Around The Garden

10-05-22

The Humble Dandelion

I’ve been trying to tidy up the garden a bit, but as usual keep getting distracted by the flowers and cats.

New Growth

Herb Robert

Lilacs

The Lilacs are just going over, I love the colour they add to the garden.

Gardening & Eyebrows

25-08-19

Gardening

It’s been unseasonably hot the last couple of days, 26 deg C / 78 deg, it feels much warmer. I thought it was about time I tackled some of the pruning that I have been putting off for far too long. With the strange weather we have had this year the garden has in parts gone into overdrive. To relieve the boredom I took a few quick photo’s with my old Olympus E400 and Zuiko 35mm macro lens.

Hips

Lavender

The Lavender has really gone berserk this year, good for the Bee’s though.

Bud

Still some buds on the Roses.

Blackberries

They are trying their best to take over the garden this year.

Liked By The Bees

Eyebrows

The visiting cat is getting a bit cheeky. At 4 am on Saturday morning I felt a gentle nuzzling on my eyebrow, it was the Black & White lad wanting some breakfast. He comes in everyday now and occasionally has a sleep over! my two cats fortunately are quite tolerant of him most of the time. During the day on Saturday I was working on the front garden, I went in to make myself a cup of coffee and as I looked back to the open front door there was a mother cat and two tiny kittens. The mother cat (long haired very dark Tortoiseshell) has been sneaking in and clearing all the cat food dishes (she’s very wary), I leave a bit of extra food down for her as I’m sure that feeding two little ones she needs it.

Yashica Samurai X3.0 #3 and Pruning The Holly Tree

25-09-17

Thought it was about time the Holly Tree had a good pruning. With all the rain we have had this year it’s grown like mad and is blocking out a lot of light in my back room. So out came the ladder, and armed with a pruning saw, teetering at the top I managed to reduce it’s height without getting too horribly scratched up. Not quite a work of fine topiary but the room is now much brighter.

Before

After

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A few more film images from the Yashica Samurai.

Street Art With Waste Pipe

Last Orders

Behind The factory

I love the old Victorian factories in the city, lots of them are sadly being demolished to make way for bland apartment blocks, but some are being converted to living accommodation.

New Living

This was the central post office, I used to top up the franking machine here in the late 1970’s.

Impose Yourself

 

In The Garden

Well it’s taken me a long time to shake off my man flu but I felt much better yesterday, the weather helped, it was actually sunny and quite warm for a change. So a catch up on the garden chores were desperately needed.

I read a few weeks ago much to my disbelief and dismay that garden plants from many DIY stores and nurseries have been treated with insecticides that can be deadly to bees. I really don’t understand this, one of the reasons I buy plants is to attract wildlife, not kill it. But it makes money for big chemical corporations I guess !!!!!!!!!!!. The film “Idiocracy” comes to mind. The good news is one of the biggest DIY chains in the UK is no longer going to sell plants treated with insecticides, hopefully the others will follow their lead.

After the lawn was mowed and shrubs were pruned I took the camera into the garden to get a few images of some of the flowers, they have had a hard time this year with the cold and rain.

In The Garden Today

Thought I would spend the day pottering around the garden, having a slight hangover I thought the fresh air would do me good. It was a lovely sunny day but the wind was cold.

Reason For The Hangover!

 I really enjoy seeing this band they are called “The Moonlights”, and the venue had 2 beers I hadn’t tried before, well that’s my excuse.

Lavender Bud

Bluebells

Grape Hyacinth

Corn Flower

Rhododendron

Forget Me Not

Lavender

Clematis

Clematis

It’s a bugs life

I used my Olympus EPL1 with an old Helios 58mm lens and extension tube. It was quite tricky getting the shots because of the breezy conditions and really narrow depth of field. It’s lovely to see the signs of spring well underway in the garden, not so good to see the amount of work I need to do.

Supervised Gardening

It was a lovely warm and breezy day today in my part of the UK. I have been a bit neglectful of my garden over the last couple of months so some serious pruning was called for. One of my cats (Mimi) made sure I was working hard and not disturbing her hiding places too much.

12-08-2016