Movement in March

The new theme for the flickr group for March is movement. This month is all about slow shutter speeds, panning, a curtain blowing in the wind, a hand playing the piano or a car or motorbike at top speed. Movement can be in a dog chasing a ball or like my son Harry here leaping up in the air, water flowing from a tap, flowers moving in the breeze. I hope you have fun with this theme and look forward to seeing your pictures, and if anyone would like to join, here is the link http://www.flickr.com/groups/1530403@N20/

Seasons

The farmers have been stringing the hop fields this week in readiness for the new hops to be planted. Once planted, the hop vines climb up these string frames and fill them over the next few months then in August the harvesting takes place. I love how the patterns of farming never change, they have been doing this every spring for years and years.

Ladybird ladybird

fly away home...

Tulips

This is the last picture of my tulips, I promise!

My backyard

I took my instant camera out with me this morning in the hope that inspiration would jump out at me on such a dull day, more rain and grey...anyway, whilst doing the Darrah Parker slice of life course she told us that what we may find boring, other people have never seen and will find interesting so thought I would tell you a bit about what I see everyday on my walk with the dogs.
Straight in front in the distance you can see all the apple orchards, some are newly planted and others are waiting for the most wonderful blossom to arrive in the next month. To the left you can just see some funny white chimneys, these are what used to be the tops of the oast houses where they used to store the grain and hops and now all have been converted into houses. These oast houses are scattered all over East Kent, images of farming long since past.

Pretending it is spring.

I wish it was spring, non stop dull grey skies here. I bought myself a big bunch of tulips today to cheer myself up and pretend!

Still life

These poppies have been sitting in this vase all winter, I love the way they still manage to look beautiful even though they are now completely dried.

My garden shed

I love this window in my garden shed, it's very old and dusty and dirty but I love the small amount of light it lets in. I'm afraid to wash the windows incase they fall out, they are in need of a clean but a bit of dirt and the dying clematis does add a bit of character.

Rainy saturday

Hope you are having nicer weather where you are. When it rains I always wear my Australian bushman's hat, perfect for keeping the rain off.

The last of the eggs.

Still life

I have always wanted to paint but sadly my skills run to stick men only. We always have lots of art catalogues lying around and I love looking at still life paintings especially. The next theme over at the wonderful mortal muses flickr pool is 'still life' so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try out my version using my lens.

The creative exchange.

Lisa has a fantastic blog and hosts the wonderful creative exchange each week. I haven't participated for a while but thought I would show you what you can do in lightroom. Yesterday I posted a shot of a gerbera in all its splendid colour and today I decided to take another shot of it and use one of the lightroom presets. I am totally unable to get my head around photoshop in any form and I love lightroom for its simplicity, I just clicked on the 'creamtone' preset, moved the contrast button a tiny bit and here is the result.

Gerbera

I thought a splash of colour would be a good way to start the week.

Sweet love

I keep reminding my husband it is nearly Valentine's day but he doesn't believe in all the hype that surrounds it, he believes that true love is about emptying the dishwasher because you know the other person hates doing it or making tea at 6am in the cold and dark. He does have a point but hopefully he will get me a card tomorrow!
I am so excited as I was asked to be a guest muse by the fantastic Kirstin over at Mortal muses, and my thoughts on love are there today! Thank you again to those fabulous muses.

Saturday morning

I found this lone crocus in the garden today, another sign spring is coming!

Happy fenced Friday

I do love participating in challenges and themes and I love to try different ones. At the moment I love the  Fenced Friday group on flickr, people seem to come up with some amazing shots of fences. It has been raining non stop and I took this picture of our boundary fence today, the moss is such a beautiful green at the moment.

Mintie

I am finding no inspiration at all in the rain so poor Mintie was my muse today.  Mintie is the most wonderful dog - four years old next month. She is a labrador retriever which is a breed used for catching pheasants on a shoot but she doesn't do this. She is lovely and fit as both my dogs come running with me. Hettie is my other dog but hates the camera, she is a yellow version of Mintie.

Black and white Wednesday

I took this picture in the street which is way out of my comfort zone, not brave enough to take faces I took the back of this fellow's head with his hat instead. It's black and white Wednesday over at the long road to China, do have a look at other entries.

Early morning walk

The sun was shining early this morning and made the water on the lake the most beautiful deep blue.

looking out.

This is the view I have from my sitting room, to the right of the door is where my desk is so I look out this view whilst I am on my computer. The tree you can see is a magnolia which has the very beginnings of buds, just a hint of what is to come. The sky is as you can see it, grey - it has been grey for days now. What can you see from your window?

A glimpse of spring.....

Around the table

For Darrah Parker's slice of life course this week we are telling our story. For me this is the kitchen table. When the four of us are here together this is where we take our seats. Its our centre, our meeting point, talking point and our home.

Canterbury Cathedral

One of the things I had on my 'to do' list before leaving Kent was a visit to Canterbury Cathedral with my camera. I can now tick that off the list. It is the most beautiful place and I urge you to put it on your list of places to visit and it's only a short distance from the Eurostar station so you could hop over to France afterwards!

Black and white Wednesday

I am slowly sorting through cupboards at the moment and at the back of one I found this pen still in its box which was beautifully decorated with calligraphy.  I have no idea where or when we got it but instantly thought that it would make a good photography prompt! Do have a look at other entries for black and white Wednesday on the Long road to China.

Morning light

I have this woven basket in which I throw any number of objects from pens to pencils to paintbrushes (and I don't even paint). I saw this mess positively glowing in the early morning sun and decided I had to photograph it.