Dreaming

Immersed in fields full of flowers, my mind has plunged into a dream state.

Spiraea japonica

A late rose and some bits of spiraea make this wonderful combination. The first decent picture I have produced in ages. Quite cheered me up.

Spirea japonica shirobana

What glory and cheerfulness my garden gives me, even late in the season.

Caustic

I found a bit of optics in the kitchen that delighted me this week.






Wave the mouse and you'll find two more.

A caustic or caustic network is the pattern that light throws after reflecting off curved surfaces. these three white porcelain bowls throw a perfect heart each time you shine a light on it or place them in the sun. I'm sure you have all seen it at one time or another at the bottom of a teacup.

In the garden there was the miraculous find of a gerbera flower that ought never to have been there: Last year I threw out a pot plant of gerbera that had been ailing in the kitchen. It had white fly and what not else. I threw it in the middle of the kitchen garden, planning to deal with it later in the day. Forgot and didn't find it agai until today, still in its pot, producing real flowers. And all that after a harsh winter in a climate that you wouldn't think supported such exotic plants. Hurrah. It looks clean, so I'll take it back in the house to enjoy at close quarters.

Linked to Friday Finds
Link below.

Mid-Autumn

If June 21st represents Mid-Summer, then surely September 21st ought to be considered Mid-Autumn.

The top image is the French Impressionist rose called "Sisley", the second image is today's offering with shrubs colouring and berries lending a hand to cheer us up in the garden. A rather dramatic difference. We'd better brace ourselves for a complete toning down of colour, but this will be conpensated by a clearer expression of line. Once the trees are bare, the outlines of the branches give such interesting shapes, which still please the eye, even in the absence of colour. But before that....

......we still have oodles of the most beautiful red flowers all over the place.

Gerberas

Gerberas to me are the epitome of a flower. They may seem bold and brassy when you see their gaudy colours, but look what happens if you take down the tints.

Golden bug

Some bugs are really pretty. This one is feasting or resting on the small flower of a wild geranium, called Geranium molle or Dove's-foot Crane's-bill. And below something to feast your eyes on:

A painted rose by the french grower Delbar. This one is called 'Cezanne' and I picked these only last week. They are stil gorgeous thanks to the wonderful weather we've been having.

Posted by Girl Friday and
linked to Nick at Friday Flowers

also linked to Kim at Friday Finds

Figs

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The figs are just going over now. This variety is called Brown Turkey. We made kilos and kilos of jam this year. The flowers are a variety of Hibiscus called syriacus 'Hamabo', a smallish tree a.k.a. Rose of Sharon. The pretty handwoven rug is a new find. It looks old I found it at a local sale table. I think it might be a persian kelim, which is a flat weave in natural died wool. Posted by Girl Friday and linked to Nick at Friday Flowers also linked to Kim at Friday Finds

HIGH SUMMER

All seems to be out at once. The weather here is unusually hot and it confuses the garden. Many flowers are way ahead of themselves and others linger. It is like having the Chelsea flowershow on my doorstep: DIZZIFYING. I so hope that I will still find this much next week and that the plants will not have spent all their energy in a hurry.

For Nick at the Floral Friday

Opalescence

Some flowers glow in opalescent light, softest green and blue and rose, lending extra brightness to the white, my marguerite is one of those.

For Nick at the Floral Friday

Opalescence

Took me all day to pick, arrange, photograph and enhance these. I'm exhausted, but had such fun.

For Nick at the Floral Friday

Shades of grey

Channel splitting can be done by RGB [red-green-blue] or by HSL [hue-saturation-light]. I picked out the -light version- and it looks rather better than simply turning an image negative. No? In the mouse-overs I combined the various shades of the original and the channel into a different pattern, so that the tones stand out.

Petal Play

Little pink dancers by De Gaz, with a touch of poppy petal power. Below the steps I had to take to the endresult.

As soon as I opened this picture, it struck me that the dropped poppy petals had left a ballerina's tutu and wanted to do something to make that obvious.

I cut out the skirt, made it into a transparent layer and put it in place on a Degas sketch.

It didn't really look like what I had in mind: the contrast between the sketch and the poppy petals was too great. Therefor I decided to go for one of his oils rather than a pen drawing, and voila: perfect. As you can see in the mouse-over at the top of the post, the colouring in the painting has some of that very pink in, so I didn't have to do anything at all to the poppy petals to make them fit in.

For Nick at the Floral Friday

Also linked with app-happy-wednesday

DANGER

PAPAVER SOMNIFERA Double Poppy somnifera double Poppy carries sleep twice the size and twice the strength twice the benefit to reap Mystery and danger beckon centres mesmerise our gaze and with their narcotic power turn the day into a haze Will we reach the Emerald City with our poppies in our hair dressed like Ozma with black tresses even though our hair is fair? Forbidden riches soporific medication kills the pain pods in blender add some lemon: tea to help sustain the brain within cell walls of the seedpod lurks this opiumlike wave when released into our system gives the painfree day we crave.

Just to clarify: extracting narcotics from opium poppies is against the law in most countries. We are allowed to grow these plants for horticultural purposes in the UK. In no way am I suggesting you make this tea. Don't want anyone to end up in goal. This was just a WWW yarn to spin for fun. [WWW= Wicked Witch of the West]

For Nick at the Floral Friday

Also linked with app-happy-wednesday

Wild Geraniums

All wild geraniums I find in my garden with one pelargonium/geranium creeping in for colour balance. These are some of the many types of wild geranium that have sprung up in my garden over the years. I interspersed some of the little globules of the rose called 'Raubritter', because the geraniums tend to be predominently blueish and make the photo a bit somber.

outside table

TABLES

My favourite rose is at its best at present. Margaret Merril, a lovely ivory white, or rather whipped cream.
The breeder was Jack Harkness, now no longer with us. He 'designed' some wonderful roses. Another one I particularly like is called "Bridge of Sighs" and is a lovely orange climber.

My find this week has been the use of tables inside posts. This means that the text is easier to read when I change the background colour. I find light coloured lettering on black very hard on the eyes but images look better on black. The best of both worlds? The physical find has been a strangly shaped blue vase: it is round from the front, but narrow from the sides. Makes for interesting pictures and I have been playing with it ever since I got it home. The glaze has cracked uniformly, either deliberately or by accident. Whatever, it looks beautiful. 'Craquelé' or 'Craquelure' always appeals to me, unless it is on my face :-) Count yourselves lucky that I'm only showing about 2% of the number of pictures I took of this combination :-) The rose is so pretty: not too many petals and very photogenic, both at the full-blown stage and in tight bud. The scent is unbelievable. It is a very tall bush rose and this year there are about a dozen flowers on it. My pearl of wisdom for today: MAY ALL YOUR WEEDS BE WILDFLOWERS

MACRO 01

MACRO photography means filling the frame of a full frame camera sensor. I don't have a CMOS camera, so 'near' macro will have to do. Others say: ˌmakrə(ʊ)fəˈtɒgrəfi/ noun noun: macro-photography 1. photography producing photographs of small items larger than life size. This is a coral necklace and the blue tape shows centimeters divided into millimeters. CLIC ON PIC to see them in the lightbox larger than life size size I never realized my tape measure was so cracked :-)

CAMERA TRY-OUTS

Click on Pics to enlarge in Lightbox









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It does what I was hoping for. I'm trying to get the wide converter to work for me. Can't see much difference in result with or without. Took the daylight filter off between the lens and the converter. Setting it for add-ons in M-Rec made no difference, as was confirmed when I started reading up on this. Still, it looks impressive on the camera. Mind you, it makes the camera top-heavy, and I nearly dropped it. Can't be that good for the turning mechanism either. I was surprised to see how fast the camera stored the images in its sensor: I was told it would be very slow. I wonder if it has been professionally restored at some stage, where somebody managed to speed up the storing time. Could be the Fuji card I suppose.