Cats on Tuesday...

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...

If the shirt fits...

Look at those biceps!

... At this point Charlie got annoyed about the whole thing

and wanted to attack David who was

operating the camera

(that's me behind Charlie trying to mollify him, this obviously failed)

Because Posky was feeling left out he got to model the vest too...

...despite the logo he was actually a very good boy

(and sat there without offering any type of violence to anyone).

... he seemed quite keen on keeping the vest on but

it was beginning to look like a mohair blanket at this point so 

was removed for cleaning!

For more cats visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday...

Sun...

Well it's sunlight through raindrops on a chive to be precise.

I used the black and white version of this for

The Weekend in Black and White on Friday.

... and just because you can never mention chives

too often - here's another shot of them

with sparkly raindrops.

Music...

One from the archives.

I just couldn't stand the thought of taking

another photo of my guitar!

This pic annoys me each time I look at it - I didn't have

the camera quite straight so have had to straighten and crop it,

and lose the top of the guitar in the process.

Night Photography...
The entrance to Warwick Arts Centre at Warwick University.
I like the coloured lights that play on the front of the building,
but I'm still a sucker for black and white.

Old and New...
This is Sarah, the lovely young lady
who comes and works with us when she's on holiday
from Uni.  I stuck my head around the office door and took
her photo (very quickly before she threw a stapler or something at me).
She really doesn't need much help to look good but my photo did.
I cropped it, used a high pass filter, lightened the levels,
gave it a gaussian blue to give a slightly soft focus and then sharpened her eyes.
Not bad for a quick snapshot, but she still might throw a stapler at me
on Tuesday if she sees this!!

To mollify her I'll give her some free advertising.

She's studying Craft and Design at Uni and makes lovely

things in glass - these are some coasters she made.

Cheesy...
Yes it's a cheesy and beany type jacket potato.
I know, I know but I was running out of time...

The Weekend in Black and White...

Raindrops on a chive...

The Thursday Challenge...

Blue...

Blue sky...

Cats on Tuesday...

To show that their next production for 'Drama in the Garden!' is under way, the cats decided to share a few out-takes with you.

Camera Operator: 'Action! I said ACTION!! For the love of .... 

would you PLEASE DO SOMETHING!!!'

Pepper: 'Ooh I think I found a truffle'

Posky: 'Is that a buzzard up there?'

Mrs P: 'Zzzzzzz'

Ben (just visible by the shed): 'I could have been doing Chekhov 

at the National this year...'

CO: 'CUT!'

CO: 'Now walk away from the camera. No, I said away Mrs P.

Please turn around now.

MIND THE CAMERA!'

CO: 'Very nice Posky, but do you think you could bring your legs with you next time?'

Posky: 'I knew I'd forgotten something...'

CO: 'Charlie, what are you doing? Why have you inflated yourself?

You're supposed to be an evil genius not a helium balloon!'

CO: 'Pepper, walk up to Ben and touch him on the nose...

Now what's up?'

Pepper: 'I'm not acting with him, he said I was a drama queen...'

CO: 'Pepper, I think we're in the wrong location.

Nowhere in the script does it say Pepper tries to push

the ball away from the Foo Dog...'

Pepper: 'Shut up! I'm improvising!'

CO: 'Now look at the plant - that's excellent Charlie!

Oh...'

Charlie: 'You got the focus wrong again didn't you?

You're rubbish!'

fFor more kitties visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday...

Busy, busy week... has everyone signed the petition to help the cats in Ireland? Please, please do so if you haven't already.  If you want a reason to do it then look at poor little Lorcan's photo (the link to the petition is at the bottom of that page, it only take seconds to sign) - more cats like him are relying on us so please do something to help them today. Thanks.

On to the Scavenger hunt! I admit that this was a quickly cobbled together affair that I did this morning, with Charlie as chief critic and paw-master at my side.  I'm not happy with the 'Dotted Line' photo, and had to grab the 'Geometry' one from the archives, but heigh-ho (and I should probably add 'nonny-nonny' there as I'm off to a talk about Jacobean writers at the RSC this morning, hence the rush!).

Geometry...

Geometric window design at Stoneleigh...

I think I was there because of something to do with cars

that David wanted to go to.  Probably why I ended up

taking photos of windows!!

Brushstrokes...

This is my dandelion photo from Friday

given a pastel painterly treatment...

Hanging by a Thread...

Cobweb in the rain

(with my acers in the background,

providing the colour.

I love Japanese Maples and now have 

five as I got a new one yesterday :O))

Collage...

Same photo as background,

with three more 'rainy day in the garden pics' on top.

I love the rain too.

On the Dotted Line...

Rubbish photo, I think the only

thing I like about it is the hint

of pink in the sky as the sun comes up.
Charlie says it would look better if he were in it.

The Weekend in Black and White...

Two for the price of one this week.  I took these on an early morning walk when the sun was just coming up.

Sunlight and leaves... 

Early morning dandelion...

If you'd like to see the colour version of this it's on my Flickr page at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30131137@N06/6048143193/in/photostream

The Thursday Challenge... and a plea

The Thursday Challenge this week is 'Friends...'.  As I obviously don't have any as I'm too busy being a cat-slave, here is a photo of Posky and Pepper, eyeing each other through the catnip.

Not so much friends as fellow drug-fiends actually...

This Thursday Challenge is a bit different to the ones I normally post, it's more of a plea than anything else on behalf of the cats of Ireland.  One of the blogs I follow is C'est la vie! wonderfully written by Em, who in her other life helps with the Cork Animal Rescue and fosters kittens.  Via her blog I discovered a petition to help get a better deal for the cats in Ireland where they are often treated as vermin and suffer the most appalling neglect and cruelty.  If you want to do something to help then PLEASE sign the petition to help get funds   made available for a trap/neuter programme and to get the legislation there changed, giving cats the chance of a better life.  This link shows a pic of Lorcan, a kitten with a severe eye infection but who was one of the lucky ones - it's not easy to look at but please don't just turn away.

Come on people, it only takes a few seconds to sign the petition, they currently have 719 names on the petition and need 1000, ask friends, family, fellow bloggers, ANYONE, let's make this happen for the sake of the cats.

Charlie says...

'Sign it!

You know it makes sense...'

Cats on Tuesday...

I must apologise for the lack of cat news last week - this was of course nothing to do with the cats but all to do with me being inept (as Charlie kindly pointed out).  There has been quite a lot of badness from the feline four this week - Pepper (possibly still looking for the 'pigeon feather of power') did one of her famous flying leaps at a pigeon but thankfully missed it.  Charlie scratched my finger (although that's such a common occurrence it almost counts as affection), and also took a dislike to someone's garden at the rear of ours and growled over the fence at it.  But Posky... well, I can hardly believe it myself, but he managed to catch a bird and get into a fight!!! We were all shocked by this as Posky is such a big gentle bear of a cat and has shown no inclination to hunt anything for years (he maintains it was 'a mistake'), nor is he aggressive, so I'm wondering if Little Creep (a bruiser of a cat who lives up the road) jumped on him when he was going for a walk and tried to beat him up.  Anyway Posky came home minus collar, quite a bit of fur (good job he's a hairy guy) and limping like Long John Silver.  Mrs P has not so much been bad as peeved - we have discovered that the Kelmarsh Panther is in fact called Pod!  Mrs P always thought she held the copyright on her name so has been stomping around all weekend yelling a lot.

The cats would also like me to add that they have been working on a few first tentative scenes for their next drama... (Mwahahahahhahahah... as Charlie would say).

Mrs P feels shame at being angry with the Kelmarsh Panther...

Posky feels such shame he disguises himself as a plant... 

Pepper feels so much shame she has to
go into a witness protection programme and can only
appear in silhouette...

... although she does recover enough to go for a walk with David... :O)

Charlie says... 'what's shame?!?'

For more kitties visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday

Scavenger Hunt Sunday...

I actually made a bit more of an effort to get out and about for this week's Scavenger Hunt. I did miss out the 'Ink' one as I just ran out of time, but I have done two for 'Against the light', so hope that makes up for it!

Against the Light...

Stone cross in Stratford upon Avon cemetery.

Against the Light #2...

Trees against the sun at Batsford Arboretum.

Frame within a frame...

David looking at the war graves, viewed

through the cemetery chapel

Best Part of your Day...
The best part of my day is very early morning,
when everything is quiet and it's just me (plus my camera)
and the promise of the day ahead...
I took this just after 6a.m. one day this week when
the garden was still wet with the night's rain...

Buttons...

A bit of a shock to the system after all those monotone images!

The Weekend in Black and White...

Church at Batsford...

Scavenger Hunt Sunday...

Seeing Double...

I'm sure we did this one a few weeks ago too...

What the heck - it's a couple of cacti looking spiky

(as I myself have looked this week because it's been too bloody hot!)

Whatever...

Much as I was tempted by this title to post an image of a cat,

looking at me with contempt when I tell it not to do something,

I instead chose this one of light rays falling on my 

tasteful arrangement of dried leaves and pine cones...
Am I longing for Autumn weather or what?

Sweeeeet...!

It's a small windmill in the shape of a flower,

complete with two ladybirds, and it's sitting next to some lavender,

how sickeningly sweet do you want?!?

Bright...

What's this strange horticultural theme that's

taken over my photography this week?

I think this flower is a Pink,,,

Space...

This is David at Batsford Arboretum.

I love it there because it's beautiful and because it 

just gives you space to walk, and talk, and think, and just be...