Poppies

Aydon Castle & a poppyfest ~ June 2018

September 16, 2018September 16, 2018Posted in Adventures, castles & ruins, flower, Fuji, FujiX-T2, landscape, nature, photography, Poppies, uncategorised, UncategorizedTagged adventure, Aydon Castle, flowers, fraggle, FujiX-T2, landscape, nature, photography, poppies, UK47 Comments

Part 1 HERE

After exploring the interior of the castle we went outside and had a wander too.

The back end of the castle is right next to a very steep ditch, but there’s a path to walk around it,

Lots of daisies heading down the valley

and flowers growing by the castle walls

and then we walked down to the poppy field, passed some horses who wouldn’t stop stuffing their faces for a photo 😦

The sky started out blue so I got a few shots of the poppies against the sky

there were a few other people around and I tried, but sometimes failed, to leave them out of the shot

the poppies were lush in the sunshine

but then the sky went all dramatic on us

but now and then the sun would peep through the clouds and illuminate a section of poppies

by mid afternooon everyone else who’d found out about the field turned up with their DSLR’s or iphones

and I had to work hard in potatoshop to get rid of them all so I could do a nice picture for Sophie

and then we thought it too crowded, so headed off home, passed the horses again, still stuffing themselves

and that was the end of our day out at Aydon Castle!

Stay tooned for our next adventure!

all pictures are embiggenable and there’s more shots of the castle and too many of the poppies 🙂 HERE

Teeside Nature Reserve~July 2017~part 2

July 30, 2017Posted in Adventures, flower, Fuji, fujiXT1, landscape, macro, orchid, photography, Poppies, uncategorisedTagged flowers, fraggle, Fuji XT-1, July2017, macro, nature, photography, Teeside Nature Reserve, UK14 Comments

part 1 HERE

The nature reserve has, as you’d expect, a fair amount of wild flowers.

The reserve is home to 4 different types of marsh orchids, but I only spotted 3

the burnet moths were quite fond of them

always there are dandelions

and buttercups

and pink grassy stuff

and finally some poppies

the nature reserve is right on the coast, so next time we’ll have a look round there.

Stay tooned!

Day 183~366

July 1, 2016Posted in 366, B&W, flower, Fuji, fujiXT1, nature, photography, Poppies, shadows, uncategorisedTagged 366, B&W, day183, fraggle, Fuji XT-1, photography, plant, shadows4 Comments

Today is the anniversary of 100yrs since The Battle of the Somme, and my Grandad was there in the Royal Engineers, he survived it, else I wouldn’t be here, but he lost a good friend in the war, and I think of them on this day every year, and make a photograph.

So on with the 366 and this month I am doing shadows. The weather has a great part to play in this month’s theme, and in spite of a great deal of heavy showers today, we also had a couple of breaks where the sun came out, for a few minutes.

The Fraggle Report ~ Flora & Fauna

July 6, 2015July 7, 2015Posted in birds, cat, flower, Fuji, nature, Nikon, photography, polaroid, Poppies, uncategorised, UncategorizedTagged birds, cats, compact Nikon S1, flowers, fraggle, Fuji XT1, Impossible film, iphone6, polaroid, SX7017 Comments

Apart from my weekend outings to fascinating places, I’ve still been going to work and taking pictures when I get chance, the cats still strike a good pose now and then, and hubby still buys me flowers to photograph as a surprise.

So here are a few non-historic bits and bobs before I move on to the day trip to the Farne Islands.

The cats are thriving, sort of, when they’re not puking up, which is a common occurrence. They drive us mad mostly, we are not used to such needy beings! Cats are supposed to be self sufficient more or less, eat their grub, chase a bird in the garden then sleep for 10 hours. Skye is just bonkers at wanting to play, wanting tickles, wanting to sit on Phil’s knee when ever he sits down, she goes out the front window, comes in the side cat flap, goes out the back window comes in through the conservatory door, but she is SO cute.

Skye eating grass to chuck up (*Fuji XT1*)

Storm is not so needy and also doesn’t bother going out. That’s because the food bowl is inside, and the cuddles at reading time. She lives for mealtimes, and starts yowling at you for about an hour before dinner time & has to have a snack to keep her from driving us insane. If I’m at the table reading she’ll jump up and plonk herself in the curve of my arm or sit on the newspaper so I can’t read, so I now read on a stood up iPad so she can have her tickles and I can read my book!

So they are keeping us busy/exasperated/entertained. 🙂

My lovely hubby bought me some beautiful flowers, which were photographed extensively for my SX70 project, the best one of them in the batch

Flowers rounded — Flowers (*polaroid SX70*)

But I also used them to test out my new 50-230 lens, the flowers are in my conservatory and I was in the dining room!

Phil decided to mow the lawn at the weekend, but I wanted to photograph a daisy patch that has appeared on it, and he mowed round them so I could photograph them in the evening light (best hubby ever!)

we also had our 1st BBQ of the year

and talking of food, Phil cooked breakfast and find a double yolk, that’s lucky!

and I cooked Sunday lunch.

Roast Lamb with rosemary, garlic & thyme :)(*Iphone6*)

Last week I took some shots of a poppy field near Hexam, and made a panorama

That one’s better clicked on. I did the pano in PS, even though LR can now do them, I think I prefer the PS way, not quite as quick, but more options.

Finally summer kind of arrived, and my Happy Eater tree has had quite a few new visitors which has been exciting, lots of youngsters I haven’t seen before.

Was surprised that Daddy Blackbird is still feeding his chicks, especially as they are both bigger than him now!

I am pretty sure this is a juvenile bullfinch, I had to look on the RSPB bird identifier and it’s the only similar one. It’s about 4 years since I saw an adult bullfinch on my tree, he came for 3 days and never returned, so it is exciting if this is indeed one. Fingers xt.

This was a wow to see 2 of them at the feeder, I do get them now and again, they usually go for the niger seed I have especially for them, but these two are happy with common or garden (what a daft phrase) birdseed.

Another wow was to see a young one 🙂 🙂

another first! Crap, I’m turning into a twitcher!!! I don’t know why it’s exciting to watch birds on the Happy Eater Tree, I probably need therapy.

SO that’s Fraggles life when not being historical, (or hysterical when it comes to the cats).

Laters Gaters

😉

June 30, 2015July 11, 2015Posted in flower, landscape, photography, poetry, polaroid, Poppies, uncategorisedTagged film, fraggle, Impossible film, polaroid, poppies, SX7010 Comments

“And far and wide, in a scarlet tide, The poppy’s bonfire spread”.

Poems of the Orient–The Poet in the East ~ Bayard Taylor

I found a beautiful field of poppies today, and then I found a most beautiful poem that reminded me of my friend Francis.

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