Ready for Winter

It was time to think about some protection from low temperatures for some of my plants. I have had this heated propagator for some time but it spend over a year unused in the greenhouse. Time to bring it back in the unheated conservatory.



Now set up with my home made thermostatically controlled unit. Basically that is a bit of bought electronics which can be programmed with a start (low) temperature and an end (hight) temperature. That operates a solid state relay which is designed to safely use a low voltage (12V) to switch a couple of mains voltage sockets. As it is now it switches on the heating element in the propagator when the temperature drops to 10C and off again when it reaches 12C.

A few small and miniature orchid plants with some succulents occupy it at the moment.



The orchid plant top left spent the Summer outdoors and has started to produced a flower spike for the first time in a couple of years.

Monday Mystery

I am running more than a bit late with everything I had intended to get done today. Ah well, why break the habit of a lifetime? Anyway, here we go.. last week I showed



which was correctly identified by Ragged Robin, Ellen D., Wilma and Adrian as



tongs. Very useful for lifting or turning over food items in the hot air cooker. Well done all.

This week is something different. I put a photograph of a single item in an app called Circular Studio which can produce all sorts of patterns using that object.



What was the original picture of? If you would like to make a guess please leave it in the comments. They will be revealed, with the answer, next Monday.

Monday Mystery

Last week's photo:



saw most recognise it as



some sort of plug in aroma therapy type of gadget. In fact this one is formulated to help calm dogs in stressful situations. I used it for Penny as she was badly stressed by loud noises, especially fireworks and thunder. Though not a complete cure it certainly helped. As for the faint scent given off - to my nose it reminded me of the odour of freshly dug damp earth. These are not an instant 'cure'. I found it worked best when plugged in for a few days before any known or suspected noisy events and not used unless needed.
Many thanks to Adrian, Wilma, Ellen D., Ragged Robin and Kev Scott who were all near enough to the answer.

I suspect that this week's 'bump picture', as FX Studio Pro calls the process,



will be a tad easier to identify. If you would like to make a guess please leave it in the comments. They will be revealed, with the answer, next Monday.

Sunflowers - again

Two of the smallest Sunflowers are now in full bloom and one of the larger variety is beginning to open. These photos were taken of the small ones. Total height of the stems is only up to knee height and the flowers are about 3in (75mm) diameter.



Here is a close up photo of one of them - uncropped.



Close up taken with The Canon EOS M5 fitted with 18-150mm zoom lens and the Raynox DCR-150 Macro / Close-up conversion lens.

Monday Mystery

Last week I showed this embossed photo:



which was correctly identified as:



a drone by Wilma and Adrian. Well done. My thanks to all who had a go.
The embossed photos do have little detail in them so this week I will try a different process. The app I used to add frames to the Sunflower photos has may different way of modifying the appearance of a photo. This week I will try the filter they call 'linocut'. So, can you work out what this is?



If you would like to make a guess please leave it in the comments. They will be revealed, with the answer, next Monday.

Nearly There

What a difference a few days make. The Sunflower taken this morning in a short lull between strong gusts of wind:



Taken with the Nikon Coolpix S9050, on camera flash used to help darken the background. Frame added using the Mac App FX Photo Studio Pro.

Late Sunflowers

While I was topping up the bird feeders I had a close look at the Sunflower plants growing from seeds dropped by the birds. Most are tightly shut but one was beginning to show yellow petals.



If the night temperature doesn't get too low and the strong cold winds stay away for a few days more maybe it will bloom.

The bud on the largest plant was tight shut ...



... but at least a Ladybird was finding it a useful place to shelter.