Sunflower (The Sequel)

At this time of year we spend a lot of time seeing beauty in things that are dying. So I thought as a finale to my sunflower photos I would try to illustrate this with some photos of my sunflower as it is now. 

Looking at  the photos I thought there is something very mathematical about the arrangement of the seeds. Quick search and I found this site which explains all about the fibonacci numbers on a sunflower.

I probably should gather in the sunflower seeds, but I thought I would leave them for the birds and squirrels that visit my garden.

Click Here for Sunflower (The Prequel) and Here for Sunflower and Bumble Bee.

Sunflower (The Prequel)

I recently posted some photos of a sunflower and bumblebee in my garden. I forgot that I had intended to put on these photos of the sunflower a bit earlier in the year. So here they are - the prequel. I think they are quite as beautiful as the flower in full bloom.

To Saturday Snapshotters especially please feel free to enter the giveaway on my previous post Tyred of Knitting. I will announce the winner on 5th November.

Orchids

I am not very good with houseplants. I blame my house, which doesn't have windowsills, so it is hard to position pot plants near the light. But with these lovely orchids I seem to have developed greenfingers. They were given to me at school back in July, and still look magnificent. I said as a joke to the teacher who gave them to me that perhaps they were plastic, and she looked horrified for a few moments, until she realized that I was just pulling her leg. Aren't they lovely!

Sunflower and Bumble Bee

The last hints of summer, and I decided to photograph the one and only sunflower in that I managed to grow in my garden. Huge amount of slugs and snails this year. As I was doing this a bumble bee arrived looking for pollen, and I got these shots. I had to get up very close to the bee, and I was a bit worried I was going to get my nose stung.

Dartmoor

I seem to have so much new to write about at the moment, but here is the last of my holiday posts. We drove across Dartmoor near the end of our holiday in North Devon, on our way to visit Granny, who lives in South Devon. It really is beautiful, although I am not sure that the photograph above is large enough to really show how great the views are.

My daughter is still not too old to bring a cuddly toy on holiday, and Clopper was really excited to meet a real Dartmoor pony. Highlight of his holiday. These ponies live wild on the moor, but are very friendly.

The granite outcrops of rocks are called tors, and there is a tradition to hide letterboxes on them. These boxes contain an inkpad and a stamp, so we had great fun hunting around the crevices in the rocks until we found one.

Heading down from the tor I managed to catch one of those increasingly rare moments when my children were getting on.

Seaside

Sea Holly

These are just a few nature pictures from a coastal walk in North Devon.

Braunton Burrows - a large area of sand dunes with a really rich variety of plants and animals.

Oh dear - I shouldn't have started labelling my photos, as I have no idea what this is, but it was very pretty.

The Common Blue Butterfly - so pretty he should have a better name I think.

Upturned boats at Appledore

Devon County Show

I have so many photographs from my summer holiday in Devon that I have split them up a bit, and will be putting them on over the next few weeks. These first ones were taken at the North Devon county show. 

Here are just a small selection.

The tug of war was great fun.

Have I ever mentioned my secret ambition to retire to the country and keep alpacas.

These ones were queuing for the prize winners parade, and I think hubby was pretending to be a farmer.

I like this picture as much for the farmers as the prize winning sheep.

And this is how you feel if you have not won a rosette.

Have you ever felt like this? This hen just seemed to have too many chicks to cope with.

... and I may have an idea for a new knitted vehicle.

A Meadow of Flowers

"In a meadow full of flowers, you cannot walk through and breathe those smells and see all those colors and remain angry. We have to support the beauty, the poetry, of life." Jonas Mekas

My local council have seeded several small areas with wild flowers. They are to encourage local insect and plant diversity. Aren't they beautiful? There are meant to be seven places, though so far I have only found three, but am on the look out for the others.

Wedding Photography

   
I made these little wedding dolls for my niece, and her now husband. I was going to scrap these photos, but then I decided I quite like how the dolls look a bit scared of the looming cat. 

Having removed the cat, reassured the bride and groom, here are the official photos. It must be my imagination, but they definitely look happier.
 

Shore Thing - Homespun

I am really thrilled to have my Spiral Shell featured in the current June issue of Homespun Magazine. (Click on their name to go to the web page, and they also have a facebook page here.) Homespun is an Australian Magazine, and as you can see covers all things crafty: sewing, quilting, embroidery, as well as wool crafts. I wish it was on sale in the UK, as it seems to specifically cover all my interests.  

My contributor's copy has just arrived. A lovely selection of projects, with pattern pieces at the back, and all printed on really luscious thick paper. Settling down with a cup of tea for a good read.

I was especially pleased that they were happy to use my own photograph of the shells, which isn't as blurry as it looks above. I also have another project in the pipeline with Homespun, but can't tell you about that yet.

Readers are offered a discount code on my Spiral Shell pattern, which I can also share with you. It my be a bit hard to make out, but the code is GINX28, and will give you 25% off the pattern on ravelry. It will run for 3 months: June, July and August. 

Parakeet

No, I'm not on a trip to the tropics. 

Parakeets have become a normal sight in my part of London. A few years ago you would very occasionally see one, but it now very common to see and hear them in Richmond Park and the surrounding area. This one was taking a rest in my garden.

There are various theories about how they have arrived in this part of London. One popular idea is that they escaped from a film studio during the filming of The African Queen. 

House Guests

Since just before Christmas we have had two house guests. Here they are: Sugar and Dave. They are mother and son, and have been staying with us as my sister has been moving house. They will be off to their new home soon, and we will miss them.

Sugar has been queen of the house. She is a lap cat and has a very soft, thick coat, and is the main reason we have been covered in cat hairs for the last few months. Aren't her eyes pretty.
 

I put this picture on my facebook page, which is her transfixed by birds on the telly. Whenever a wildlife programme comes on she is glued to the screen. Did you know you can find short films of birds on Youtube, for if your cat just can't get enough on regular TV? This is Sugar at the computer. She even got excited when we were watching the animated film Rio.
 

Despite her obsession Sugar has not yet caught any wildlife, partly I think because she is so visable, and also because she makes a funny noise in her throat due to excitement whenever she sees a bird, so they realize she is there.
 

Dave, who is the most lovely natured cat, doesn't have this problem, and frequently brings us little presents in from the garden!

Toad Crossing

This happens every year now, thanks to a group of toad enthusiasts. I did head up the road with my camera looking for a likely toad to photograph, but had no luck. I think I would have needed to head out in the rain at night, and I didn't quite have the stamina for that. What is the most unusual road sign you have seen?

Stonehenge

What to share today for Saturday Snapshot? I went out with my camera yesterday, but only had a short and very wet walk. Will this rain ever end? So my next plan was to look through some old photographs and try to scan one. I have done this successfully before, but this time the results were so grainy that you really could see nothing. I will have to consult my technical department, otherwise known as hubby.

So this is still a scan of an old photo, but one my sister put on facebook a few months ago. This was back in the 1960's, the days when you were allowed to get up really close to Stonehenge. I can see why you aren't allowed to these days, and must just count myself lucky. I am the little blonde one, and my sister in astride the rock. My dad must have taken the photo, and I love the way he has got us central, but the whole of one of the iconic rocks. He was a clever man. Up to now most of our family photos had been black and white. Also notice our anoraks and hairbands - quite the fashion back then. It is a bit of shame you can't see what we had on under our coats - as it was probably handknitted!

Selfie

I'm not very keen on photos of myself. Apart from all the predictable reasons, I tend to shut my eyes when I'm being photographed. We had our photos taken at school last week for new i.d. badges, and while everyone else just got snapped, it took eight attempts before the photographer got one without me squinking. 

So this is the closest I am going to get to a self-portrait. It does sort of sum me up though. But I am still not very happy. Shouldn't I go in at least a bit at the waist?

A Well-Balanced Photograph

This week I gave my camera to my daughter to photograph something for Saturday Snapshot. This is what she came up with. It is a little desk toy, that suddenly had an eye-catching shadow.

But I also can't resist showing her in her Halloween outfit. This cost just £1.97 to make. Thanks to the lovely Fabricland: my favourite shop. (£1.50 for the orange felt, 30p for the green, and 17p for a metre of elastic.) I really don't know how they manage to make a profit. It is decorated with sharpie pen, and padded out with some cushions.