Texture Thursday & LEM Photo Challenge...

Orchard...

Our World Tuesday...

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!

The guys 'staring at each other in a funny way'

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

'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.

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...

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

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...

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...

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.

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)

Three photo challenges for Thursday...

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.  

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.

For more kitties visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday.

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!

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!

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!

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.

Sunday...

Beautiful morning (but hailstones this afternoon)

and the light was gorgeous.

This was taken on my Sunday walk around

Stratford.

Liquid...

Early morning River Avon.

Again it's pretty much SOoC, and the

WB added the tint.

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.

...and another for the same prompt.

This was pretty much the view you got

everywhere!

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)

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!

This is him trying to look innocent (fail).

Here's one of Mrs P looking sickeningly cute.

Ahhhhh....!

...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.

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.