365 ~ 17th ~ 23rd October

Posted in 365, Adventures, animals, Fuji, FujiX-T2, photography, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , ,

This week is kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back, actually several straws, and I consider the whole week AAFP’s. ‘Wildlife’ for goodness sakes. Face palming and eyerolling all the way through this. Consequently I have had to cheat i.e I shot 3 of the prompts when on a photography outing with Sophie this past weekend on a trip to Bolam Lake. On the whole Wardley, Gateshead tends not to have deer or hippo’s and the like wandering around Dunkeld Close or Parklands Way, no giraffe’s use the local Londis store, and though I have seen an urban fox on our night vision hedgehog camera, that’s only been twice, and s/he doesn’t turn up in the daytime, or come when you call. The weather has turned rainy and grey again too and very cold now, so not much sign of insects, slugs or snails either. Still, I’ve done what I can to get through the week, so let’s crack on.

Abbreviations you may come across during this post. AFAC~ airy fairy abstract concept. AAFP ~ annoying as F-bomb prompt. CBBP ~ completely bloody barking prompt.  HDBS ~ hippy dippy bull****. AWP! ~ Absolutely wonderful prompt!

Also- there may be swearing.

Day 290 ~ Happy. ~ How exciting.  This is the week to get outside and find the wild things!  Birds, insects, animals, fish or even your pets if wildlife just isn’t your thing or you simply can’t find any! My grandson was so happy when he caught his first fish!  It was a huge thrill for him even though it was just a sucker.  We always do a ‘catch and release’ so no animals were harmed in the taking of this picture.  

Mrs.Cocktail dress at least gives me the option of pets if no wildlife is available, but that’s such a cop out I think. Happy wildlife? Maybe, maybe not, but I was happy to get this shot of the swan and gull nodding to each other as the swan passed by.

happy

Day 291 ~ Scene. ~ Today you can take the word Scene in any direction!  It could be a scene that includes wildlife or you could show a wild life on display! I chose to put our beach spin on the latter… most fall days at the beach are anything but wild especially when fishing! It requires relaxing patience to wait for the wildlife to show up! Can’t wait to see which scene to happen across today!

So a ‘scene’ of the prompt lady relaxing on a chair at the beach with a fishing rod in her hand can be classed as a wildlife picture. 🤦‍♀️🙄 sigh. I despair, but there’s worse to come. Another ‘cheat’ shot from Bolam Lake. At least there IS wildlife in it.

scene

Day 292 ~ prompt free. Prompt Free Days often bring to mind the saying, “The grass is always greener on the other side.”  Some days, we feel restricted by the prompt, but on other days, no specific prompt makes us feel lost by having no point of departure. Think about these prompt free days as a check-in as to how this project is changing you. What do you notice that you would have overlooked previously? What small moments in you day now feel bigger and call to be documented? Today is a blank canvas for which all of the other prompts have prepared you.

I didn’t have a cheat for this one, so went for the cop out instead 🤣 taken after I got home from work. In fact our Winnie has some Bengal-cat DNA we found out from Sophie which explains a lot as she is mad bonkers wild when not asleep!

prompt~free ~ wild Winnie

Day 293 ~ Climb. ~ This week we’re supposed to feature wildlife in our photos.  Well as far as I’m concerned my two great-nephews are as wild as they come!  The older one, Trace, loves the show American Ninja and loves to climb and do the obstacles that they feature on the show.  I wouldn’t be surprised if someday he actually tries out for it. This playground is just around the corner from my house.  I had never seen anything like it but these two just loved climbing and swinging between the posts.  Wildlife comes in all forms.  What climbing wildlife can you find today?

I did say there was worse to come didn’t I? I mean, SERIOUSLY!!?? “Wildlife comes in all forms”. Nephews! Pfft!! What is the point? Oh let’s give people a prompt and then totally bloody ignore it ourselves and post pics of our grandkids and nephews instead. FFS. AAFP +++ and CBBP. If I was a cartoon I’d have steam coming out of my ears. The only thing to do was subversion. And this isn’t even the end of worse to come. 🥴

climb

Day 294 ~ Gather. How are you enjoying capturing Wild Life this week? Depending on where you live, this could be a challenge! Today’s prompt is gather. I thought about this golden field, and the deer gathering there. You could look for any animal. You could capture your subject gathering something (i.e. a squirrel gathering nuts) or you can look for animals gathering together.

I think you can tell how much I’m enjoying it. No deer, no squirrels and had my car in the garage having work done so no going out hunting. So I had one ready for this from when I took the last of the quadryptych last week.

But I really don’t like cheating so much. I noticed these shrooms when I walked back from dropping the car off, and I thought, well, they grow wild and are alive and in so many special ways! I recently watched a documentary called Fantastic Fungi on Amazon, and it blew my mind, here’s a 2 minute trailer so you get my drift, even 2 mins is jaw dropping.

gather

Day 295 ~ Flame.~ This week has been about capturing wildlife or wild life.  After a week of wildness, are you tired?  Are you ready to kick your feet up and relax?  I am.  Around a warm fire is always a cozy way to relax.  Maybe you can relax with family around a fire pit or in front of a fireplace.  Perhaps you’ll share a quiet candlelight dinner with someone special.  Or the flame that warms you today could be that of the sun as you relax outside with some wild ones, or not.  The choice is yours.Whatever your day brings, may warmth and happiness be a part.

Can you imagine my apoplexy dear reader? This is beyond CBBP, AFAP and eyerolling with attached facepalm, and belongs in the What the actual f**kery department. Firepit?? Candlelight dinner??? What has any of that got to do with wildlife?? Anyone? No, me neither. And so, a decision is made. There are 70 days left in this 365 challenge, and I will keep going until the merciful end, but this level of ridiculosity will not be tolerated, and when prompts are this silly I will resort to ‘off~prompt’ days and shoot the cats or whatever else I fancy. So for today we have Lord Vincent, who can’t quite fit as snugly as Winnie does on the tree~house, but where there’s a will…

Off~prompt, ~ Lord Vincent.

Day 296 ~ Bumpy. ~ So the wildlife that I found was a frog, on my bumpy cobbled drive. What wildlife can you find today?

That could have been an impossible prompt but it was my day out shooting (or togging as we call it) with Sophie and we went to Northumberland. It was very exciting as they have recently added Arctic Foxes and Snow Leopards to the zoo which were glorious to see, one day when this is over I’ll share the photos! In the meantime they also have some tortoises, and this one is a Sulkata Tortoise, also known as African Spurred Tortoise, they can grow to be one of the largest reptiles, weighing in at over 90 kilos. He was certainly bumpy!

bumpy

And that’s the end of wildlife week, not the best of weeks for me, but hey ho, win some lose some. Next week is colour week and this time the colour is Black. I’m away next week though visiting ‘doon sooth’ with my son Ben and grandson Lewis, so they will be my priority, there’ll certainly be pictures taken every day but whether or not I can stick to the prompts is another matter! Stay tooned! 😁

48 thoughts on “365 ~ 17th ~ 23rd October”

  2. I thought snow leopards were nearly extinct. Maybe just in the wild. Now I want to see those pictures.

    Winnie is really showing a sly look in her portrait. I think she may be about to unleash her wild Bengal side.

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    1. Yes snow leopards are under threat, the 2 at the zoo are part of a conservation programme and will be introduced to gentlemen snow leopards at some point. They are quite beautiful up close. Cheers Alex.

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  3. The prompt ladies’ inspiration must be wearing thin and I’ve gone right off Mrs Cocktail dress. I’m sure she’d feel some pain if she got a fish hook caught in her mouth, so why does she think a fish wouldn’t be hurt by it? Thank goodness your photos are to their usual high standard. I like the reflected swan and gull, but the climbing teddy made me laugh.

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  7. * cracks fingers *
    Ok, here we go…

    290) Catch and release. Obviously this lady doesn’t understand what that actually entails. Or if she does, she’s ignoring it to make her prompts more “homey”. I’m not a fan of fishing/hunting just for the sport of it. You eat what you catch, otherwise you’re just causing pain for your own enjoyment. And I’m in a bad mood this morning so that doesn’t help matters any either.

    291) I say cheat away. If you have a real job, instead of hanging around doing nothing, then daily shots are going to be impossible. I would like to experience the lifestyle of someone who can just have a hobby like that and lives like that. For a year.

    293) “My great-nephew is sure to try out for American Ninja someday”. Yeah, after he’s destroyed his life because he’s had everything handed to him on a silver plate. I bet he turns into a coke head in his late teens and either robs a department store or murders some old granny. You watch, it’ll happen.

    294) You’re lucky not to have to deal with squirrels and chipmunks. They are a plague right now in our area 😦

    295) Good for you for making the Executive Decision to use Off Prompt days. Hope you survive the rest of the year

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  10. I’m happy to know that I am not the only one that thinks the organizing ladies are going bonkers! I was face palming and swearing myself! (As you know, I take the photos in advance, it’s supposed to be fun, right?) That being said, I think you did beautifully.
    The swan with the gull is my favourite for this week! So beautiful!
    The bevy of swans is lovely; the autumn colours in the backgroud & reflection is perfect!
    I love Miss Winnie! She looks sneaky though, plotting…. 😉
    Teddy in the tree reminds me of my hippo on the fence! Well done & that evening glow is beautiful too!
    Your gather photo is very serene & LOVE the fungi on the tree (is that your tree?)
    I will repeat that I think Lord Vincent looks very regal on his cat tree! (Flame!?!? – what does that have to do with wildlife!!!)
    Your tortoise is a great find! It is a beautifully taken photo!
    Well done, Keep the faith…

    Hugs, Connie 🤗

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  11. Fraggle, I love your tenacity in sticking with the challenge even when the prompts go off the rail. HAPPY is gorgeous! Winnie and Lord Vincent are always stars and CLIMB made me smile.
    My favorite this week is GATHER. I love the contrast of shadow and light.

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  17. Mushrooms and teddy bears, whats not to like 🙂 The documentary on mushrooms is also available on Netflix and well worth a watch as you say…..I ended up signing up for something or another after watching it 🙂

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  18. I enjoyed the “cheat” photos, Fraggle. I’m glad to know you and Sophie were able to get out and enjoy some scenery. But of course the kitties are my favorites. Loved the teddy in the tree too. AAFP though they may have been to you, it was a week full of treats for us. Happy Halloween hugs.

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