I walked past a neighbours house on my way home just now and she was tending her front garden. I said ‘Hi how are you?’ and before I had chance to comment on the glorious poppies I’ve been admiring for the last week, she said ‘Would you like some of these seed heads when they’re ready?’ Did I pounce? You bet I did!
So with a bit of luck this time next year I’ll have my own.
Imagine when I saw that the photo challenge this week is vivid, it was made for these flowers don’t you think?
If anyone knows what variety these are, my neighbour and I would both love to know please.
Category: Flowers
Lazy Poet’s Thursday Haiku
Sprinkled with rain drops
bold,brash, bursting with passion
petals of desire
Lazy Poet’s Thursday Haiku
With a soft speckled throat
and with a cure in it’s heart
arriving in June
5 Photos 5 Stories Day #1
For those of you that live in different climates, these are violets, the wild version of our much loved garden violas and pansies. 
Whenever I see a carpet of these tiny beauties, I am transported back to my childhood. There was a tiny little roll of half inch wide, mauve sweeties, and as soon as you opened the packet the scent exploded. When you put them in your mouth it was difficult to decide if you were tasting the taste, or tasting the fragrance. In fact some people would say they taste like old ladies soap. But I didn’t care, they were heaven on my tongue.
Parma Violets were first made in 1930 in Derbyshire, England, by the Swizzels Matlow company and apparently they now make giant Parma Violets, where are they, I need them? I believe they are a love or hate thing. Now I’m sure there are some of you that remember them, or perhaps still eat them, so tell me do you think they are delicious or disgusting? Of course they don’t smell like these real violets, but nevertheless a sweet and tempting smell.
Jude at Travel Words has nominated me for the ‘Five Photos, Five Stories’ challenge, and I would like to nominate Tony at 2far2shout, a brilliant storyteller who takes a mean photo too.
Tony there’s no obligation, have fun if you want to!
The challenge is to just “post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph and each day nominate another blogger for the challenge”.
Lazy Poet’s Thursday Haiku
Freckled like a maiden
your innocence astounds me
sweetest Lenten rose
Weekly Photo Challenge: Fresh
This week the challenge is to share a photo or several that express ‘fresh’, and I’ve found it really difficult. I’ve seen lots of gorgeous images of flowers and food and I thought I would do the same. At last I came across this shot of a recently ploughed field, fresh and ready for seed.
So then I was able to make a link to the earth, with these colourful plants in the garden centre, ready for the soil.
And lastly, a tasty harvest from the earth.
You can join in and see lots more entries here.
Lazy Poet’s Thursday Haiku
Waiting for April
fresh blossom ready to bloom
blue skies and long days
The Rule of Thirds
If you’ve followed me for a while you’ll know that I love to visit gardens and of course that means I have a gazillion photos of flowers. I don’t post many flowers because I don’t want to bore you all, but this weeks photo challenge has given me an excuse to!
Jen H. says,
The Rule of Thirds is a photography concept that puts the subject of the photograph off-center, which usually results in blank space in the rest of the image. If you focus closely on your subject and use a wide aperture, your photograph’s background will also be beautifully blurred in that blank space. The blurred area behind your focal point is referred to as bokeh, and when executed well, it adds depth and artistry to an otherwise simplistic photograph.
When I go somewhere with my camera I try to find a balance between staying in the moment and recording what I see. I don’t think too much about the techy stuff but rely on my eye instead. So, while I know about the rule of thirds, it isn’t at the forefront of my mind.Perhaps you’ll tell me if I’ve got anywhere close to Jen’s challenge.
You can join in at https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/rule-of-thirds/
This is what yellow means!
Yellow is an optimistic colour for me. It means one thing in particular – SPRING, my second favourite time of the year. Here in the northern hemisphere we are just two days from the winter solstice, a day that fills me with joy. While I know that we have several months of cold, wet weather, I am reassured that each day will be longer by a barely perceptible minute and in a month’s time the sun will rise before I walk to work. I know that one day in February I will stop in my tracks, t smile at a primrose smiling back at me, its sunny yellow heart blowing a kiss. 
Before long, yellow signs will be everywhere. “There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin
The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in his Heaven— All’s right with the world!
Robert Browning
Before we know it, the temperature will rise a few degrees and my favourite spring flowers will take on more passionate yellow hues. The equinox will insist on equality, and I, well I will leave off my gloves, happy that winter has departed.
Oh, to be in England
Now that April’s there
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England – now!
Robert Browning
This post is in response to the Weekly Photo Challenge, where Krista throws out a yellow curve ball as a change form the festive colours lots of us are surrounded by. You can join in here,
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/yellow/
me, I’ll just wait for spring and its glorious golden yellows!
Wordless Wednesday
Lucid Gypsy 