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Macro Monday #80

/ Heyjude / 26 Comments

Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.  ~ Imogen Cunningham.

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Elegantly twisting

My final tulip this year (I know I have gone on a bit) is this pretty purple one performing its last dance. Tulips give so much pleasure even in their dying moments. As tulips are my favourite flowers it seems a fitting photo for the end of the WordPress Photo Challenge which I have to thank for giving me inspiration when I first set out on the blogging journey. The weekly challenges enabled me to study the images I had in my archives that could meet the brief, or to go out and take a new image, bearing in mind the requirements. I began to take more considered shots. Understand what it was I wanted from a photograph; what I wanted my image to tell others. The challenge also helped me meet other bloggers in this vast blogosphere and create some long-lasting virtual friendships. We will all miss the weekly challenge, but I am confident we will continue to inspire one another as we share our worlds.

Daily Post Photo Challenge | Favourite

“Condensational”

/ Heyjude / 30 Comments

Days of coastal fog can be so annoying as the temperatures drop and the air is damp. One positive result is how condensation is formed on the tulips in the courtyard. The jewel-like colours sparkle with diamonds.

Sarah Raven lily-flowered tulip

Purple Dream lily-flowered tulip

Ballerina lily-flowered lightly fragrant tulip

Daily Post Photo Challenge | Liquid

Macro Monday #73

/ Heyjude / 26 Comments

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Whorls of Joy

When I first saw these plants emerging from the ground in my new garden I had no idea what they were. Flowers or weeds? I would have to wait and see until they grew, but given the quantity I was really hoping they weren’t weeds. In fact this is the start of the Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata), with towering, upright stems and abundant cup-shaped, golden-yellow flowers with a red centre. Blooming from late spring until late summer above the pretty whorled leaves this can be used as a cut flower.  It is good for planting in wild or woodland gardens, where it can happily spread and likes humus-rich, moist soil that doesn’t dry out in the summer in sun or partial shade.

Daily Post Photo Challenge | Awakening

Autumn blues: take a closer look

/ Heyjude / 14 Comments

Common earwig (Forficula auricularia) peeking out from under the Echinops

The name earwig is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning “ear creature,” probably because of a widespread ancient superstition that earwigs crawl into the ears of sleeping people. The earwig has a pair of horny forceps-like tail filaments, or pincers, at the posterior end of the abdomen, with those of the male being larger and of a different shape than those of the female. I think this one is a male. I associate them with Dahlias (from my childhood) but I can also tell you they are very fond of the herb basil.

Daily Post Photo Challenge | Peek

It IS easy being green…

/ Heyjude / 25 Comments

…when you live in a county that is constantly shrouded in hill fog and sea mist and damp mizzle.

There is a lot of green in the south-west country – the gently rolling pastureland where sheep and cattle graze to their hearts content. But sometimes something a little different like this Agave plant growing in my neighbour’s garden catches my eye.

I find the pattern left by the unfolding leaves resembles abstract art. Nature in her finest.