Monday Mystery

Not many guesses for last week's mystery object.



I guess it was more difficult that I expected. Two correct answers though. Well done to Adrian and Ellen D. Yes is a pie funnel / vent / chimney. One of my Mothers. It must be at least fifty years old and was used regularly. My thanks also to Ragged Robin for having a go.

Part of an object this time:



Once upon a time it was used daily but rarely sees the light of day now. If you would like to make a guess as to what it is please leave it in the comments. They will be revealed, with the answer, next Monday.

A Brief Inspection

Checking to see whether there had been any activity in the camera nestbox I was pleased to see this Great Tit had given it a brief inspection a few days ago.



It is the time of year when some birds do the rounds of possible nesting sites. It certainly made a change as over the past year the only activity recorded has been the occasional wasp, fly, butterfly and spider.

Monday Mystery

Last week's Circular Studio pattern



was indeed created using



a photo of a Sunflower. Well done to Adrian, Ragged Robin, Ellen D, Kev Scott and Wilma who all guessed correctly.

This week there is no tinkering, just a straight forward photo of an object.



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

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.