Disappointing Fuchsia

About two weeks ago, during my ‘Flower of the Day’ theme I photographed two Fuchsia ‘Happy Wedding Day’ Buds and promised to show them when they flowered.

What a disappointment. Not the actual flowers you understand. It is just that the joy of them didn’t last long (is this a metaphore?). The petals began turning brown quite quickly so that by the time I came to photograph them they were covered in spots.

Fuchsia 'Happy Wedding Day' in flower

As you can see. Not inspiring.

Never mind though. There is another bud developing.

Fuchsia 'Happy Wedding Day' Bud

This time I will be ready!

The Hungry, Harrassed Cat

Tim, our cat gets fed outdoors, or rather, did get fed outdoors. All that changed when I saw him walking dejectedly up the garden, looking wistfully back. That was when I heard a knocking sound from the area of his food bowl. Looking outside I saw a Common Gull happily tucking in to the remainder of Tim’s breakfast. It was shooed away but always returned. Every morning was the same and then I realized Tim was not giving up his food – he was getting bullied by the Gull to relinquish it! We saw the Gull swoop down, stand close to Tim while he ate and force him away from the bowl.

What could I do?
I did what any keen photographer would do – get a photograph first, then deal with the problem!

It took a day or so as the Gull was very wary and flew away at any hint that I was nearby. But eventually I managed to get this slightly out of focus shot as I was just putting my hand out of the back door, pointing the camera in the general direction and snapping.

This is the little B****** (or not so little really).

Common Gull Eating Tims Food

Tim now gets fed indoors and seems happier (and fatter!) with this new arrangement.
I haven’t seen the Gull in the garden since although I think I spotted it flying over head looking ruefully down. It gave a cry. I can only guess at what it said but I doubt it was a fond farewell!!

George and Diane – The Finished Caricature

Some time ago I posted my workings for a Caricature in progress.
On Sunday was the first Wedding Anniversary of George and Diane. I presented them with this finished Caricature I had promised them a year ago (I am not the fastest worker – especially with a year as a deadline!).

George and Diane - The Finished Caricature

Here are a couple of close-ups:

George and Diane Caricature - Close up 1

George and Diane Caricature - Close up 2

They have a farm ‘up North’ and I included some of the animals they have on the farm. If you look at the egg box that Diane is holding you will notice that one of the eggs is white. Why is that? – you may ask. Because, I will reply, everyone buying eggs from them prefer the brown eggs so to avoid being left with all the white ones they put one in each box.
I do hope they like it.
I had great fun doing it. I hope you like it also!

Snails Doing What Comes Naturally

Watering the garden this morning I found these two ‘tucked’ away amongst the flowers.

Two Snails Joined Together

They stayed this way for quite a long time. It reminded me of the song ‘The Oldest Swinger in Town‘ that ends with the line “And it takes you all night to do what you used to do all night”

Enough said!!

The Dehydrated Frog

My Grandson, Henry, is fascinated by dead things. If there is a dead insect to be found Henry will find it and keep it in his ‘dead insect’ collection.
So this is for him:

Dehydrated Dead Frog

I found this in our back garden.
I hope you find it interesting Henry – but no, I haven’t saved it for you!

Farnborough Air Show

On Saturday just gone Tony and the boys, Joseph and Henry and me went to Farnborough Air Show. A brilliant Day was had by all. On view and flying, was the Air Bus, Vulcan Bomber, Red Arrows (of course) and lots of others. The static displays were very good this year.

I have tried in the few images I have placed in this post to give a flavour of what we saw that day.
My first image is of the engines of the Airbus. I hope to show the sheer size of the engines and the plane itself.

View of Airbus showing size of engines

My next image is of the Red Arrows who gave a superb display (can you ever be disappointed with the Red Arrows?).
This shot shows them doing a Fly Past with coloured smoke. I took over a hundred images during their display. I chose this one because it gives an indication of noise, colour and speed as they approach the crowd.

Red Arrows Fly Past with coloured smoke

Joseph (six years of age) also had his camera with him and was snapping away. Have a look at his shot of the Red Arrows. I think his shot is brilliant. Well done Joseph!

My next image is me being a bit ‘arty’. I love the symmetry of shapes and colours. I spotted this and would like to share it with you.

Engine of Passenger Jet Plane

I intend, in due course, to up load these images and others on to a Web Page so those of my readers who are interested can look at some of my other images from the Farnborough Air Show. Details to follow once I have processed the several hundred (I kid you not) images I took.

I hope you like them.

Flower of the Day – Saturday and Sunday

I have been away all weekend (at the Farnborough Airshow – brilliant day, pictures soon)
So I thought I should conclude my week of ‘Flower of the Day’ theme by posting the Saturday and Sunday images. These are ’stock’ photos (not taken on the day they are posted but during the week anyway).
Saturday’s is my wife’s favourite (well, we always have a tub of them) – the Pansy

Sunday is a flower my wife planted but has lost the label and I don’t know what it is. Can you name it?

I hope you have enjoyed the theme this week.
Thanks for looking.

Flower of the Day – Friday

Fuchsia, my favourite flower, is the subject today.
The first one is ‘Winston Churchill’

I have tried to do them justice.
This one is ‘Fuchsia Display’.

I have been waiting all week for these two buds below (Happy Wedding Day) to flower but without success.
They will be gorgeous when they do!

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Flower of the Day – Thursday

I was undecided yesterday as to what flower to photograph and place in this blog today.
I finally decided that I would put in two flowers of the same colour.
The first is ‘Early Sunrise’ (Coreopsis Grandiflora)

The second flower is really classed as a weed (or an ‘unwanted flower’ as they are known in our garden). It is the Dandelion.

Tomorrow: Fuchsia

Flower of the Day – Wednesday

Today’s flower is the Orange Lily or, as it is also known as, the Fire Lily.

Tomorrow, a surprise – I haven’t decided yet!