Come away with the raggle taggle gypsy-o
Ailsa has chosen texture this week. I like the different textures of and around this old sewing machine, wood that is decaying, metal that is rusting and stone that is crumbling. I also wonder what stories it could tell us, whose hand has turned the missing handle and how many garments it has helped to create. 
The photo was taken at Sultanhani Caravanserai on the road between Askaray and Konya, in Central Anatolia, Turkey.
I’ve posted about Rosemoor before here when I visited in winter for the sculpture exhibition. Being a Royal Horticultural Society garden, it is absolutely beautiful all year round and in late summer they have a ‘hot garden’ with a real wow factor, that my photos don’t really capture. It will give you an idea though and who knows maybe one day you will visit. 
As always click for a bigger view and I’ll be back again soon with some more of the garden.
I think this is better example of near and far then my first post. Taken on a winter day beside the Exeter Canal. 
If you click to enlarge you can see some walkers in the distance on the right.
I’m very much a morning person, a lark not an owl, up before six most days. But up doesn’t mean out even though I know its the best time of day for photography. So I have very few early morning photos. This one was taken at 6.02am of the Halic or Golden Horn. Istanbultrails.com says ‘The Golden Horn (Haliç) is an inlet of the Bosphorus with two rivers draining into it at the far end. It is considered to be the world’s largest natural harbor and separates the European shore of Istanbul into two.’ It’s a very beautiful place and I like the light, but my through the window shot doesn’t do it justice. 
I’ve posted this for Jakes Sunday Post: Morning so do go and visit!
Ailsa at Where’s My backpack has chosen Red for her travel theme this week. Purple only tops red by a tiny margin as my favourite colour, so I’m delighted, but will restrain myself to one photo!
So I have laid out the red hangings, made from recycled sari’s, one of which I bought, from this shop in Jaisalmer.
My friend and I have a habit of popping to the coast straight from work when we can and as we may not have many sunny evenings left this year we made the most of it yesterday. If you have followed my blog for a while, you may remember a post about the Exe Estuary , My city, Exeter, lies 8 miles from the coast, with Exmouth to the east and Dawlish to the west. Traditionally if you grew up in Exeter on the west of the Exe your beach was Dawlish and east of the Exe your beach was Exmouth. This goes back to the days when few families had cars and everyone piled on to the trains. I’m an Exmouth girl!
It’s difficult to explain the magic of Exmouth and I often wonder how tourists see it. It’s possibly a little jaded and worn around the edges, a bucket and spade beach with lots of ice cream stalls and chippies. There is a funny little paddle boat pond and a cafe made from an old railway carriage that were there when I was tiny and haven’t changed a bit. Magical it is though and last night it was fish and chips and ice cream, if it isn’t broke then don’t fix it.
There’s always something to see down there and here are some pics from last night.
Two of these canoes went out quite a distance last night.
There is quite a narrow channel and the tide was just in far enough to cover one of the tricky sandbanks. 
Paddle boarding has become really popular, I don’t know how this water walking lady steered her way through the little kayaks.
It was a lovely evening for a walk, the prom is a couple of miles long.Once we left the sand we left the chill of the sea breeze. In the distance is Dawlish Warren across the estuary.
A hopeful fisherman on the breakwater. To the left the tide is closing in on the sandstone rock pools.
The Tudor Rose is a colourful, bucket of a a boat that sails along the Jurassic coast and up the river as far as the Turf Lock where the canal ends. It offers bird watching cruises and parties with live music all year round.
Not everyone plays in the water!
The Tudor Rose is heading back and we had walked off our fish and chips. Time to head to the Grove, a seafront pub with a lovely view from the balcony and a Pimms! I hope you like what I’ve shown you of Exmouth, it’s very dear to my heart.
Okay, I’m confused this week, this is what Cheri over at The Daily Post has to say about near and far.
Near and Far. We’re excited about this week’s photo challenge, near and far, and hope it inspires you to play with perspective, which can give sweeping images of beautiful locations more oomph and power. Perspective is what makes a flat two-dimensional image, such as a photograph, appear like it is three-dimensional. To create this effect, you can use features like diagonal lines, which converge within the frame and literally suck in the viewer.
It’s too complicated for me, or maybe it’s just been a long week! Either way I think I have done the opposite in both of these photos because I don’t know where are the centre points, but here we go anyway.
Any explanations in simple Gypsy speak welcome!
Yes, it’s that time of year again. I leave the house in the morning and as I walk down the front steps I’m trapped, wrapped up in the finest silk, mobbed by a gang of speckled monsters who to me are giants. They cross a metre of path to stretch their tightrope from plant to tree and back a dozen times and each morning I have to be the first to break through. I grab a section checking that the beast is as far away as possible, too close and they rebound back and in a blink they are up your arm. They clearly think I’m one of them because they head for my hair given half a chance. But how do they make those long ropes? If a spider is three inches wide – believe me these are – then to make a strand across my path they have to leap twelve times their own width, all the time spinning and releasing the strand. Or, perhaps they dangle their way slowly to the ground, spinning on the way and when they reach land they run across it and climb back up the next bush or wall to the opposite side? I know, I know but have you got any better ideas? 
This one was between me and the raspberries, I swear its a conspiracy, someone is plotting to scare me away from my favourite fruit. I have to self administer CBT to pick them. 
and this one was settling in the Rosemary for the night. I know their plans, it can’t be much longer before they want to sleep in my room. They want a warm, dark corner to lurk in until spring and then they will lay their tiny eggs. They will wrap them in a cocoon of white silk, go and die in one of my shoes, and then as soon as its warm enough outside, three million horrid albino spiderlings will emerge. I’ll spend winter in fear. You think I’m crazy, irrational? Well when I was young, I was bitten on the back of my neck by a big, black, hairy spider and ever since I can’t bear the little horrors. I’m not alone am I?
Lucid Gypsy 