February Flowers

At the beginning of this year I decided to record what was new in the garden on or around the 1st of each month.

There were just a few new flowers at the beginning of February: several hellebores, one or two crocus, just one narcissus flowering. In greater profusion were snowdrops and winter aconites.

The violas, primroses, euphorbia are still flowering and there are still berries on the holly and Christmas box.

First picture of the day for 2016

I have decided that on or about the 1st of the month I will document what is interesting in the garden. My image of the day is posted on a website called BlipFoto.

BlipFoto is in danger of closing down and we are trying to keep it running with crowd funding. £180,000 needs to be raised by the end of February. The reason for the word blip being in the centre of this collage is that there is a challenge for every blipper (as people who post on the BlipFoto website are known) to include the word Blip in their image today and to do as much as possible to draw people's attention to the plight of BlipFoto.

Flower Friday is one of the challenges on BlipFoto which is why my post is flower themed today. I could actually document the flowers in my garden on the 1st Friday of every month.

Blooming Flax

Early in July we had the pleasure of being witnesses at our friends Jean and Glyn's wedding.  No pictures from that as somebody else took pictures on the day.  However we did find time to go out one morning to photograph a flax field.  You have to do it before noon as after that the flax flowers close up and you wouldn't know there were any flowers in the field.

Catching Up

In case anybody has been looking at this blog since the spring and may be wondering why nothing has been added let me just say that 2013 hasn't been a good year for photography.  For various reasons photography took a back seat during the first 6 months and to be honest there haven't been many opportunities since then.  However a few snapshots were taken and, as it's time I got back into the habit of updating my blog, I have decided to post a few 'catching up' pictures.

June was a good time for wild flowers and we did manage to get up to Muker and found the wild flower meadows but not the light.

Plenty of buttercups and clover but unfortunately no poppies.  It took a trip over to the Yorkshire wolds to find some poppies and other wild flowers.

Flowers under Water

When we were away last week in the Eden Valley we took a look at the International Garden Photographer of the Year exhibition which was on in Reghed.  There were some interesting pictures of flowers which had been put under water and left to degrade so today I plunged this tulip under water.  It will  be interesting to see how it looks in a few weeks' time.

Pink Tulip

The tulips are beginning to look good in the garden but I decided it would be easier to photograph this one indoors away from the wind.

Looking for Inspiration

Took a short walk along the river today in the hope of finding a picture for the 365 project.  I thought maybe I would see some ducklings but they must all have been hiding.  Now I can't decide which picture to use for today.

The Himalayan Garden

Together with Stokesley U3A Garden Group we visited the Himalayan Garden at Grewelthorpe, near Masham.  The magnolias were past their best but I did manage one bloom which I thought might be worth working on.  The rhododendrons were fantastic.

Just for a change .....

As well as working my way through the Farne Island images I have been playing around with a picture of an eryngium, Miss Wilmot's Ghost, taken recently in the garden.

This is the straight shot

A monochrome version

and one which is pure serendipity.

We also visited George Smith's Garden, near York, and I found this head residing in the greenhouse.

The Head Gardener

More Lupins

Lupins

Continuing looking through my pictures from New Zealand in 2004 I came across a shot with some lupins.  It didn't work as taken but I saw a patch of lupins which I thought might make a picture.  An hour or so doodling gave me this result.