Happy New Year

Before we fully start 2022 I thought I'd finish with 2021 so here are my last 31 photos for the Photo365 Challenge.  I worked out I took over 1500 photos during the year!!

December started on a positive note - well Covid positive!!   I had a bit of a twitchy and slightly runny nose but as I was doing exams at school I tested myself and the result came back positive.  No-one else caught it, I didn't manage to give it my family so I sat inside for the alloted 10 days taking photos out of the windows or the moon from the front door step!!

Looking back on all the photos life does seem very colourful and I've thoroughly enjoyed trying to find something different to photo every day.   It's a pictorial diary so I can look back and remember.  Take this last week or two - we had a lovely sunny frosty day on the 22nd, but ever since then it's been grey, wet, damp and dreary. Now the year has ended I'm not sure what I will do.  Maybe I will take the occasional photo, still create an A4 page but with bigger photos.  Anyway thank you for keeping me company all year - I'm amazed I finished!  

Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2022!!

Elaine xx

Fading into Winter

November already and here are my 30 photos.  I thought I'd do something different and mute the colours to show more texture.  There is still lots of colour about but the leaves are blowing away and with this recent cold blast, the colourful berries are disappearing fast.   

Mrs Blackbird has now come to meet Mr Blackbird - she was sat hiding in the Pieres on Saturday when snow was forecast.  It was icy cold here in the south but we had no snow.

Only one more month to go then I will have completed the whole year.  I'm thinking of printing each month out and creating my own calendar, then I can admire the photos all over again.

Thanks for looking and take care everyone.

Elaine xx

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