Friday, June 19, 2015

Photo a Day 102 - Floral Friday


It has been very cold and now wet up here and not conducive to getting out and looking for photo opportunities. Much easier and more comfortable to sit by the fire!!




However, I did get out last Saturday to a photography class where we focussed on macro and here are some of my shots. Still a lot to learn,but am reasonably happy with the results.


 This water lily took my eye and I got some nice reflections from the pool.



We call this Busy Lizzie  -  purists would call it Impatiens



This one is a salvia from my garden.



And my magnolias are just starting to flower, although the wind got to this one.



Liz Needle  -  linking with "Floral Friday Fotos"  and  "Today's Flowers".





Friday, June 05, 2015

Photo a Day 101 - Violets are Blue


My violets are just beginning to flower. Since childhood they have been my favourite flowers. I can remember we used to be able to buy posies of violets from the green grocers for less than a shilling and we loved to give them to Mum as a surprise.

I had a littlr garden as a child and it was always full of violets and primroses and smelled so gorgeous in the mornings and evenings.  Now I have violets and primroses growing in my garden. The primroses are holding their own, but the violets are growing wild under all the shrubs. They remind me of my childhood.




 
 
Liz Needle  -  Linking for "Floral Friday Fotos"
 
 
 
 
 
 



Photo a Day 100 - The Grass is Greener

My post for Friday Greens  this week is one I have shown before, but it tickles my fancy so I thought it worth repeating. Living in the Adelaide Hills, we are prone to summer bushfires, so the government in its wisdom had initiated a tree lopping program to ensure that all trees are trimmed so that they are a ceratin distance from electricity cables.

Now I don't have a real problem with this rule, but I have huge problems with the contractors who perform this task. They employ men who have no idea about trees and how to prune them, who have no interest in the trees they are pruning and so consequently do a terrible job and ruin trees. They also enter private properties and make no effort to contact the owners about what they intend to do.

We have repeatedly requested that they come to the house before they commence any trimming so that we know what is going on. This they have failed to do.

Imagine our delight when we looked out of the window one spring day to discover that they had driven across our front paddock and got themselves bogged up to the axles in the mud. They actually tried to drive across a mud flat and into a creek bed. If they had come to the door they would have been told about the mud and been given an alternative route.



Some hours later, with the help of several more vehicles, they were extricated from the mud and drove off very red-faced.




One might have supposed that the very greenness of the soft ground, the presence of the creek and dam and the bog plants growing through the paddock  would have been a clue to the state of the paddock!!


Interestingly since then, they always come to the door to let us know what they will be doing on the property.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Friday Greens".
















Tuesday, June 02, 2015

Photo a Day 99 - Rubbish Tuesday


A couple of weeks ago I posted a shot of an old tractor.  This old dray was also in the same display.  What a shame it is falling apart. I'm not sure what it would have been used for, but I imagine it would have needed quite a team to pull it.





Liz Needle  -  linking with "Rubbish Tuesday".




Photo a Day 98 - Trees



Our Eucalypt trees have a wonderful way of re-inventing themselves. They can be cut down, burnt out but as long as there is a stump they will magically come to life again.  This old tree was growing in a dry creekbed way up in the north of South Australia in our beautiful Flinders ranges.




And in close up you can see some of the trauma this old girl has suffered.  Hmm.  Are trees girls or boys?  I wonder how old this one is.




Liz Needle  -  linking with "NF's Trees and Bushes"



Photo a Day 97 - Our World Tuesday


More shots from my visit to the zoo. One of the useful things I learnt in the photography course was how to make the cages disappear  -  not that I really wanted them to disappear for these shots.





These girls looked so regal and  unconcerned. 




This pretty little girl posed beautifully for the camera.




It almost looks like this has been photoshopped. The head just doesn't seem to fit with the body!

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Our World Tuesday".





Monday, June 01, 2015

Photo a Day 96 - Reflections at the Zoo




Last weekend I spent a wonderful day at the Zoo brushing up my photography skills. This is one of the shots I took and quite by accident it has some reflections in it.






These two fellows were having a great time swinging around from tree to tree before they decided to take a break.




Liz Needle  -  linking with Weekend Reflections