This is the time of year when the outside of our house, and the one to which we’re attached deck themselves in scented clouds of wisteria.
There’s lilac below the kitchen window: that’ll bloom very soon: already the tightly furled buds are loosening and hinting at the soft mauves and purples that will emerge. That’ll be for next week then.
… in bloom’, according to an unattributed quotation I found on the net. Unless the weather ups its game, not this year it won’t be. Let’s cheer ourselves up with some purple patches from last year.
For Jude’s quest for purple: Life in Colour, and Debbie’s Six Word Saturday
Here’s a challenge for stay-at-home lockdown days. In fact here are two challenges in one:
Right. Well, I should take this seriously – I’m new to macro photography.
The garden’s ready and waiting. That’s one thing sorted. Tripod? Well, I have a three-legged stool, and a pile of books so I can adjust the camera height – same thing really .
But the ground proves to be disappointingly uneven, and the slight breeze moves those cranesbill petals around. The bees to whom I’d be happy to offer either a leading role or at least a bit-part are disappointingly uncooperative. Maybe pick a few flowers and move indoors?
Card to display flowers on – check. Tripod-substitute: one packet of tea and another book – check. Nice even light streaming in through the window – check. What could possibly go wrong?
So here we are. Macro photos in the time of Covid 19. Make do and mend rules.
Oh, and I thought I’d put the flowers in a bit of context and show them in our landlords’ garden. We spend as much time there as they do. Aren’t we lucky?
Today, I’m going no further than my kitchen window. The lilac has been glorious this year. Is it because it has been – well – especially spectacular, or have we simply had more time to enjoy its big blowsy blooms and seductive smell? It’s June now, and lilac has no place in the summer garden, so here is the view that has greeted us every breakfast time for about three weeks. Can’t complain about that.
Playing with light. That’s what we’re doing this week for Jude’s photo assignment. I took each of my shots three times: as a simple automatic shot, in high key and in low key mode.
It’s probably me and the shots I chose, but in each case, working in high key did these subjects no favours, and simply made them look bleached and lifeless. Low key however did add some drama.
I looked at my neighbour’s roses in the morning, took a walk at noon, and enjoyed the first of the petunias to show its face in the evening.
Here’s a little quiz. Each of these shots is taken in high key, low key, automatic, or in toy – pinhole – mode. But which one? Have a look at the gallery, before bringing up the shot full size to reveal the answer.
Yesterday you had a peek at our sitting room window, from the outside. Come on in. We’ll go upstairs, into the kitchen. This is our view from the breakfast table. And it’s lilac time – almost. White, mauve and purple, all in bud, all on the cusp of bursting into flower for one glorious week. Our Top Time of year for breakfast beauty. Aren’t we lucky?
Becky: thank you. This month has been fun. I’m not a natural daily blogger, but it’s been a challenge I’ve enjoyed to find a daily response, almost entirely from photos taken specially for ‘Top Squares’, and I’ve ‘met’ bloggers I wouldn’t otherwise have come across. I can’t resist ending as I began: with a Top Sheep-and a lamb or two.
The news just seems to get grimmer. So I stepped out into the garden to find cheering daffodils to share. Here.
As promised earlier, I’ve kept a photo diary of a month in the life of the walled garden. Too bad that my recently-repaired camera turned out not to have been repaired satisfactorily, and I’ve had to rely on my not-very-smart-smartphone.
So here we are, Sue: the walled garden, as it puts itself to bed for winter. The Changing Seasons.
1st November. Here we are. Come in and explore.
5th November. You want me to go out in THIS?
12th November.
16th November.
23rd November. Oops. I forgot. Until dead of night.
30th November. And just in time for the end of the month, a good hard frost. Winter’s on its way.
An entry for both Six Word Saturday, and The Changing Seasons.
