Achoooo!

Might be best to give me a miss - don't want you catching anything!

Three little spotty frogs

Sorry they are a bit out of focus, but I was having to kneel down, hanging over the pond sideways on, with the macro lens - a point and shoot camera may have been better in this situation!

Teeny tiny frogs

I have a planter in my pond which is home to about ten baby frogs ranging from the size of my thumb nail to my little finger nail. I am amazed that they have only just transformed from tadpoles and hope they survive the winter. They seem to like each other's company and sit in a heap-I love them and have to check  up on them every morning. They are obviously finding something to eat so I hope the mild autumn continues so they are fat enough to hibernate.

Autumn bounty

A Wayfarer tree at the start of my walk

I went for a walk with my camera on Sunday at my favourite spot for a breath of air and to 'stretch my eyes' (it is good to have a distant horizon to focus on rather that the end of the street). I thought I would see how many different kinds of berries I could collect. Popular belief would have it that a bountiful crop of berries indicates a bad winter ahead however naturalists would put it down to the previous seasons' weather. We had a mild and wet spring so this may be the reason for this year's berry laden trees. So here is my count.

Haws

Blackberries

Elderberries

Rose hips

There were also some sloes, but the bushes weren't accessable for close-up photography - perhaps next time

Glorious September

I am feeling much better and this glorious weather is helping. I'm back to the land of the living after a few days of a cold and I have been enjoying sitting in the garden with my pen and water colours. This is what I was looking forward to when I retired, last year's miserable autumn was such a disappointment. So far we have had mostly blue skies for at least a couple of weeks. I feel obliged to make the most of every hour so I have been gardening and out with my camera, cleaning windows and doing plenty of laundry. The garden seems to be having a last flush of flowers and there are plenty of insects about. I want to plant bulbs and move some shrubs, but the ground is so dry I am postponing these jobs 'till we've had some rain. I'll share some of the photographs I have been taking later.

I'm a bit disappointed wth the way this has come out even though I adjusted the colours in photoshop they seem to be really unsubtle - I just need to experiment.

Fed up

To bed with a hot lemon  - say no more

Pocket

I created this for a challenge I saw here at the three muses. My interpretation is very different from the ones posted.  I was having a bit of a rumage after my visit to the Isle of Wight last week and turning out my pockets for beach-combings when I remembered my joy at finding a forgotten seashell in the bottom of a pocket months after a visit to the beach.  This was often the first chilly day of the autumn term when I had to wear my padded coat for the dreaded playground duty. I usually hadn't worn the coat since early summer. We have friends and family by the coast and visit throughout the year - and you should never come away from the beach without picking up a shell or a piece of beach glass or a pretty pebble so there was usually some treasure in my pocket.
So this is my inspiration. I started off by drawing round my hand a built up the image round that. I painted it in acrylic and added scanned images and magazine cuttings, adding details with ink coloured pencils and anything else that would give the effect I wanted.  I had to scour my photo magazines for a suitable urban background. I also like creating a 3D effect with the collage images. It has taken me ages to come up with suitable slogan, but I think this expresses how I feel. I hope it triggers some memories for you too.