February nest
waits for a migrants return
family frenzy
Wordless Wednesday
Cheryl has a stunning WW over here, https://cherylandrews.wordpress.com/2015/02/18/wordless-wednesday-18-february-2015/
Five Day Black and White Challenge Day Two
This photo is a pub sign in Padstow, Cornwall. I didn’t go inside because I had to make the most of the late October sunshine – maybe next time!
Thanks to Issy for choosing me to take part, see her entries http://isadoraartandphotography.com/2015/02/15/5-day-bw-challenge-day-2/
Now, the challenge is to post a black and white image each day for five (I may take longer than five days to post five images) and to choose someone else to take part. For day two I’d like to choose Madhu at
http://theurgetowander.com/ She is the ultimate traveller and her travel writing is superb, as is her eye for a wonderful photo. I hope she will join in, but either way if you don’t know her then you’re missing some great journeys so go and visit!
Five Day Black and White Challenge Day One
Cotehele is a Tudor manor house on the banks of the river Tamar, just over the border in Cornwall. It houses wonderful collections of oak furniture, arms and armour and tapestries inside its granite walls. Over the centuries it has been visited by Kings and Queens and more than one bed names a royal personage who has slept in it.
Here is the original photo, before it was cropped, straightened and colour converted.
Thanks to Issy for choosing me to take part, see her entries http://isadoraartandphotography.com/2015/02/15/5-day-bw-challenge-day-2/
Now, the challenge is to post a black and white image each day for five (I may take longer than five days to post five images) and to choose someone else to take part. For day one I’d like to choose Meg, she is currently on a long holiday in Poland and has lots of lovely photos to share taken in Warsaw. https://warsaw2015.wordpress.com/
Don’t panic if I pick you, relax and take part if you want to!
The symmetry of wings
Symmetry(noun): the quality of something that has two sides or halves that are the same or very close in size, shape, and position; the quality of having symmetrical parts.
For this challenge, share an image of symmetry. Don’t limit yourself to architecture — you can bend this theme in any way you’d like.
A portrait of your twins? A window grille? The yellow lines of a busy road? A row of sharp points along a metal fence? Let the world inspire you. So says Cheri Lucas Rowlands at the Daily Post.
I rummaged through my photos looking for symmetrical images and failed – I’m the one who takes wonky horizons so symmetrical and I don’t really work!
Eventually it dawned on me and I hunted with a different eye. My photo didn’t need to be symmetrical, it could be the subject instead. So here are my choices, enjoy.
and join in at https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/symmetry/
Hidden Miracles
Lots of you will already have seen this but even so it’s worth seeing again. Thank you Ted,com and Mary for sending it to me 🙂
Lazy Poet’s Thursday Haiku
from insecure roots
you keep thriving regardless
optimist spirit
Wordless Wednesday
Everyone’s Journey is Different
Last week I took a four hour train journey home to Devon, longer and more complicated than it should have been because of railway work. I crossed platforms and hopped from train to train, and I couldn’t help wondering about other peoples journeys, where were they all going on a cold Sunday in January? Few people talk to strangers on trains (I talk to anyone as you know!), but one man, also travelling alone, suddenly laughed out loud so I smiled as our eyes met. He was doing a crossword and got an answer he’d been struggling with. The clue was ‘What islander has nothing behind him?’. The answer that he was amused by?’A Manx cat’. We laughed together, it was a nice encounter. The final leg of the trip was beautiful, but few people seemed to look out of the windows at the countryside as I do. One of the things about being a certain age is that to many people you become invisible, often annoying, but if you like to observe others as most writers do, it can be very useful. A lady opposite me was knitting, a bright pink little girls cardigan, and kept counting stitches, and to my right a young man watched a film on his laptop. Giggly teenage girls tried to paint each others fingernails but the movement of the train was making it difficult for them, and soft snores emanated from more than one passenger. Am I the only person who enjoys the beauty of the countryside? I did take out one techy toy, my phone, because I wanted to capture some of that beauty that we take for granted. Please forgive the image quality, fading light, reflections from the windows and a moving train don’t make for the best photos!
And I was inspired to try a poem,
Train Landscape
Swiftly the southern line takes me
‘longside pastures and heading west
where pannies flood but folds of dry
give shelter to the Sunday flocks
Winter furrows retreat to hill crest
no conifer plantations lurk here
just naked deciduous petticoats
seeded by natures wise hand
A nonchalant deer raises its head
and a much used murmuration flies
on a thousand dark starling wings
sweet balm to my home going eyes
through Dorset and on to green Devon
I ride the train through my heartland
Jude’s Bench Challenge, Black and White February
Jude likes to photograph benches and has discovered that lots of other people share that little passion, so last month she started a monthly challenge. The topic this month is black and white, visit her here https://smallbluegreenwords.wordpress.com/bench-series/ to learn more and join in.
My entry is a photo from my collection taken in Ghana, when I visited Sirigu Women’s Co-operative for Pottery and Art, a few years ago. It wasn’t the most comfortable of benches, but the thatch roof provided much needed shelter from the extreme heat and sun.
In case you’re wondering the bench was actually red, white and black but it seems to me it works quite well in monochrome because of the contrast, what do you think?
Lucid Gypsy 