Scavenger Hunt Sunday...

Last Scavenger Hunt of July, the year is whizzing by!

Walking Empty Streets...
This is from the archives (February this year).

The summer holiday season is in full swing here,
if there are any empty streets in the UK right now

could someone please tell me where
they are so I can go there?

Repeating Patterns...

Last Sunday, Helen, Cath and myself

went to Snowshill Lavender Farm in Gloucestershire
(or the 'Three Go Mad in the Cotswolds'

trip as we like to think of it). 

Wonderful place, wonderful day...

I chose this one for the repeating lines between the lavender.

Floor...

And because you can never have too many photos

of lavender fields, here's a floor level view

of the harvesting of the lavender. (The smell was

glorious). And yes I was sitting on my backside

in the dirt to get this :O)

Then and Now...

This is a really boring photo.

Anyway, that's our first compact digital camera

and my super wonderful Canon 7D.

Fingertips...

Me with a flower.

I have no idea what it is 

(so don't ask me Laloofah!)

Camera Critters...

I had two days holiday from work this week (hurrah!), so after having to clean the house (boo!) due to someone coming to view it, I took myself off with my camera to Stratford upon Avon Butterfly Farm.  What can I say?  It was fascinating but hot, darn hot!  I had to practically wring my hair out the humidity was so high, and at one point my camera had a crisis and stopped working. I had to take the battery out to re-boot it, and then took it outside to get some oxygen. Anyway, lovely butterflies, great place to visit (very nice little shop too), and here are some of the photos I managed to get.

The Butterfly Farm and the wild flower garden outside...

...and some of the residents.

Love this sign :O)

Click here for more Camera Critters participants

B is for Batsford Arboretum...

I originally posted this last August but it was such a great one for ABC Wednesday that I thought I'd recycle it!
Batsford Arboretum is set in the beautiful Cotswolds (we were there last Sunday at a lavender farm - more of which in a later post).  It is such a wonderfully relaxing place, originally part of the estate of Batsford Hall, home to the Mitfords.  It's quite oriental in feel, with a Japanese bridge, statues of a Foo Dog and Buddha, and a Japanese Rest House, as well as Japanese Maples at every turn.  We'll be going back later in the year to see the trees in their autumn colours.  Funniest moment was visiting the Hermit's Cave, which actually appeared to have a hermit in it playing a drum - very pythonesque...

... and just to show I did put some work into this post, 

here's a new photo I took on Sunday, it's the view from 

the rather spiffing new cafe at Batsford.

For more participants visit ABC Wednesday...

Cats on Tuesday...

During a week in which I have blatantly not got my act together as far as the cats and this post are concerned, we had Charlie looking all innocent for a change...

Butter wouldn't melt...

...and Pepper looking suspicious. (Don't ask me what she was up to, or come to think of it, why I was lurking behind a small tree with my camera).

And whilst Mrs P looked inscrutable...

Posky just looked... (it's hard to take a bad photo of Posky, he's like the George Cloony of the cat world).

For more kitties visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday...

Well I'd been planning shots for this all week and then before I knew it I'd run out of time and had to snap four of them tonight in about half an hour (you can probably tell!!!).

Music to my ears...

My guitar - not a lot else to say!

Hat...
Helen in nifty headgear in Northamptonshire.
I made her wear a hat and let me take her photo
 in payment for giving her some of the
Dark Chocolate and Ginger cake I made...
Bribery and coercion works every time.

Clear...

Perfume in clear bottle - I do like the light in this one.

If Givenchy are reading this I am available for any advertising campaigns

they might need shooting :O)

Out of this world.

Charlie was unaware there was a dalek

creeping up on him.  The dalek was unaware

that he had just made the biggest mistake of his life...

(You can tell I was getting desperate at this point can't you?!?)

Sprinkles...

I was going to get some lovely pretty 

cup-cake sprinkles for this and do an arty

shot of me scattering them. FAIL!

I had to use some salt instead - ho hum.

The Thursday Challenge... Yellow

Click here for more participants.

ABC Wednesday - A is for...

Anglo Saxon Church.

Some photos taken on Sunday at All Saints Church, Brixworth, Northants. Dating from the 7th century, All Saints is the largest Church in England remaining much as it was in the Anglo Saxon period.

For more participants visit ABC Wednesday...

Cats on Tuesday...

I was considering changing the title of this post to Sloths on Tuesday as this is all the cats seemed to be interested in doing...

However all was not lost!  First of all Mrs P spent the day at the vets on Friday (an experience neither of them want to repeat any time soon), and after a war of attrition, they finally got a urine sample from her.  The results came back today and her kidneys are still fine so no more renal meds for the immediate future!  Hurrah for her! To celebrate I'm reposting the rather dramatic portrait I took of her at the weekend, this time in colour.

Mrs P - she makes vets scream...

Pepper then came through by appearing in the garden when I was trying to get a shot for Scavenger Hunt Sunday.  First of all she pranced about and then tried to get in on the photo (she was 'persuaded' to vacate the shot with a yell of 'Look out! Charlie's mauling the Buddha!').

'Ooh look! A Camera!'

'Why are your trousers rolled up?  Are you joining the freemasons or something?'

Then the competition really hotted up.  We went to the meditation centre in Kelmarsh in Northants for lunch on Sunday, and spotted the elusive Kelmarsh Panther!  (David was very jealous as TKP actually came up to me and let me stroke him whilst studiously ignoring David.  This is only to be expected of course as cats always show excellent taste in the humans they befriend).

'I can kill you with these eyes...'

And finally, tonight when I was trying to take a photograph involving some strawberries (look, it's just something I had to do ok?), Charlie appeared and started taking an unhealthy interest in my props.  He doesn't like strawberries or the soya yogurt they had on top of them so I've no idea what he was up to.  Anyway, to save them from him I had to eat them.  It's tough being a photographer.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the garden...

For more kitty excitement visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday.