Best Wishes for 2018

Wordless Wednesday

Geranium - Jolly Jewel(tm) Pink

Never Mind Snow at Christmas ....

... this Christmas Eve Sunrise set me up for the day.
No tinkering this time, just a bit of cropping.

From the village crossroads:



From the village school:



From my lane:

Merry Christmas to All

Very best Christmas wishes to all from a few of the locals:




The top title was made in Art Text 3 using the font Holly Christmas. A free for personal use font by Jonathan S. Harris which can be downloaded HERE.

Trees

First a close silhouette shot with the Sun hidden behind the trees:



This longer shot was processed in HDR Efex Pro 2
I really like the atmosphere it created:

A Sunrise and a Scare Car

Just a narrow band of colour for the Sunrise over Manby yesterday:



Is this the 21st Century version of a Scarecrow - a Scarecar?
Seen in the middle of a field along with billowing fabric:



Can't say I've seen this idea before. Is the fabric on poles meant to give an impression of people I wonder?  Certainly there were no Wood Pigeons to be seen nearby for a change.

There are still the usual gas cannons going off round the village. This is the first year Penny has taken little notice of them. She normally reacts badly to sudden loud noises and usually tries to bolt but seems to have got used to them after four years..

Tuesday Teaser - Answer

Last week I showed this XnSketch version of a photograph:




This is the original photo:


One of a pair of artificial holly balls I bought to replace hanging baskets for the Winter. As well as being pretty realistic they also contain some miniature LED lights which come on at night. The battery and solar panel are contained in the small unit on top of each pole.

 

Congratulations to The Weaver of Grass for working out it was holly.
Many thanks to all who had a go at identifying this year's teasers.

That was the last Teaser for this year.
Some time in the new year I will think of something to tease you with.

Frosty Bin

The lid of a wheelie bin covered with frost patterns:

Starlings and Apples

This is the first time I have seen Starlings show interest in an apple:





I don't think they were too impressed as they didn't stay very long.

Tuesday Teaser

Last week's teaser was a Circular Studio rendition:


of this Christmas candle ornament:


Congratulations to Ragged Robin who worked it all out and to The Weaver and Adrian who were most of the way there:

This time I used XnSketch to produce:


What had I photographed? If you wish to have a go at identifying it please leave your guess in the comments. They will be revealed, along with the original photo, next Tuesday.

Sunset

This evening was one of those rarer occasions when there was very little cloud in the West while the Sun was setting so all the gorgeous colour was on the cloud formations towards the East:



As for the dire warning of snow for us yesterday. It was almost a case of what snow, here anyway. Some very fine snow with an hour of the fluffy stuff which started to settle and then vanished. Mainly sleet and rain.

I Dare You ......

Nothing captures Penny's attention faster that a squirrel making a dash for a tree:

Wordless Wednesday

Oily Reflection

Tuesday Teaser

Last week I used Circular Studio to produce:


from  this:


A photograph I took many years ago of the Maud Foster Windmill in Boston, Lincolnshire.
This is a working mill and details can be found HERE.

Well done to Roy, Bettina, Adrian and Ragged Robin who could see it was a windmill.

On to a new Circular Studio concoction for you to identify:


As always, if you want to have a guess as to what this is you can leave your guess in the comments. They, along with the original photo, will be revealed next Tuesday.

December Cold Moon

A clear frosty morning gave an opportunity to see the December 'Supermoon':





As predicted it was large and bright, too bright for the little Nikon to cope with as detail was burned out. I tried a bit of burning in Affinity but the detail just wasn't there.

Winter Moth

Spotted resting on my front door this morning:



For once it was one I managed to identify very quickly.
A Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata)
For detailed information about them visit The Garden Safari HERE.

An Apple a Day ......

.... is one of the surest ways to attract Blackbirds to my garden:

A Tale of Two Robins

Or to be exact one with a tail and one without:



More than a bit surprised when I was scanning the video captures to see what had been visiting the bird table. Born like it or the result of an altercation with a cat or another Robin? We will never know.

White Thursday

We've had Black Friday.
 Here, near the Lincolnshire coast, today is turning out to be White Thursday:

Dazzling Penny

In this case the Penny is my retired greyhound. This year I bought her a new reflective harness for our  Winter early morning walkabouts. Here are her coat, old harness and bright orange reflective harness:



This piece of video, captured as we went out yesterday morning, shows how well it works. Though it is mainly lit by the infra red LEDs on the camera it is just as dazzling when lit by street lamps or vehicle headlights.



I have a fully reflective coat I wear on dark rainy or misty mornings. Though padded it is not quite as warm as the one I have on in the video and at least it has a couple of reflective strips.

Both harnesses are from CosyDogs in the UK. 

Tuesday Teaser

Last week's Any Deepstyle modified photo was:


Congratulations to Ragged Robin. You chose the correct one. It was a Sunflower:


For this week's teaser I used Circular Studio for a change:


What is it? If you think you know then you can leave your guess in the comments. They will be revealed, along with the original photo, next Tuesday.

Monday Mystery

Once again, on our mid morning walkabout yesterday, I spotted another painted stone. This time on a pile of roofing tiles next to an old outhouse being converted to a dwelling:



I may have missed others on previous walks so I have no idea how often they appear and still no idea whatsoever as to their purpose.  Intriguing though. Some days ago there was a piece of scrunched up paper in the tree fork where one stone had appeared in the past. It was awful weather that day so I didn't look closely at it. Maybe if I had I might have been somewhat wiser.

Shivery Sunday

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Teaser

Last week's Any Deepstyle modified photo was:



which started out as:



and was correctly identified by Adrian and Ragged Robin as the Union Flag aka Union Jack.

Here we are with yet another photo modified in Any Deepstyle:



What is it? If you think you know then you can leave your guess in the comments. They will be revealed, along with the original photo, next Tuesday.

Goodbye Leylandii - Part Three

It is fortunate there is a public footpath next to my garden as that gave the Green Cuts guys somewhere to drop a lot of the branches though it was still a tight space avoiding next door's fence and greenhouse. Nor was there much of a landing drop space in my garden between the fruit cage and the garden pond:

    

This view gives some idea of the task:


It wasn't until I had a closer look at some of the stills used to make the time-lapse I noticed that to be safe some of the cut branches had been lowered to the ground:



Some general shots of the guys at work:







 





Needless to say there was a veritable mountain of chippings to dispose of.
This truck ferried three loads on the first day alone:



Plenty of wood too thick for chipping, much of which some neighbours took for burning:



Originally I was going to have the stump taken down to about four feet in height but when it had reached this stage I decided I liked it as a natural sculpture to take the bareness off that corner of the garden:



So that was the end of two and a half days hard physical labour on their part.
All that remains is for me to pay the bill when it arrives.