chive portraits

Well, the appearance of the first chive blossom is an excuse to test ones macro lenses, innit.
7d & Canon 100mm, f2.8 brings me very close, 5d II & same lens: I like the quality and lastly 7d & Sigma 20mm (yes, this is a wide angle macro). That lens needs very little distance, I was about 1 inch away from the flower. And yes, it's ortonized (I can't help it at the moment).

finally: blossoms

There have to be some blossom photos each year...
And normally I'm not into post production, but at the moment that seems to have changed. Here is a bit of the Hawthorn hedge (or so I think - correct me if I'm wrong), ortonized:

Entertainment

A woman entertaining her fluffy dog whilst keeping herself entertained by eating an apple. I was entertained by both the little fluffpot and the womans patience - they kept going and going and going...



For a bit of good solid Saturday entertainment visit the PhotoHunt, hosted by TNchick.

Time flies -

- apple blossom in my garden has been and gone:



This is probably the last time this old tree is sticking it's blossoms into the sky. Way before we moved here it acquired canker - which we can't cure it off. All the other apple trees in the garden have it now as well and so we will have to have a fresh start.

Click back to Skywatch Friday for marvellous skies from all corners of the world.

Scenic Sunday

I have never posted anything for Scenic Sunday before, but tidying up my photos I've come across Limantour Beach as it looks on a nice spring evening (and got a bit melancholic). It's yet another sunset on yet another beach, but hey, I like the beach a lot:

more on bluebell season

I can't resist putting up just one more bluebell photo:



For gorgeous flower photos from everywhere visit Today's Flowers hosted by Luiz, Denise, Denise and Laerte.

blossom

For some reason the orchard blossom seems almost over, even though May has just begun. My favourite trees in the college orchard are the quince trees. They are somewhat forgotten and tucked away in one corner which is overshadowed by an evil big Leylandia (that got planted for which reason?).
They have beautiful big blossoms, and usually not very many of them. The one below was still closed a week and a half ago:



By now it is probably gone...but I hope some bumble bees came along in the meantime so that we have some quinces this autumn.

For gorgeous flower photos from everywhere visit Today's Flowers hosted by Luiz, Denise, Denise and Laerte.

Glyndebourne skies

A few years ago, before I became a scientist, I sometimes worked here:



This is the sky over Glyndebourne in May (and before the Opera season starts - hence all lawns are deserted). When I think of nice English spring weather then these genteel clouds spring to (my) mind first.

For skies from everywhere click back to Skywatch Friday.

Bluebell time!

These must be Spanish-English hybrids, I think...



For gorgeous flower photos from everywhere visit Today's Flowers hosted by Luiz, Denise, Denise and Laerte.

And Today's Flower

I don't know how these little flowers are called - but I'm on holiday at the moment and wherever I go here, they grow at the roadside. I think they're adorable and love how they create their own little ponds.
For many more flowers please visit Today's Flowers. I have very limited internet access, so apologies if I can't visit your flowers this week at Today's Flowers hosted by Luiz Santilli Jr .

Monochrome Monday...

Here is Mc Clures Beach on Point Reyes. I love Point Reyes, beautiful landscape, whales, elks, seals - do visit if you can.
I'm still on holiday, so apologies for not being able to visit all your lovely Monochrome Monday pictures.

Holidays

I'm going on holiday:



Can you guess where this is? One can see whales there, but I don't think any of my lenses is good enough to get reasonable photos.

I don't know how much I will be able to blog from there - so thank you for visiting while I'm away. I'll be back in two weeks.

Monochrome flowers

Here are more pictures of cherry blossoms - the white ones are out, too. So I decided these were made for black and white:



If you have time, visit Aileni's Monochrome Maniacs website for more monochromes.

Springwatch 3

The cherry blossoms are out - so it's flower photo time. The other day I managed to sneak out into the garden between work and work to catch the last bit of light:



But there are plenty of daffodils around, too:



There are all sorts of gorgeous flowers at Today's Flowers hosted by Luiz Santilli Jr - enjoy.

Four

Four was the number of leaves on a little plum or greengage seedling, that has magically appeared in one of my flower pots. Well, maybe two and two, if you're pernickety and you think cotyledons should not be thrown together with other leaves. However, that was yesterday morning. When I came home after work in the evening, I could already see the next two.
It's amazing how things can grow when they're young.
I'm going on holiday soon, so I fret that it might not survive - I hope it will, and that it will produce lots and lots of greengages when it has grown up.



Go to TNchick's Photohunt 153 to see what other people make of 'four'.

Watery Wednesday - another Reflection

Here is another one of the reflections I shot during Sunday's walk:



There are lots of other water photos at Watery Wednesdays.

Still Snowdrop Season

Here's how they look like on a gloomy day:

Afternoon Walk

There was some much longed for sunshine this afternoon, so I spent time outside. The bottom of the valley is a flood plain. It was totally flooded shortly after the snow had melted, and there are still lots of puddles in which I found great reflections:



There were also some very fresh leaves -



and a great sunset:

More Springwatch

Today, the sun is shining (hooray) and for the first time it feels like it's providing some warmth. I've moved the solar battery charger out into the light - it has been useless since october. Whilst doing so I've discovered that the crocuses are definitely out. I've also heard some great honking in the sky, which, I think, means that the geese are returning.
I like crocuses in theory, but practically they seem like flimsy, ephemeral guys to me, and I've tried in vain to do some good portraits:





I think an added problem is that they appear just when the geese come back, so they often serve as salad - since nothing else is growing yet, really. More often than not I stumble therefore over terribly mutilated crocus bodies, and just end up feeling awfully sorry for them:

Springwatch

It's coming - hooray! Here are it's first traces at the River Kennet near Marlborough: