Tag: photography

Monthly Photo Challenge: The Changing Seasons #6

Midsummer: Why midsummer? Here in the northern hemisphere summer has only just begun (1 June according to meteorological terms, 21 June in astronomical) so midsummer should surely be mid to late July? However, it actually refers to the summer solstice and is regarded as a very important holiday in the Scandinavian countries – 24 June this year in case you are interested.

Tourists have arrived now in their hundreds. Usually during this month the Ludlow Arts Festival is held, but due to economic reasons there isn’t one this year, a shame as I always enjoy the outdoor Shakespearian play. However there is a Fringe Festival so all sorts of odd things are going on around town.

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The lime trees are fully in leaf now and you will notice that the benches are quite crowded today.

P1210806Date: June 14 2015
Weather: sunshine, cloud, thundery
Temperature: Warm (18°C)
Time: 13:30 – 18:00 PM

We’re going on a slightly different ‘walk’ today as it is the Secret Gardens opening and, as many of you will already know, I crave a garden so how can I resist a nosey into the backyards of my fellow Ludlovians? You may recognise parts of previous posts as the route covered some of the same ground, just not around the river.

Fringe band in Castle Square
Shrub roses in the churchyard
Scallop Shells
See that honeysuckle? (June)
Along the Teme
Green Alkanet (June)
Yes, it is almost time for Wimbledon

Millennium Green is very busy. Children paddling in the water (on Ludlow Beach) many others sprawled on the lawn where some arty thing is going on. I couldn’t quite make out what was being built, but it was sure colourful.

Ludlow ‘Beach’
Arty thing…

And I can show you a different view of the river as I am in a garden which backs onto it. A bit too close for comfort in my opinion as this river does flood on occasions.

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Some of the lovely summer blooms I encountered.

Lots of roses
My favourite garden
Garden lights
Geums and Clematis
Another pretty rose (June)
Wasn’t expecting one of these though!
Herbs for sale
Especially for Pommepal

My final stretch is along Mill Street this time where I find an interesting statue and more evidence of the love of flowers people living here seem to have, as more containers line the front of their houses.

More containers (June)
Interesting statue (griffin?)

The Cardinal has decided to have a photo project going throughout 2015 – a blogging event, a monthly photo challenge. Find a location near your home, take somewhere between 5-20 photos and post them in a gallery in your blog. Continue to do this every month. The idea is to capture all the changes: the seasons, the weather, different times of the day, some night photography perhaps?

Bench series #24

For the month of June I’m looking for a bench with ‘Art Effects’ 

Kew
A multiple glimpse of the back of a bench in Kew Gardens, London

(This month I want to see photos with some post-processing – use your imagination, it can be subtle or bold as long as it includes a bench or even part of a bench!)

If you would like to join in with the Bench photo challenge then please take a look at my Bench Series page. No complicated rules, just a bench and a camera required 🙂

  • Create your own post and title it Bench Series: June
  • Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
  • Add the tag ‘bench series’ so everyone can find the benches easily in the WP Reader
  • Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new bench theme comes out on the first Sunday in July.

And for those of you who are interested, here is the original:

original kew
Transformed above by using the Piper Creative Effect in Pixlr

Picks of the Week:.

A couple from Gilly, the Lucid Gypsy, but my favourite is this one.
Lumar1298 is very creative with her benches.
Sue joins in with some arty treatments of a gorgeous griffin bench
A lovely soft sepia effect from Sylvia back in South Africa
A bench in the ‘rain’ by Daily Musings
and final one from tgeriatrix with several interesting effects. I wonder which one you prefer?

Home Made

One of the perks of staying in a self-catering holiday cottage in the UK is the little gifts that welcome you to your new home for the week. The best (and often the most expensive) leave you with sufficient goodies to last a couple of days such as orange juice, eggs, bread, cheese, coffee and a bottle of wine! Along with scones, jam and cream in the south-west country.

homemade2Our perfectly charming, though tiny, very reasonable priced cottage in which we are currently staying close to the rugged west coast provided charming home-made jams and chutney, a lemon drizzle cake (sorry that’s long gone), fresh free-range eggs and a bowl full of chocolates. Along with a vase of stargazer lilies in the lounge and a jug of spearmint in the kitchen.

We have been thoroughly spoilt!

Boscastle Harbour Walk

P1190075This is a gentle, level one mile walk along the river to the ‘blow-hole’ and has lovely views of the village and the harbour. At the end there are some steps to climb and the rocks here can be slippery when wet.

P1190084Now I could fancy one of these cottages. What about the pink one? It already has a bench in the garden for me.

P1190090We’ll walk along one side of the river to the next bridge (footbridge) passing by the witch museum, a lovely National Trust shop, a tea-room and the YHA. I love the Cornish walls in which you can plant a host of flowers, including these beautiful tulips (header photo). Look out for wild flowers too, such as the Danish scurvy traditionally considered a coastal plant with its love of salty places, salt marshes and sea shores grass. Full of Vitamin C, it gets its name from sailors chewing it to avoid scurvy. Continue reading Boscastle Harbour Walk