July 2020 Photo Treasure Hunt

Well, here we are, still living under partial lock down.  We thankfully have been able to get out to early morning shopping for the over 70's at a well know supermarket for a few things.  It relieved Kate of some of our shopping and then the last two weeks we have been to our local German supermarket to do our bulk shopping for ourselves. Thought we might as well get out before the next lockdown!! What strange times we live in.  

List for this month was not easy for me.  I have just transferred everything from my old computer to a mini stack but in doing so I have completely muddled up, copied twice, lost then found my vast collection of photographs going back to 2004.  There are so many duplicates to delete.  But in doing so I have mislaid/lost/deleted my selected pictures for this month.  So today I spent the morning searching for them again.  I am so used to having our son living close by and he would always do any technical stuff for me but he now lives in Scotland.  This time he tried to help using Skype to share screens but found it frustrating as it was slow - him telling me what to do.  Then I remembered a friend in South Africa telling me about Teamviewer where you get a month's free use of their programme.  It enabled David to take over my computer completely. I just watched as the cursor darted around.  Brilliant.

So here are a my selection for this month.  Something purple, Shades of green, Starts with F, Still life, Snapped at this moment..  Just noticed - all prompts start with an 'S'.  A coincidence maybe??

Something Purple

All from our garden a few years ago.  This year we have had too much wind and the garden is not very happy.  (nor am I)

Shades of Green

I could't decide which so you get three. The first is the Black Devon River in Alloa where our son and daughter-in-law walk their yellow labrador Jess.    A few weeks ago a man stopped his car to ask them if they knew that the sewerage works higher up had burst its pipe a couple of weeks back. and everything was flowing into the Black Devon.  Jess was hurriedly taken home and bathed, and bathed and now they walk elsewhere!!  In spite of this  being a proper marked path the council had not put up notices here. 

This was taken years ago on a walk  with the family. I love the sunlight shining through the trees.

I  took this picture of the water wheel at Rutter Falls in the Eden Valley near Appleby. I love all the different shades of green.   The white building housed a lovely tea room but today it seems to be a holiday cottage  like the wheel house building. Its a shame, the scones were to die for!!! 

Still Life   ..............without  onions!!! 

 

All my teenage years (a very long time ago) my parents had a picture on the dining room wall, opposite where I sat.  It was a print of  Paul Cezanne's  'Still Life with Onions'.  Since then I only have to hear the words 'Still life' and in my mind I continue....with Onions!!! 

But not having any lovely onions, or antique wine bottle I will have to use something else for this prompt.

So here is my still life............with scones!!      We  had tea at the beautiful Rutter Falls tea room and were served the most de-lish-ous scones.  The lady told me she uses cream not milk and when rubbing in the butter she lifts the mixture very high to make the scones extra light. 

Starts with an 'F'

Again, I could not decide so you get two pictures beginning with 'F'.

Footsteps .......there and back again.  Taken on Holy Island, Lindesfarne in Northumberland a few years back.  I wonder who made them.  Not us. 

The picture of these fossils was taken not far from Lindesfarne at a beach near Berwick-on-Tweed.  Scremeston beach is well known for its fossils in the rocks at low tide and found in the rocks further back among the rocks.  (Compare the size with a £1 coin.)  We love going there, usually just a few dog walkers and a large empty beach.

Snapped at this moment.....

I'd been working at my desk and stopped for lunch and as usual put Africam on screen, this time Rosie's Pan.  As I opened up there was this herd of  female elephants with their babies.  So out came the camera ......

My Own Choice

In my big computer move I came across all sorts of photographs, this being one.  It is of my mother standing in front of a giant Baobab tree in Northern Transvaal, or Limpopo Province as it is now known, in South Africa in about 1995.   The baobab has huge seed pods which the local children sell to passing tourists.  They were the original source of Cream of Tartar. Large trees can contain up to 120,00 litres of water in their fibrous hollow trunks which is why elephants and warthogs in particular chew on the bark in times of drought.  

The Baobab is also called the upside-down-tree because when bare of leaves the Baobab looks like roots sticking up in the air as if planted upside down.  Legend holds that god Thora took a dislike to the Baobab growing his garden, so he threw it out over the wall of Paradise on to Earth below and although the tree landed upside down it continued to grow. Try this link for some beautiful photographs and  Baobab facts 

That's all for this month. Off to see what others have done.  Take care and keep safe all of you.

February 2020 Photo Treasure Hunt

What an odd February it has been.  Terrible floods in parts of the country again, even our little neighbouring village had some panicky moments when the beck was inches from topping the edge.  Then last week we did not use our heating once,  now we have had snow and heavy mist - lost our view completely.   

This month Kate has given us an interesting selection of words.  Trying to think outside of the box is not always easy, but I have tried.

Hearts

We have two very special ladies in our family - our daughter and daughter-in-law and a few years ago I bought them each  a wooden heart each just to show them  how special they are.

Repair

No trouble finding a topic for this heading.   I have a lovely elephant that was originally my mothers' and it always stands on the bookcase next to an elephant picture I took when I was absolutely terrified and thought I'd better take a picture so anyone finding us would know what happened!!  (You can check that hairy story by clicking on 'elephant picture'. )

I was moving a book on the bookcase and another, heavy book slid down to fill the empty space and knocked into  my poor elephant breaking his ear. (Thanks Bill Bryson and your hard cover edition of 'A Short History of Everything'.)  I was so upset but thought I'd speak to our own 'Repair Shop' expert - Kate.  She said no problem and returned my elephant a few days later, as good as new!  

Repaired and as beautiful as before.  Thanks Katie.

Tail(s) 

Once upon a time there was a family of  Nyala who went for a drink at Tembe water hole in South Africa;  father, three wives and two children.  Someone sitting at her computer miles away saw them and could not resist taking a photograph of six tails, all in a line!!. 

Just thought I'd check how far away I actually was...... 8,696.9 miles via Trans-Sahara and it would take me 186 hours, non stop driving.  I've done it once as a child, don't think I'll do it again.  Think I'll stick to watching them from my computer!! 

You can check out that story here.  It is the 4th Prompt.  I'm not smart enough to just include the one story, sorry.  

Key

Sadly I don't have any lovely old keys to photograph, just the keys to our new (to us) Citroen C3 Picasso.  Keys don't look like keys any more.

Knot

I just had to use this giant knot in a macrame wall hanging I made nearly 40 years ago. (I had no idea it was that long ago till I just worked it out now).  B had been transferred and we moved into an enormous house that went with the position, with views that stretched for miles across the African hills and bush.  But we did not have enough pictures to hang on the vast walls.  As we never can agree what we like I decided to make huge macrame wall hangings using broom handles as the supporting pole.  They are long gone but I do have this one left.  

So here is my knot or knots as there are 84 strings knotted onto the centre ring alone, as well as the knots top and bottom.   This is one panel - there are four more! 

My Own Choice

We were shopping at a well known supermarket the other day and this caught my eye, looking most out of place.  It was in with the reduced price goods.  I was amused at the label on the back of the brush and pointed it out to B.  Mischievous as ever he finds an assistant and asks where they keep their coffins.  Poor chap looked most confused till B pointed this brush and dust pan out to  him .  He quickly removed it and when asked what 'coffins' were in shop speak he told us they were the baskets the bread was displayed in.  Mmmmm.  Not saying anything!!!

That's it for this month.  Now to go and check what everyone else has done with the prompts.