Day 363 – Mackerel Sky

 

I was wondering what photograph I should take today but on looking out the window and seeing how lovely and blue the sky was with this mackerel effect I knew I should take pics of this! 

Since doing Project 365 I have become interested more in the clouds in the sky as sometimes they are just lovely to photograph and I’m pretty sure I haven’t yet taken a photo of a mackerel sky.  Now I have!!

Original photograph taken by me - copyright 2012

The sky was the most beautiful blue today and the sun was shining when I took this but this afternoon has turned dull and bitterly cold.

You can see a little bit of our very large Rhododendron shrub reaching up to the sky.  It’s covered in buds and usually blooms in May so I probably will take a pic of that with it’s lovely mauve blossoms against a beautiful blue sky then, but sadly my Project 365 is over in a couple of days so it won’t be seen in this photo journal.

Shall I start another Project 365???   Ooooooh, I’ve got to have a loooooong think about that!!!  

Day 356 – A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss

 

… buuuuuuut, whatever that old saying means, this certainly does …

 

and it’s not a stone, rolling or otherwise!!!  

 

Original photograph taken by me - copyright 2012

We have been down this street countless times but have never noticed this roof covered in moss.

As we have now just spotted it, I wonder if it has appeared more recently and why would it grow over the roof like that?

We shall have to keep an eye on it and see if any flowers or anything else appears on it now!! 

 

 

Day 355 – Yeessssss!! At Lassssssst … It’s Taken 3 Years!!!!

 

Forgive me for being soooooooooooo very pleased about this news!! 

We have waited for about three years for this to happen:

 

Original photograph taken by me - copyright 2012

The photograph of this plant might not look much, but if you look closely you will see a couple of buds!!  We are delighted.  This is a Red Hot Poker plant, a plant we’ve always wanted in our garden.

No matter how many times we have tried to grow one during the last 12 years or so, they have never come to anything.

This plant did grow though, and for about three years it has just been leaves.  Now, there are these buds.  There are about seven or eight buds in all so it looks like at long last, this year will see some Red Hot Pokers in our garden.

It will be a shame that when they finally flower, I won’t be doing Project 365 at the time, but I will take some photos of it anyway, just in case it only flowers the once!!

Day 352 – Shiny!

I have no idea why this caught my eye but assume it was because it was looking all shiny and sort of standing out more so than the other things near it, so I just grabbed the camera (which is almost glued to me now since I started Project 365) and took this photograph.

Original photograph taken by me - copyright 2012

I know it’s only a plain green plant of some sort, but it stood out from the duller green ivy around it and seemed to be very shiny from the sunlight.  I just thought it looked nice and fresh!! 

Day 345 – Between A Rock And A Hard Place

 

We were out and about on our travels when this caught my eye.

 

Original photograph taken by me - copyright 2012

I’ve actually seen this shrub many times but on this particular day it looked more grown and much more green than usual, so it was very striking growing out of the rock where it lives.

Day 343 – Spring Must Be Coming

 

We were on our way out and I suddenly noticed some flowers in one of our container pots.  I was amazed as it is so cold and although I don’t know what this is called, it doesn’t usually come out until March or April!!

 

Original photograph taken by me - copyright 2012

I just hope that we will get some more of these at the usual time as they are more unusual and my favourite colour of yellow!! 

Day 340 – “Double”(?) Kalanchoe

Paul came home from shopping one day with a new plant to add to our growing number of houseplants (now including Auntie Lucy’s houseplants).

We have a normal pink colour Kalanchoe and a normal white one which I like as it seems a little more unusual and now this new one which is also white but has what I think is called double blossoms on it.  (Not double in number, but each flower has double the amount of petals than the normal plant).

Original photograph taken by me - copyright 2012

I think these are wonderful plants as they flower for a very very long time, so lots of colour with them.  Our pink Kalanchoe is now absolutely huge so I’m hoping that this one will eventually get like that as it is a little different with its “double” blossoms. :-)

Day 312 – A Sad Anniversary

This particular day is the sad anniversary of when my dear Dad died.  So we went to the crematorium to place flowers in a vase we have there with his name on and also to look in the Book of Rememberance.

I have taken a photo of the vases where we place flowers before and shown that in this photo journal, so wanted to take a different photo of where we were to record what we did on this day.

They have a walkway to where you can leave floral tributes, especially Christmas wreaths etc., (as this is that time of year) and so I took this photograph.

Original photograph taken by me - copyright 2011/2012

It’s always kept very nice at this place, always peaceful and quiet.  I was surprised to see the shrub in flower, I think it is a Camellia, as it was in December when I took this photo.

Day 302 – Light Shining Through

I happened to notice that the daylight outside was making the leaves on one of the plants in our Living Room window sort of glow with the shine.  I grabbed the camera and hoped that I would be able to capture this effect as it was rather lovely.

I’m not so sure I have caught the effect quite so well as I wanted, but you can definitely see how the light is shining through the leaves!

Original photograph taken by me - copyright 2011/2012

Quite different and unusual I thought!  What do you think? 

Day 237 – Down, But Not Quite Out!!

For quite a while now we get some very windy weather, much more wild windy than we are used to.

Over time our huge row of Bamboo that dominates the end of our garden occasionally gets one or two stems blown over so they hang about slightly above the garden.  I think this phenomenon might have been seen in a couple of my earlier posts when I tried to capture how the wild winds affected the plants at times.

But on this day, one of the stems was blown so far over it was just barely touching our lawn.  Bearing in mind these Bamboo shoots are 50 or 60 feet high or higher, so to see one stem stretched across the lawn is a little more unusual!!

Original photograph taken by me - copyright 2011/2012

I took that photo a while ago and the branch is still like that now!!  It won’t stay upright when we try to fix it so for the time being it is left as it is.  Our doggie Pippin just crouches under it if she wants to get behind it but when the wind blows, the rustling frightens her so she belts back to us at top speed!  I suppose it is worse for her when the wind makes it move so it just touches her!!  Poor Pips.