams/assessments so guess I won't get out much to take photos but we will see.  I'm definitely starting with Bluebells.

Take care

Elaine  xx