Photo Challenge – Page 27

Overlooked

In a world that seems increasingly rushed and with information overload it is easy to miss things around us. When life is busy you often look, but don’t really see. I am sure that until I retired I wasn’t always fully aware of my surroundings. But now I can take my time and fully absorb the environment around me and maybe see things that are often overlooked.

Did I notice this cat because it reminded me of my old cat Ben? Perfectly poised on steps above my head.

Photo challenges have had an impact on the way I see things, looking for the unusual, the interesting, things I may not have photographed before.

Farm shop delights. I think it was the wicker baskets that made me stop and take this photo

And on my travels I always look out for the details.

The organic shapes of these bowls and the shadows

Different ways of framing the view.

Macro delights when you’re not always sure of what you will see.

Taking time when wandering around a place to notice the unusual.

An unusual window display by someone who loves cats

Finding the unexpected when out in nature. I was concentrating on the pied wagtail on the lovely textured fence.

My love of textures always has me snooping around churchyards, the older the better.

And seeking patterns in unusual places. I’m sure people think I am mad when I stop to photograph something beneath my feet.

And who stops to look at a row of wetsuits they are not interested in buying? But it’s fun spotting the odd one out.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #260 | Overlooked

Nature Photo Challenge: tree bark

This week’s challenge from Denzil is interesting, visit his site for lots of information about tree bark that you probably never knew. I have always been fascinated by bark, mainly for the colours and textures so here’s a few from my archives.

The amazing texture of Xanthorrhoea glauca, the Australian grass tree.

Prunus serrula. A magnificent small garden tree for year round interest its most prominent feature is its tactile, silky, polished bark. The smooth, mahogany bark peels in translucent cinnamon and honey coloured sheets to reveal a fresh new hue of bronze-red gloss beneath. Caught in autumn sunlight this tree almost glows.

Prunus serrula, called birch bark cherry, birchbark cherry, paperbark cherry, or Tibetan cherry, is a species of cherry native to China

This multi-stemmed one is a highly prized specimen.

Chinese Paperbark Maple (Acer griseum) has the advantage of being attractive all year round: in spring, when the leaves appear, in autumn when its wonderful, rich leaf colour shines, and throughout the dormant season because of its remarkable bark. When the brilliant deep crimson and scarlet leaves have fallen in late November, the full majesty of the rusty-brown bark, which peels in loose tatters, is revealed. Catching it with the sunlight behind creates this gorgeous orange-cinnamon peel.

Australian Eucalyptus / Gum trees often have interesting coloured bark.

Sydney Blue Gum

Sydney Red Gum

Scribbly gums are a type of eucalyptus or gum tree. There are a few species that are known as scribbly gums as they all have the ‘scribbles’ across their bark.

Scribbly gum is a name given to a variety of different Australian Eucalyptus trees which play host to the larvae of scribbly gum moths which leave distinctive scribbly burrowing patterns on the bark.

And I’ll leave you with this. Along the road to Potato Point (NSW, Australia) you will come across the most magical tree. An enchanting gum tree decorated with toadstools, butterflies, dragonflies and flowers amongst the discarded eucalyptus leaves. Want to know more? Click here.

Denzil’s Nature Photo Challenge #22 | Bark

Nature Photo Challenge: Water Plants

Nymphaea are rhizomatous, submerged aquatic perennials with floating, rounded leaves and showy, sometimes fragrant, cup- or bowl-shaped flowers in a wide range of colours, held on or above the water and followed by submerged, berry-like fruits.

These water-lilies are in Kew Garden’s Victorian Waterlily House completed in 1852, which was specifically to showcase the giant Amazon waterlily (Victoria amazonica) – a natural wonder of the age.

The Nelumbonaceae (Lotus-lily) are from Sydney’s Botanic Garden (Australia) in the main and waterlily ponds close to the Palm Grove Centre.

Lotus flowers are considered sacred in China, Tibet and India and the lotus flower is symbolic in Hindu and Buddhist religions as lotus displays all the different stages of growth simultaneously – bud, flower and seed pod.

Denzil’s Nature Photo Challenge #21 | Water Plants

Inspiration found in the Kitchen

My kitchen is not the usual place you’ll find me with a camera, I’m more of an outdoor photographer with nature and flora my topics. But yesterday was a rainy day and I was feeling bored so I grabbed the camera and had a look around my kitchen.

It’s not a very tidy kitchen, surfaces have all sorts of appliances, jars and general ‘stuff’ on them. It’s not a normal kind of house being an extended and converted dairy milking stall so the kitchen is a kind of corridor linking the dining hall to the sitting room. No doors. And the cupboards are blue. Very blue. Nothing really matches – I still have things that belonged to my mother! And if it isn’t broken I never throw anything away.

I have tried to coordinate some of the new things I have bought like my Cornishware storage jars, but I’ll never win any design awards.

I have a lot of mugs even after giving dozens away to my daughter when we moved, and some have been bought by my grandchildren like the Gardeners one above. I use a plain white one for my herbal tea when I drink it. I had a thing for plain white crockery once.

But currently my morning cup of coffee is drunk from this new cup and saucer set. Definitely not blue. But very me…

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #256 | Kitchen

Nature Photo Challenge: Cacti

I am not a fan of cacti though I have been known to have some in the house many years ago and when I lived in Cape Town we had some of the lovely Lithops in the garden which look like living stones. But they are succulents so not quite the same. One very tall cactus only flowered at night so there were many anxious evenings once a bud appeared. And I do recall a trough of cacti into which my son fell at the age of 18 months. It happened at night and I hadn’t realised that his hand was full of the spines when I washed it under the tap!

But back in 2009 – 2012 I was lucky enough to spend some time in San Diego and on one occasion went to visit Balboa Park – a definite must see if you are ever in SD. There are several gardens including a desert garden with magnificent cacti and succulents.

The 1935 (Old) Cactus Garden was developed under the direction of Kate Sessions for the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition. It contains some of the largest cactus and succulent specimens in the Park and has also been developed to include the exotic African and Australian Protea plants.

Denzil’s Nature Photo Challenge #18 | Cacti