Citrus, grapefruit and lime.

Illustration Friday
The topic is Citrus
So I halved my grapefruit and got out my watercolours, blew off the cobwebs, and had a go.
This one above is the original and the rest I had fun with in photoshop, messing around with colour adjustment.



I think I prefer the blue background, the grapefruit stands out more, what do you think?
And I love the lurid lime, it's so...well lurid!



This one below is because of a new tool I've discovered, well was shown actually.
I had a brilliant lesson in photoshop during the week. Learned a few basics and about the perspective tool!

Mystery Rhododendron

This is my mystery rhododendron in full flower.
It's absolutely beautiful, and adds a tropical element to the garden.
It's a mystery because I cant seem to find out what kind of rhododendron it is.
I even blogged about it when it was about to flower
Anyway I'm going to write into The Irish Garden magazine and ask their Garden know how section to identify it for me, now that its in blossom.


Spot the Spider
My rhododendron is hosting a Misumena vatia

Bird watching a Green Finch

I noticed this Green Finch, well to be honest it could have been one of his pals,my twitching hasn't progressed to individual identification ...yet.
Anyway , he kept disappearing into a certain point in the hedge.
I decided to investigate and low and behold, he was building a nest.



Fortunately it is perched where I can easily view and photograph it, without disturbing it.
That was about a week ago.
Today I had a look and was thrilled to see five eggs had been laid.
So I'm going to do my own version of Mooney goes wild
But instead of watching a Blue Tit's nest live, 24/7 by web cam, it'll be Janie goes wild with a digital camera every couple of days!

Californian Poppy

This is one of my personal favourites of the poppies that I grew and photographed in my garden last year.
I'm a little disappointed that they don't seem to have seeded all that many for this years crop. I thought poppies were avaricious self seeders.
Well anyway I wasn't leaving anything to chance and I did scatter seeds of the wild red poppy around. So I'm looking forward to them popping up!!
You can see more of my Garden photos in flickr (if you're interested)

In Pictures, Guardian photo competition.

This is my entry for this week, with a rather nifty little caption, even if I do say so myself!
" The art of Web Design "
The topic is ARTS, I'm not sure if they made it plural to be difficult or just to be inclusive!
You can look up the terms and conditions of the competition
and see what the topic is, if like me, you forget to get the paper on Saturday morning.

Stanger at the window

This dude came knocking on the window last night.
Having never seen a June Bug before, for a nano second I thought it was a baby bat, he was so big!
As I didn't know him from Adam I wouldn't let him in.





Then he tried turning on the charm, batting his eyelashes and gently tap,tap, tapping on the glass with his funny little feet.
He could have been somebodies pet, he was so cute!




Luckily I resisted the urge to invite him in, as he turned very nasty and started
bashing and crashing against the window pane, glowing in anger!!
Oh, I cried, where's Spiderman when you need him?

OK, not really, I just had some fun in photoshop with that last picture!

The Guardian photo competition

This is my entry for the Guardian news paper's weekly photo competition. The topic this week is "markets".
Now before you start judging my effort too harshly, I'd like to explain that you only have from sat. till tues.noon to get in your entry .
So being a bit of a procrastinator, it was a case of running down to my local supermarket this morning and snapping a few shots in the veggie section where a concerned assistant asked if I needed help!!
I think he meant professional!
Then in the rush to get it emailed on time , my caption is crap and grammatically bad.
I love the colours and textures to be seen in the fresh fruit and veg markets Begorrah!
Anyway you can find out all about the competition here