Playing with dead flowers...... again.

I forgot to say in yesterday's post - we know what is happening with us at work, well we know what we have been told! As of the 1st October we as a service shall be transferred to Cormac Solutions Ltd who are known down here for road maintenance!!!!  It has raised a few eyebrows as the news has been announced and concerns that the road-workers would be delivering the care!!  Each day last week consultation meetings were held covering the county and I went along on Friday, I was already fairly positive about it (basically there is no option!!) and I came out even more positive as I think most are.  In the end I think it will be better for us as a service as I don't think we will exist in 12 months if we stay as we are.   

I have been playing with dead flowers again and loving the results, even though I say it myself lol. As I was photographing this one it was falling apart in the breeze.  Usually do them in black and white but love the colours in this. 

 

 

 

Flower backs and a rant

Hmm I haven't done very well this week with the challenge, sorry Kathi :( life interfering a bit.  Anyway here are Thursday's offerings backs of flowers.

 

Linking with Lucky 7's in 2014

 

 

I am in need of a rant and I don't think I do this often but today is one of those days.  I discovered today that one thing that really annoys me is people who assume something about another individual based upon their own experiences and with no or very little knowledge of the other person whom they are making the assumption about.  This has all come about from a gentleman who is forever telling me how he played squash and tennis to county level and how he has known what it is like to be "supremely fit" as he calls it.  I have never really said much other than listen and make polite conversation, then yesterday after I suggested he used he legs more than his arms in a particular exercise - to which he shouted at me yet again telling me I had no idea about fitness  - he says "I take it you have never participated in any form of sport?"  I still feel damn indignant about it now typing it!!! OK I may not be at the level of fitness that I was last year but I have played squash - albeit badly, played netball for years, did long distance running for the school at county level, swim so I think I know what if feels like to be a certain level of fitness. Then today he insists on telling me how the only thing the young of today work hard at is how to get as much out of the benefit system as possible by doing as little as possible!!!  That didn't go down too well either with having two girls who have always had a job since the age of 14!!!  I have become very good at biting my tongue and not telling him what I think!!! Which naturally would not do - not even sure if it would make me feel better.  It just so annoys me this judging others without knowledge - I know we all do it to some degree - good old stereotyping - but we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover - I should of said that yesterday but I know I was biting my tongue because I was so incensed by his comment that I couldn't trust myself to be polite lol.    Funny thing is I don't take offence easily but when I do it is often over something quite silly as in this case!!! 

 

Well I do feel better for that, now going for a glass of wine.  x

Hair and Beauty retail awards Part 2

Not going to bore you with many more of these and this will be the last post about the event :) there are different images on my photo blog if you fancy seeing more lol.

Hair preparations

 

 

 

 

Tables laid

 

 

 

 Flowers arranged

 

 

 

Colours in Nature

Pink

 

 

White

 

 

Greens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Varigated

Red

 

 

 

 

 

Linking with Lucky 7's in 2014

Anemones

Another week gone by in a blur, really wish I could find the slow down switch to life!  It has been a week of car repairs for us.  My Scenic has been playing up for a few weeks now and Mick has been trying to work out what the problem was, the mpg was decreasing every time I drove it (which is every day!!) anyway after racking his and his dad's brains and abit of googling he narrowed it down to two possibilities.  The first one didn't work but thankfully the second one did and on it's test drive the mpg went from 44.3 to 50.3 - so as you can imagine I shall be a very happy lassie from now on and so will my purse, not so many trips to the petrol station in the future.

My Anemones are opening now so naturally had to take the odd photo or two and share them with you.

AV mode, ss 1/25, f22, 90mm, exp comp -1/3, ISO 100

AV mode, ss 1/6, f8, exp comp -1/3, ISO 100, 90mm

Av mode, ss 1/4, f8, exp comp -1, ISO 100

AV mode,  ss 0.5, f7.1, exp comp +2, ISO 100



Surprises

Last week I had two surprises which I thought I would share. Thurs there was a knock on my door and I found an elderly gentleman standing there saying  he had got his car stuck down the lane and needed to get home to ring his son but couldn't walk any further due to illness. So I popped him in the car and down to his home and never really thought any more of it.  When I got in from work on Saturday, I find his son had been round with this gorgeous Posy in a Jam Jar to say thank you.

I was absolutely bowled over, it is so sweet and thoughtful, (and such a simply idea - so saving jam jars now!!)

My other surprise was this wonderful book. 

When I turned up at camera club last week one of the ladies said "I have a present for you" and gave me the book.  Have to be honest and say I was very confused at the time as we were on the door taking money and thought it was on loan as I couldn't understand why she would give me a present.  Well I met up with her yesterday and no it isn't on loan, she gave it to me as she knows I appreciate books like she does and I love gardens!!!  How sweet is that, I just feel totally overwhelmed and very lucky.

Should these still be in flower?

I have always enjoyed gardening, I think it is partly the pleasure of watching something grow from a tiny seed into something beautiful, the wonderful colours of nature and the scent that the plants produce, never cease to amaze me.  I am what I call a slap happy gardener, I plant things because I like them, I don't think about positions they will like my garden I put them where I want them or where there is a space, nothing gets taken in during the winter they have to fend for themselves - in fact I'm a pretty bad gardener - but hey they all come back every year so they can't be that unhappy can they!!  Anyway whilst looking around the garden this week I noticed that all my fushcia's are in full bloom,  I can't help but think it is too late for them, I mean it is November after all, shouldn't they be dieing off now??  Here's pic to show you what I mean.  All gardening tips greatfully received. :)

I should dedicate this post to my friend Kathi who really isn't a flower person -  but tolerates my love of them ;)  she also kindly let me eat my pack lunch in her kitchen today whilst I was at work..... thank you, and her son, Ross makes a super cup of tea :)

Weekly photo - creative

Here we are Sunday again already and what a busy week.  We are finally settled with all exam results now.  Bernadette is off to Bristol uni to study law and Amanda did well in her GCSE's with a mixture of B's, C's and one A - so she is off to Truro college to do her A levels now.  So all in all we are very proud parents :).

This week's photo theme was to be creative - I didn't get as many photos taken as I had hoped but they will save for another day.   Kathi joined in this week by getting creative with Picasa, Louise's images can be found here.  Here are my offerings.

 A side view of the petals on a Dahlia in the garden. Settings, SS 1/1000, F2.8, ISO 100, WB shade, 90mm focal length.

The dried Poppy heads after harvesting my poppy seeds for next year. Settings, F2.8, SS 1/2000, ISO 100, WB shade, 90mm focal length.

Next week's theme is 'Bokeh' below are some links you may find useful, a tutorial and images
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPcdWxhLwoA 
http://www.flickr.com/groups/bokehcity/pool/
http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=bokeh&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&oi=image_result_group&sa=X
open to anyone, post by Sunday of next week and  just let me know so we can link up to your photos.

Weekly photo - flora

It is that time of the week again for our weekly photo and this week we were photographing flowers.  I had it all planned  to photograph a rose and have been watching it open all week and then the rain came down and ruin it - good old british weather eh?  So I cut it off and brought  in doors so I could enjoy what was left of it and the gorgeous scent it has, so I resorted to come cut flowers instead.

I think this one is my favourite.

Can't decide if the flower in the foreground is too distracting all not, I tried cropping it out but wasn't so keen on it then!

My poor rose, battered by the wind and rain :(

Louise has uploaded her's, and this week Mandy who is just starting out on her photography journey but is an incredible scrapbooker and Sam have joined us (adding later)  welcome aboard and hope you enjoy the fun - this week we are photographing action - frozen or blurred  - your choice.  Might have to use my imagination on this one

Arum Lily

I seem to have spent a lot of time at the Eden Project lately, taking the children on a trip there, a training day, a personal visit and then last night with the camera club, showing the 'Friends of Eden' group what we get up to and how we photograph the sights of Eden.  This image I took in the med biome on one of my trips. 

More Tregothan

This will probably be the last post of Tregothan for this week ...phew I hear some sigh!!  My excuse for that is I'm out tomorrow night and then Friday off to London for a do with old friends :) will be great to catch up with them all.
So tonight I have put a collage together of some of the views of the gardens, one of the things I loved about the grounds was the pink and yellow primroses growing in the grass - the photo doesn't really show it that well. The bottom right image all the greenery on the right is rhododendrons in bud, some already coming out as in the red - bet it is stunning when it is all out in full bloom.

Tregothan part 2



Following on from yesterday's photo this is the inside of the magnolia flower.

Thought I would google Magnolia and this is what I found.

Magnolia × soulangeana (saucer magnolia) is a hybrid plant in the Magnolia genus and family, Magnoliaceae. It is a deciduous tree with blooms of various shades of white, pink and purple. It is the most commonly used magnolia in horticulture: in the British Isles, especially in the south of England; and in the United States, especially the east and west coasts.

Magnolia is an ancient genus. Having evolved before bees appeared, the flowers developed to encourage pollination by beetles. As a result, the carpels of Magnolia flowers are tough, to avoid damage by eating and crawling beetles. Fossilised specimens of M. acuminata have been found dating to 20 million years ago, and of plants identifiably belonging to the Magnoliaceae dating to 95 million years ago[citation needed]. Another primitive aspect of Magnolias is their lack of distinct sepals or petals.

I thought the bit about the bees and the beetles was interesting.  Here is abit about Tregothan as well

The Tregothnan Estate is located beside the village of St Michael Penkivel 3 miles (4.8 km) south-east of Truro in Cornwall, United Kingdom.
The house and estate is the traditional home of the Boscawen family, and the seat of Lord Falmouth. The original house was built in Plantagenet times and sacked in the English Civil War. The new house has the date 1652 carved in stone above the side gate. It was enlarged in the early 19th century to designs by William Wilkins, the architect of the National Gallery in London.


Tregothnan is famous for its large private botanical garden and arboretum. Tregothnan is not open to the public, but guided visits to the garden may be arranged.


A tea plantation has recently been started on the grounds.Tregothnan is home to the first outdoor Camellias in the UK, around 1800. The first commercial tea was developed from Camellia sinensis in 2001. The first 'English tea' was then sold in November 2005 to Fortnum and Mason of Piccadilly.[1] Also a quantity of custom-made bee hives are situated in amongst Leptospermum "Manuka Bushes" producing Manuka honey with measurable methylglyoxal content.[2] In 1872 the land holdings of Viscount Falmouth, of Mereworth Castle, Maidstone, Kent, were listed in the top ten land holdings in Cornwall, with an estate of 25,910 acres (10,490 ha), 3.41% of the total area of Cornwall.[3]

Hope you found it interesting.  More tomorrow.

Tregothan

Last Sunday Tregothan Estate opened it's doors to the public for it's annual charity weekend.  I spent a lovely morning wandering around admiring the flowers and grounds, an amazing place just such a shame it is only open once a year.  Throughout the week I aim to show you some of the images I took, here is the first of many magnolia's you will see, I just love them, such an elegant flower.

It must be spring.....

..... at last the tulips in my garden are starting to show their heads.  I didn't realise I bought so many bulbs last year!!  Though the image below is not one from my garden, it was taken at the Eden Project on Sunday.  I hadn't been for awhile so it was nice to have a fairly quiet wander around before the visitors start arriving as they will do the next few weeks.

Anniversary Rose

Tomorrow Mick and I will celebrate 21 years of marriage.  It sounds such a long time but it doesn't seem that long ago.  Looking back at our wedding photos leaves me with  mixed feelings of happiness and sadness as I realise how many members of our families are no longer with us to remember that special day.  Still I am grateful they were actually there on the day.  So why the yellow rose, because they were in my bouquet.  This one came from the same garden as yesterday's. 

Rose

Found this image of a rose that I took last year when I went round to my friend Kathi's house to photograph her daughter.  Forgotten I had taken it, until recently, so I thought I would share it with you all. It smelt beautiful as well.

It's all about colour..

...in our photo a week this week. Our theme is colour, so that could mean either choosing one colour and photographing different items of that colour, different shades of a chosen colour, maybe experimenting with colour tints, or images full of colour - though there isn't much of that outside at the mo - unless shades of grey is your chosen colour!! So this week there is a need for some creative thinking. You could even have a go at all those suggestions, choice is yours - have fun.  Here's one to get you in the mood.

Tulips

I always remember tulips being one of my dad's favourite flowers and I never really understood why, until the last few years and I have found myself drawn to them more and more, they really are a beautiful flower, just a shame they don't last long.

Week 8 of our photo challenge.

Last week Louise and I played with long dof, this is where you aim to have much more in focus in your image compared to short dof where you have a blurry background, (which we did here and here )  I decided to have a play with the flowers Mick bought me as this is what I came up with, I had also intended to use the images for the triptych but they didn't work out, think they are better as individual images.

Christmas Flowers

On Christmas Eve my lovely husband came home from work and presented me with these beautiful flowers - which I thought I would share with you in their full glory.

I have had a very enjoyable afternoon photographing them with the intention of using the images for the next camera club open competition which is a triptych photo, ( a panel of three photos, either made up from one image or three different images with a theme but they have to work together to create one image - it you get my drift).  So I have spent this evening trying to learn how to create a triptych in photoshop and although I haven't perfected it I have an understanding of how to do it now. I shall show you the results tomorrow.