Saturday, 1 April 2023

Blossom - March 2023

I thought I would share a couple of very old blossom related  haiku with you before the photographs:


They blossom, and then

We gaze, and then the blooms

Scatter, and then ....

                                                                Onitsura


The cherry-bloom has gone -

A temple, in among the trees,

Is what it has become

                                                             Buson





Sue - Almond blossom up the mountain on Tenerife



John - An early Blossom (1pm perhaps?)




Ken - from the enclosed garden at Chawton House:





Gaynor - Blossoming of urban art, Christchurch, NZ.  
(SHIFT - urban art takeover of the Canterbury Museum) 






Angela - sadly not in my garden!




Kate - neither of my cherry blossom trees are in blossom yet so I went foraging in my garden and improvised!





Stacey




Steve - Magnolia and Camellia in my Mum's garden






Keith - this Perris is 20 years old and has flowered better than ever this year! 




Stacey - Blossom at the Eden Project in Cornwall




Don




Kate - Blossom tree at Bletchley Park




Gill - camellias in the local garden centre



Here are a couple of photos from Rosie:





Having just come back from a trip to RHS Wisley, I can recommend a visit to see, among many other things, their cherry trees in blossom.  

Here are a few of the photos I took, followed by a link to the Wisley site where it gives more detail about their current display of cherry blossom:







.... and here is the promised link to their website (it might take a few seconds to load):

Cherry Blossom at RHS Wisley at the moment



.... and that is all from you for this month!

Next month's challenge/topic is:

"courtyard(s)"

Monday, 27 March 2023

KIT - Monday 27th March 2023

Having passed the 50 milestone last time, back in November, today saw the resumption of the competition.

The players today were:

Don, Arthur, Graham and Ken + Gill, Sue, Rosie and Emma


It was great fun as usual with lots of close matches in the rounds.

 The end result was a final between: 

Rosie & Arthur and  Gill & Ken

............... and despite the whitewash win for Rosie & Arthur it was actually a very closely fought contest!


Rosie & Arthur - winners in March 2023!


Wednesday, 1 March 2023

Glass - February 2023

Another month and another excellent set of photos from you all - thank you!



Sue - it was half full a few minutes ago!



Ken - Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking




Stacey



Jan -  glass sculpture in the Cloud Forest in Singapore



John - is this the biggest glasshouse in the world?


.... and still (roughly) in that area of the globe, here are three from Don:


Intricate glass sculpting in Cicada Market, Hua Hin (Thailand)


Chilled glass Singha beers to cool down at the beach bar
whilst watching the wind surfers in Hua Hin, (Thailand)



No customers at the glass foot fish spa in the Hua Hin (Thailand) market!




Rosie - a glass full of sunshine!



Rosie - my favourite place!



Here are two from Keith in Winchester Cathedral at the "Kings & Scribes" exhibition:








Steve - when we had a frost a few weeks ago , I borrowed Angela’s crystal ball. Usually reserved for cheating at Wordle and influencing Wimbledon ticket ballots!




Gaynor - glass/mirror/southern lake 




Gill - our front door




Kate - Inspired by the topic, time to start cleaning the greenhouse
 in readiness for Spring! 


Kate - two down, six to go!



.....  and now to tell you about our next topic! 

While Spring doesn't officially start this year until 20th March, today (1st March) marks the start of Meteorological Spring.  So, when you are "out and about"  during March you need to be thinking about: 
"Blossom" 

Wednesday, 1 February 2023

Clouds - February 2023

This month's theme of "Clouds" brings up the half century of topics - well done to you all for sticking with it!

How about, to start with, you have a go and see if you can remember the first 4 lines of this famous poem?  It starts with:

 " I wandered lonely as a cloud .... "

*******************************************************

     

Ken - amazingly, we had a cloudless sky for our vets' match at the start of January!

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At various times during January (and without actually looking for anything), I came across 3 different clips on the BBC to do with specific cloud formations:


there was this very strange cloud formation in Turkey:



...... and then nearer to home, there was this recent cloud inversion in Derbyshire:


......and even further north, there was this clip of a mother-of-pearl formation:

  


Anyway, enough of my digressions for now, here are the photos you sent in - enjoy!


Sue - "monitoring clouds"




Ken - clouds behind our silver birch




Stacey - on a short winter break in Venice




Kate - smiling cloud




Kate - tank cloud




Kate - "snow stopped play" cloud!




Don - flying through the clouds (and beautiful sunset) whilst landing at Houston!




Don - The Cloudveil Hotel at Jackson Hole, Wyoming 
(where we stayed over the New Year)



John - the best clouds in Alton!



Here are three from Steve - "weather closing in on a walk round Chichester harbour"









Keith - clouds/sunset over our back garden




Rosie - I really liked this but unless the collective name for a group of 
snowmen is a "cloud" it may not make it through the vetting process!



Here are four from Gill's winter break to Lanzarote:









Sue - from the hut on the IOW




Gaynor - from Aotearoa, “the land of the long white cloud”




Gaynor - stairway to heaven



**********************************

Here is another non-photographic bit for you all!  

It is a lovely paragraph (linked to clouds!) that was in a book called
"What I talk about when I talk about running"  by Haruki Murakami:

"The thoughts that occur to me while I'm running are like the clouds in the sky.  Clouds of all different sizes.  They come and they go, while the sky remains the same sky as always.  The clouds are mere guests in the sky that pass away and vanish, leaving behind the sky.  The sky both exists and doesn't exist.  It has substance and at the same time doesn't.  And we merely accept that vast expanse and drink it in"

*******************

....... and our topic for next month, to think about as you "wander the world" is: 

"Glass"