Tuesday 27 September 2011

Our World Tuesday...



Leaf


Food Festival


Wildflowers

All images taken in Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire on Sunday.  For more participants go to Our World Tuesday.

Cats on Tuesday...

A busy cat week in which:

  • Mrs P finally stopped yowling when she walked into a room (and therefore giving everyone a nervous breakdown), and also got to supervise Paul the nice man who comes to rescue the garden once a year.
  • Posky tried on a small orange hat (photos at a later date), and wanted some of the cheese that woman they let live with them brought back from the Stratford upon Avon Food Festival for David.
  • Pepper crawled along the floor because she was given a scarf to wear.
  • Charlie smacked and lunged at just about everyone and tried to chew Mrs P's leg as she was getting down from the sofa!

Posky & Charlie
The guys 'staring at each other in a funny way'

Mrs Pod
'That gardener chap has missed a bit.
You just can't get the staff...'
(Note Pepper lurking in the background...)

Pepper against the wall
'It is a far, far better thing I do...'
Pepper apparently about to face a firing squad.

For more participants owned by cats visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday.

Monday 26 September 2011

Before and After...

Happy Monday everyone (is that an oxymoron?) ;O) Today I'm linking up with MimiBeth Photography  with some before and after shots.  These are some of the shots I took in the cemetery yesterday along with the edited versions.  I had a poem running around my head the whole time I was there: Margaret, are you grieving / Over Goldengrove unleaving? (from Spring and Fall by Gerard Manley Hopkins), and I think I was trying to capture the melancholy mood of that with these images.

Autumn Leaves...

Autumn Leaves
A bit of saturation and sharpening just gave it some oomph!

Bench and Trees...

Bench and trees
With these shots what I didn't want to do
was lose the mistiness and autumnal softness
that was in the air.  So I slightly saturated the colours
and did a high pass filter effect on them.

Autumn Path...

Trees
I did the same with this but also
cropped it at the right to get rid
of the grave stones that were rather distracting.

Angel and cobweb...

Statue and cobweb
I did like the original of this but
still wanted it to be moodier.
I converted to black and white, added a texture
that darkened the image around the edges
and then sharpened it.
I like the way it brought out
the texture of the stone.

Sunday 25 September 2011

Scavenger Hunt Sunday...



Once again I managed it by the skin of my teeth!  


Low Key...
Cath being, well, Cath in a Harry Potter-esque
coffee shop (they sell butter beer and pumpkin juice as well as other goodies),
at the back of The Creaky Cauldron shop.
Great fun :O)
The photos involving Cath and/or food were
taken today at the Stratford upon Avon Food Festival.
I don't think I've ever seen anyone consume so much
cheese in such a short space of time as Cath did today.
Respect!

And another, this time in colour (nothing like stating the obvious).
I took this yesterday in a cemetery.
Am convinced that one day someone 
will report me to the police
for skulking around gravestones at strange hours of the day...

The Colour Wheel...
More autumn leaves than you could shake an autumn stick at.

... and just for good measure, 
something that looks suspiciously like licquorice.
Regular readers will know that I consider
this to be the food of Satan.


Circle...
The wild flower garden at the 
entrance to Stratford Butterfly Farm.

Scarf...
Cath and scarf.
I had a bag full of scarves with me
in the hope that one of them would
match what she was wearing :O)

Phone...
Taken on my android phone
early one morning last week on the M40.
No I wasn't driving :O)



Thursday 22 September 2011

Three photo challenges for Thursday...





The Daily Wyatt




Detail from gravestone colour

Decided to do something a little different this week so have linked up with three photo challenges, one over at The Daily Wyatt, one at Crown of Life Photography and the other at Live Every Moment.  This was taken in Stratford upon Avon cemetery.  I liked the old writing and the texture of the stone, and just tried to enhance it really.  

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Cats on Tuesday...

Another guest appearance this week.  Some of you may have seen my shot of the little ginger cat (to be known hereafter, some would say somewhat unimaginatively, as 'Ginger') facing down the cyclist in Scavenger Hunt Sunday.  He lives in a cottage near Shakespeare's birthplace and has often been seen in his front window next to an empty cake stand (from which I leave you to draw your own conclusions).  I've met him in the street before too, once when he tried to grab my hand, and once when he darted out and tried to attack David's ankles.  Impressed by his devil-may-care attitude, we thought he deserved a little more publicity, so here are a few shots of Ginger showing what he can do (and also showing his bum).


For those of you who have never been to Stratford upon Avon and are thinking what a quiet, peaceful town it looks, THIS IS NOT HOW IT USUALLY LOOKS! These were taken early on a Sunday morning before the tourists had descended.  It's normally thronged with them, but both Ginger and myself disappeared before that happened.

And before fans of Charlie start hyperventilating at the thought of not seeing him this week, here's the boy himself.  Not to be outdone by any Warwickshire upstart, he appears to be striking a Shakespearean 'Ah death, where is they sting?' pose.

Charlie


For more kitties visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday.

Sunday 18 September 2011

Scavenger Hunt Sunday...




I wasn't going to participate this week as I've not even thought about the prompts, however I suddenly realised tonight that I had images that fitted thanks to a couple of weekend excursions, so here goes!

Goodwood Revival
Street Photography...
Went to the Goodwood Revival yesterday.
It was hideously packed and I got so fed up
I hardly took any photos.
This barber was open to the street
so I guess it counts for this prompt!

Cat v Cyclist!
Another one for Street Photography...
Going to Goodwood put me so out of sorts
that I had to go to Stratford this morning to
cheer myself up. This little cat lives near
Shakespeare's birthplace and obviously
isn't going to let any upstart cyclist make him
move from his spot on his street!

Stratford upon Avon
From a Distance...
Well it's a wide angled shot with 
a narrow depth of field and the path
'sort of' disappears into the distance!
This was pretty much SOoC. Pinkish
tint achieved by using WB on Cloudy or Shade 
and I shot it facing into the sun.

Stratford upon Avon
Sunday...
Beautiful morning (but hailstones this afternoon)
and the light was gorgeous.
This was taken on my Sunday walk around
Stratford.

Early morning Avon
Liquid...
Early morning River Avon.
Again it's pretty much SOoC, and the
WB added the tint.


Goodwood Revival
Behind...
My this prompt could have produced some interesting shots... :O)
I'll be good though and stick to the literal meaning,
here are a couple of vintage types at Goodwood shot from
behind before I threw my teddy out of the cot
and took my camera home.

Goodwood Revival
...and another for the same prompt.
This was pretty much the view you got
everywhere!

Friday 16 September 2011

The Weekend in Black and White...

Well what a weird week... yesterday in particular was doubly weird. One of our bosses has been having a bit of a nutty of late (so what's new?). Yesterday it got so bad that we were thinking of hanging garlic and a crucifix on the office door to keep him out. Then Mrs P has been subdued and generally 'off', so it's back to the  Vet again tonight in case her ears are starting to play-up.

In an attempt to cheer myself up I went into a  nice gifty-type shop at lunchtime only to find the staff somewhat hysterical and about to declare war on the shop next door to them for using the same wholesaler.  I asked the Manageress if they would be getting any tasteful Halloween-type ornaments etc in, and she said 'No, the card shops will have the cheap ones in though'!  Thanks for that then! Think I'll be visiting the shop next door in future...

Anyway - to carry on the cheerful theme - here are a couple of b&w shots taken in or near the cemetery :O)

Stone Angel (again)

Cemetery Wall and trees

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Cats on Tuesday...

After last week's guest kitty (or 'upstart' as Charlie called her), this weeks sees the return of the four.  Well, three and a half really as Pepper was too excited by the high winds to stay in the house and kept darting in and out like an in and out thing.

I took Posky and Mrs Pod to the vets for their check-ups last week, always nerve-wracking.  True to form Mrs P swore and yelled at the vet, and even managed a hiss as she had her mouth examined.  She's fine and her ears were pronounced 'very clean', hurrah!  Poor old Posky had to be left at the vets to have blood and urine tests, which came back with no change from April so we're very pleased about that.  Both of them have lost weight however, which I think is down to the unenthusiastic response that renal food elicits (plus the fact that it is low protein). If they were all fed on tins of tuna every day they'd all be like fat furry barrels.

Talking of which... Mrs P and I were enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon reading in the study when I made the mistake of getting up to get a drink.  When I came back I found this.

Yes, Charlie had usurped my place on the sofa
and spread himself out like a bag of wet biscuits.
Cheeky little sod even put his back paws on my cushion!

Charlie
This is him trying to look innocent (fail).

Mrs Pod
Here's one of Mrs P looking sickeningly cute.
Ahhhhh....!

Mrs Pod
...and this is her looking less than pleased
at being woken up to be told how cute she looked.
This is the face that vets usually see...

For more kitties visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday.

Monday 5 September 2011

Cats on Tuesday... In which an interloping cat, er, interlopes...

Hello, who's this?  Where are the usual suspects that appear on a Tuesday?  (They're obviously slacking this week). This, dear reader, is Ellie.  She is the rather lovely little cat who works at Ashby Parva Garden Centre as head of customer relations and quality control, and whilst my four were sleeping their heads off at the weekend, she was hard at work amidst the bulbs.

Here she is testing the strength of the bulbs by standing on them...
(whilst possibly singing 'Tipoe, through the tulips...')

Isn't she pretty? (she's also rather dainty - only about the size of Pepper
although Pepper feels heavier (please don't tell her I said that!).


This is her giving advice on bulbs for Autumn planting to David...

... and testing the bulb he chose for freshness with her head



Before settling down for a wash and a well-earned rest...

and finally...
just for Penny, 
a photo of her favourite boy 
showing what he thinks of any upstart
black and white cat infiltrating his
corner of the web...

For more pawticipants visit Gattina's Cat's on Tuesday.

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