PhotoHunt: Colorful

It's Saturday, which means it's PhotoHunt day. For once, I actually remembered! Today's theme is Colorful - or Colourful, as we Brits normally spell it.

Some of you may have seen one or two of these images before. I've just bought a new laptop, and don't have any of my images on it yet. So I've raided my Picasa web albums for these.

This first shot shows some red valerian, which grows freely on walls in most coastal areas of the UK.


Here's a big swathe of red valerian growing on a wall in a local coastal village called Langland.


These pretty yellow flowers are celandines. They're wild flowers which bloom during springtime.


Here's a close cousin of the celandine, the buttercup, also a springtime wild flower.


The next few shots are of plants I have in my garden. This pink perennial is a hardy geranium, or cranesbill, not to be confused with the unrelated annual geranium, which is a member of the pelargonium family.


This pretty purple flower is called campanula carpathica, and hails from the Carpathian mountains. It grows on my garden walls, with this clump having seeded itself on some nearby steps.


Sadly, I no longer have this African daisy in my garden. It was killed off by frost.


This flower is St. John's Wort, or Rose of Sharon, as it's also known. The plant has healing properties and its extract can be used to make a natural anti-depressant.


This last one is fleabane, although I have no idea if it really does chase fleas away. I have a huge clump of it growing on my front wall, but this image was taken of someone else's fleabane.


That's my PhotoHunt for today. Have a great weekend!

PhotoHunt: Clouds

It's Saturday, which means it's PhotoHunt day. I absolutely love this week's theme. Clouds are one of my favourite photographic subjects.

This sunset shot was taken at Swansea Marina. I managed to get a long aircraft trail in the shot, as well as some clouds.


Here's a shot taken looking across Swansea Bay, towards the city itself. I was standing on the promenade at Oystermouth at the time.


All of the following shots were taken at Rhossili, on the Gower Peninsula, about 20 miles from where I live. I love the way the clouds cast dark shadows on the ground below them, which move along as the clouds move, like some dark, supernatural entity creeping along the beach. I hate taking landscape shots when there's a perfect blue sky. Clouds add such interest, don't you think?




I just love to see fluffy white clouds against a nice, blue sky. If you look at the wire fence in the foreground, you can see where some sheep rubbed themselves, and left behind little hanks of their fleece.


I remember thinking the sky looked rather ominous at the moment I shot this. I feared it was about to rain.


Shortly afterwards, I noticed the clouds starting to thin a little, as the sky brightened, just over the island of Worm's Head. As beautiful as Rhossili is, these cliffs are not a nice place to be during a rainstorm. As you can imagine, I was relieved when the clouds began to dissipate.

Oh well, that's my PhotoHunt for this week. I've set this blog entry up to auto-post at 6 AM UK time. I'm off to bed now, but I'll be visiting other PhotoHunters sometime during Saturday afternoon, UK time. Have a lovely weekend!

Note to PhotoHunters

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PhotoHunt: Hanging

It's Saturday, which means it's PhotoHunt day. For once, I'm not hideously late. Click the logo above if you fancy taking part.

For last week's Photohunt, I showed you some shots I took at the National History Museum, at St. Fagan's, near Cardiff. Upon reviewing the rest of my St. Fagan's pics, I found this shot, which is perfect for this week's theme.

I came across this colourful old Romany caravan at the edge of some woodland. I was a little perturbed to see a pair of dead rabbits hanging up at the window, but I guess that's the way people lived in olden days. I've no idea if the rabbits were fakes, or stuffed, real rabbits.


I was too entranced by the artwork on the caravan to remain horrified for long. Oh well, just one shot for this week's entry. Thanks for visiting - have a lovely weekend!

PhotoHunt: What IS that?

Oh no! I'm late for PhotoHunt again. Oops!

All the following shots were taken at St. Fagan's National History Museum, near Cardiff, the Welsh capital. I uttered the words 'what IS that?' many times during my visit. This first image shows an ancient bed-warmer, from the 1700's, I think. On a cold, winter night, a person would stick the round, metal end of it into an oven or fire, wait for it to heat up a bit, and they would then pop it into their bed for a few minutes, to warm it up.


So what does the next image show? Well, there's a clue on the roof of this old building. It's a cockpit. No, not the kind you find on an aircraft, but one which was used during medieval times, to carry on the barbaric sport of cock-fighting.


No, this isn't a giant, moss-encrusted, medieval polo mint. It's an old millstone, which millers would use to grind wheat and other cereals into flour. Of course, this grinding is all done by machines nowadays. It must have taken a long time to grind enough wheat for a bag of flour.


This next shot shows an old toll house, which used to stand at Aberystwyth, on the West Wales coast. Like all the buildings at St, Fagan's, except St. Fagan's Castle, the toll house was carefully dismantled at its original location, transported and restored to its former glory, at its current home.


Here's a close-up of the old sign which is attached to the other side of the tollhouse. Click the pic if you want to read it.


Oh well, that's my PhotoHunt for this week. I hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of Welsh history. Have a lovely weekend!

PhotoHunt: Water

Oh no! I'm late for this week's PhotoHunt. Never mind, better late than never!

I'm certainly not stuck for images for this week's water theme. I'm surrounded by the stuff! I live on the coast, and there are rivers and ponds galore in the area. But I'll have to show pics that some of you have seen before - sorry. My laptop died a few weeks ago, and although I saved all my data, I haven't transferred it to my desktop - and I'm too lazy to hunt out my CDs.

The first shot was taken along the banks of the River Tawe (pronounced Ta-weh), close to sunset.


This next shot shows boats moored in the Marina. If you enlarge the pic, you can see the Moon has just risen.


I saw this swan nearby, on the river.


This man was enjoying a sunset jog along Swansea Bay.


Here's Swansea Bay on a hot, sunny afternoon.


This patch of pink thrift was growing above Caswell Bay, on the Gower Peninsula.


Finally, here's one of my favourite places in the whole world, Worm's Head, which sits in Rhossili Bay.


Hope you enjoyed my water pics. Have a lovely weekend!

PhotoHunt - Emotion(s)

This week's PhotoHunt theme is Emotions(s). I thought I'd interpret the theme somewhat liberally. I don't have any pics of me looking in any way emotional. I have some suitable pics of family and friends, but they don't want their pics online. So, I've decided to use some appropriate pics of my cats. And don't anyone dare tell me that cats don't have emotions :). They do!

The first shot shows my cat, Leo, adopting a rather aggressive pose. It's his "I'm an angry rock star, fed up of having cameras shoved in my face" pose.


Here he is again, with a look that suggests indignation and a little anger. I don't think he likes having his photo taken.


This is a rare shot of him grinning widely for the camera. Stay away from those teeth. They're sharp - I know. Ouch!


Here's my other cat, Liberty, also having a jolly good old laugh. No idea what the joke was, as they wouldn't tell me. Probably something along the line of "how many humans does it take to change a litter-box?"


Here she is again, looking very pensive and contemplative. Or is she just eyeing up a wiggly caterpillar?


Here's Leo again, looking decidedly hostile. Note the narrowed eyes - definitely a "get that thing out of my face, stupid human" look.


Here's Liberty, looking positively outraged and offended by the intrusion of my camera lens. What is it with cats and cameras?

Oh well, that's all for this week, folks. Have a lovely weekend - and don't get too emotional!

PhotoHunt: Bad Hair

This week's PhotoHunt theme is bad hair. I have dozens of images of me with bad hair. But you're not going to see any of them! Sorry to spoil your fun :). Instead of making fun of people with bad hair, I thought I'd show you some images of animals having a bad hair day.

First up is this sheep I met, whilst taking a walk along the cliffs at Rhossili, on the Gower Peninsula. She was having a seriously bad hair day. I hope she complained to the salon and got her money back!


This pony is having a little hair trouble as well. Maybe she should try some shampoo for flyaway hair. I also met her on Rhossili cliffs, as well as the ponies in the next two shots. This pony, by the way, was a seriously grumpy mare.


This pony seems to be sporting a 1980's style New Romantic hairdo - short at the back, with a big, floppy fringe. She was very friendly, although that may have been due to the fact that I shared some cookies with her.


This windswept creature kind of looks like she belongs in a heavy metal band, with all that long, windswept blonde hair. She was quite shy, but not grumpy like the brown mare.


Oh well. That's my PhotoHunt for this week. Hope you're not having a bad hair day! Have a lovely weekend.