poppies: red on gold

being a little local shop, the guitar strap man wouldn't take my plastic - strictly a cash or cheque enterprise, sir! so i had to go find some filthy lucre.

on top of that, being a local specialist shop he took big breaks in the middle of the day so we agreed i'd come back later in the afternoon. i took the bike, first outing this year (where has the time gone?). being too eager i was a bit early for our appointed time so i took the long way around and spotted the poppies in the wheat field on the way. i hoped to get a better composition but i was very conscious of trespassing! :oO

new strap

the straps they give you with these cameras are way too short! hung around the neck, the camera not only bounces on your upper chest all day long when you're walking but you look like a naffing stereotypical tourist!

all attempts to track down a decent length camera strap failed... until one day i thought ''guitars!''

this was the cheapest guitar strap in our little local music shop (£5.99) and, combining it with a thin strap off my original pentax, sliced in two, plus all four little buckles, i now have a pretty good strap so i can carry the eos bandoleero stylee on the hip. no tourist pose, no neck ache - good eh?

church walk challenge

cirencester back garden critters

walking back from town along what i now call the churchyard walk (see last month's posts) - always take the camera just in case - seeing if there's any more shots to be squeezed out of a relatively short and familiar walk. the following four pictures are from that walk.

silhouette pendants

lichen: strange life

school bell blue sky

moth on the moon

bathroom moth

moths often get a bad press like they're ugly butterflies' cousins but sometimes they can have wonderful markings too - like this one that joined me in the bathroom! ;o)

bloe shue

isn't english a weird language? there's no rhyme or reason to it - no wonder i have trouble spelling. ;o)

s t r e t c h e d c a t

charlie likes to show off how long he is. you need a really big room to swing this cat!

oil cake breaker

inspiration came from two of my favourite bloggers. steve, on his great blog go flying turtle!, posted a series of pics entitled dead machine.

Jocelyn always amazes me with her photographic work at illuminasjon. she does absolutely wonderful pieces using layers and montages.

so i had a bunch of angles of this cake machine so i thought i'd spend the evening doodling with photos to get a composite portrait of this machine.

portrait of oil cake breaker

oil cake breaker

oil cake breaker

spotted in a garden centre near Corfe, Dorset, where we stopped for tea and scones. (no, i have no idea - possibly something to do with making oil cake more digestible. answers on a postcard please).

compton nectar bar

magenta!

from the soup that brought you yellow! and orange!

a splash of colour!

compton acres again, this time with ixus.

the clouds fall at durdle door

we had some time away in dorset over the holiday weekend. Lulworth Cove was the closest piece of coast but though i love dorset, i'm always disappointed with the Cove. it was a rough day for the seaside so we donned boots and walked along the cliff path to durdle door. halfway along the path the clouds came down.

this is the view back along the shore towards Lulworth. wonderful cookie cutter bays!

pebble skimmers

too cold to swim. too cold to even take your coat off! most people just beachcombing and skimming stones

leaf chaos and light, compton acres gardens, dorset.

i prefer the b&w version but it's permitted to have both. ;o)

go flying turtles! ;o)

leaves in monochrome, compton acres

rhododendrons at compton acres

mr. carp, compton acres, poole, dorset

still, still, still trying to get a handle on eos. there's so many settings i forget which i've previously set. this one looks slightly better large format. despite trying to resize it for the blog - usually aiming towards 640x480ish - it loses definition (resolution whatever).

i've neglected my photog recently, i feel i've lost some ground and have to start all over with the eos learning curve...

a stroll through compton acres gardens in poole, dorset