Summertime Scavenger Hunt 4

Number 8 on the list is 'A Tattoo on a Person'.  This was going to be my most difficult photo to take as I don't know anyone with a tattoo and although I see many tattoos, unless you know the person it is difficult to just ask if you can take a photo - well it is difficult for me.

Yesterday I went to a Geocaching meet (Visit Geocaching.com for an explanation about what geocaching is) in my local park and at these meetings people bring along travel bugs and trackables  to swap or just to 'Discover' .  According to Geocaching.com  'A Travel Bug is a Trackable that moves from place to place, picking up stories along the way. '  In fact Tara my dog is a trackable, she wears a dog tag  'Log my Dog' with a special number that can be logged when people discover her.

Some travel bugs

So what did I see?   A travel bug on a person - yes a tattooed travel bug!

So I can now claim no. 8 - A tattoo on a person!

My Month in Numbers - July

Is it really August now - where did July go?  July was a busy month for me, hopefully I can relax a little in August.

At the beginning of the month I went with my local gardening club to visit Esotera Garden and what a beautiful garden it is. It is 2 acres with 3 ponds.We spent 2 hours wandering around and then stopped for tea and cake. The garden is part of the National Gardens Scheme which means they open on certain days of the year to raise money for charities.  I have just checked the website and unfortunately there are not any more opening days this year.  So next year if you are visiting Somerset in Spring or early Summer, I recommend a visit.

While there I took 152 photographs and did think that back in the days of film that would have been over 4 films of 36 pictures.

The way I take photographs has changed so much, I used to be much more careful composing the shot to get it right as film and getting the photographs developed could be quite expensive, I  now take many more photographs than I used to but do wonder if I am so careful as I used to be.

11 members of my family visited from USA, they had a wonderful time visiting  London and the West Country. We had a family party before they returned, 40 of us enjoyed chatting and eating, my family are spread out all over the country and in the USA so we don't see each other very often.

My Aunt was treated to a ride in an Austin A7, a great surprise for her.

We experienced 4 hours of thunderstorms in the middle of the month, I was up most of the night, due to the noise and a shaking, pacing hound.

My son and I went to Colliers Way - me to walk and him to ride his bike.It was a very hot day the temperature was in the 80s but luckily there is a lot of shade so Tara did not get too overheated. He rode 7 miles while Tara and I walked 2 miles. We stopped for a picnic before returning.

I visited Colliers Way in April last year -follow this link to see how it looked then - http://starnitesky.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/walk-on-colliers-way.html

At the end of the month we attended the Greyhound Gathering and picnic held in Bristol to raise money for Greyhounds. The weather was perfect - not too hot for the dogs.  All together £1442.02 was raised and GRWE (the rescue I got Tara from) raised over £700.

Tara and her new toy.

This is Alfie who wore his hat and flags all day!

My Month in Numbers was devised by Julie Kirk on her blog Notes on Paper.  To see more Month in Numbers visit Julie's Pinterest page http://www.pinterest.com/notesonpaper/my-month-in-numbers/

Summertime Scavenger Hunt 3

Here are some more of my finds for Rinda's Summertime Scavenger Hunt:

No. 1  A sign welcoming people to your home town.  This is not my home town as I do not live near where I was born (London) - I did live in Wells for 26 years and visit often as my friends live there.

Wells is the smallest city in the UK

You can just see Wells Cathedral - this photo taken next to the sign.

No. 2 - A garden gnome

Spotted in my Aunt's garden

No. 9 - A bakery

Lots of delicious sandwiches and cake can be purchased here, their main bakery is in Glastonbury, this is their branch in Wells.  I used to treat myself to a sandwich once a week when I worked in Glastonbury.

No. 14 - A parade

The air force cadets marching at a local show.

No. 18 - a waterfall

No 19 - A public garden

The last four photographs were taken at Forde Abbey a house and garden open to the public.

I still have many more to get so check back to see more.

Walk and Geocaching

A very hot day on Wednesday, we were going to go to Winscombe to walk along Strawberry Way but I thought there would be little shade.  Instead we went to Mells to Colliers Way.  My son took his bike (we had to use 2 cars) and Tara and I walked and I took photographs.

We decided to look for some Geocaches while we were there.

The first Geocache was in among brambles and nettles - a winter cache I think.  My son then went to find the cache called 'End of the Line' and came back with the cache.

Is the cache this way?

It's a lovely place to walk, I hope to go back in the autumn or winter to find more.

ZIZO - week 28

I belong to the local Gardening club and we visit gardens during the spring and summer, these are excellent opportunities for me to take photographs of flowers which I love, also perfect subjects for Zoom  In, Zoom Out.  Here is what I spotted last week:

A lovely place to sit

This is what caught my eye - I would love one of these!

See more Zoom In Zoom Out here

Month in Numbers - June

I started doing My Month in Numbers last year and really enjoyed doing it but for some reason I just stopped counting - time to start again!

We took part in the Great British Greyhound Walk again this year:

we walked with our Greyhound Rescue group at Clevedon where there were 42 hounds walking. The weather was perfect, sunshine with a light breeze.

Afterwards we had a well earned rest and had food and drinks

our ticket for the raffle was number 42 and we won!

Here is the total for the day:

               ***********************************************************

I have 110 stitches on my knitting needles right now, I have started twice as I went wrong, you will have to check back to find out what I am knitting - it may take me a while.

             ***********************************************************

June marks 6 months into the year, I have just checked on my computer and I have taken 2700 photos so far.  I am learning to take still life photos so a lot of them are repeats of the same thing from different angles.

      ***************************************************************



That's it for now I am rather late with this post but better late than never!

ZIZO

A few weeks ago I visited Forde Abbey in Dorset, there are several wisterias growing on walls which were in bloom and looking so pretty.  I was fascinated by the twisted shapes of the trunks and stems.  A perfect subject for Zoom In Zoom Out.

See more Zoom In Zoom Out here

Summer Scavenger Hunt 2

A few more photos for Rinda's Summertime Scavenger Hunt :

No. 17 A Lamp post

A local find in a car park

This lamp post is on the pier at Penarth

No 6 - An Urban Scene

A small market town

A large city (Bristol)

Summer Scavenger Hunt

It is summertime which means it is time for Rinda's Summertime Scavenger Hunt.

There are 21 subjects to collect, here is the list from her blog:

1. A sign welcoming people to your home town (or a nearby town)
2. A garden gnome
3. Birds on a wire
4. A group of tourists
5. A rack of post cards
6. An urban street scene
7. A rural landscape
8. A tattoo on a person
9. A bakery
10. A photo bomb (someone found lurking in the background of photo; the lurker may have intended to disrupt the picture or may be doing it unintentionally, but the background lurker is a surprise to the photographer)
11. A horn
12. A mascot
13. A sunrise
14. A parade
15. A juggler
16. A sign in a language other than English
17. A lamp post
18. A water fall
19. A public garden
20. A bus (not a car, truck, lorry, camper or RV) with a picture painted on its sides.
21. A photograph of you with something representing the season (recognizing that the season will be Winter for our friends in the southern hemisphere). Note: you may not use a substitute for this item.
If you find something on the list too difficult, you may substitute one of the following items for anything on the list, except for Item #21:
Alternative A: A kite, hot air balloon or blimp
Alternative B: A bird house

I am starting my hunt with number 7 A Rural Landscape.

ZIZO - week 20

This weeks contribution for Zoom In, Zoom Out an idea from Helena from Helena's creative maven:

This week my photos come from Chew Valley Lake.

Fishermen (or women) far away

I am quite impressed with the zoom on my compact camera - it is a Canon Powershot SX220