Photo challenge: COTTON

I'm a little late, but inspiration for this challenge didn't strike until last night, so there you have my my COTTON buds! I thought a close-up of these everyday items might yield an interesting texture. Might play around in Picasa a little more.

Here it is with a little more processing...starting to look like coral.

Photo challenge: Blue

Actually, I'm quite glad not to have to look at that baby head any more! This week's challenge is BLUE, and here's a little BLUE wren that hangs around my garden. At the moment, Mr. Blue and his wife are looking for a good nesting spot. Every now and then they perch in the shrubs and peek through the window. I guess they see Pretzel the cat and think it might not be safe. Little do they know that Mr. P. only dreams of birds these days, doesn't chase them.

Photo word challenge: HEAD

Interesting choice of topic! Well, here's for something unusual - one of Ron Mueck's amazing sculptures. This was the head of a whole newborn sculpture. It was huge, and very lifelike. I found them fascinating but somewhat confronting. He takes everyday people and re-creates them in meticulous detail, but in unreal proportions.
My favourite sculpture was that of two old ladies. I love the expressions on their faces. I can just hear them: "Will you look at that guy! His pants are falling down, and his whities are showing!"

Photo challenge - Lights

I'm a little ahead of myself - possibly to make up for the weeks when I didn't submit anything. But the topic inspired me; I love lights and using light in photography. So I was thinking of the bokeh effect, which I hadn't achieved yet but will make a goal for the future. In the meantime, I used an online post-editing program to achieve a bokeh effect. Bokeh, acording to Wikipedia, is a hazing or blurring effect achieved by a short depth-of-field, (hope I got that right). It presents as blobs of light, and can be achieved with aperture or manual manipulation or filters. I also loved the lights produced by these Christmas stars I saw at a Christkindel Market in Dresden. Every now and then I need a German Christmas and like to visit the Christmas markets. Seeing the picture evokes sounds of carols, and smells of Gluehwein, gingerbread, and roasting chestnuts.

Cold Mountain

The weather report mentioned snow down to 600m today, so we packed the cameras and went for a drive up the mountain. We started off at 8C which quickly turned to 4C in Macedon and 1C on Mt. Macedon. There was a bit of sun about, so we didn't think there'd be too much snow, and indeed, there wasn't enough to build a snowman! Still, a dusting of the white stuff was quite satisfactory and produced some nice shots. I don't know why I get excited about it anyway, I moved here to get away from the snow and slush of Europe!
Whatever; it gave me an opportunity to put on my boots and warm mittens, wrap myself in woolly layers and pretend I'm braving the elements.... My Canadian friends must be laughing by now!
We weren't the only ones checking out the snow situation, a steady stream of cars made its way up the hill and back. I wish I knew somebody who lives up there and could tip me off when the snow's thick on the ground.
On the way back, it seemed appropriate to warm up with a nice hot cuppa, so we stopped at the General Store, which is a friendly place with lots of yummy things to eat and drink and look at. It was blissful just sitting on the window bench and feeling the winter sun on my back, while DH read the paper and enjoyed his cappuchino.

Word Challenge : RED

Haven't been here for a while, what with birthdays, visitors, travel, knitting, quilting, physio....and so on. But this week has been back to normal (well, as normal as possible for me), so I thought I'd add to the challenge again.
This time the word is RED, so I figured I'd go through my recent pictures to see if anything grabbed me.
So here is my RED panda baby! His picture was taken at the Adelaide zoo, where he shared space with another baby and the parents, looking across to the big enclosure where the big pandas were. They kinda stole the show, but these little guys deserve attention too. They're awfully cuddlesome, dontcha think?!

Weekly Challenge: Comfort

This week's word is COMFORT. That didn't take too much brain strain, thankfully. I chose this quilt as something that gives me comfort. It was given to me as a gift from my friend Kathryn, a lovely handquilted dragonfly quilt. I'd never made a quilt just for me to snuggle up with, so this was most welcome! It does duty in spring and autumn, when a doona is too hot, and a sheet is too cool. Combined with a cotton blanket, it's just perfect, keeping me comfortable all night.

Weekly challenge: FELINE

I liked the word of the week - feline! Well, lets face it - I like anything that's remotely connected to animals. I've been owned by quite a few felines (9 at last count) and loved each and every one for their interesting purrsonalities. One thing that always get's my cute-vibe going in cats is their paws. There's just nothing sweeter than kitty-paws! I think these ones belong to Mitzi, now gone to cat heaven.

An autumn walk

Today was a glorious autumn day, even the resident mob was out enjoying the sunshine! It was a perfect day for a walk around Gisborne, and it was lovely to see the trees turning colour. The pinoaks were just stunning, and the other trees in yellow and green provided a wonderful backdrop. Truly a photographer's dream, and our town at it's very best!
Lots of people and dogs were out and about, enjoying the sunshine. Met one intrepid dog owner walking her three "oodles", a 'spoodle' (spaniel-poodle cross), a labradoodle (labrador-poodle cross), and another oodle of which I can't remember the provenance.

I walked along the creek, which was pretty overgrown, although the "Friends of Jackson's Creek" apparently do some cleaning up there. Saw ducks, and I must go back when the sun is shining on the waterlilies and capture some of the flowers.

Found some trees with yellow fruit, not sure what they are, but they provide nice colour too.

Finally, I drove up to St. Andrews, which looked gorgeous with the late afternoon sun on the sandstone, and the colourful foliage in front. Indeed an hour well spent!

Weekly Challenge: Ball

Ok, so no dog to throw a ball for, no fur balls from the cat - what's left? And no, I'm not being rude! Aha! Here's my friend Chris and I having a BALL! We dressed up in our Bollywood outfits and gave our version of Bollywood dancing. Yay!

Red moon rising

Yesterday there was an eclipse of the moon. My camera didn't exactly rise to the occasion, and it was fairly cloudy. So I edited quite heavily on Picasa and came up with this rather gloomy shot. I found a new website called 'blingee' and it's quite fun once you figure out how it works. I thought a raven would look ok here and added this 'stamp' to my photo. Eat your heart out, Edgar Allen!

Weekly challenge: CANINE

Well, that was a pretty easy one this week. I was thinking about canines, both teeth and animals, and opted for this close-up of Claude. Dogs have such soulful eyes, don't you think?!

Week 12 challenge: FREE

We love all the birds visiting our place. We get the transient ones, the ones that visit regularly, and those that stay. The arrival of the black yellow-tailed cockatoo is always heralded by their loud screech. They look so graceful gliding across the paddocks, and keep our shrubs nicely trimmed. Nothing is as free as a bird!

Dog's breakfast

Somehow, my blog settings have been totally muddled up! I can live with it at the moment, but it's not ideal. I need to reset the template settings somehow, but not sure how to do that. Anyway, it taught me not to fiddle with these things. It didn't help when the whole background went black for a few days. I wish I understood more about computers, and how to fix things. Maybe I should do a quick IT degree.... ooops, no forget that...

Week 10 challenge: STAR

A friend and I played around with night shots a while ago. We set up our tripods and took different shots of the stars. Then we set our cameras for looooong exposures and went and had a cuppa. When we came back, this is what I got. I tweaked the photo minimally with autofocus and saturation, and while it shows the progression of stars across the sky, there was an unexpected 'shadow' of a human form (if you want to be fanciful) among the stars! Is somebody watching us???

Weekly challenge: SIZE

This week's word stumped me somewhat. I tried to think of something that was impressive in its size (big or small). I remembered this old black bear at Parc Omega in Canada; he was surely the biggest, baddest bear in the valley! He was HUGE, could have done with a stint on "Biggest Loser". I guess they have to eat themselves silly for hibernation, but this was the height of summer! Still, an impressive sight - and size!

Facebook magic

Some years ago, I noticed that people were posting their quilts on quilt group pages, complete with kitty! I thought that was a neat idea, and thought other might also like to look at quilts and kittehs. And so, "Quilting Cats" was founded. I thought we'd maybe have a couple of dozen members at most, but the page took off and yesterday we hit the 500 members mark! Not only have we gained so many new, interesting cat lovers and quilt addicts, but most of them have actually stayed with us over the years! As these things do, interest has waxed and waned, but currently the group is really going strong and bringing lots of people lots of fun.We've seen fantastic quilts, met interesting people, magnificent cats (and the occasional d-o-g), laughed out loud at some of these felines' antics, and cried when they went over the Rainbow Bridge. The group is always the first thing I look at every morning, to see if anybody has posted anything. I love looking at all the photos on Sunday mornings and choosing the banner kitteh of the week. We keep the group closed, friendly, safe (we have young members), and free of advertising (although the posting of gorgeous cat fabrics is ok). I often curse Facebook for one thing or another, but I wouldn't want to lose this group, it's brought me so much joy and contact with nice people. We make everybody welcome, if you have an interest in kittehs and quilts and are happy to share stories and photos. Now looking forward to 1000 members - as one member said "Think big!". Indeed!

Weekly Challenge: Happy

This week's challenge is 'Happy'. There never was a happier dog than Raff, our Samoyed. He always greeted us with a big smile, a wet nose and a swish of his feathery tail. He seemed to have a twinkle in his eye, that seemed to say: "What mischief can we get up to today?". Tummyrubs would make him smile even more. He made us very happy. Went over the Rainbow Bridge many years ago.

Perception

I was in town yesterday, just out for a lunch with Wayne (Maha Restaurant - highly recommended!).
We were in Bond Street, just off Flinders Lane, and had this excellent view of the Eureka Tower. It's not often one gets an unobstructed view of the city's tallest building.

 In keeping with the architectural theme, I like patterns on buildings (must be the quilter thing!), and this one looked pretty good to me. I liked the way the light played on the glass and reflected the blue sky.

Closeup of the windows. I wonder what it looks like from the inside.

City art. Conversation :
Me: "Oh, look at the bird!"
DH (looks up): "What bird?"
Me (points): "That bird!"
DH (confused): "Can't see it!"
Me (rolls eyes): "That big, white, bird across the road!"
DH: "Ah! I was looking for a real bird."

Perception is everything.

Weekly Challenge: FAST

This one was another tricky one! Then I thought of these little guys, and they're the fastest thing on four legs around here! This one's just skipping, but in full flight they're a streak in the landscape. Mr. Fox would have his work cut out to catch Mr. Hare on the hoof...or the paw!